THE Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL)-TotalEnergies Joint Venture (JV) has announced a $550 million Final Investment Decision (FID) on the Ubeta Field Development Project.
This was announced on Thursday, June 20, at the signing ceremony held at the NNPCL Towers in Abuja.
The milestone is in line with President Bola Tinubu’s Presidential Executive Order on Oil and Gas Reforms, aimed at improving the investment climate and positioning Nigeria as the preferred investment destination for the oil and gas sector in Africa.
The Ubeta field was discovered in 1964 in the North-West of Port Harcourt in the eastern part of the Niger Delta.
Once on stream, it would produce about 350 million standard cubic feet per day (MMScf/day) of gas and 10,000 BBLS/day of associated liquids and also tap into the vast gas reserves and contribute towards securing gas supply to the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG).
Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mallam Mele Kyari, said the milestone was a major step towards boosting Nigeria’s oil and gas production and expressed appreciation to the President for providing the appropriate fiscal environment and facilitating a conducive operational environment as a major enabler in achieving this success.
Kyari, while appreciating the industry stakeholders for their continuous support, lauded the Federal Government’s Presidential Executive Orders for fostering growth in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, saying: “The Presidential Executive Order is instrumental to us getting to this significant milestone and we are now seeing the impact of the policy.”
In his remarks, Senior Vice President Africa, Exploration and Production, TotalEnergies, Mr. Mike Sangster, described Ubeta as the latest in a series of projects developed by the oil giant in Nigeria, most recently Ikike and Akpo West.
He stated: “I am pleased that we can unveil this new gas project, which has been made possible by the Federal Government’s recent incentives for non-associated gas developments.
“Ubeta fits perfectly with our strategy of developing low-cost and low-emission projects and will contribute to the Nigerian economy through higher NLNG exports.”
Earlier in his remarks, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, said Tinubu had significantly rekindled investor’s confidence in the oil and gas industry, assuring Nigerians that more investments were on the way.
Also speaking, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, said the project was a testament to the effectiveness of government’s policies aimed at creating a conducive environment for investment in the gas sector.
Located in OML58, the Ubeta gas condensate field would be developed with a new six-well cluster connected to the existing Obite facilities through an 11-kilometre buried pipeline.
Production start-up is expected in 2027, with a plateau of 300 million cubic feet per day (about 70,000barrels of oil equivalent per day, including condensates).
Gas from Ubeta would be supplied to NLNG, a liquefaction plant located in Bonny Island, Rivers State, with an ongoing capacity expansion from 22 to 30 Mtpa, in which NNPCL holds a 49 per cent interest.
Ubeta is a low-emission and low-cost development, leveraging OML58 existing gas processing facilities.
The carbon intensity of the project would be further reduced through a five-MW solar plant currently under construction at the Obite site and the electrification of the drilling rig.
TotalEnergies is working closely with NNPCL to enhance local content, with over 90 per cent of man-hours that would be worked locally.
The Ubeta FID justifies the effort invested by NNPCL, with unyielding executive support, into tackling the underlying reasons that have plagued the attractiveness of the Nigerian oil and gas industry to foreign investors in recent years.
The Ubeta project has a robust Nigerian content plan and is poised to stimulate economic activities, create job opportunities and create significant value for stakeholders.
