By Adewale Sanyaolu
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has said Nigeria’s oil and gas sector reforms are beginning to deliver results, following the $800 million Final Investment Decision (FID) taken by TotalEnergies and Nigerian independent oil company, AMNI International, to develop the long-delayed Ima Gas Field.
Tinubu said the investment demonstrated the impact of measures introduced by his administration to make Nigeria a more competitive destination for oil and gas investments, reduce the cost and time required to develop projects and provide greater certainty for investors.
The President, in a statement on the development, said the administration had introduced specific incentives aimed at unlocking onshore and shallow-water gas projects that had remained undeveloped for years.
“Today, we are seeing the result,” he said.
The Ima Gas Field, discovered in 1973, has remained undeveloped for more than five decades. The project straddles the OML 112 and OML 117 offshore licences in Nigeria’s shallow waters, close to Bonny Island.
Under the development plan announced by TotalEnergies, which is operator with a 40 per cent interest, AMNI holds the remaining 60 per cent stake. The field will be developed through a single platform connected by a 22-kilometre pipeline to Nigeria LNG’s facilities at Bonny Island.
Production is expected to commence in 2028, with the field projected to reach a plateau of about 350 million cubic feet of gas per day, equivalent to more than 60,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Once on stream, Ima is expected to supply about one-third of the gas required for the ongoing Nigeria LNG Train 7 expansion, which will increase NLNG’s liquefaction capacity from 22 million tonnes per annum to 30 million tonnes per annum.
The development therefore provides additional feedgas for one of Nigeria’s most significant ongoing LNG expansion projects, while bringing a gas discovery that has been dormant for over 50 years into commercial development.
TotalEnergies described Ima as a low-cost, low-emissions development, with a simplified platform design, electricity supplied from shore, no routine flaring and permanent methane detection and monitoring.
The project is also expected to have a significant Nigerian content component, with TotalEnergies stating that all key contractors will be Nigerian companies. About 60 per cent of the workforce during the development phase is expected to come from the host communities.
For Tinubu, the investment represents the practical outcome of the reforms introduced by his administration to stimulate investment in Nigeria’s hydrocarbon sector.
He said the project would create opportunities for Nigerian engineers, technicians and contractors, while generating jobs, business opportunities and economic activity in the host communities.
“AMNI, a Nigerian company, holds the majority interest in the project. Around 60% of the development workforce is expected to come from the host communities,” the President said.
He added that the development would also contribute to Nigeria’s export earnings as the country seeks to expand the monetisation of its abundant gas resources.
“This is what our reforms are intended to achieve, to move Nigeria’s resources from potential to production and translate them into jobs, incomes and opportunity for our people,” Tinubu said.
The Ima FID comes after TotalEnergies and its partners took FID on the Ubeta gas development in 2024. Ubeta is expected to start production in 2027 and is designed to provide additional gas supply to Nigeria LNG. TotalEnergies has said the Ima project demonstrates its ability to unlock new gas resources following incentives introduced by the Nigerian Government for non-associated gas developments.
The latest investment also reinforces the Federal Government’s push to accelerate gas development and convert stranded or undeveloped resources into productive assets.
Tinubu said the Ima development was not the end of the reform drive, declaring: “We have more to unlock.”
(The Sun)
