French multinational integrated energy and petroleum company, TotalEnergies is set to invest $550 million to develop a gas processing facility in Rivers State to boost exports and domestic supplies.
A source in the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation NNPC Limited (NNPCL) told Reuters on Wednesday.
He said the investment would include a gas processing plant and a pipeline.
The source added than an announcement of the agreement would be made this week.
This development came a few weeks after the oil company shunned Nigeria and sited the $6 billion energy projects in Angola, citing inconsistency in policymaking in the West African nation as the primary reason for this decision.
The chief executive officer of TotalEnergies, Patrick Pouyanne, during the Africa CEO panel in Kigali, Rwanda, said despite the Niger Delta’s status as West Africa’s most productive region, the volatile policy landscape has rendered investments unsustainable.
He added that the company has not conducted oil exploration in the region for 12 years.
Pouyanne said: “Nigeria loves to open topics without closing them. You love to debate. There is always a new legislature in Nigeria about a new petroleum law. When you have such permanent debates, it’s difficult for investors looking for long-term structure to know what direction to go.
“In reality, the Niger Delta is the most prolific part of West Africa. But if you look at what happened, because of these debates, there has not been a single exploration in Nigeria for 12 years. It’s important to have a debate and then settle it and put a framework on the table that investors can trust.
“We have countries that have perfectly integrated policies like Angola. So, we went to Angola and announced a very large $6 billion project at the beginning of the week because there their framework is stable. So, we know where we go.”
