NIGERIA: Senate commends Total $16bn Egina project investment, assures local content development

The Nigeria  Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Local Content on Friday commended the management of Total Upstream Nigeria Limited (TUPNI) on its $16 billion (N5.76 trillion) Egina project investment in Nigeria, promised total support for local content development.

The Chairman of the committee, Mr Solomon Adeola made the commendation during the committee’s oversight function in Lagos to inspect the 3.3 billion dollar Floating Production Storage Offloading (FPSO) vessel for the 200,000 barrels per day capacity Egina deepwater oilfield which arrives Nigeria from South Korea on Jan. 23 to Lagos.

Adeola said that the essence of the visit by the committees was to see and have fist hand information on the Egina FPSO and to also commends the huge investment of Total and its investor for making it a reality.

According to him, it is a huge investment by private’s investor and Nigeria Government was indeed commendable. The 330-metres long Egina FPSO is the largest FPSO ever installed in Nigeria.

“This is a wonderful investment coming to us a nation with a production sharing contracts between Total, inventors and Federal Government of Nigeria.

“If Nigeria can attract such huge project estimated at $16.3 billion, it shows we are moving in a right direction and growing our economy,’’ he said.

Adeola said that this is the first project executed after the passage of the Nigerian Local Content Act which is an indication that local content development has come to stay in Nigeria, adding that real local content growth was about domiciliation and domestication of capacity in-country.

He said that the committee will ensure full implementation of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act (NOGIC) passed by the national assembly.

According to him,  Already, the NOGIC Act has already in  operation and  we are also planning to amend the act to address other sectors including the manufacturing, construction,  information technology and others.

“We will ensure sure project in the future is fully domiciled in Nigeria to grow capacity building and local content development, it is also expected that by 2027 about 70 per cent of such project will be done in Nigeria.

“Today we here to see the six topside that was constructed in-country and the 12 done outside Nigeria but hope that if  such projects comes on board again, all the 18 top side would done in-country to grow capacity.’’ Adeola explained.

In his remarks, Mr Nicolas Terraz, the Managing Director of the company lauded the committee’s support and encouragements towards ensuring that the projected is completed within the time frame.

Terraz said that work has commenced on the FPSO and will undergo the integration of six locally fabricated modules that would take place within the next six months.

According to him, the integration of the six locally fabricated topside modules at the SHI-MCI Yard before its final sail-away to the Egina field is a game changer as far as the execution of deep offshore oil and gas projects in the country is concerned.

“It is also a remarkable achievement in local content development in Nigeria.

“Being the first project to be launched after the enactment of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act in 2010, EGINA is advancing Nigerian content to record levels and has by far the highest quantum of local content completed for any oil and gas project in Nigeria, but also for Total’s projects worldwide,’’ he said.

The Total upstream boss said that several technological feats had been recorded by the various entities involved in the project.

“Egina is the deepest offshore development carried out so far in Nigeria, with water depths over 1,500 meters.

Terraz said that the EGINA FPSO has been designed for 25 years of operations to produce about 200,000 barrels of oil per day (at Plateau).

He said that the Egina operations would generate significant activities for local contractors in various sectors and continued to provide avenues for the training and development of Nigerians in various domains.

Terraz said that the Egina field was discovered by TUPNI in 2003 within the Oil Mining Licence 130 (OML130), some 200 kilometres south of Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

He said that the field is being developed by TUPNI in partnership with NNPC, CNOOC, SAPETRO and PETROBRAS.

He said that the project will add 200,000 barrels per day to Nigeria’s oil production (approximately 10 per cent of the country’s total oil production.

The Total boss said that Egina is the largest investment project currently on-going in the oil and gas sector in Nigeria.