Nigerian unit of French oil major, Total, said on December 29, 2018, it commenced production from the Egina field, located in around 1,600 meters of water depths, 150 kilometers off the coast of Nigeria.

In a statement from Total on Wednesday, the oil firm said at plateau, the Egina field will produce 200,000 barrels of oil per day, which represents about 10 per cent of Nigeria’s production.

The Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit used to develop the giant Egina field is the largest Total has ever built. This project has also involved a record level of local contractors.

Six of the 18 modules on the FPSO were built and integrated locally, and 77 per cent of hours spent on the project were worked locally, the statement explained. Startup has been achieved close to 10 per cent below the initial budget, which represents more than $1billion of capital expenditure (CAPEX) savings, due in particular to excellent drilling performance where the drilling time per well had been reduced by 30 per cent.

“Total is proud to deliver a project of this size under the initial budget, and to contribute to the development of Nigeria’s oil and gas sector by generating employment as well as building industrial capability. Egina will significantly boost the Group’s production and cash flow from 2019 onwards, and benefit from our strong cost reduction efforts in Nigeria, where we have reduced our operating costs by 40 per cent over the last four years,” President Exploration and Production at Total, Arnaud Breuillac, was quoted as saying.

He added: “Furthermore, some upside potential nearby remains to be developed, and we are studying in particular Preowei discovery tie-back to the Egina FPSO.”Initially discovered in 2003, the Egina field is the second development in production on the Oil Mining Lease (OML) 130, following the Akpo field, which started-up in 2009. The Preowei field is another large discovery made on this prolific block for which an investment decision is scheduled for 2019.

Total Upstream Nigeria Limited operates OML 130 with a 24 per cent interest, in partnership with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC); South Atlantic Petroleum – SAPETRO Limited (15 per cent); CNOOC E&P Nigeria Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of CNOOC Limited (45 per cent); and Petrobras Oil and Gas BV (16 per cent).