French oil and gas major TotalEnergies has announced a 20-year renewal of the production license of the offshore Nigerian block OML130 in the Gulf of Guinea.
The company, through its subsidiary TotalEnergies Upstream Nigeria, holds an operating stake of 24% in the concession.
Located 150km off the coast of Nigeria, the OML130 block hosts the producing Akpo and Egina fields.
The Akpo gas and condensate field, which was discovered in 2000, came on stream in 2009.
In December 2018, TotalEnergies, then known as Total, began production from the Egina oil field, which is located in water depths of nearly 1,600m.
According to the French oil and gas firm, in 2022, production from the OML130 block was 282,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d). Of this, around 30% was gas, which was transported to the Nigeria LNG plant, thereby contributing to the energy security of Europe.
TotalEnergies expects to begin production from a short-cycle project called Akpo West in OML130 by the end of this year.
Additionally, the offshore Nigerian block holds the Preowei discovery, which is planned to be developed through a tie-back to the floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) at the Egina field.
TotalEnergies Africa exploration and production senior vice president Henri-Max Ndong-Nzue said: “Through the OML130 license renewal, TotalEnergies is pleased to continue its contribution to the development of Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.
“This 20-year extension will enable us to move forward with the FEED studies on the Preowei tie-back project which aims to valorise a discovery using existing facilities in line with Company’s strategy focusing on low-cost and low-emission assets.”
TotalEnergies’ partners in the OML130 block are CNOOC (45%), Sapetro (15%), Prime Oil & Gas Coöperatief (16%) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, which is the concessionaire of the production sharing contract (PSC).
Africa Oil has an effective stake of 8% in the Nigerian block via its 50% shareholding in Prime Oil & Gas.
Africa Oil president and CEO Keith Hill said: “This license is the core of our Nigerian investment and accounts for most of Prime’s production and cashflows. It also includes attractive growth opportunities such as the undeveloped Preowei oil discovery, which we can now take forward towards a final investment decision.
“Additional opportunities include step-out exploration and appraisal drilling, that should support production rates over the coming years.”
