Supermajors Shell and TotalEnergies expect to raise oil and gas production over the next two years from projects they operate in Africa’s top oil producer, Nigeria.
Shell sees the start-up of the Bonga North deepwater oil and gas field by 2027, while TotalEnergies expects the Ubeta gas field to also begin production by that year, the top executives of the Nigerian units of the supermajor told an energy conference in Nigeria.
Last year, TotalEnergies, operator of OML 58 onshore license in Nigeria with a 40% interest, took the Final Investment Decision (FID) with the license partners to develop the $550 million Ubeta gas field.
Gas from the Ubeta project will supply Nigeria LNG, a liquefaction plant on Bonny Island with an ongoing capacity expansion from 22 to 30 Mtpa, in which TotalEnergies holds a 15% interest.
“The 70,000 bpd from Ubeta is a major milestone, and first gas/commissioning is expected by 2027,” Matthieu Bouyer, CEO of TotalEnergies Upstream Companies in Nigeria, told the energy event, as carried by Nigerian outlet This Day.
Ronald Adams, managing director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (SNEPCo), said that the UK-based supermajor is advancing the Bonga North project, a $5-billion development project.
“We are pushing and working on an accelerated project schedule, which will perhaps see us bring first oil around the middle of 2027,” Adams said, referring to Bonga North.
Shell announced last December the final investment decision for the development of the Bonga North deep-water project. The project will be a subsea tie-back to the Shell-operated Bonga Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) facility.
Apart from these two ongoing projects, Shell and TotalEnergies expect to take FIDs on new projects in Nigeria soon.
Shell aims for FID on the $8 billion Bonga Southwest-Aparo project, while TotalEnergies targets FID on the IMA gas field in 2026, their respective executives said at the energy event in Abuja.
Earlier this year, Nigeria’s government urged the oil companies operating in the country to collaborate to increase oil output in the producer that hasn’t been able to pump to its OPEC quota for years.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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