By Ejekwu Chidiebere
Energy Window International (Media) – Mathieu Bouyer, Managing Director of TotalEnergies EP Nigeria Limited, has restated his company’s commitment to expanding Nigeria’s energy supply while reducing the carbon intensity of its operations.
Mr Bouyer made this position known during a panel session with the title, “Capitalising on Africa’s Global Upstream Momentum” at the just concluded 9th Nigeria International Energy Summit (NIES 2026) in Abuja. The session also provided the panelists with the opportunity of reexamining investment trends across Africa’s oil and gas sector.
Mr Bouyer said that TotalEnergies’ strategy in Nigeria has been built around two core pillars: growing oil and gas production and expanding electricity generation through integrated power solutions, in line with the Company’s global ambition to deliver more energy with less emission.
“Our strategy is about growing energy as a whole” Mr Bouyer said, noting that Nigeria has always been a strategic market outlet for TotalEnergies – in terms of its ambition to strengthen its global portfolio in a highly prolific and competitive upstream business environment.
He explained that his company’s immediate priority is to maximise value from its existing assets, spread across onshore and offshore oil and gas. He made reference to the recently sanctioned Ubeta Gas project, which according to him was designed to deliver up to 300 million cubic feet of gas per day, besides several other projects which are currently under evaluation.
On sustainability, Mr Bouyer said TotalEnergies had eliminated routine gas flaring across all its Nigerian operations since 2023, which also and according to him, was a landmark achievement in its emissions reduction programme. TotalEnergies according to him has even deployed advanced methane detection technologies, including its own proprietary technology AUSEA, which it has developed for the purpose of monitoring emissions in real time to enable rapid intervention. “And this was in addition to the deployment of AUSEA”, he said, TotalEnergies EP Nigeria Limited according to him has even installed 2,500 Permanent Emission Monitoring Systems (PEMPs) across all its production sites in Nigeria.
He equally announced plans to commission a five megawatt solar power plant at OML 58 to supply electricity to the Ubeta Gas Project, describing it as one of the world’s first near net zero gas developments.
While stressing the importance of partnerships with Nigerian companies, Bouyer said collaboration with local operators was crucial to accelerating project delivery and unlocking value for the broader economy.
He cited long standing joint ventures with AMNI, Conoil, and Sapetro, pointing to flagship projects such as Egina FPSO and Akpo Condensate as evidence of such successful cooperation. He even disclosed an ongoing work with Conoil aimed at appraising deep offshore resources, alongside planned exploration drilling with Sapetro.
“When we work with local partners, it enables us to move faster and create value, not just for ourselves, but for the country”, Mr Bouyer said.
Bouyer and members of his management team had also on the sidelines engaged with students from three schools who visited the company’s exhibition booth to see things for themselves, which according to Bouyer clearly defines and reinforces the company’s commitment to facilitate knowledge transfer, strengthen skills development, aimed at churning out the right energy professionals for the future.