TotalEnergies spuds new offshore well in Nigeria

TotalEnergies has spud the first development well on its deepwater Akpo West play offshore Nigeria, Upstream Online reported on Wednesday.

The well is the first of three to be drilled by the Noble Gerry da Souza drillship.

First oil is expected at the play by the end of 2023.

The move is part of a two-year development plan involving nine wells that began in February 2023.

Production wells will be tied back to the company’s Akpo FPSO.

The OML 130 block is located 150 kilometres off the Namibian coast and contains the producing Akpo and Egina fields.

In 2022 the block produced approximately 282,000 boepd, with nearly 30% transported to the Nigerian LNG facility on Bonny Island.

The concession also contains the Preowei discovery, which the company plans to commence production from via the existing Egina FPSO.

TotalEnergies operates OML 130 with a 24% interest, along with partners China National Offshore Oil Corporation with a 45% stake, local player South Atlantic Petroleum with a 15% stake and Prime 130 with a 16% stake. NNPC acts as the block’s concessionaire.