The Nigerian Commission Chief Executive (CCE) Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) yesterday held the closing ceremony for the Execution of the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) with Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited and the TotalEnergies–Sapetro Consortium, urging the partners to instantly carry out exploration leading to Final Investment Decisions ((FIDs) for the two offshore blocks.
The Commission Chief Executive Officer, Gbenga Komolafe, an engineer, said the Commission also expects swift and technically sound exploration, leading to early FIDs. He also urged the consortium to deepen local content, create quality jobs, empower Nigerian businesses, develop and produce that is expected to raise crude oil output to about three million barrel per day target. The PSC covered the Petroleum Prospecting Licences 2000 and 2001 awarded to TotalEnergies and its partner South Atlantic Petroleum (Sapetro) in the 2024 Licensing Round.
Komolafe commended President Bola Tinubu for supporting the implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) with the political much needed political will, insisting unexplored assets must be revoked.
He said: “Let me begin by paying glowing tributes to His Excellency, President Bola Tinubu for the bold initiatives and reforms in the industry as well as his steer that undeveloped assets must return to the basket for rebidding and award to competent bidders in line with provisions of the PIA.”
Komolafe said TotalEnergies has 60 years operations in Nigeria and holding 80 per cent contractor interest, as well as Sapetro with 30 years operations and holding 20 per cent contractor interest.
He recalled that the Licensing Round was based on a fair, transparent and competitive bidding process in line with Section 73 of the PIA.
According to him, the award of these two offshore blocks, spanning about 2,000 square kilometres in the prolific Niger Delta Basin, is a direct product of the transparent, competitive, and reform-driven framework introduced.
On the 3mb/d output, the NNPCL Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), Bashir Ojulari also said, “The PSC is a major milestone that speaks to the regulator’s commitment to implementing the provision of the PIA and will no doubt bring NNPC Limited closer to achieving the target of 3 million barrels per day and an additional investment of 60 million dollars by 2030.”
Ojulari said the PSC has robust fiscal terms, listing them as “One, a signature bonus of $10 million, production bonus of 2 million barrels and 4 million or cash equivalent on attainment of 35 million barrels and 100 million barrels production risk.”