Africa-Press – Lesotho. Between the decline of oil fields and security instability, the French group’s overall production is falling on the continent, while in Asia-Pacific it is rising steadily.
Are TotalEnergies’ extraction activities in sub-Saharan Africa continuing to dwindle, little by little? In any case, the deposits exploited by the French corporation have been heading towards this direction for the past three years, whether it is due to “the decline of the resource” at certain deposits, because of security incidents – in Nigeria and Gabon in particular – or because “major” projects are still on hold, the group told us.
For the third consecutive year, the French oil company’s rate of production and marketing of hydrocarbons has declined on the continent, with 474,000 barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) per day in 2022 – according to figures communicated by TotalEnergies – a decrease of 11% compared to 2021 (to 532,000 BOE/d) and 24% compared to 2020 (to 629,000 BOE/d).
While, according to TotalEnergies, nearly 20% of the company’s production comes from Africa, the group intends to quickly regain its cruising speed on the continent, without specifying the current share in global liquids production (gas and oil).
“In the coming years, the start-up of our projects in Uganda, Mozambique and Nigeria should bring Africa back to a level of contribution to the company’s total production equivalent to that of 2020,” TotalEnergies told us.
As a reminder, in 2020, the energy giant produced nearly 22% of the world’s global production of 2.8m barrels, in Africa. Since 2020, TotalEnergies’ overall annual production by geographic region has been on a rollercoaster ride in the Middle East, Europe and the Americas.
A slight upward trend can be seen in Asia-Pacific, where production has risen from 293,000 BOE/d in 2019 to 302,000 BOE/d in 2020 and 307,000 BOE/d in 2021, according to the group’s latest business report.
Although 2022 figures have not yet been released, the company has recently increased its presence in the region, including liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in Papua New Guinea.
“The Papua LNG project is well positioned to contribute to the growth of the global LNG market,” said Julien Pouget, TotalEnergies’ Asia Pacific President of Exploration-Production and Renewables, in July.
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