OpeOluwani Akintayo
Lagos — The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer and Country Chair, Total Companies in Nigeria, Mr. Mike Sangster, says the major oil exploration and producing company is committed to Nigeria’s gas master plan.
He stated this at the 37th Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists, NAPE, conference, where he also called on Nigeria to put in place funding mechanisms for cost recovery or profit-sharing for investments in gas projects.
Sangster pointed to Total’s partnership in the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, saying: “We are an NLNG partner with 15 percent stake in the company, which has a liquefaction capacity (Trains 1- 6): 22 MT/Y (metric tonnes per year) of LNG. But the planned Train 7 will increase NLNG capacity from 22 to 30 MTPA (metric tonnes per annum).
“Total is committed to the Nigerian Gas Master Plan – reducing flaring and monetising gas. We are also committed to the supply of additional gas to NLNG train 7 for increase of NLNG capacity”.
“We have signed three Gas Supply Aggregation Agreements (GSAA) and we take our domestic gas supply obligations under these agreements quite seriously”, he added.
But, he stated that “challenges remain in the areas of infrastructure; legal and regulatory framework; commercial framework (pricing policy) via the National Domestic Gas Supply and Pricing Regulations of 2008 vis-à-vis the new National Gas Policy approved by the Federal Executive Council in 2017”.
He revealed that Total achieved 100 percent gas flare out on its Ofon field in December 2014 and that gas from the field is currently monetised, adding that in 2015, Total E&P Nigeria received the World Bank – Global Gas Flare Reduction Partnership, GGFR, Excellence Award.
This, Sangster said, is a major milestone in line with the aspiration of the Nigerian government, which, accruing to him, is why the Ofon flare out achievement has been proposed as part of Nigeria’s Nationally Determined Contribution, NDC, to greenhouse gas emissions reduction.
“We are committed to achieving zero flaring in all our operations,” the Total boss assured as he stated that the flagship deepwater Egina field, which came on stream in December last year, was also commissioned with zero flare out and has added 10 percent to Nigeria’s daily oil production.
