Tanya Davidson
Port Harcourt — Nigerian banks are financing about 77 percent of the more than $600 million Ima Gas Development Project being developed by TotalEnergies EP Nigeria Limited and indigenous operator AMNI International Petroleum Development Company Limited.
TotalEnergies Managing Director, Mathieu Bouyer, disclosed this yesterday in Abuja at the Final Investment Decision, FID, ceremony for the offshore gas development, describing the investment as a vote of confidence in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.
He said seven Nigerian financial institutions, including Zenith Bank and United Bank for Africa, UBA, are providing the bulk of the project financing.
The development is expected to generate between $2 billion and $4 billion in value over its lifetime, depending on international oil and gas prices, according to Bouyer.
“The investment, which is more than $600 million, is a vote of confidence in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry,” he said.
The Ima Gas project is also expected to strengthen Nigeria’s gas supply position, with the field projected to deliver about 350 million standard cubic feet of dry gas per day at plateau.
The gas is expected to provide about one-third of the feed gas required for Nigeria LNG’s Train 7 expansion, with first gas targeted for the end of 2028.
The Ima field, discovered in 1973, lies in shallow offshore off the coast of Rivers State, straddling OML112 and OML117. AMNI holds a 60 per cent interest, while TotalEnergies, the operator, holds the remaining 40 per cent.
Welcoming the FID, NUPRC Chief Executive, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesa, said the project demonstrated the impact of sustained policy direction and regulatory support on upstream investment.
“Today’s success is attributable to His Excellency, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Bola Tinubu. Years ago we could not have conceived that today we will be sitting here to celebrate a project if he hadn’t given the executive orders,” Eyesan said.
She said the Commission would continue to prioritise an enabling regulatory environment for investors.
“As the Chief Regulator in the industry, we will enable business, we will unplug obstacles. The President has set the path for us, and we are determined to follow through,” she said.
The project’s financing structure places Nigerian financial institutions at the centre of a major gas development, while its expected output is positioned to support additional gas supply for the expansion of Nigeria’s LNG capacity.
