TotalEnergies: Despite Energy Transition, Oil, Gas Will Remain Relevant

TotalEnergies: Despite Energy Transition, Oil, Gas Will Remain Relevant

CHIGOZIE AMADI

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of TotalEnergies, Matthieu Bouyer has said that although the world is currently investing more  in low-carbon energies, globally up to 80 per cent of fossil fuels still supply the needed energy supply.

Speaking in Abuja as a panelist during the just concluded Nigeria International Energy Summit (NIES) on the topic: “Turning Resources into Revenue”, the chief executive of TotalEnergies Companies in Nigeria, noted that the oil giant was the first to stop routine gas flaring in the country since 2023.

Besides, he stated that to ensure global energy security, there was a need to include all sources, including oil, nuclear, gas, renewables, among others.

“So it’s still the vast majority of the energy we consume every day. So actually, while there is a transition, we still need oil and gas, and more oil and gas year after year. And it will be like that for a long time. If you look at the last 150 years, there has been more addition from oil, nuclear, gas, renewable, than removing energies along the way. So it is fueled by the growing energy demand, and we believe it will be like that for quite long,” Bouyer posited.

He stressed that TotalEnergies, which was a platinum sponsor of the programme continues to abate methane emissions in its operations and supports the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) in identifying and blocking methane leaks.

“What we need, though, is to make sure that we produce energy that is clean, in the cleanest possible way, in order to valorise every molecule of gas in particular that we have on our asset. We’ve stopped routine flaring in 2023, end of 2023. We are the first operator in Nigeria to do it. And we are abating methane emissions on every of our assets, and supporting NNPC in its own assets in order to identify methane leaks and to reduce them eventually,” Bouyer stressed.

He called for more investment in gas, since it is clean and more abundant in Nigeria, pointing out that it is already part of the present roadmap to significantly grow the country’s energy production.

“So we believe that  gas in Nigeria is well positioned with all these resources. It is also close to Europe, so if you want to export gas through LNG, it’s a big competitive advantage. And you know that Europe today is diversifying its gas supply mix, so that’s a formidable opportunity for a gas-rich country like Nigeria in terms of business,” he argued.