Divestment: TotalEnergies Puts Up 16 Oil Assets in Nigeria For Sale

Peter Uzoho

French multinational oil and gas giant, TotalEnergies has launched the sale of its10 per cent stake in Nigerian joint venture with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited and Shell Petroleum Development Company, (SPDC) and Eni.

The oil major appointed Canada’s Scotiabank financial adviser to lead the sale of the assets, a sale document tendering for interest has shown.

Although Scotiabank reportedly declined to comment on the exercise while TotalEnergies also declined to comment on the financial adviser, however, the international oil company (IOC) had in late April announced the sale of the assets.

TotalEnergies had confirmed it was selling its interest in 13 onshore fields and three in shallow water, producing over 20,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. The sale includes infrastructure such as 3,500 km of pipelines connecting to two key crude export terminals, Bonny and Forcados.

The French multinational, which just celebrated its 60th years of operation in Nigeria’s exploration and production business, will keep oil mining licenses (OMLs) 23 and 28 and its interest in the associated gas pipeline network that feeds Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited.

Oil majors operating in Nigeria have been progressively exiting the country’s onshore production due to years of sabotage and theft that have degraded assets across the oil-rich Niger Delta.

SPDC is a joint venture in which Shell holds a 30 per cent working interest, NNPC holds 55 per cent, TotalEnergies holds 10 per cent while Eni holds five per cent.

Shell is also selling its stake in SPDC but these efforts have been held up by a court case.