Oil & Energy
‘Egina, Pushing Nigerian Content Frontier’
Being a text of a keynote address by the Deputy Managing Director, Deep Water, Total Upstream Companies in Nigeria, Mr. Ahmadu-Kida Musa, at the Nigeria Oil & Gas Conference & Exhibition (NOG) 2018, held at ICC, Abuja, July 2, 2018.
The theme of this
seminar, “Nigerian Content: The Next Frontier” is relevant for understanding the need to drive the Nigerian oil and gas industry towards sustainable development and growth. It is also an opportunity to discuss important issues the industry may be grappling with as it tries to assume a more local approach in its activities.
I am, therefore, rather delighted to speak about the modest Nigerian Content efforts at Total and what is seen as the next frontier for the industry in terms of in-country activities. You must, however, forgive me, if you find that, in the course of my speech, I keep returning to my current favourite subject, namely, the Egina Project.
Egina Project was sanctioned in 2013, three years after the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act was signed into law, but It is important to look back at where the sector was to enable us appreciate achievements recorded.
And today’s achievements will be the second part. I will look at the Industry’s post-NOGICD response and what progress was made in advancing Nigerian Content.
The last part will focus on the next frontier for the industry in this area and, with that, we shall wrap up this conversation on a subject I find very interesting.
PRE-NOGICD ACT 2010
Until a few decades ago, the key players in almost all the key sectors of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry were the international oil companies. From exploration to production, refining and trading, the main actors were foreign multinationals.
Oil blocks and assets were owned by foreign oil majors and oil service contracts for engineering, drilling, wireline logging services, supply of safety equipment, construction & fabrication, etc. were largely awarded to foreign owned companies. All these companies were, of course, managed by foreign personnel especially for technical positions. Many project teams were based abroad and only a few Nigerians were lucky enough to be trained abroad or to work abroad, to acquire the relevant technical knowledge and experience necessary to take up key positions in Nigeria.
But by the 1990s, Nigeria joined other emerging economies who sought to take ownership and control of their natural resources for exploitation and transformation into economic development.
To achieve this, some of these emerging economies began to formulate policies and legislation that would compel economic actors to adopt policies that promoted local over foreign.
In 2005, Nigeria took what many analysts consider the most significant step towards Nigerian Content by introducing what was known as the Local Content Policy. As you well know, the main thrust of this Local Content Policy was to promote a framework for which local competencies in the oil and gas sector will be developed through the active involvement of Nigerians using local resources.
The intention of the government, at the time, was to use the local content Policy as a means of discouraging capital flight in the oil and gas industry.
At that time, the Nigerian Government’s Local Content Policy implementation was administered by guidelines issued by the regulatory agencies such as the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the Nigerian Content Division of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
With this, the industry started to take some steps to embrace Nigerian Content. Some partnered with local contractors on low-risk projects because of concerns about quality and the availability of local capacity. Others embarked on some capacity building efforts, setting up training schools or supporting the upgrade of local yards to manage certain workscopes. Indeed, it has been said that before the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act came into effect, many industry players approached Nigerian Content as a matter of Corporate Social Responsibility.
Nigerian content was carried out at the discretion of the individual company and often dependent on availability of funding and previous experience with local contractors and partners. Nigerian Content was not really seen as an obligation by many operators. It was often something that was done as an expression of goodwill.
However, there were of course some companies that realised that developing local competencies was a key to sustainability in the future.
It was during this pre-NOGICD period that Total decided to invest in the establishment of a world class petroleum training institution right here in Nigeria; showing its commitment to capacity building and the development of Nigerian Content.
The Institute of Petroleum Studies (IPS), Port Harcourt, was established in a unique tripartite collaboration with the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, the French Petroleum Institute, IFP, France and the NNPC/Total E&P Joint Venture.
The institute has consistently produced highly skilled manpower equipped with both the intellectual and technical competencies required in the oil and gas industry. Since its establishment in 2003, IPS has produced over 400 Master of Science graduates and about the same number of Engineering Diploma degree holders; many of whom have filled key positions in various oil and gas companies in Nigeria!
On Total’s projects, Nigerian Content was already a major component before the NOGICD ACT. The Akpo Project, which was sanctioned in 2005 recorded a cumulative Nigerian Content performance of 44%. In 2008, the FID was taken on the Usan Project and by the time the project was completed, the Nigerian Content record had climbed up to 60%.
The point here is that even before Nigerian Content became a matter of law, some in the industry were already on board
POST-NOGICD ACT 2010
On April 22, 2010, the way the business of oil and gas was done in Nigeria changed. That was the day the Nigerian Oil & Gas Industry Content Development Act was signed into law. And the industry, which had already started to embrace the objectives and ideals of Nigerian Content, needed to double its efforts.
The NOGICD Act ushered in an era where in-country value became the focus. With the government now leading the charge with legislation and efficient monitoring through the NCBMB, things began to change more rapidly.
The underlying philosophy and objectives of Nigerian Content today include a focus on:
In-country competency development, technology development , job creation, revenue retention, research and developmentas well as industrialisation.
The relationship between the Nigerian Content Monitoring & Development Board (NCDMB) and the Industry is that of partners who understand that their goal is the same: local capacity means more robust bottom lines for the Industry and more value for the country as a whole.
In this context, more Nigerian owned engineering firms as well as construction and fabrication yards became more visible as important players in the industry. Many of them became strengthened to participate in FEED and eventually improved capacity fabrication yards began to compete for major development projects.
I must add though that a lot of oil and gas Companies were sceptical of the final destination of this new found impetus by Nigeria on local content.
Researchers in Hong Kong and China have developed a new form of battery that is more eco-friendly and longer lasting than lithium ion batteries – and it runs on tofu brine. The new water battery is still in research phases, but if the technology proves to be scalable enough to hit commercial markets, it could be a game-changer for the energy and tech sectors.
“Compared with current aqueous battery systems … our system delivers exceptional long-term cycling stability and environmental friendliness under neutral conditions,” the research team, composed of scientists from the City University of Hong Kong and Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, Guangdong, said in a paper published this month in Nature Communications.
The researchers found that their battery model can be recharged over 120,000 times. “At over a hundred thousand cycles, this could mean a single water-based battery could last at least a decade or so,” states a recent report on the breakthrough from Interesting Engineering. “For applications like grid storage (solar farms, wind balancing), that’s extremely valuable,” the article went on to say.
This kind of lifespan would represent a drastic improvement over the battery technologies that dominate today’s market. Lithium-ion batteries degrade after between 1,000 and 3,000 charge cycles. This could prove revolutionary, as finding an alternative to lithium-ion batteries to power rechargeable devices is a major priority for Big Tech and the global energy sector.
Moreover, these tofu-brine batteries could prove safer and more environmentally friendly than lithium-ion batteries. According to the study authors, the full cells are environmentally benign and nontoxic and can be directly discarded to environments according to various standards.” Water based (also called aqueous) batteries can also potentially be cheap to produce as they rely on ingredients that are less rare in addition to being less hazardous.
Lithium is environmentally harmful to extract, prone to fires, and its supply chains are geopolitically fraught. Currently, China alone controls half of the global lithium market, and is rapidly increasing its stake. In 2024, more than eight in ten battery cells on the planet were made in China. This means that finding a battery model that can compete with lithium-ion batteries in applications like grid-scale energy storage and electric vehicles would have revolutionary implications for global markets.
Researchers around the world have been racing to develop battery models that could diversify the market and make it more competitive and resilient. These models range widely in size, components, and application, with models currently under development for next-gen sodium-ion batteries, quantum batteries, nuclear batteries, and even sand and dirt batteries.
Of course, the irony is that the leading alternatives to lithium-ion batteries are also being developed in Chinese labs. If this new tofu-brine battery proves scalable and applicable outside of a laboratory environment, it could just be another step toward Beijing’s goal of near-total domination of clean energy technology value chains and status as the world’s first and premiere ‘electro-state.’
China’s extreme advantage in global battery making gives it a major point of leverage in global economies as the world continues to electrify at a rapid pace. It is estimated that European demand for lithium in batteries will reach kilo tonnes (thousands of tonnes) of Lithium Carbonate Equivalent by next year, and North American demand will reach 250 kit LCE. it’s all but certain that the vast majority of that demand will be supplied by China.
Other nations are aware of the risk of this dependency, and are taking pains to protect and promote domestic battery manufacturing, but these efforts may be too little, too late. “For globally competitive battery manufacturing industries to emerge outside of Asia over the next ten years, companies will need to do far more than ensure regulatory compliance,” summarizes a McKinsey & Company report released in January. “Challenges will need to be overcome on multiple fronts spanning supply chains, talent management, operations and technology.”
By: Haley Zaremba
The Rural Electrification Agency (REA) says it will spend N100 billion in 2026 to deploy hybrid mini-grids for government agencies within and outside Abuja.
The Managing Directors, REA, Abba Aliyu, disclosed this while addressing newsmen on the sidelines of the 2026 budget defence session
The approved funds form part of the National Public Sector Solarisation programme, a component of the agency’s broader N170 billion budget proposal for 2026.
The initiative is designed to improve electricity reliability for public institutions while reducing operational costs and easing pressure on the national grid.
Aliyu explained that the agency’s total proposed budget for 2026 stands at N170 billion, with N100 billion of the amount dedicated specifically to the solarisation initiative targeting government agencies.
He said the hybrid mini-grid systems combine solar power with complementary energy sources to ensure an uninterrupted electricity supply.
“The total budget size for 2026 operations is N170 billion, out of which N100 billion had been approved for National Public Sector Solarisation.
Aliyu cited the National Hospital in Abuja as an example where similar infrastructure had been deployed to ensure stable power and cut operational expenses.He added that beyond the Solarisation
Recall that earlier in February 2026, REA signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to deploy solar power systems to 15 public institutions across Nigeria.
The project will be implemented under the Regional Off-Grid Electricity Access Project (ROGEAP), a World Bank-supported initiative aimed at expanding off-grid electricity access across West Africa and the Sahel.
ECOWAS will provide a $700,000 grant to fund the installation of solar photovoltaic systems in selected rural health centres and schools in the Federal Capital Territory, Niger, and Nasarawa States.
Oil & Energy
PIA: TotalEnergies Transfers OLO Oilfield HCDT Obligation To Aradel ……Says HCDT Enabled Completion of 100 Projects In 2 years
In his remarks, the Community Affairs Manager, Aradel Holdings Plc, Blessyn Okpowo, affirmed the company’s commitment to honouring all PIA obligations and continuing Total Energies’ community engagement approach.“We want to say that in line with the PIA, we will honour commitments and duties required of the settlor and we want to work very smoothly with the way TotalEnergies has worked with them,” he stated.
He recognised the Commission’s role in approving the Community Development Plan (CDP) before project start, underscoring regulatory excellence.The parties noted that between 2023 and 2025, the trust has enabled the completion of more than 100 community projects, spanning water supply, electricity, road infrastructure, education, and healthcare with a further 40 projects currently ongoing.
