The Petroleum Industry Act has been described as the enabler for the transparency and foreign direct investment currently being experienced in Nigeria’s oil industry.

The Managing Director/Chief Executive of TotalEnergies EP Nigeria Limited, Matthieu Bouyer, stated this at a panel session held at the Sub-Saharan Africa International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference in Lagos.

He was represented by Abiodun Afolabi, Executive Director, Strategic Business and Asset Management.

The Chief Executive explained that the PIA has enhanced the ease of doing business, as regulatory institutions have been strengthened.

According to him: “The PIA, which has brought a lot of transparency in the market, has also helped to pave the way to a lot of businesses. “Also, through the PIA, Nigeria by put in place institutions and regulations that have made it easier for us to do businesses. “And I go by three years because it sort of ties with the new administration that has come into Nigeria that has been very business-minded.”

“What we’ve seen in Nigeria, which sort of translates into how TotalEnergies does business, is that, first of all, there’s the above-ground and the below-ground and the above-ground risk. “The beauty of Nigeria is that, I think Wood Mackenzie has estimated in Nigeria for us to have resources in the range of 50 billion barrels and over 200 trillion cubic feet, TCF, of gas. So in terms of Nigeria being prolific, subsurface, it’s there, it exists. Above-ground used to be our issue and I’d say we’ve made huge progresses in the last three years through the PIA, through the institutions that have been put in place such as NUPRC in allowing us to be able to take and translate those resources and de-risk them into bankable and executable projects.”

The Chief Executive also explained that the TotalEnergies Ubeta project, a major gas development on OML 58, is now at its execution stage, achieved by capitalizing on existing infrastructure.

He said: “Clearly, over the last three years, we’ve been able to identify certain projects, one of them being the Ubeta project, which we ever in 2024. Which clearly falls into that template and types of projects which clearly were able to capitalise on existing infrastructure.”

“And basically, we’ve been able to translate the resources of over one TCF into a project that will be executed next year, 2027, many it executable and bankable. The current infrastructure makes it simple for us to look at a resource and off-take it in a short period of time.”