NNPC, TotalEnergies Renew Deal to Accelerate Methane Emission Reduction

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) has renewed its agreement with TotalEnergies to extend the deployment of modern technology for the detection, measurement, and reduction of methane and carbon emission across its upstream operations for another 24 months.

The agreement for the the deployment of Airborne Ultralight Spectrometer for Environmental Applications (AUSEA), NNPC said, is aimed at helping it meet its gas flare reduction obligation in keeping with its Oil & Gas Decarbonisation Charter (OGDC) commitments, Oil & Gas Methane Partnership (OGMP) 2.0 participation and near-zero methane ambition by 2030.

According to a statement signed by the Chief Corporate Communications Officer of the national oil company, Andy Odeh, the deal was  a follow-up on an earlier agreement signed in 2023 for the adoption of the AUSEA technology.

The agreement was signed by NNPC Ltd’s Executive Vice President, Upstream, Udy Ntia and TotalEnergies Country Chair and Managing Director, Matthieu Bouyer, on behalf of their respective companies, at the NNPC Towers, in Abuja, yesterday.

Speaking on the occasion, Ntia expressed satisfaction with the first phase of the deployment of the technology, stressing that he would like to see it scaled across more assets.

“Today’s signing represents a practical step in NNPC Limited’s journey to build a credible, transparent and action-oriented decarbonisation programme. Through the AUSEA initiative, we are strengthening our ability to detect, quantify and prioritise methane abatement opportunities using advanced measurement technology,” Ntia added.

He also called for the institutionalisation of progress reporting, in line with compliance requirements and the possibility of leveraging transfer of the AUSEA technology.

On his part, TotalEnergies’ Senior Vice President, Africa, Mr. Mike Sangster, expressed satisfaction with the cooperation his company has enjoyed from NNPC over the years.

He stressed that TotalEnergies was the first oil producing company in Nigeria to end gas flaring in all its assets and that the AUSEA technology was instrumental to that feat, even as the company looks forward to near-zero methane emissions by 2030.

AUSEA is a drone-based technology developed by TotalEnergies in partnership with the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the University of Reims.

It helps in the identification of unaccounted emission sources, establishment of basis for querying and improving current emission reporting processes, provision of data to review operational systems and implement corrective actions, as well as estimation of flare combustion efficiency.