French energy giant TotalEnergies has begun production on its Akpo West field, located 135 kilometres off the coast on Petroleum Mining Licence (PML) 2.

Akpo West is tied back to the existing Akpo Floating Production Storage and Offloading facility, which started up in 2009 and produced 124,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2023, according to the company.

It said in a statement on Wednesday that by mid-2024, Akpo West will add 14,000 barrels of condensate production per day, to be followed by up to 4 million cubic meters of gas per day by 2028.

“The Akpo West development leverages the existing Akpo facilities to keep costs low and minimise greenhouse gas emissions. The project’s carbon intensity is expected to be below 5 kg CO2e/boe and will contribute to reduce the average carbon intensity of TotalEnergies’ portfolio,” it said.

Mike Sangster, senior vice president Africa, exploration and production at TotalEnergies, stressed the strategic alignment of the Akpo West project with the company’s focus on low-cost and low-emission projects.

“After Ikike in 2022, TotalEnergies is pleased to start production of another tie-back project in Nigeria, Akpo West, which will contribute to maintaining the production of the existing Akpo facilities by developing additional nearby resources,” he said.

“This project leverages TotalEnergies’ solid footprint in Nigeria and will quickly bring value to the country, TotalEnergies and its partners.”

TotalEnergies is the operator of PML 2 with a 24 percent interest, alongside partners CNOOC (45 percent), Sapetro (15 percent), Prime 130 (16 percent), and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd, which is the concessionaire of the Production Sharing Contract.