By Jennifer Ugwueke
In a bid to extend its operations to renewable energy and electricity, oil giant, Total, will next week change its name to Total Energies.
Its Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Mike Sangster broke the news at the 5th Sub Saharan African International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (SAIPEC), which the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PTAN) organised.
During his virtual presentation titled “IOCs: Dynamics of SubSaharan Africa’s Energy, Oil and Gas as we strive to low carbon future IOC perspective,” he noted the company will change its name to focus on electricity.
He said: “Some of you may be aware that as from next week, we will change the name of the company from Total to Total Energy because we want to be involved in oil and gas and electricity”.
Explaining why the company has not done much renewable projects in Nigeria despite its yearly $3billion yearly investment in renewable, Sangster said: “I think it one of the reasons is the nature of renewable projects. We need to have Power Purchase Agreement for the electricity”.
According to him, the electricity market in Nigeria at the moment is very challenging.
He said the company looks forward to some strength and stability in the electricity market to be able to take advantage of its abundant sunshine to invest in its solar projects.
He disclosed the company has strategies to boost its electricity business to the equivalence of half a million barrel of oil per day.
According to him: “At the moment we produce 3million per day of oil equivalent of oil and gas. By 2030 we want to grow to 4million barrel equivalent for the company”.
Continuing, he said, “We want to grow substantial electricity business which should be equivalent to half a million barrel per day. That is the big move in the strategy”.
In Nigeria, he said there has been monetization of gas to reduce emissions, stating that LNG is one of the solutions.
The Total boss added that via the past development implementation of the company it has started supplying gas to Aloaji Power Plant.
He noted that the firm has commenced the supply of gas to Indorama plant for the production of fertilizer.
Owing to Total’s commitment to the stoppage of gas flaring, he recalled that the firm increased supply and exited flaring in 2014.
He said “We also need to develop the domestic market in Nigeria. In the past few years now we have been supplying gas to Aloaji.
“There is need for gas pipeline to deliver the gas to the market. In the past few days we started supplying gas to Indorama plant. It is value added to the company because they are using gas to create fertilizer”.
From the offshore, in 2014, according to him, ” we stopped flaring of gas with electricity projects. That was our commitment to reduce flaring and increase gas supply”.
He revealed that Total has a project to sign with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) that it is still studying to also eliminate flaring and reduce carbon intensity in the country.
He said Total has since 2015 started solar projects across the country and has as well penetrated other countries.
On downstream business, he said 575 stations have been solarized to reduce emission and ensuring that all its developments are zero emission in the country.
