Total to invest $20bn in Nigeria oil projects

Total SA in Nigeria

French oil giant Total SA is set to invest US$20 billion, along with selected partners, in Nigerian exploration projects over the next four to five years.

A company spokesman has revealed that Total's share of the investment over this period will be around US$7 billion, the spokesman added, declining to go beyond terming the investments as being for energy projects and did not specify the names of Total's partners in the projects.

Two of the projects have already been announced - the development of the Usan deep-water offshore field, which will go into production in 2012, and the exploration of oil block OML 58 in the Niger Delta.

Two more areas are also being studied.

Nigeria's acting president, Vice President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, issued a statement welcoming Total's involvement after meeting Total's Yves Louis Darricarrere, head of the group's exploration and production division.

38 years of exploration in Nigeria

According to Total's company web site its share of production reached 246,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day in 2008. Total says it has been exploring and producing in Nigeria since 1962. It operates seven production permits out of the 47 in which it holds an interest, and two exploration permits out of the eight in which it holds an interest.

The announcement is sure to be met with apprehension from many after the recent criticism of Shell's operations in the Niger-Delta. In a report, titled: Shell in the Niger Delta: a Framework for Change, the Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility (ECCR) accused Shell of damaging the environment as well as social relations in the region.

They were advised to stop gas flaring, provide clean drinking water and clean up the legacy of oil spills, polluted land and waterways.

As a result of oil extraction, some parts of Nigeria are considered amongst the most polluted in the world, therefore Total must learn a lesson from Shell to leave as clean a legacy as possible.

Related Articles:

Uganda oil deal | Petrobras strike oil in Angola | Shell and the Niger-Delta

Daniel Jones

Daniel is a Politics and Philosophy graduate from Cardiff University where he also worked as a section editor on the award winning student newspaper. After university he joined an IT support company where he was a B2B online writer. He loves anything to do with sport and joined GDS in July 2009.

Like this article? Get the RSS feed: