Ima FID unlocks 53-year-old gas field for Train 7

ABUJA — Nigeria has moved to develop the 53-year-old Ima gas field after AMNI International Petroleum Development Company Limited and TotalEnergies EP Nigeria took the Final Investment Decision, FID, on the project, which is expected to deliver first gas by the end of 2028.

The FID, signed on Wednesday in Abuja, marks a major step towards developing the field and providing additional gas supply for Nigeria LNG Limited’s Train 7 expansion.

Chairman of AMNI, Chief Tunde Afolabi, described the decision as more than an investment approval, saying it represented “the fulfilment of a commitment” and “confidence in Nigeria.”

Afolabi recalled that in May 2024, he met TotalEnergies Chairman, Patrick Pouyanné, in Houston, where both companies signed the Heads of Terms for the project.

“To me, that handshake meant something more. It said: we have given each other our word,” he said.

“Today, just a little over two years later, that handshake has become an FID.”

According to him, the decision demonstrated that major investments could be developed in Nigeria when companies, government and other stakeholders worked together.

“Capital is disciplined. Capital has choices. And major energy companies today have investment opportunities competing for funding across many parts of the world,” he said.

“Therefore, when companies take an FID in Nigeria, it sends an important signal.”

Afolabi added that the decision showed that investment opportunities in Nigeria could still be identified, structured, financed and developed successfully.

He, however, warned that investor confidence must be sustained, stressing that Nigeria’s resources would have little economic value without the investment and technology required to develop them.

“Nigeria possesses extraordinary hydrocarbon resources. Yet resources beneath the ground have little economic value until we create the conditions that allow investment, technology and human capability to convert those resources into production,” he said.

Afolabi also called for stronger indigenous participation, stressing that it must go beyond ownership.

“Indigenous participation should not simply mean ownership. It must increasingly mean capability,” he said.

“It must mean technical excellence. It must mean financial discipline. It must mean good governance.”

Similarly, the Managing Director of TotalEnergies EP Nigeria, Mr Mathieu Bouyer, said the Ima project was the product of more than two decades of partnership between TotalEnergies and AMNI.

He said seven banks — Zenith Bank, Access Bank, United Bank for Africa, GTBank, Standard Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and First Abu Dhabi Bank — provided financing for the project, with more than 75 per cent coming from Nigerian banks.

Bouyer said the project would also deepen local content, with all four major project packages to be handled by Nigerian contractors and more than 60 per cent of the local workforce drawn from communities around the project.

He added that the project was designed to reduce operational emissions through an unmanned offshore platform powered from shore, zero routine flaring and permanent methane-monitoring equipment.

The Special Adviser to the President on Energy, Mrs Olu Verheijen, said the discovery of the Ima field in 1973 demonstrated that natural resources alone could not create prosperity.

She said the government’s reforms were designed to create conditions for capital, technology and enterprise to unlock stranded resources and generate jobs, industrial activity and economic growth.

Also, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Hon. Ekperikpe Ekpo, said the project represented a vote of confidence in Nigeria’s gas industry and would contribute to increasing gas supply to Nigeria LNG, strengthening the country’s position as a leading gas and LNG supplier.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, similarly attributed renewed investment interest in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry to Federal Government reforms.

In a statement, President Bola Tinubu said his administration had introduced reforms aimed at making investment in Nigeria more competitive, reducing the cost and time required to develop projects and providing greater certainty to investors.

“One of those reforms introduced specific incentives to unlock onshore and shallow-water gas projects that had remained undeveloped for years,” he said.

Tinubu said the development would create opportunities for Nigerian engineers, technicians, contractors and businesses, while generating jobs and economic activity in host communities and increasing export earnings.

“This is what our reforms are intended to achieve, to move Nigeria’s resources from potential to production and translate them into jobs, incomes and opportunity for our people,” he said.