By Aduragbemi Omiyale
A Final Investment Decision (FID) of about $500 million has been announced by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) and TotalEnergies on the Ubeta Field Development Project in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The Ubeta field discovered in 1964, North-West of Port Harcourt in the eastern part of the Niger Delta will, once on stream, produce about 350MMScf/day of gas and 10,000 BBLS/day of associated liquids, tapping into the vast gas reserves and contributing towards securing gas supply to Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited.
Located in OML58, the Ubeta gas condensate field will be developed with a new 6-well cluster connected to the existing Obite facilities through an 11km buried pipeline.
Production start-up is expected in 2027, with a plateau of 300 million cubic feet per day (about 70,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day including condensates).
Gas from Ubeta will be supplied to NLNG, a liquefaction plant located in Bonny Island with an ongoing capacity expansion from 22 to 30 Mtpa, in which NNPC Limited holds a 49% interest.
Ubeta is a low-emission and low-cost development, leveraging on OML58’s existing gas processing facilities. The carbon intensity of the project will be further reduced through a 5 MW solar plant currently under construction at the Obite site and the electrification of the drilling rig.
The two organisations are making this fresh investment in the project through their joint venture in a bid to boost Nigeria’s oil and gas production.
At the signing ceremony held at the NNPC Towers in Abuja, the chief executive of NNPC Limited, Mr Mele Kyari, thanked President Bola Tinubu and other stakeholders for the support and a conducive operational environment to achieve this investment.
He disclosed that the milestone was in line with Mr Tinubu’s Presidential Executive Order on Oil & Gas Reforms aimed largely at improving the investment climate and positioning the country as the preferred investment destination for the energy sector in Africa.
“We appreciate Mr President for supporting us with the appropriate fiscal environment. The Presidential Executive Order is instrumental to us getting to this significant milestone, and we are now seeing the impact of the policy,” Mr Kyari stated.
In his remarks, the Senior Vice President for Africa in charge of Exploration and Production at TotalEnergies, Mr Mike Sangster, said, “Ubeta is the latest in a series of projects developed by TotalEnergies in Nigeria, most recently Ikike and Akpo West.”
“I am pleased that we can launch this new gas project which has been made possible by the Government’s recent incentives for non-associated gas developments. Ubeta fits perfectly with our strategy of developing low-cost and low-emission projects and will contribute to the Nigerian economy through higher NLNG exports,” he added.
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