French oil major TotalEnergies has launched a sale of its minority stake in a Nigerian oil joint venture. According to the firm, they want to focus on deep-water fields away from the difficulties of operating in close proximity with local communities.
The company is selling its interest in 13 onshore fields and 3 in shallow water, producing over 20,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. The sale includes infrastructure such as 3,500 km of pipelines connecting to 2 key crude export terminals, Bonny and Forcados. They will keep OMLs(oil mining licences) 23 and 28 and its interest in the associated gas pipeline network that feeds Nigeria LNG.
Shift to deep-water fields
“Disruption of local communities are sources of great concern in the country. We have appointed Canada’s Scotiabank to lead the sale as the financial adviser to the transaction,” said Patrick Pouyanne, TotalEnergies chief executive.
TotalEnergies is the latest multinational to give up its onshore asset for deep-water fields. Mele Kyari, the group managing director, Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited had in February said International oil companies are leaving Nigeria and shifting their portfolios to where they can add value to the journey towards carbon net-zero commitment.
Last year, Royal Dutch Shell announced its plan to offload onshore Nigerian oil assets in a bid to move to cleaner energy. It said it was discussing with the federal government to sell its onshore oil assets in the country.
Also, Seplat Energy in February announced it had entered into a contract with ExxonMobil, to buy Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited’s entire oil assets in Nigeria. That includes all of Exxon’s entire shallow water assets in the Niger Delta.
