The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has renewed its agreement with TotalEnergies for a 24-month extension of technology deployment to detect, measure, and reduce methane and carbon emissions. 

The agreement was signed by NNPCL’s executive vice-president, Upstream, Udy Ntia and TotalEnergies country chair and managing director, Matthieu Bouyer, on Wednesday in Abuja. 

Mr Ntia, in a statement, said the duo renewed the agreement to extend the deployment of Airborne Ultralight Spectrometer for Environmental Applications (AUSEA) technology across its upstream operations. 

The agreement is aimed at helping NNPC Ltd. meet its gas flare reduction obligation in keeping with its Oil & Gas Decarbonisation Charter (OGDC) commitments, participation in the Oil & Gas Methane Partnership (OGMP) 2.0, and its near-zero methane ambition by 2030. 

It is a follow-up on an earlier agreement signed in 2023 for the adoption of the AUSEA technology. 

Mr Ntia expressed satisfaction with the first phase of the technology’s deployment and hoped it would scale 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,” Mr Ntia said.

He also called for the institutionalisation of progress reporting, in line with compliance requirements and the possibility of leveraging the transfer of the AUSEA technology.

Mike Sangster, TotalEnergies’ senior vice-president, Africa, expressed satisfaction with the cooperation his company has enjoyed with the NNPC over the years. He said TotalEnergies was the first oil-producing company in Nigeria to end gas flaring in all its assets.

Mr Sangster said the AUSEA technology was instrumental to that feat, even as the company looked forward to 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.

It helps in the identification of unaccounted-for emission sources and the establishment of a basis for querying and improving current emission reporting processes.

Additionally, it provides data for reviewing the operational system, implementing corrective actions, and estimating flare combustion efficiency. 

(NAN)