TotalEnergies Starts Production at Akpo West Field in Nigeria

TotalEnergies SE and its partners recently put onstream the Akpo West field tie-back project offshore Nigeria, adding condensate and gas output capacity, the French energy giant has said.

Akpo West has now been connected to the Akpo floating production storage and offloading facility, which came online 2009 serving the main Akpo field. The facility produced 124,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) last year, TotalEnergies said.

Sitting 135 kilometers (83.9 miles) off the coast of the West African country, Akpo West will amp up from an output rate of 14,000 barrels of condensate per day by mid-2024 to up to 4.0 million cubic meters (141.3 million cubic feet) of gas per day by 2028, TotalEnergies said.

“The Akpo West development leverages the existing Akpo facilities to keep costs low and minimize greenhouse gas emissions”, it said in a recent news release, putting Akpo West’s expected emissions at 5.0 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent per boe.

The Akpo fields are under Petroleum Mining Lease (PML) 2, formerly Oil Mining Lease (OML) 130. TotalEnergies is the operator with a 24 percent stake while China’s state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp. holds a 45 percent interest, Prime Oil & Gas Cooperatief UA has 16 percent and Nigerian private player South Atlantic Petroleum Ltd. has the remaining 15 percent.

“This project [Akpo West] fits the company’s strategy of developing low-cost and low-emission projects”, Mike Sangster, TotalEnergies senior vice-president for exploration and production in Africa, said in a statement. “This project leverages TotalEnergies’ solid footprint in Nigeria and will quickly bring value to the country, TotalEnergies and its partners”.

Nigerian National Petroleum Co. Ltd. (NNPC) in a separate press release called the startup a milestone, noting the national oil and gas company has been tasked by President Bola Tinubu to optimize production in the nation’s oil and gas assets. NNPC is the concessionaire in production-sharing contracts in Nigeria.

TotalEnergies said last year it has secured a 20-year extension for the PML 2 block, following the settlement of a payment row with partners.

The Niger Delta block is seen by TotalEnergies as a contributor to energy security not only in Nigeria but also in Europe. Nearly 30 percent of PML 2 output in 2022 “was gas sent to the Nigeria LNG plant, notably contributing to Europe’s energy security”, TotalEnergies said in a media statement May 29 announcing the renewal.

The announcement follows the signing of agreements by TotalEnergies’ upstream unit in Nigeria, NNPC and their partners securing the continued development of the block. “The suite [of deals] included Production Sharing Contracts, Heads of Agreement Amendment, Settlement Repayment Agreement, Concession Contracts for 1 PPL [Petroleum Prospecting License] and 3 PMLs [Petroleum Mining Leases], and Lease & License Instruments”, NNPC announced on Twitter, now X, on May 25, not elaborating on the agreements.

Akpo West is, Sangster noted, TotalEnergies’ second tieback project in Nigeria after the Ikike field, which is under OML 99. TotalEnergies operates OML 99, also in the Niger Delta, with a 40 percent interest while NNPC holds 60 percent.

Announcing the start of production at Ikike July 25, 2022, TotalEnergies said the field would deliver peak production of 50,000 boepd by the end of that year. The Ikike platform is linked to the Amenam field.

Before Akpo West, another PML 2 field, Egina, had started production December 2018. It has a peak capacity of 200,000 bpd of oil, according to TotalEnergies.

In a January 2, 2029, statement by TotalEnergies announcing startup, then-TotalEnergies president for exploration and production Arnaud Breuillac said, “Egina will significantly boost the Group’s production and cash flow from 2019 onwards, and benefit from our strong cost reduction efforts in Nigeria where we have reduced our operating costs by 40 percent over the last four years”.

To contact the author, email jov.onsat@rigzone.com