NCDMB Commends TotalEnergies On In-Country Investment Policy

The Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Mr. Simbi Wabote, has described TotalEnergies as top performing multinational oil company in the use of local content recommendations by the Federal Government.
Wabote, who gave this commendation at the IKD1 Topside delivery Sail Away ceremony of the IKIKE Field Development Project at the Rumuolumeni Yard of the Saipem Contracting Nigeria Limited, Port Harcourt described the top oil and gas multinational as having kept the faith the Nigerian oil and gas industry among upstream players amidst challenges and uncertainties in the past 10 years.
According to him, “it is on record that TotalEnergies has been the only upstream company taking key Final Investments Decisions on major projects in the last 10years. The company has continuously kept faith with Nigeria’s oil and gas industry despite the ups and downs”. The first was the Egina Project, which saw almost $20 billion being spent in the country. Today, we are doing this Sail Away as an additional module and some other fabrications that have happened in the country. Again, huge investment by Total, particularly in the areas of tie-back to existing facilities, Total has done extremely well.
“Other companies have been talking about tie-back opportunities but the discussion we have seen around them is how to do those activities outside the country when you have a lot of Nigerians unemployed, a lot of fabrication yards currently without a job.Today, Nigeria has a capacity of almost 15,000 metric tonnes fabrication capacity courtesy of Total establishing most of those yards.”
He further said, “Nigeria is keen to have strategic partners such as TotalEnergies to enable us realise our targets especially in consideration of the enactment of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA). The Board is delighted to note the TotalEnergies is committed to sustained investments in the gas sector with consideration for renewable energy”
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, TotalEnergies Nigeria’s, Mike Sangster, noted that the IKIKE Project was a template for future development also said, “The IKIKE Field Development Project, coming on the heels of the Egina Project is a further commitment of TotalEnergies to Nigeria and the growth of the oil and gas sector.”
Sangster observed that the IKIKE Project, while meeting the incremental 32,000bpd, also aims to “Capitalise on lessons learnt from previous projects (OFON2, OML 58 Upgrade)to assure a development with strategy fit for context, maximise local content at sustainable cost, simplified design, economic and fast execution to first oil and create a template for future similar developments of TotalEnergies.”
He added that the Sail Away was a signal to the completion of the last platform to enable tie-back of the IKIKE Project to the Amenam Production towards unlocking over 32,000 barrels of oil per day from second quarter of 2022.
On his part, the IKIKE Project Manager, Modestus Nwosu, stated that with the IKD1 Topside delivery, the project, a Joint Venture between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (60%) and TotalEnergies (40%) had met 74% completion.
Also speaking, Managing Director, Saipem Nigeria Limited, Walter Peviani, which locally fabricated the IKD1 Topside at its Port Harcourt Yard in collaboration with local firms, IGPES, and other subcontractors, thanked TotalEnergies for believing in their capacity to deliver on time without Lost Time Injury (LTI) or incident amidst industry challenges including Covid-19.

By: Tonye Nria-Dappa