Oando recapitalised and rebuilt its board, lifting output 59% and profit to ₦201.3B
After years of negative shareholder funds and boardroom disputes, Oando recapitalised, refreshed its board and bought the NAOC assets, lifting output 59%.
What was changed
In a November 2025 Business Insider Africa profile, Oando PLC, a Nigerian energy company long associated with both bold expansion and bruising corporate battles, was described as reporting its strongest rebound in over a decade. The article says it had operated with negative shareholder funds, grappled with regulatory disputes, legacy debts and supply disruptions, and that shareholder disputes had dragged on investor confidence.
The balance-sheet part: shareholders approved a recapitalisation to convert up to $300 million of debt into equity, raise up to ₦500 billion of new equity and launch a $1.5 billion bond programme. The company had also restructured parts of its long-standing debt and secured a $375 million facility for drilling and infrastructure.
The governance part: within a year Oando appointed a new Chairman, three non-executive directors, an Executive Director for Corporate Services and a Chief Compliance Officer. The asset part: it integrated the NAOC joint-venture assets bought the year before (40 discovered fields, 24 producing; 1,500 km of pipelines; the 960 MW Kwale-Okpai plants) and gained operatorship of large onshore assets. It suspended petrol trading after the Dangote Refinery changed the market.
Unaudited nine-month 2025 results showed production up 59% to 38,121 barrels of oil equivalent a day (crude up 61%), profit after tax of ₦201.3 billion against ₦76.3 billion a year earlier, capex up 178% and 21 crude cargoes traded against 15. Targets: about 100,000 barrels of oil and 1.5 billion cubic feet of gas a day by 2030, on $2 to 2.5 billion of planned capex.
Why it worked
Negative shareholder funds and legacy debt capped what Oando could fund, so the recapitalisation came first.
Years of shareholder disputes had eroded investor confidence; a new chairman, directors and compliance officer were meant to institutionalise oversight.
The NAOC assets as international oil companies exit onshore Nigeria gave the company scale, reserves and operatorship it lacked before.
What can be applied
A balance-sheet repair is only credible when governance is rebuilt alongside it: new directors, a compliance chief and a funded plan to grow, not just a debt swap.
Aftermath
The article stops at the plan, not the proof: it notes Oando still faces Niger Delta security risks, foreign-exchange volatility and high local funding costs, and that the 2030 production targets depend on consistent access to capital and tighter project execution. Whether the rebound is a lasting transformation or an inflection point would, it says, hinge on delivery.