Ima FID: ‘That handshake has become an FID’ — AMNI
Nigeria has taken a major step towards developing the 53-year-old Ima gas field, as AMNI International Petroleum Development Company Limited and TotalEnergies EP Nigeria reached Final Investment Decision (FID) on the project, with first gas expected by the end of 2028.
The FID, announced in Abuja on Wednesday, is expected to provide additional gas supply for Nigeria LNG Limited’s Train 7 expansion.
Chairman of AMNI, Chief Tunde Afolabi, described the decision as “the fulfilment of a commitment” and “confidence in Nigeria.”
Afolabi recalled that in May 2024, he met TotalEnergies Chairman, Patrick Pouyanné, in Houston, where both companies signed Heads of Terms for the project.
He said the handshake that followed had come to symbolise the trust between the companies.
“To me, that handshake meant something more. It said: we have given each other our word,” Afolabi said.
“Today, just a little over two years later, that handshake has become an FID.”
According to him, the decision demonstrated that major investments could be developed in Nigeria when companies, government and stakeholders worked together.
“Capital is disciplined. Capital has choices. And major energy companies today have investment opportunities competing for funding across many parts of the world,” he said.
“Therefore, when companies take an FID in Nigeria, it sends an important signal.”
Afolabi said investor confidence must be sustained, stressing that Nigeria’s hydrocarbon resources would have little economic value without investment, technology and human capacity.
“Nigeria possesses extraordinary hydrocarbon resources. Yet resources beneath the ground have little economic value until we create the conditions that allow investment, technology and human capability to convert those resources into production,” he said.
He also called for greater indigenous participation.
“Indigenous participation should not simply mean ownership. It must increasingly mean capability,” he said.
“It must mean technical excellence. It must mean financial discipline. It must mean good governance.”
The Managing Director of TotalEnergies EP Nigeria, Mr. Mathieu Bouyer, said the project was the product of more than two decades of partnership between the companies.
He said seven banks financed the project, with more than 75 per cent coming from Nigerian banks.
Bouyer added that all four major project packages would be handled by Nigerian contractors, while more than 60 per cent of the local workforce would be drawn from surrounding communities.
The Special Adviser to the President on Energy, Mrs Olu Verheijen, said the discovery of the field in 1973 showed that natural resources alone could not create prosperity.
President Bola Tinubu said reforms had introduced incentives to unlock long-undeveloped onshore and shallow-water gas projects.
“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,” he said.
