Saturday, June 18, 2011

Total "confident" on Nigerian oil reform

(Reuters) - Total (TOTF.PA) has resolved concerns with the Nigerian government over the country's new hydrocarbon law and does not expect any delays to its major upstream projects, its strategy chief said on Tuesday.
Uncertainty and delays to the passage of Nigeria's Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), which will define relations between oil majors and the government, has stalled billions of dollars of investment needed for oil projects.
Nigeria is Africa's top oil producer with output of around 2.22 million barrels per day in May, according to a Reuters survey.
"Goodluck Jonathan was re-elected and we roughly know what will be the new PIB. We remain confident," Jean-Jacques Mosconi told the Reuters Global Energy and Climate Summit, adding Total had previously submitted its concerns about the legislation to government.
"All our major projects in Nigeria should go on track."
He said Total's "key" concern about the legislation was a technical dispute over future revenues from the Egina offshore oilfield in block 130.
Total already pumps Akpo grade oil from this field.
"We had a very deep conversation with the Nigerian government about uniting block 130 and it was OK. We can charge the cost of Egina onto Akpo revenues," said Mosconi.
Total is due to start oil production from Nigeria's deepwater 180,000 bpd Usan field in 2012, Mosconi said.
(Reporting by Emma Farge and Muriel Boselli; editing by James Jukwey)

No comments:

Post a Comment