The prevailing quest by Nigeria to increase her crude oil production and commitment of pledges made by International Oil Companies to affect this course has begun to yield promising result. TotalEnergies and its partners have announced the start of production from the Akpo West field on the Petroleum Mining License Two (PML2) in Nigeria.

Located 135 kilometers off the coast, Akpo West is tied back to the existing Akpo Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) facility, which started-up in 2009 and produced 124,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2023. By mid-2024, Akpo West will add 14,000 barrels of condensate production per day, to be followed by up to 4 million cubic meters of gas per day by 2028.

The Akpo West development leverages the existing Akpo facilities to keep costs low and minimize greenhouse gas emissions. The project’s carbon intensity is expected to be below 5 kg CO2e/boe and will contribute to reduce the average carbon intensity of TotalEnergies’ portfolio.

“After Ikike in 2022, TotalEnergies is pleased to start production of another tie-back project in Nigeria, Akpo West, which will contribute to maintaining the production of the existing Akpo facilities by developing additional nearby resources. This project fits the Company’s strategy of developing low-cost and low-emission projects.

“This project leverages TotalEnergies’ solid footprint in Nigeria and will quickly bring value to the country, TotalEnergies and its partners,” Mike Sangster, Senior Vice President Africa, Exploration and Production TotalEnergies said.

 “Africa Oil is encouraged to have the operator’s confirmation of the start-up of production on Akpo West. Utilizing the existing Akpo FPSO, Akpo West presents us with advantaged and high netback production in a low operating cost and with a low emission project,”Africa Oil President and CEO, Roger Tucker commented.

TotalEnergies is the operator of PML2 with a 24% interest, in partnership with CNOOC (45%), Sapetro (15%), Prime 130 (16%) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd as the concessionaire of the PSC. Africa Oil has an interest in PML 2 through its 50% ownership in Prime Oil & Gas Coöperatief U.A, which has a 16% interest in PML 2.