On August 11, 2026, the Nigerian Presidential Office officially announced that President Tinubu had approved the "2026 Deepwater Oil and Gas Project Incentive (Tax Reduction) Order" and published it in the Federal Official Gazette. This regulation replaces the previous project by project negotiation model with unified and transparent rules, with the goal of releasing up to $50 billion in deepwater oil and gas investments. The first batch of key projects in Bangka Southwest has entered the field of vision, with an expected investment of about 10 billion US dollars, and the final investment decision will be made in 2027. For Chinese offshore equipment, subsea systems, long-term equipment, maritime logistics, and project financing enterprises, the new regulatory system is opening up clear channels for participation.

Tax credit written into laws and regulations

The law clearly stipulates the standards for offsetting production tax. When the recoverable reserves do not exceed 400 million barrels of oil equivalent, the maximum standard credit is $3 per barrel or 20% of the fiscal oil price, whichever is lower; When the oil equivalent exceeds 400 million barrels, the highest is $4.50 per barrel or 20% of the fiscal oil price. The newly leased project can also add an additional $1 per barrel. The total upper limit of standard and supplementary credits is $11.50 per barrel, and the specific amount is subject to project by project approval by the Nigerian Taxation Authority. Green space projects under existing leases must make a final investment decision before December 31, 2029 in order to enjoy full incentives. The tax bureau will make a decision within 45 days after receiving the complete application, providing investors with a clear approval schedule.

Three leading projects lead the way

Currently, three large-scale deepwater projects have come into view. The Bangka Southwest project has been listed as one of the first applicable projects under the new framework by the Presidential Office, with an expected investment of approximately $10 billion. The final investment decision will be made in 2027, with a planned crude oil production capacity of 150000 barrels per day and natural gas production capacity of 140 million standard cubic feet per day. The ExxonMobil led Ovovo project is expected to invest $7 billion to $8 billion, with the goal of making a final investment decision as early as 2027. If the Bosch project adopts a new floating production, storage and unloading oil device and a new pipeline, the potential capital scale is about 15 billion to 16 billion US dollars. The total amount of the three projects is about 32 billion to 34 billion US dollars. Engineering and equipment suppliers can focus on front-end engineering design finalization, tax incentive approval, and supplementary agreements to production sharing contracts as pre signals. Keywords: infrastructure news and information, deepwater oil and gas, international

Four types of track opportunities for Chinese enterprises

For Chinese enterprises, they can prepare to enter according to four types of roles. Marine equipment companies can pay attention to the construction and integration of floating production storage and unloading unit modules. During the construction period of Egina, six modules were built in Nigeria, with about 77% of the work hours completed locally. Equipment manufacturing enterprises need to confirm local execution rules. Long cycle projects on critical paths can be arranged for overseas execution, and activities with domestic costs more than 10% higher than overseas can also be executed externally, but must comply with Nigeria's local content plan. The Wusang project has announced a $1 billion investment in encrypted wells this year, with partners including Nixon, a subsidiary of China National Offshore Oil Corporation. The existing deep-water asset relationship is conducive to establishing customer and supply chain connections. Logistics and financial service companies can track the final investment decision nodes for Bangka Southwest and Ovovo in 2027. 50 billion US dollars is the deep-water capital scale that the government hopes to release, and the potential capital will only be converted into real orders after the final investment decision and contract award are completed.Editor/Gao Xue