TotalEnergies Nigeria is set to unlock the full potential of its oil assets in Nigeria. The company recently revealed that it is desperate to optimize existing fields and accelerate fresh deepwater projects.
Speaking to participants at the ongoing NAPE conference in Lagos, the Deputy Managing Director, Deepwater Asset, Victor Bandele, highlighted vital milestones and the operational hurdles that have shaped its strategy.
According to him, TotalEnergies intends to start maximizing existing assets such as Egina, which has a Floating Production, Storage and Offloading vessel capable of moving up to 200,000 barrels of oil per day, but is doing less than 100,000 barrels due to the natural decline of the field.
“We have a desperation in TotalEnergies. And that desperation is to ensure the optimal development of all the assets that are in our possession.
There is a desperation to bring all the tiebacks that are possible on that asset in place. We are working on all the possible tiebacks. And that’s one of the reasons why I will always go to the regulator to say the environment needs to help me to do more. So, we build that on the existing assets,” he said.
Bamidele further noted that the company’s drive is not restricted to maximising production from present fields but also includes exploration in older fields like Akpo and developing new blocks in deepwater.
He concluded by saying that Nigeria should be following the deepwater development trajectory of countries like Brazil and Angola, but progress has stagnated thus far.
“We are building exploration wells on even old fields like Akpo. We still have opportunities for exploration around there. So, we have plans with our partners. We have potential exploration objectives for next year.
After the investment in Egina and the first oil in 2018, there is no other new FPSO coming to our water. This was a trend that Nigeria was supposed to follow. Deep water was supposed to be a major area of growth for us. But I dare say, after Egina, we stopped. So this is a problem that seems to have been solved with the PIA. There is a lot of activity going on in Shell now with Bonga, of which I am also a partner. I think the government is doing its own bit in opening the space.
In the last two years, we were drilling on Akpo and Egina as the only operator drilling in the deep water. I see the big problem that I encountered because when my drilling contractors are having challenges, the only way to get support is from Angola or from far away. And the reaction time is definitely not optimal. So, if we are having a lot of operations going on in the deep water, first, we will have a lot of synergy in terms of those operations; you will not believe how much cost that brings back.
We had the Q7000 that was in our waters in 2002. We were in the forefront of bringing it in. But almost all the IOCs benefited, and all of us used it afterwards. So sharing and collaboration still become the key. But you will share only what you have. So let’s help a lot so that we can share a lot.
As soon as you have a lot of activities going on in deepwater space, in the shallow water space, and onshore, honestly the amount of operational efficiency that comes from there is significant. And we need to support one another,” he added.
