On Thursday, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (60 percent) and TotalEnergies (40 percent), the operators of Oil Mining Lease 58 onshore licence in Nigeria, signed a $550 million Final Investment Decision for the development of the Ubeta gas field.
According to THE PUNCH, the OML 58 licence, which is situated in Rivers State and is roughly 80 km northwest of Port Harcourt, includes the two producing fields of Obagi oil field and Ibewa gas and condensate field.
The Obite treatment centre processes the gas production from OML 58 and supplies it to the Nigeria Liquefied and Natural Gas plant as well as the country’s domestic gas market.
Once operational, the Ubeta field, which was found in the eastern Niger Delta in 1964, will produce over 10,000 BBLS/day of associated liquids and 350MMScf/day of gas, allowing NLNG Limited to secure a steady supply of gas.
At the FID signing ceremony held at the NNPC Towers in Abuja on Thursday, the Group Chief Executive Officer, NNPC Limited, Mele Kyari, said, “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.”
The Senior Vice President of Africa, Exploration & Production, TotalEnergies, 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.”
Heineken Lokpobiri, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), stated that the government has restored investor faith in the oil and gas sector and assured Nigerians that further investments are forthcoming.
The project, according to Ekperikpe Ekpo, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), is evidence of the success of government initiatives to foster an atmosphere that encourages investment in the gas industry.
Partners in the deal state that an 11km buried pipeline will link the new six-well cluster to the current Obite facilities in order to exploit the Ubeta gas condensate resource in Port Harcourt.
With a plateau of 300 million cubic feet per day (about 70,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day including condensates), production is anticipated to begin in 2027.
Gas from Ubeta will be supplied to NLNG, a Bonny Island liquefaction plant where NNPC owns a 49% interest. NLNG is currently expanding its capacity from 22 to 30 metric tonnes annually.
Over 90% of TotalEnergies’ man-hours will be spent locally, as part of a close collaboration with NNPC to improve local content.
