TotalEnergies sees little change in African output as pipeline to start

TotalEnergies expects its African oil and gas production to be "pretty much flat" next year, a source within the French company told S&P Global Platts on the sidelines of the African Oil Week conference in Dubai which ended Nov. 11.

The French company's current operated output in sub-Saharan Africa is 1.2 million boe/d, led by Nigeria and Angola, the person said, asking not to be identified. About 70% of the production is oil and the rest is gas.

The main construction activities of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline project will start in 2022, according to a source close to the project, after a final agreement was signed in April with Uganda and Tanzania. Work has started to raise about 60% external financing for the $3.5 billion needed for construction of the project, which would pave the way for the Lake Albert oil project which is expected to start producing by early 2025, the source said.

The company's global oil production is also expected to be flat for the next decade while its LNG production is expected to climb by 6% a year, officials told the African Oil Week. The company is focusing on achieving net zero carbon emissions worldwide by 2050. TotalEnergies is targeting growth in projects that are both low cost of less than $20/b and low GHG emissions, officials said.

TotalEnergies inaugurated a $200 million "natural carbon sink" project in Congo which involves planting trees over 40,000 ha in the Bateke Plateaux to capture some 10 million mt of CO2 over 20 years.