“Our plan is to maintain aggressive exploration and appraisal wells-drilling to play a part in increasing the hydrocarbon resource base of the nation,” Ahmadu-Kida Musa said at the National Association of Energy Correspondents’ Conference.
Total currently accounts for 15 percent of Nigeria’s total oil production, Musa also said, and despite the challenging environment in the West African nation, the French company remains committed to its projects there.
The Egina field, which will be responsible for the production boost, was discovered in 2003 by Total, which partnered with Chinese CNOOC and Brazil’s Petrobras. Its development will have an estimated cost of US$16 billion and will feature a floating production, storage, and offloading vessel that arrived at the location earlier this year. Egina is the largest deepwater offshore development in Nigeria to date.
Any addition to current production is good news for the West African nation, which is the biggest crude oil exporter in Africa. Nigeria has struggled to lift its production above 1.8 million bpd and in July it fell below that, averaging 1.67 million bpd. The country’s government is now trying to implement a large-scale energy sector reform that will transform the state-owned oil company and hopefully spur more investment in oil and gas.
Total and Shell are the two biggest crude oil producers in Nigeria, whose oil revenues represent as much as 70 percent of the total state revenue. Boosting its oil and gas industry is instrumental for Nigeria’s economic growth plans after emerging from a recession caused by the 2014 oil price collapse.
