French oil and energy company TotalEnergies has begun production from the Ikike field in Nigeria, which is expected to deliver peak production of 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by the end of 2022, it said on Monday.
The European Commission’s deputy director general for its energy department Matthew Baldwin this month said that the European Union was seeking additional gas supplies from Nigeria as the bloc prepares for potential Russian supply cuts.
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Baldwin was in Nigeria and held meetings with officials from Africa’s largest oil producer last week.
The EU imports 14% of its total LNG supplies from Nigeria and there is potential to more than double this, Baldwin told Reuters by phone.
Oil and gas output in Nigeria is being throttled by theft and vandalism of pipelines, leaving gas producer Nigeria LNG Ltd’s terminal at Bonny Island operating at 60% capacity.
“If we can get up to beyond 80%, at that point, there might be additional LNG that could be available for spot cargoes to come to Europe,” Baldwin said.
“They (Nigerian officials) said to us, ‘Come and talk to us again at the end of August because we think we can deliver real progress on this’.”
Nigeria NLG is owned by state-oil company NNPC Ltd, Shell, TotalEnergies and Eni.
The European Commission said on Wednesday that EU member states should cut their gas use by 15% from August to March. The target would initially be voluntary, but would become mandatory if the Commission declared an emergency. (Reuters)
