Sopuruchi Onwuka

French multinational energy company, TotalEnergies, says it has remained undaunted in staking huge investments in supporting Nigeria realize it full economic aspirations in the energy sector.

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Deputy Managing Director in charge of Deepwater Assets at Total E&P Nigeria Limited, Victor Bandele, declared at the just concluded International Conference of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) in Lagos that the company also remains the biggest stakeholder across the full industry investment loop.

Bandele who was speaking in a panel session on attracting investments into the Nigerian petroleum industry declared at the forum that TotalEnergies have not only led investments in the domestic petroleum industry but has also led parallel investments in new energy.

The Oracle Today reports that apart from operating the traditional oil and gas exploration and production joint venture with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, TotalEnergies also holds significant 10 percent stake in a similar joint venture operated by Shell.

The NNPC/Shell/Total/Eni JV owns the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited which, Bandele stated, is the biggest functional upstream investment in the Nigeria petroleum industry and also the nation’s solid bridge to energy transition.

Bandele counted that TotalEnergies is currently the only multinational JV partner to the government which still operates downstream petroleum marketing business in the country despites the waves of instability in domestic fuel market policies.

The Oracle Today reports that TotaEnergies is currently the only of the five major multinational giants that has consistently driven deepwater oilfield development projects in the past 20 years during which time it developed the Akpo, Usan and Egina fields. Whereas TotalEnergies operate the Akpo and Eginal deepwater fields, its partner, ExxonMobil’s Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited (EEPNL), took over operations at Usan field.

The infrastructure development in the big fields have also conferred commerciality on smaller assets, leading to fresh development programmes for ancillary fields that include Porewei and Ikike in deepwater and conventional offshore terrains respectively.

The deepwater field developments also established the company as the biggest investment partner to government and peer players in the industry who hold differing stakes in many of the assets operated by TotalEnergies or third party operators.

Within the period of investment impasse in the upstream petroleum industry, the French company has also consistently driven development of discovered reserves as well as building additional reserves through exploration programmes that yield success like the discovery of deepwater Owowo field.

Mr Bandele told the conference delegates that the company’s commercial operations in the country range across the full industry value loop: from upstream petroleum activities to gas liquefactions and export, downstream fuel supply and marketing, renewable energy supply and community development interventions.

“There is no better partner to Nigerian government in the energy sector where TotalEnergies is capturing the full value chain,” Bandele declared.