By Adedapo Adesanya
TotalEnergies and its partners have announced the start of production from the Akpo West field on the Oil Mining License (OML) 2 license in Nigeria.
In a statement, the company said the project would not only maintain production in its existing Akpo facilities but would also be an additional source of crude oil.
Mr Mike Sangster, Senior Vice President Africa, Exploration and Production at TotalEnergies, said this would be another tie-back project that fits into the company’s environmentally sustainable projects.
“After Ikike in 2022, TotalEnergies is pleased to start production of another tie-back project in Nigeria, Akpo West, which will contribute to maintaining the production of the existing Akpo facilities by developing additional nearby resources. This project fits the company’s strategy of developing low-cost and low-emission projects,” he said.
“This project leverages TotalEnergies’ solid footprint in Nigeria and will quickly bring value to the country, TotalEnergies, and its partners,” he added.
TotalEnergies is the operator of OML2 with a 24 per cent interest, in partnership with China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOO, with the largest stake of 45 per cent, Sapetro (15 per cent), Prime 130 (16 per cent) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited as the concessionaire of the Production Sharing Contract (PSC.)
Located 135 kilometres off the coast, Akpo West is tied back to the existing Akpo Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) facility, which started up in 2009 and produced 124,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2023.
By mid-2024, there are expectations that Akpo West to add 14,000 barrels of condensate production per day, to be followed by up to 4 million cubic meters of gas per day by 2028.
The Akpo West development leverages the existing Akpo facilities to keep costs low and minimise greenhouse gas emissions.
The project’s carbon intensity is expected to be below 5 kg CO2 equivalent/ barrels of oil equivalent (boe) and will contribute to reducing the average carbon intensity of TotalEnergies’ portfolio.
Modupe Gbadeyanka