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Total completes $1bn Nigerian asset sale

By on April 1, 2015

French oil major, Total, has completed the divestment of its stakes in three onshore Nigerian oil blocks, with sale proceeds amounting to over $1bn.

The divested assets are Oil Mining Leases 18, 24 and 29, the company said, adding that its interest in OML 29 was sold to Aiteo Eastern E&P, a Nigerian company, for $569m.

The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited had last week announced the completion of the sale of its 30 per cent interest in OML 29, the Nembe Creek Trunk Line and related facilities in the eastern Niger Delta to Aiteo Eastern E&P for $1.7bn.

The Chief Financial Officer, Total, Mr. Patrick de La Chevardière, said in a statement published on the company’s website on Monday, “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.”

“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 per cent stake in several onshore blocks in Nigeria via the Shell Petroleum Development Company Joint Venture alongside the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (55 per cent), SPDC (operator, 30 per cent) and Nigerian Agip Oil Company Limited (five per cent).

The international oil company said it had divested its interests in eleven onshore blocks to Nigerian companies since 2010, in line with the Federal Government’s aim of developing indigenous companies in the sector.

It said its production in Nigeria was 257,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2014.

According to the statement, deep offshore developments are one of Total’s main growth avenues in Nigeria, where the group operates the Akpo field in OML 130, and inaugurated 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 the NNPC. The main fields in these leases are Amenam-Kpono, Edikan and Ofon.

On Ofon, Total noted that it completed the flare-out in January this year, which would allow for the gradual increase of production towards the 90,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day production target.

According to the statement, Total’s onshore production comes from OML 58, which it also operates as part of its joint-venture with NNPC, and a project is underway to increase the lease’s natural gas and condensate production capacity to supply the domestic market.

It said the company had significant equity production in Nigeria from its interests in non-operated ventures, particularly the SPDC-operated joint venture (10 per cent) and the Bonga field (12.5 per cent).

It also has a 15 per cent interest in Nigeria LNG, which operates six LNG liquefaction trains on Bonny Island, with a capacity of 21.9 million metric tonnes per year.

 

[Punch]