Nigeria: Total Completes $1 Billion of Onshore Divestments
30 March 2015 - 7:32AM
Business Wire
Regulatory News:
Total (Paris:FP) (LSE:TTA) (NYSE:TOT) has completed the
divestment of its stake in onshore Oil Mining Lease (OML) 29 to
Aiteo Eastern E&P, a Nigerian company, for $569 million.
Together with the recently completed divestments of OML 24 and OML
18, Total’s share of sale proceeds from these three onshore
Nigerian blocks amounts to over $1 billion.
“The sale of these non-operated onshore blocks in Nigeria is yet
another example of our strategy of dynamic portfolio management,
achieved at attractive valuations,” said Patrick de La Chevardière,
Chief Financial Officer at Total. “These transactions also reduce
our exposure to non-operated blocks onshore Nigeria, and allow us
to focus on our core, operated developments, such as the Egina
project.”
Total holds a 10% stake in several onshore blocks in Nigeria via
the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Joint Venture
alongside the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (55%), SPDC
(30%, operator) and Nigerian Agip Oil Company Limited (5%). Since
2010, Total has divested its interests in eleven onshore blocks to
Nigerian companies, in line with the Federal Government of
Nigeria’s aim of developing Nigerian companies in the sector.
Total Exploration & Production in Nigeria
In 2012, Total celebrated fifty years of its presence in
Nigeria. The Group’s production in Nigeria was 257,000 barrels of
oil equivalent per day (boe/d) in 2014.
Deep offshore developments are one of Total’s main growth
avenues in Nigeria, where the Group operates the Akpo field in OML
130 and launched the development of the Egina field in the same
lease in 2013.
Offshore production also comes from OMLs 99, 100 and 102, which
are operated by the Group as part of a joint-venture with NNPC. The
main fields in these leases are Amenam-Kpono, Edikan and Ofon. On
Ofon, Total completed the flare-out in January 2015 which will
allow for the gradual increase of production towards the 90,000
boe/d production target.
Total’s onshore production comes from OML 58, which it also
operates as part of its joint-venture with NNPC. A project is
underway to increase the lease’s natural gas and condensate
production capacity to supply the domestic market.
In addition, Total has significant equity production in Nigeria
from its interests in non-operated ventures, particularly the
SPDC-operated joint venture (10%) and the Bonga field (12.5%).
Total also has a 15% interest in Nigeria LNG, which operates six
LNG liquefaction trains on Bonny Island with a capacity of
21.9 million metric tons per year.
Total deploys an active policy to create in-country value in
Nigeria - the Group is helping Nigerian contractors to build deep
offshore expertise, especially in the Niger Delta, a region that is
home to more than half of Total’s Nigerian employees and most of
its operations in the country. Local content accounted 90% for the
onshore OML 58 projects, and is likely to reach 75% for the deep
offshore Egina development.
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About Total
Total is a global integrated energy producer and provider, a
leading international oil and gas company, and the world’s
second-ranked solar energy operator. We are committed to better
energy that is safer, cleaner, more efficient, more innovative and
accessible to as many people as possible, and our 100,000 employees
play an active role in helping us achieve this mission. As a
responsible corporate citizen, we focus on ensuring that our
operations in more than 130 countries worldwide consistently
deliver economic, social and environmental benefits.
www.total.com
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TOTAL S.A.Mike SANGSTERorNicolas FUMEXorPatrick GUENKELorMagali
PAILHETel. : + 44 (0)207 719 7962Fax : + 44 (0)207 719 7959orRobert
HAMMOND (U.S.)Tel. : +1 713-483-5070Fax : +1
713-483-5629www.total.com