Nigeria is banking on the 200,000 b/d offshore Egina project to boost its production by over 10%, as the Total-operated field is expected to come online later this year, S&P Global Platts said in a report on Monday.
Nigerian oil output has stagnated in the past decade due to instability in the restive oil-rich Niger Delta and underinvestment in its oil sector along with a lack of infrastructure.
Nicolas Terraz, managing director, Total Upstream Nigeria, speaking at an industry event in Lagos on Sunday said the $16 billion deepwater project is the biggest oil and gas investment in Nigeria with the startup expected in Q4 this year.
No new big oil fields have started up in Nigeria in nearly five years which is what makes this project pivotal for Africa’s largest oil producer.
“In the operational phase, Egina will add 200,000 b/d to the production of the country, representing about 10% of Nigeria’s current total capacity,” Terraz added.
This year the country’s oil ministry acknowledged that it needs to start prioritizing the approval of oil projects with international oil companies and review the fiscal terms in agreements with foreign partners to develop deepwater oil fields.
The Egina FPSO is a newly built spread moored FPSO with oil and gas processing and water treatment facilities and can store up to 2.3 million barrels of processed oil in its hull, Terraz added.
Nigerian crude oil and condensate production has ranged between 1.7 million and 2 million b/d this year, still far below its capacity of 2.2 million b/d as pipeline sabotage in the Niger Delta has persisted.
But production has recovered in the past 12 months after output plummeted to near 30-year lows of 1.1 million b/d in mid-2016 due to renewed militancy in the Niger Delta. (S&P Global Platts
