By Samuel Akpan
An offshore gas field discovered in 1973 is finally being developed after remaining idle for over five decades.
President Bola Tinubu announced Wednesday that partners have reached an $800 million final investment decision on the shallow-water Ima project, touting the deal as proof that Nigeria’s oil and gas reforms are yielding results.
Straddling OML 112 and 117 near Bonny Island, the field will be operated by TotalEnergies (40%), with majority owner AMNI International holding the remaining 60%.
“The decisions we have taken to reposition Nigeria’s oil and gas sector are beginning to bear fruit,” Tinubu said, linking the deal to a run of Presidential Directives and Executive Orders meant to cut project cost and time.
He said the measures were designed to make Nigeria more competitive, give investors greater certainty, and ensure natural resources deliver more value to citizens rather than remaining stranded.
“One of those reforms introduced specific incentives to unlock onshore and shallow-water gas projects that had remained undeveloped for years. Today, we are seeing the result.”
Ima will be built as a single platform tied to Nigeria LNG by a 22-kilometre pipeline. TotalEnergies holds a 15 percent stake in the Bonny liquefaction plant that will take the gas.
At peak, the field is expected to produce about 350 million cubic feet of gas a day, more than 60,000 barrels of oil equivalent, and feed roughly one-third of the gas needed for NLNG’s Train 7 expansion.
That expansion will lift plant capacity from 22 million tonnes a year to 30 million tonnes, boosting export earnings once Ima comes on stream.
“For Nigerians, this means work for our engineers, technicians and contractors. It means opportunities for Nigerian businesses, jobs and economic activity in our host communities.”
About 60 percent of the development workforce is expected to come from host communities. All key contractors are Nigerian firms, according to the partners.
The project is framed as a low-cost, low-emissions development: simplified platform design, electric power from shore, no flaring, and permanent methane detection and monitoring.
“AMNI, a Nigerian company, holds the majority interest in the project,” Tinubu noted, stressing local ownership of a resource that sat unused for more than five decades.
Nicolas Terraz, TotalEnergies President of Exploration and Production, said the FID marks another step in the company’s integrated gas strategy in Nigeria after the Ubeta project sanctioned in 2024 and due to start next year.
“Ima demonstrates again our ability to unlock new low-cost and low-emissions gas resources, following the incentives introduced by the Nigerian Government for non-associated gas developments,” Terraz said.
“This is what our reforms are intended to achieve, to move Nigeria’s resources from potential to production and translate them into jobs, incomes and opportunity for our people,” Tinubu said.
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