NNPC, TotalEnergies Extend Methane Reduction Partnership For Two More Years

Nigeria’s national oil company, NNPC Limited, has renewed its partnership with TotalEnergies for another two years to expand the use of advanced drone-based technology aimed at detecting, measuring, and reducing methane emissions across its upstream operations as part of its decarbonisation and gas-flare reduction commitments.

The agreement, aimed at helping NNPC Ltd meet its gas-flare reduction obligations in line with its Oil & Gas Decarbonization Charter (OGDC) commitments, participation in the Oil & Gas Methane Partnership (OGMP) 2.0, and its near-zero methane emissions ambition by 2030, follows an earlier agreement signed in 2023 for the adoption of the AUSEA technology.

The agreement was signed by NNPC Ltd’s Executive Vice President, Upstream, Udy Ntia, and TotalEnergies Country Chair and Managing Director, Matthieu Bouyer, on behalf of their respective companies at the NNPC Towers in Abuja on Wednesday.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Ntia expressed satisfaction with the first phase of the technology’s deployment, stressing that he would like to see it scaled across more assets.

“Today’s signing represents a practical step in NNPC Limited’s journey to build a credible, transparent, and action-oriented decarbonisation programme. Through the AUSEA initiative, we are strengthening our ability to detect, quantify, and prioritise methane abatement opportunities using advanced measurement technology,” Ntia said.

He also called for the institutionalisation of progress reporting in line with compliance requirements and highlighted the potential for technology transfer under the AUSEA programme.

On his part, TotalEnergies’ Senior Vice President for Africa, Mike Sangster, expressed satisfaction with the cooperation his company has enjoyed from NNPC over the years. He noted that TotalEnergies was the first oil-producing company in Nigeria to end gas flaring across all its assets and said the AUSEA technology had been instrumental in achieving that milestone, as the company works towards near-zero methane emissions by 2030.

AUSEA is a drone-based technology developed by TotalEnergies in partnership with the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the University of Reims.

The technology helps identify unaccounted emission sources, provides a basis for reviewing and improving existing emissions reporting processes, supplies data for evaluating operational systems and implementing corrective actions, and enables the estimation of flare combustion efficiency.