Business
Ikike Field: TotalEnergies, NNPC Commence Production
Total Energies Limited in partnership with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has announced the commencement of production from the Ikike Field in Nigeria.
Ikike Field is located 20 kilometers off the coast, at a depth of about 20 meters tied back to the existing Amenam offshore facilities through a 14 kilometers multiphase pipeline.
The platform was launched a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic with NNPC having 60 per cent share, while TotalEnergies having the remaining 40 per cent.
Speaking on the project, Senior Vice President, Africa, Exploration and Production of TotalEnergies Limited, Henri-Max Ndong-Nzue, said the success owes a lot to the full mobilization of the teams by tapping discoveries close to existing facilities.
Ndong-Nzue in a statement made available to The Tide, said the project fits the company’s strategy of focusing on low cost and low emission oil projects.
He disclosed that Total Energies has been present in Nigeria for more than 60 years and employs more than 1,800 people across different business segments.
According to him,”Nigeria is one of the main contributing countries to the company’s hydrocarbon production where TotalEnergies produced 240,000 boe/d in 2021.
“TotalEnergies also operates an extensive distribution Network, which includes about 540 Service stations in the country.
“In all its operations, the company is particularly attentive to the socio-economic development of the country and is committed to working with local communities”, he said.
He disclosed that the Ikike platform will deliver peak production of 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by the end of 2022.
The project, he continued, which leverages existing facilities to keep costs low, was designed to minimize greenhouse gas emissions estimated at less than 4kg CO2e/boe and will continue to reducing the average carbon intensity of TotalEnergies’ upstream portfolio.
He explained further that the jacket as well as the topside modules were entirely built and integrated by local contractors in addition of 95 per cent of hours were worked locally.
By: Ike Wigodo
Cornerstone of Financial Services
A survey of more than 1 000 global finance leaders undertaken by digital payment network Ripple shows that 72% of respondents believe they need to offer a digital asset solution to remain competitive.
According to Ripple, leaders from the banking, fintech, corporate and asset management sector have made it clear that the “digital asset revolution is happening now”.
“Digital assets are quickly becoming a cornerstone of financial services, underpinned by progressive regulation, growing interest from Tier-1 banks, a steady consumer shift from banks to fintech providers, and booming stablecoin adoption,” Ripple says.
The survey was conducted in early 2026 and the findings released in March.
Stablecoin Boon or Bane?
Ripple has experienced significant success in the stablecoin sector since launching its Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin in 2024.
With a market cap of $1.56 billion, it is considered a major regulated player in the market.
No doubt the platform was pleased to learn through its own survey that financial leaders were most bullish about stablecoins.
Roughly three-quarters of respondents believed they could boost cash-flow efficiency and unlock trapped working capital.
Ripple noted that finance leaders were thinking about stablecoins as more than “just a new way to execute payments”; instead, they viewed them as effective tools for treasury management.
In March 2026, Ripple began testing a new trade finance model built around RLUSD in a bid to increase the speed of cross-border payments.
The pilot initiative, developed alongside supply chain finance company Unloq [https://unloq.com], is running on the XRP Ledger inside a testing framework developed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
The Asian city-state is one of the platform’s biggest growth markets.
The idea behind the project is to see whether stablecoin-based settlement can streamline trade finance, too often hampered by reliance on intermediaries and slow reconciliation.
The only potential drawback is that if the initiative takes off, the Ripple to USD price could be negatively affected.
Ripple has always championed its native XRP token as a bridge asset, the “middleman” in the process of a financial institution turning dollars in the US into pounds in the UK, for example.
Ripple converts dollars into XRP and then back into pounds.
If RLUSD can do exactly the same thing, questions will be asked about XRP’s relevance.
That is a bridge Ripple will have to cross if it gets to that point.
Tokenisation Partners
Another interesting finding from Ripple’s survey is that most banks and asset managers are seeking tokenisation partners to help execute their strategies.
Some 89% of respondents said digital asset storage and custody were top priority. “Token servicing/lifecycle management also ranks highly for banks at 82%, while asset managers place greater emphasis on primary distribution at 80%,” Ripple found.
The survey also revealed that just more than half of fintechs and financial institutions want an infrastructure provider that can offer a “one-stop-shop solution”. This rose to 71% among corporate financial leaders.
Ripple attributes this to institutions and firms wanting uncomplicated, cohesive systems.
Infrastructure Rules
In its final analysis, Ripple says companies across the board are looking for partners and solutions that are “secure, compliant, battle-tested and that enable growth and execution”.
“The message is clear: infrastructure decisions made today will shape competitive positioning tomorrow.”
No surprise that this is precisely where Ripple is placing much of its focus.
