Chevron's Nigeria Play: Can New Licenses Unlock Its Next Growth Wave?

Chevron Corporation CVX remains one of Nigeria’s most significant oil producers, managing extensive onshore, near-shore and deepwater operations in collaboration with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. Its Nigerian portfolio includes operatorship of the Agbami Field, a major deepwater asset, along with a stake in the Usan Field, spanning a total of 2.9 million oil and gas acres as of 2024.

The company is now accelerating its growth plans in the country, supported by clearer regulatory frameworks introduced under the Petroleum Industry Act. Chevron has confirmed its intention to participate in Nigeria’s next oil licensing round, a move that reflects its strengthened confidence in the nation’s upstream environment and reinforces its long-term strategic commitment. With Nigeria set to offer 50 fields through a fully digital platform in the 2025 round, CVX’s interest in expanding its offshore presence positions it to capitalize on promising deepwater opportunities and broaden its global exploration portfolio.

In addition to the licensing round, Chevron has agreed to acquire a 40% interest in two offshore exploration licenses — PPL 2000 and PPL 2001 — from TotalEnergies SE TTE. These blocks will enhance exploration capacity and pave the way for new development projects.

Chevron also plans to bring in a drilling rig by late 2026 to evaluate recently identified resources near the Agbami hub. This initiative is aimed at extending the lifespan of existing assets and unlocking further reserves.

Leading Energy Players Broadening Their Reach in Nigeria

Recently, some major oil firms have been expanding in Nigeria as the nation boosts output and tackles theft and spills.

In May 2025, Shell plc SHEL acquired a 12.5% interest in Nigeria’s Bonga field located within the OML 118 Production Sharing Contract, increasing its total stake to 55%. Recently, Shell increased its stake in the same field to 65% after acquiring an additional 10% interest, reinforcing its commitment to expanding deep-water output in the Bonga field.

In November 2025, TotalEnergies reached agreements with Conoil to acquire an additional 50% stake in the OPL 257 exploration block, raising its ownership to 90%. The company reported production of 209,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in Nigeria in 2024. TotalEnergies has also expressed interest in joining the 2025 oil licensing round in Nigeria.

The Zacks Rundown on Chevron

Shares of Chevron have gained 6.6% in the past six months, lagging behind the Oil/Energy sector’s growth of 10.6%.

From a valuation perspective — in terms of forward price-to-earnings ratio — Chevron is trading at a premium compared with the industry average. The stock is also trading above its five-year mean of 11.87.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Chevron’s 2025 earnings has been revised about 2.5% upward over the past 30 days.

The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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