By Ambrose Nnaji

Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) has emerged Overall Champion and Best Sports Company at the 20th edition of the Nigeria Oil and Gas Industry Games (NOGIG), concluding a week of competition in Abuja with a commanding performance that underscored its culture of excellence and teamwork.

Team NLNG topped the medals table with an impressive haul of 52 medals — 20 gold, 16 silver and 16 bronze — overtaking defending champions Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), which finished second with 49 medals (14 gold, 15 silver and 20 bronze).

The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) secured third place with 18 medals, while TotalEnergies placed fourth with 15 medals. Other participating organisations included Oando, Seplat Energy, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell, among others.

Held from February 8 to 14, 2026, the biennial tournament marked four decades of fostering unity, collaboration and healthy competition within Nigeria’s oil and gas sector. Beyond athletic performance, the event serves as a strategic platform for strengthening corporate relationships and reinforcing industry cohesion.

Leading the NLNG delegation, Deputy Managing Director Olakunle Osobu described the victory as a reflection of the company’s resilience, discipline and unity. He noted that excellence at NLNG extends beyond operational performance into wellness, teamwork and corporate engagement.

Organisers hailed the 20th edition as a landmark celebration of industry camaraderie, emphasising the enduring value of collaboration beyond boardroom engagements.

With chants of #TeamNLNG reverberating across the stadium, the triumph further solidifies NLNG’s leadership reputation — not only as a major player in Nigeria’s energy landscape, but also as a champion of corporate wellness and inter-company collaboration.

How Renaissance Africa Energy redefines N/Delta development through HCDTs

By Our Reporter

Renaissance Africa Energy is embedding community participation at the heart of its operations in the Niger Delta, positioning local partnerships as a critical driver of both operational efficiency and social impact.

The Chief Executive Officer of the company, Tony Attah, said sustainable energy development in host communities depends largely on how effectively companies collaborate with local stakeholders to deliver shared value.

Attah spoke during a panel session titled “Capitalizing Africa’s Global Upstream Momentum” at the ongoing Nigerian International Energy Summit (NIES) in Abuja, where he highlighted the company’s Host Community Development Trusts (HCDTs) as a central pillar of its engagement strategy.

According to him, the HCDTs provide communities with a structured platform to participate in decision-making and directly benefit from development initiatives tied to energy projects.

“We rise and fall together. There is no scenario where we grow and they don’t grow,” Attah said.

He noted that the approach represents a clear departure from past models, where development projects were often imposed without adequate consultation. Under the new framework, communities now “hold the wheels of their development,” with the autonomy to prioritise and allocate resources based on their specific needs.

Attah cited examples of previous interventions—such as the construction of schools or water facilities—that failed to deliver value because cultural and practical realities were overlooked. In one case, a community water project initially faltered due to limited consultation, prompting residents to later redesign the initiative themselves to better reflect local priorities.

He credited the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) with formalising community engagement structures and strengthening the governance and sustainability of HCDTs.

Describing the model as a long-term solution, Attah said shared prosperity is no longer optional but essential for stability and growth in the Niger Delta.

“The shared prosperity model is the ultimate future for the Niger Delta,” he said, stressing that community-led development is both a social responsibility and a business imperative.

By Editor

Africa has taken a significant step toward asserting control over its energy future with the official handover of the headquarters of the African Energy Bank (AEB), a flagship pan-African institution established to mobilise capital for the continent’s energy priorities and strengthen regional energy value chains.

The handover ceremony took place on the sidelines of the Nigeria International Energy Summit, underscoring the growing momentum behind Africa-led financing solutions for energy development. Speaking at the event, the President of the African Petroleum Producers’ Organisation (APPO) and Côte d’Ivoire’s Minister of Mines, Petroleum and Energy, Mamadou Colibaly, praised Nigeria’s leadership in hosting the Bank and confirmed that operations are expected to commence in June.

“We are committed to launching this Bank no later than June. I sincerely thank our partners for providing the headquarters and office facilities that make this take-off possible. The African Energy Bank represents Africa’s determination to finance, develop and secure its own energy future—by Africans, for Africans,” Colibaly said.

The African Energy Bank is a joint initiative of APPO member states and the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), with a mandate to mobilise domestic and regional capital for energy infrastructure, reduce reliance on external financing, and align investments with Africa’s long-term development and industrialisation objectives.

During the handover, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, said Nigeria had fulfilled all its obligations as host country, noting that the headquarters is fully equipped and strategically located for immediate operations.

“Nigeria has met every obligation as host. The headquarters is ready, strategically located, and fully equipped, and we are prepared for immediate take-off,” Lokpobiri said.

The ceremony highlighted a shared African resolve to take greater ownership of the continent’s vast energy resources. Through targeted financial instruments, the Bank is expected to support projects across the energy value chain, including exploration, refining, renewable energy integration, and local content development—translating resource endowments into economic value, jobs, and industrial growth.

Speakers at the event emphasised that the African Energy Bank is more than a financial institution, describing it as a cornerstone of Africa’s broader push for economic independence and energy security. The handover, they noted, marks the beginning of a new era in which Africans are determined to finance, produce and sustain their own energy future.