Niger is a landlocked country in West Africa covering 1,266,700km2, ranking as the 19th largest in the world by land area. The terrain is mainly desert with arable land in the South West and South East of the country and its economy is focused around subsistence agriculture and raw commodity export.
Key Statistics
Potential of the oil industry in Niger
Niger has significant geological potential, but to date this has been largely under‑explored:
- 90% of the territory is covered by two sedimentary basins (the Western basin and the Eastern basin) with most of the exploration having been focused in the Eastern Basin;
- Despite the recent exploration success in the Agadem and Kafra basins, where the majority of the discoveries were made in the shallowest Tertiary sequence, the Eastern Basins remained largely under-explored. Significant potential exists in the adjacent basins and the deeper Cretaceous sequence; and
- There has been little exploration in the east of the country due to the previous absence of export solutions and lack of technical data.
Research undertaken in recent years has helped to increase the level of Niger’s oil reserves significantly, with current estimates of 3,754 million barrels of oil reserves in place and 957 million barrels of recoverable oil reserves. Current gas reserves in place are estimated at 34 billion cubic metres with recoverable reserves of 24 billion cubic metres. Niger’s current oil production capacity is 20 Kbopd, which is mainly sold domestically with some also exported to northern Nigeria. Most of the identified reserves in Niger are located in the Agadem area, which currently supplies approximately 15,000 barrels of oil per day to the SORAZ refinery.
Between 2011 and 2019 the energy sector generated more than US$2 billion of cumulative income and, depending on the year, accounted for between 4% to 7% of GDP, 17% to 30% of tax revenues and 16 to 29% of exports. The development of Niger’s nascent oil and gas industry is a key stated objective of the Government of Niger and by 2025 is expected to represent approximately 24% of GDP, 45% of tax revenues and 68% of exports as well as 8% to 12% of formal employment in Niger.3
Currently there are four energy companies active in Niger: China National Petroleum Corporation in consortium with OPIC from Taiwan and the State of Niger for the exploration of 112 deposits; China National Petroleum Corporation International Bilma which has operated the Bilma block since 2003; Sonatrack from Algeria through its international subsidiary, SIPEX; and Savannah Energy. Savannah, as one of only four energy companies currently operating in Niger, has the ability to contribute significantly to the future economic development of the country and aims to play a major role in developing the nascent energy sector of Niger.