Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited has said it has significantly invested in the development of infrastructure in the oil and gas industry to enable it to boost domestic gas supply by 300 million standard cubic feet.
Nigeria is home to the largest natural gas reserves in Africa and the ninth largest in the world but it has continued to suffer supply shortage over the years.
Out of the total gas supply of 2.83 trillion standard cubic feet last year, only 430.2 billion scf was commercialised for the domestic market while 1.23 trillion scf was exported, according to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Total E&P Nigeria, Mr Mike Sangster, who visited the Group Managing Director of the NNPC on Tuesday, lamented that local demand for gas had been very much below the invested capacity.
He expressed Total’s firm belief in the Nigerian oil and gas industry and its readiness to deploy solutions to the challenges facing the industry.”
“Total Nigeria will build on recent progress in many areas such as cash-call arrears and our long-standing partnership. In partnership with the NNPC, the company has developed the last three Floating Production, Storage and Offloading vessels in Nigeria and wants to build on this,” he was quoted as saying in a statement.
Sangster listed the three deep offshore projects as Akpo, Usan and Egina, completed in 2009, 2012 and 2018 respectively.
He added that Total was currently partnering in a project for the construction of a 100-megawatts solar independent power plant in Katsina State.
In his response, the NNPC boss, Mr Mele Kyari, said Total Nigeria was one of the corporation’s most important partners with visible outcomes, adding that the partnership would further grow national production and reserves.
He said, “Total Nigeria, in the last five years, has very visible outcomes that we have seen and I assure you that we will work together to progress all efforts to grow production and national reserves.
“I also want to put on record that your downstream company has been very supportive in the supply of petrol into our country.”
Kyari assured the Total team of more days of very transparent and accountable relationship, with frameworks that would be appreciated by all.
The Total team also visited the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, in his office in Abuja, according to a statement.
Sangster told the minister that Total was undertaking some exploration activities around existing oil fields to boost its production capacity, and advocated a partnership with the Federal Government in its quest to boost its crude oil and gas output.
He stated that the company was in the process of finalising the final investment decision for the Preowei project and had recently launched the Ikike project.
He noted that Total was ready to explore for more oil and gas in Nigeria if granted licences by the government.
He called for the speedy passage of the variants of the Petroleum Industry Bill, saying that this would stimulate fresh investments in the industry.
In his response, Sylva called on Total and other stakeholders to partner with the ministry to ensure the speedy passage of the PIB.
