Nigeria’s AMNI International and TotalEnergies have made a final investment decision on a USD 800 million offshore gas project, unlocking development of the long-stranded Ima field and providing a new source of feed gas for the country’s expanding liquefied natural gas industry.
The Ima development, located across Oil Mining Leases 112 and 117 in shallow waters near Bonny Island in Rivers State, is expected to begin production in 2028.
It is designed to reach a plateau of about 350 million cubic feet of gas a day, although Nigeria’s state oil company NNPC has cited peak output of around 300 million standard cubic feet a day.
The field was discovered in 1973 but remained undeveloped for more than five decades. Its development comes as Nigeria seeks to bring stranded gas resources into production and strengthen supplies to domestic and export markets.
TotalEnergies will operate the project with a 40% stake, while Nigerian independent producer AMNI will hold 60%. The development will use a single offshore platform connected by a 22-kilometer pipeline to Nigeria LNG’s Bonny Island facility. TotalEnergies also holds a 15% interest in Nigeria LNG.
The project is closely linked to Nigeria LNG’s Train 7 expansion, which is expected to increase the Bonny Island plant’s liquefaction capacity to 30 million tonnes a year from 22 million tonnes. Ima is expected to supply roughly one-third of the gas required by the expansion.
For TotalEnergies, the investment follows its 2024 decision to develop the Ubeta gas project in Nigeria, with the company seeking to expand its gas production while using new projects to feed the country’s LNG infrastructure.
TotalEnergies said Ima has been designed as a low-cost, low-emissions development. The platform will receive electricity from shore rather than relying on permanent offshore power generation, while the project will have no routine flaring and will use permanent methane detection and monitoring systems.
The development also places emphasis on Nigerian participation. TotalEnergies said all key contractors would be local companies, while about 60% of the workforce during the development phase is expected to come from communities around the project.
The project is being supported by financing arranged by Nigerian financial institutions. President Bola Tinubu’s office said domestic lenders had arranged 77% of the project financing, highlighting the growing role of local capital in large-scale energy developments.
NNPC said the investment decision was enabled by reforms introduced by the government in 2024, including fiscal incentives for non-associated gas projects, streamlined contracting processes, and measures designed to reduce development costs.
Nigeria has some of Africa’s largest natural gas resources, but investment and infrastructure constraints have left substantial volumes undeveloped. The government has sought to use gas to support LNG exports as well as power generation, fertiliser, petrochemicals, and industrial activity.
The Ima decision therefore represents more than the development of an individual offshore field. Its output will provide additional feed gas for an LNG facility whose capacity is being expanded, while the project also creates demand for Nigerian contractors, workers, and financial institutions.
The partners now face the task of moving from the final investment decision to construction and production. With first gas targeted for 2028, the project will turn a discovery made more than half a century ago into a producing asset and a new source of supply for Nigeria’s LNG value chain.