Total Restates Commitment to Nigeria, Puts Investments in Five Years at $10bn
Managing Director/Chief Executive, Total Upstream Companies in Nigeria, Mr. Nicolas Terraz has restated the company’s unflinching committed in the future of Nigeria, pointing out that the oil giant has invested $10billion in the Nigerian oil and gas sector in the last five years. Speaking with journalists on the sidelines of the 2017 Nigeria Annual International Conference & Exhibition of the Society for Petroleum Engineers, holding in Lagos, Terraz disclosed that the current crude oil production from Total JV operations is 195.5kbpd (thousand barrels of oil per day).
He noted that the company’s Egina field development is expected to add 200kb/d to Nigeria’s output when it comes on stream in 2018.
Represented by the Executive Director Corporate Affairs and Services, Mr. Abiodun Afolabi, the Total Group boss said the Egina FPSO is planned to sail away from Samsung Heavy Industries yard in South Korea by the third quarter of this year and is expected in Nigeria in the fourth quarter where integration of six locally fabricated topside modules will be integrated on the FPSO at SHI-MCI Yard (LADOL) before final sail away to Egina site, deep offshore Nigeria.
He said: “The petroleum industry in Nigeria remains viable and would get better with policies that enhance investor confidence even if oil prices falter from time to time; policies that ensure stability of the fiscal regime, sanctity of contracts and other legislations that are consistent with international best practices will increase viability in Nigeria.
“Globally, we hope that the oil prices get better than today’s figures but we may still be far from the days when oil prices hovered above $100 a barrel. Until that time comes and even in an era of prosperity, the benefit of hindsight is that the petroleum industry will have to proceed with more prudence than it did before.”
Terraz added: “Our industry is volatile; the world in a constant flux. And with our different backgrounds and perspectives, these sometimes constitute hurdles in the attainment of common objectives. In spite of this, Total is unflinching committed in the future of Nigeria. The company is present along the value chain from upstream to the downstream sector where Total is a leader with close to 550 service stations across the length and breadth of Nigeria.”
Furthermore, he said that the Ofon 2 project is one that set several Nigerian Content records with the Construction of the Topsides and other facets of the project in-country. He said that five of the seven Engineering Procurement and Construction contracts were awarded to companies in Nigeria.
Apart from the gas flare out mile stone achieved on the project in December 2014, it recorded an achievement that earned the 2015 World Bank Global Gas Flaring Reduction Excellence Award.
“We are proud to state that a first in Nigeria was the construction of the living quarters platform that was built in-country and is providing safe and comfortable accommodation for personnel that work in that field”, he stressed.
On the country’s gas-topower initiative in the face of poor electricity supply in the country, the Total Group Chief noted that the company has 15 per cent equity participation in Nigeria LNG Ltd. “TEPNG also supplies a daily contract quantity of close to 20 ms3/day of gas to the existing NLNG Trains 1 – 6 facility with a potential increase in gas supply based on the expansion plans for Train 7”, he added.
Furthermore he said: “In the growing domestic market, the company, as partner in the NNPC/SPDC/TEPNG/NAOC JV, participates in the business of supplying some 0.7 billion standard cubic feet of gas per day. This gas feeds most of the gas-fired power plants in Nigeria today.
In the on-going Gas-to- Power initiative of the Federal Government of Nigeria, TOTAL, as partner in the SPDC JV, has built the Afam VI, 650MW Power Plant, which currently feeds the National grid.
“Total has played a significant role in the drive to reduce, and ultimately eliminate, gas flaring in Nigeria through the Ofon Phase 2 and OML58 Upgrade Projects with start-up dates in 2014 and 2015 respectively. These have contributed to the World campaign against greenhouse gas emissions and its resultant negative impact on climate change, and conversely led to increased monetisation of gas through export.
Total through the NNPC/ TEPNG JV is currently supporting the Nigeria Gas Master plan.
The NNPC/ TOTAL JV has embarked and delivered on critical projects like the 50km Northern Option Pipe Line (NOPL) and Obite-Ubeta-Rumuji Pipeline (OUR), linking our gas supply to Imo River where it joins the domestic gas network in the Eastern Sector of Nigeria.
Total has made a commitment to deliver 300MMscf/day of gas to the domestic market, corresponding to the capacity of its gas transportation infrastructure. Against this backdrop, TOTAL has received a number of Gas Purchase Orders (GPOs) from the Gas Aggregation Company of Nigeria (GACN). The first GPO was for supply of 100MMscf/d to Alaoji Power Station. The second GPO is to supply 126MMscf/d of gas to Indorama Petrochemicals proposed Methanol Plant for start-up in 2019. A third GPO to cover the remaining capacity of the NOPL i.e. 74MMscf/day, is currently being discussed with GACN.”