NAPE President Olajumoke Ajayi opens 44th conference in Lagos with a question on where Nigeria’s next barrel will come from?

Report By Anthony Ebigie

The President of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE), Olajumoke Cecilia Ajayi, has challenged Nigeria’s oil and gas industry to stop asking only how to produce more, and start asking where the country’s next barrels will come from.

Speaking at the opening of the 44th Annual International Conference and Exhibition in Lagos, Ajayi said billions of barrels remain beneath Nigeria’s feet — undiscovered, unappraised, and undeveloped.

“There is a question that should sit at the heart of our gathering this year: Where will Nigeria’s next barrels come from?” she said.

Speaking on this year’s theme is, “Unlocking More Barrels: Driving Reserves Growth Through Exploration, Local Capabilities & Adaptive Technology.” Ajayi said the theme is both a call to action and a reflection of where the industry stands today, as mature fields decline and reserves are depleted.

“This is not only about producing more. It is also about unlocking more,” she also said.

She called on operators to make exploration a strategic priority again, noting that Nigeria’s mature basins still hold opportunities, while frontier and underexplored basins demand greater geological understanding and the courage to take calculated risks.

“We must explore more, explore deeper, and explore smarter.”

The NAPE president also said that technology is transforming how the industry sees the subsurface — from advanced seismic imaging and basin modelling to artificial intelligence, machine learning, and digital workflows.

But she warned that technology is not a substitute for geological thinking.

“No seismic workstation discovers a field by itself. No algorithm interprets a basin without human judgement.” She declared

She defined adaptive technology as choosing solutions that respond to Nigeria’s geology, economics, data environment, and operational realities — not simply adopting technology because it is new.

Ajayi said Nigeria must move local content from participation to capability — developing Nigerian professionals and companies to handle increasingly complex technical, operational, and commercial challenges.

This, she said, requires investment in people, institutions, research, technology, and knowledge, supported by stronger collaboration across industry, government, academia, and professional associations.

She pointed to the *NAPE Academy as central to that mandate, to equip young professionals with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to lead.

She acknowledged that exploration is capital-intensive and frontier exploration is risky.

Investors, she said, require confidence in acreage access, data, regulation, fiscal stability, security, and a credible pathway from discovery to development and production.

She advised that the conference should be more than an annual gathering. Its success should be measured not only by conversations, but by what participants do after they leave.

In her closing charge, she told geoscientists to keep exploring, young professionals to keep learning and building, indigenous companies to build capabilities that can compete globally, and partners to work with Nigeria not only for what can be extracted, but for what can be built.