TotalEnergies E&P Nigeria Says Company Not Contemplating Leaving Nigeria, Expresses Confidence In Country’s Energy Reforms.

Totalenergies E&P Nigeria Ltd says it remains hopeful and optimistic on the strides currently being experienced in the Nigerian energy sector, with a commitment to continue business in the country without any contemplation of leaving the shores of Nigeria to do business elsewhere .

Managing Director/Chief executive, totalenergies E&P Nigeria Ltd, Matthieu Bouyer who was represented by Olatunji Akinwunmi, executive director, corporate services disclosed this in Lagos tuesday at the ongoing national association of petroleum explorationists conference holding in Lagos.

Bouyer in his remarks at the management section of the NAPE conference while speaking to the sub theme of the conference, titled, “The evolving landscape of Nigerian energy sector: challenges and opportunities” said totalenergies has been involved in the exploration business in Nigeria for over six decades, the period he said the company has made tremendous impact in terms of investments running into several billions of dollars contributing to the economic development of Nigeria particularly the nation’s energy sector. The managing director while acknowledging the role of NAPE as a credible platform for driving stakeholders engagement and conversation in the energy sector said the recent EIA 2024 world energy outlook which indicates that global clean energy translating to about 85% comes from the advanced economies like china leaving about 15% of global clean energy from developing economies like Nigeria remains a disturbing development that must be checked given the circumstantial evidence indicating that global demand for clean energy will increase in the coming years.

Bouyer while acknowledging efforts by government to tackle head-on the obvious challenges inherent in the sector, said high cost of capital and lack of affordable long time finances remain a major drawback to the regional imbalance between the advanced economies and the evolving economies like Nigeria.

Matthieu Bouyer who noted that Nigeria is responding positively to ensuring that these imbalances are addressed through the passed petroleum industry act said the act has brought some level of stability to the sector given the provision which guarantees deregulation in the entire downstream value chain.

Bouyer also acknowledged the pivotal role of recent presidential initiative through the president’s executive order which provides for additional fiscal incentives for gas development, streamlining of all contractual processes including the development of strategies to tame oil theft and all other forms of sabotage.

Despite these efforts, the totalenergies managing director said more still needed to be done specifically in areas of asset and infrastructure security including the need for government to partner other countries within the west africa sub region to protect maritime assests, while also advocating the provision of a market reflective signature bonuses to drive growth in the sector.

In his concluding remarks, Matthieu Bouyer said totalenergies is proud to be in the Nigerian energy market for a long time, with a commitment that the company is not in any way contemplating leaving the country, given the conducive business environment driven by current policies of the government to sustain the nation’s economy and the energy sector as a whole.

Ahead the net zero target, the totalenergies managing director also used the occasion of the 42nd NAPE conference to disclose totalenergies commitment to reduce carbon emissions, with a further disclosure that the company remains committed to delivering energy to the world with less emissions.

“The achievement of zero routine flare in all our upstream operations in Nigeria as well as the AUSEA methane detection technology which we now share with the NNPC Limited, demonstrates this unwavering commitment ” to the decarbonisation process.

“Over the past decade, TotalEnergies has been the largest private energy investor in the country, developing major projects such as egina, ofon phase 2, the OML58 upgrade, and recently Ikike, which started in 2022”