Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, on Tuesday had a close door meeting with a delegation of multinational oil and gas firm, Total S.A, at the Presidential Villa.
Kachikwu, who spoke with State House correspondents after the meeting, said the Federal Government was impressed with what Total had done with Egina.
Total’s Egina Oilfield is located 1,600 metres of water depths, 150 kilometres off the coast of Nigeria, with a production capacity of 200,000 barrels of oil per day.
“It is ramping up according to the statistics; so we are very happy with them.
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“We are going to keep pushing; our position is that we should not go backwards; once we have achieved a milestone, any other project, we have to do better.
“So, local content fine, investment fine, they are part of Nigerian LNGs; something very close to our heart.’’
He said that Total had given a guarantee that it was going to work with Shell to ensure that an investment decision was taken before the end of the year.
Kachikwu disclosed that he drew Total’s attention to the fact that community issues were key.
He, however, said that the Federal Government had been able to address community issues, adding that efforts would be made to ensure that integrated community concerns were addressed rapidly.
“I will like to see oil companies do a lot more of that; I also pointed out that at Nigeria’s level, we need see more domestic obligations on gas.
”Most oil companies produce gas and they prefer to sell it abroad; we need gas to make sure our power position improves.
“These are the things where we put a lot of energy; we have started the Nigerian Gas Commercialisation Project.
“Every Nigerian oil field where there is a flare, needs to flare out into some investment; we are targeting our 2020/2021 bids; I have drawn his attention that Total needs to do its own beat,’’ he said.
The minister said that Total asked for oil exploration opportunities and new fields to enable it continue to expand its horizon for oil productions.
He said that the vice president would bring Total’s request to the attention of the President.
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On his part, Patrick Pouyanne, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Total S.A, said he came to congratulate the president and the vice president over their reelection.
He said that Total had been a big player in oil and gas in Nigeria over the past 60 years as it had accomplished some major achievements.
“The Egina production is almost 200 barrels per day; the largest investment in the last five years and we want to do more.
“We have ambition to continue to be a long partner with Nigeria; we want to explore; we have projects—extension of Nigeria LNGs for example,’’ he said.
Pouyanne said that Total was present in Nigeria across the energy chain, from exploration and production to mid stream gas activities and marketing of petroleum products. (NAN)