TotalEnergies has revealed plans to sell off its minority stake in a significant Nigerian onshore oil joint venture, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited, SPDC.
The CEO of TotalEnergies, Patrick Pouyanne, disclosed this during a presentation of the company’s financial results.
Pouyanne said the company, which holds 10 per cent interest in SPDC, is looking to restructure its portfolio since producing oil in the Niger Delta has become difficult.
However, the company noted that it is retaining its Nigerian gas assets, considering them essential for its expansion in liquefied natural gas development over the upcoming years.
“We want to divest our share of SPDC, and we are looking to reshape the portfolio.
“Fundamentally, it’s because producing this oil in the Niger Delta is not in line with our [Health, Security, and Environmental] policies; it’s a real difficulty,” it said.
Recall that in January this year, Shell announced a plan to sell its 30 per cent stake in SPDC to Renaissance, a consortium of five companies based in Nigeria and an international energy group, for up to $2.4 billion.
It’s interesting to note that the SPDC JV is an unincorporated joint venture comprised of SPDC Ltd (30 per cent), the government-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (55 per cent), Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Ltd (10 per cent) and Nigeria Agip Oil Company Ltd (5 per cent).
