In line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s directive to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) to optimise production from the nation’s oil and gas assets, the company has announced the successful commencement of oil production from the Akpo West Field.
The milestone, which the company said, is the result of meticulous planning, strategic collaboration, and unwavering dedication from all stakeholders involved in the project, will add 14,000 barrels per day of condensate to the nation’s production. This will be followed up by the production of about four million cubic meters of gas per day by 2028.
The development of Akpo West which is on Petroleum Mining Lease (PML) 2 (formerly OML 130) leverages the existing Akpo Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) facility via a subsea tie-back to keep costs low and minimise greenhouse gas emissions.
LEADERSHIP checks reveal that the NNPC Ltd, is the concessionaire of the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) of the PML 2, which is operated by TotalEnergies which holds a 24 per cent interest, alongside partners CNOOC (45 per cent), Sapetro (15 per cent), and Prime 130 (16 per cent).
NNPC’s chief corporate communications officer Olufemi Soneye, in a statement yesterday, said the milestone was enabled by the strategic leadership of the group chief
executive officer (GCEO), Mele Kyari, and the Upstream Directorate of the NNPC Ltd whose support played no small role in propelling the operators to
actualise the short- and mid-term hydrocarbon production goal of the President Tinubu administration.
Located 135 kilometres offshore, Akpo West is one of the discoveries on PML 2 with proximity to the Akpo main which started up in 2009 and produced 124,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2023.
TotalEnergies has commenced production from its long-awaited Akpo deep-water project, located 200 kilometres offshore in Oil Mining Licence (OML) 130.
Akpo West is located in deep-water OML 130 which also hosts the supermajor’s big Akpo and Egina fields, currently producing from two separate floating production, storage and offloading vessels, which began operations in 2009 and was producing 124,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2023.
The project is projected to have a carbon intensity of less than 5 kg CO2e/boe, which will aid in reducing the overall carbon intensity of the TotalEnergies’ portfolio.
Mike Sangster, the senior vice president Africa, exploration and production at TotalEnergies, stressed the strategic alignment of the Akpo West project with the company’s focus on low-cost and low-emission projects.
The initiative is set to enhance the output of the existing Akpo facilities by tapping into nearby resources.
This project fortifies TotalEnergies’ strong presence in Nigeria and promises to rapidly create value for the country, the company, and its partners.
