TotalEnergies has stated plans to sell 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 on Thursday during a presentation of the company’s financial results.
According to him, the company, which holds 10 percent interest in SPDC, is looking to restructure its portfolio since producing oil in the Niger Delta has become difficult.
“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,” he said.
TotalEnergies is the latest international oil company seeking to withdraw from Nigeria’s onshore sector after decades of operations.
However, the French group, which produced a total of 219,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2023 in Nigeria, remains a major operator of offshore fields in the West African country.
Shell last month announced it had agreed to sell its 30% stake in SPDC to a consortium of five mostly local companies for up to $2.4 billion.
Other partners in the joint venture are the state’s Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which holds 55% and Italy’s Eni with 5%.
Exxon Mobil, Eni and Norway’s Equinor have all sold assets in Nigeria in recent years to focus on newer, more profitable operations elsewhere.