The special adviser to President Bola Tinubu on information and strategy, Bayo Onanuga, on Tuesday said Shell’s newly announced $2 billion final investment decision (FID) on a new gas project in Nigeria brings the major upstream investment commitments in Nigeria since the president took office in 2023 to more than $8 billion.
Mr Onanuga, who made the disclosure in a post on X (formerly Twitter), said the feat mirrors the success of Mr Tinubu’s reform agenda and the renewed confidence of global investors in Africa’s biggest oil producer.
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FIDS, which signal the decisive stage of an oil & gas project, indicate the formal approval and commitment by an energy company to go ahead with a project.
“Since 2024, President Tinubu has issued targeted directives as part of the industry reform coordinated by the Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Energy. These directives have introduced unprecedented fiscal incentives, regulatory clarity, operating process simplification, cutting contracting costs, and reducing approval cycle times,” the presidential aide stated.
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“The three landmark FIDs—the HI and Ubeta gas projects, and Bonga North deepwater—represent blueprint projects selected and unlocked by the federal government to drive the implementation of the presidential directives,” he added.
Earlier on Tuesday, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (SNEPCo), a subsidiary of oil supermajor Shell plc, announced it has taken an FID on the HI gas project offshore Nigeria, which has indigenous firm Sunlink Energies and Resources Limited as a joint venture partner.
On completion, the project will supply 350 million standard cubic feet of gas per day to Nigeria LNG (NLNG) Limited’s Train 7 project.
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That volume is equivalent to nearly a third of the requirements of NLNG’s Train 7 project, Mr Onanuga said.
Mr Onanuga added that the HI gas field—discovered in 1985—is being enabled by a presidential directive, which introduced a competitive fiscal framework for non-associated gas in onshore and shallow offshore fields.
“With the Ubeta FID and now the HI FID, we have secured the gas supply needed to make NLNG Train 7 not just possible, but transformative,” the special adviser to Mr Tinubu on Energy, Olu Arowolo Verheijen, said.
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These projects, she said, will significantly strengthen the reliability of Nigeria’s LNG exports to global markets, while boosting LPG supply for domestic use. That will help pare down imports, bolster foreign exchange earnings, and enhance clean cooking access for millions of Nigerian households, Ms Verheijen.
Peter Costello, Shell’s upstream president, said the “project will help Shell grow our leading integrated gas portfolio, while supporting Nigeria’s plans to become a more significant player in the global LNG market.”
The NLNG Train 7 project is planned to enlarge Nigeria’s LNG production capacity by 8 million metric tonnes yearly, translating to 35 per cent of current production, Mr Onanuga said.
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