The Federal Government has asked oil and gas companies to shorten the time it takes them to reach Final Investment Decisions to six months at most, as it looks to speed up capital spending and revive production in Africa’s largest crude oil producer.

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, made the appeal on Wednesday in Abuja at the signing of the Final Investment Decision on the Ima gas project by TotalEnergies EP Nigeria and AMNI International Petroleum Development Company.

He told industry players that as the experts, they should be able to negotiate FIDs in a shorter period, adding that he saw no reason it should take years to reach that stage. The minister also urged operators to help remove regulatory and bureaucratic bottlenecks, saying Nigeria has become one of the most attractive investment destinations in the world.

Lokpobiri further commended Nigerian commercial banks for regaining confidence in the petroleum sector. According to him, the banks were initially reluctant to fund oil and gas projects because of the global push for energy transition and fears that fossil fuels would quickly become obsolete. He maintained that hydrocarbons will remain a major part of the global energy mix for decades and encouraged the banks to keep financing viable projects.

The Ima project sits offshore across OML 112 and OML 117 in shallow waters near Bonny Island. AMNI holds a 60 per cent interest while TotalEnergies holds 40 per cent and serves as operator. The development is designed to produce 350 million cubic feet of gas per day, with first gas expected by the end of 2028, and the output will feed the Nigeria LNG plant. It is expected to supply about one third of the gas needed for the Train 7 expansion, which will raise the plant’s liquefaction capacity from 22 million tonnes per annum to 30 million tonnes. TotalEnergies’ Nigeria chief, Matthieu Bouyer, put the investment at more than $600 million and described it as a vote of confidence in the industry.

Officials of the regulator and the national oil company also spoke at the event. The Chief Executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, said the project reaching FID reflects the impact of recent reforms and Executive Orders, and promised that the commission will keep removing obstacles for investors. The Executive Vice President for Upstream at NNPC Limited, Udobong Ntia, who represented the company’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Bayo Ojulari, said the FID was only the beginning and pledged that NNPC would work with the partners to achieve first gas.

In a statement, President Bola Tinubu said his administration’s reforms, including incentives for onshore and shallow water gas projects that had gone undeveloped for years, had made investment in Nigeria more competitive. He said the project would create opportunities for Nigerian engineers, contractors and businesses, while generating jobs in host communities and raising export earnings.

TotalEnergies said all key contractors are expected to be Nigerian companies, with about 60 per cent of the workforce during the development phase coming from host communities.