Performance of oil and gas sector in Nigeria: Does environmental, social, and governance reporting really matter?

The study examined the relationship between Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting disclosures and the financial performance of oil and gas companies in Nigeria, using Return on Equity (ROE) as the key performance metric. A correlational research design was adopted, utilizing secondary data from the annual reports of eight oil and gas companies listed on the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) from 2019 to 2023. The study employed a census sampling technique, excluding firms with regulatory compliance issues. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation analysis were used to analyze the data. The results showed that social reporting disclosure had a significant positive relationship with ROE (r = 0.356, p < 0.01), as did governance disclosure (r = 0.369, p < 0.01), while environmental disclosure had a weak and statistically insignificant negative relationship with ROE (r = -0.238, p > 0.05). The findings of the study encouraged oil and gas firms to strengthen their social and governance initiatives as strategic tools for enhancing shareholder value.