TOTALENERGIES has made a fresh oil and gas discovery offshore Nigeria which it aims to bring on stream via existing infrastructure. Few exploration wells have been drilled in West Africa's moribund oil and gas sector in recent years, largely due to fiscal uncertainties, and it is too early to say if this latest probe is a harbinger of better times for Nigeria. Nevertheless, the news will be a welcome boon to Nigeria's recently elected President Bola Tinubu, who has some major challenges on his hands to boost the country's attractiveness as an oil and gas play. TotalEnergies hit hydrocarbons in its Ntokon prospect in Oil Mining Licence 102. Located in shallow waters some 60 kilometres off the southeast coast, the Ntokon- 1AX discovery well intercepted 38 metres of net oil pay and 15 metres of net gas pay. In addition, a sidetrack well called Ntokon-lGl hit 73 metres of net oil pay in what the operator described as "well-developed and excellent quality reservoirs." Ntokon-lGl was tested successfully and achieved flow rates of up to about 5000 barrels per day of 40 degrees API oil. Ntokon is planned to be developed through a 20-kilometre tie-back to TotalEnergies' Ofon field facilities in OML 102. Nicolas Terraz, the French supermajor's E&P president said: "The Ntokon discovery opens a promising outlook for a new tie-back development.
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