TotalEnergies and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Ltd (NNPCL), the operators of the OML 58 onshore license with 40 per cent and 60 per cent interest, respectively, have made the Final Investment Decision (FID) to develop the Ubeta Gas Field to supply the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) liquefaction plant.
The OML 58 license, located about 80 km Northwest of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, contains the Obagi Oil Field and the Ibewa Gas and Condensate Field, both of which are currently in production. Gas production from OML 58 is processed at the Obite treatment centre and supplied to both the Nigerian domestic gas market and the NLNG plant.
According to the TotalEnergies Joint Venture (JV), the Ubeta Gas Condensate Field, also located in OML 58, will be developed with a new six-well cluster connected to the existing Obite facilities through an 11 km buried pipeline.
It was noted that production start-up is expected in 2027, with a plateau of 300 million cubic feet per day (about 70,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, including condensates) and gas from Ubeta will be supplied to NLNG, a liquefaction plant located in Bonny Island with an on-going capacity expansion from 22 to 30 Mtpa, in which TotalEnergies holds a 15 per cent interest.
The Senior Vice President, Africa, Exploration and Production at TotalEnergies, Mike Sangster, mentioned that Ubeta is a low-emission and low-cost development, leveraging OML58’s existing gas processing facilities; hence, the carbon intensity of the project will further be reduced through a 5MW solar plant currently under construction at the Obite site and the electrification of the drilling rig.