IN SHORT: Heirs Energies Limited, Tony Elumelu’s indigenous Nigerian energy company, was named Best Oil and Gas Deal of the Year at the EMEA Finance Project Finance Awards 2026 for its $750 million dual-tranche Senior Secured Reserve-Based Lending facility with Afreximbank. The award was presented at a ceremony in London on June 3 and recognises what is described as one of the largest financings secured by an indigenous African energy company. The deal was structured to accelerate field development and optimise production at OML 17, a deepwater Niger Delta licence. Afreximbank served as the pan-African lender of record.
Tony Elumelu’s Heirs Energies has taken the most prestigious project finance award in the EMEA region for its $750 million Afreximbank-backed RBL facility, a deal that structured one of the largest capital raises ever executed by an African-owned and managed energy company and demonstrated that pan-African development finance institutions can anchor landmark transactions that rival what Western banking syndicates would provide. The EMEA Finance Project Finance Awards, presented in London on June 3, evaluate deals across Europe, the Middle East and Africa for innovation, structural quality and developmental impact. The Heirs Energies win is the first time an indigenous African oil and gas financing has taken the top prize at this competition.
- The $750 million facility is structured as a dual-tranche Senior Secured Reserve-Based Lending arrangement: an RBL mechanism where the borrowing base is determined by the value of Heirs Energies’ proved developed producing reserves. This structure allows the loan quantum to be calibrated to the asset’s actual production profile rather than simply to the company’s balance sheet, which is the standard financing structure for large oil field development programmes.
- OML 17, the asset underpinning the facility, is a producing deepwater block in the Niger Delta that Heirs Energies acquired from Shell in 2021 in the largest indigenous Nigerian oil sector acquisition at the time. Since acquisition, Heirs Energies has increased production significantly through an active drilling and workover programme, building the track record of operational delivery that made the $750 million RBL possible.
- Afreximbank’s role as the lender of record is structurally significant. Previous RBL financings of comparable size for Nigerian assets have been arranged through European bank syndicates, primarily led by institutions with long histories in African oil finance including Standard Chartered, Standard Bank and Société Générale. Afreximbank, with total assets and contingencies exceeding $48.5 billion at end-2025, is now demonstrating the balance sheet depth to anchor transactions at this scale through African institutional capital.
- CEO Osa Igiehon described the EMEA Finance recognition as reflecting the confidence that African and international financial institutions continue to place in Heirs Energies’ strategy and long-term vision. Afreximbank EVP Haytham ElMaayergi said the award underscores the importance of well-structured Africa-focused financing in supporting indigenous energy companies with strong governance, high-quality assets and clear long-term growth plans.
- The recognition arrives alongside the refinery expansion story unfolding at Dangote and the broader indigenisation of Nigeria’s energy sector. Five years after Shell, Total and ENI began divesting their onshore Nigerian assets, the companies that acquired those assets from the majors are now not only operating them but attracting EMEA-level recognition for the financing structures they have built around them. The indigenous energy sector’s maturation is visible in this single award.
The Heirs Energies award connects to the broader narrative of African financial institutions competing for and winning mandates that would previously have been the exclusive domain of European or American lenders. Afreximbank anchoring a $750 million energy RBL that wins Best Oil and Gas Deal globally is the same institutional ambition that underpinned MCB’s $1 billion Africa trade finance commitment and Equity Group’s DRC insurance expansion: African financial institutions building the balance sheet, technical capacity and structuring expertise to serve African corporate clients at the scale those clients require. Heirs Energies chose Afreximbank not because it had no other options, but because it was the right partner for an African-owned company pursuing an African development agenda.
The Bigger Picture: Tony Elumelu’s philosophy of Africapitalism, the belief that African entrepreneurs creating African prosperity is the most durable path to continental development, has a concrete financial expression in the Heirs Energies story. A $750 million RBL facility structured with a pan-African development bank for the development of a Nigerian oil asset, recognised as the best project financing in the EMEA region, is exactly what Africapitalism looks like in practice. The deal demonstrates three things simultaneously: that African-owned companies can mobilise capital at institutional scale; that African development finance institutions can structure and anchor complex secured financing; and that the international financial community is watching and awarding the results. That combination is building a track record that will make the next $750 million deal easier to do.
Source: Channels Television, June 8 2026 / Billionaires.Africa, June 7 2026
