Our activities in Nigeria are regulated by the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA), a series of concession contracts and a service contract whereby we act as a contractor on behalf of the state-owned company. In October 2019, just three weeks after the well was completed, we began producing gas and condensates from the discovery of Obiafu 41 in the Niger river delta. The corresponding time to market was possible only thanks to our new integrated model, which calls, on the one hand, for the various disciplines to work in parallel from as early as the exploration phase, and on the other hand, for the synergies that can be achieved with neighbouring production plants to be exploited. The discovery concerns a hydrocarbon deposit in the form of some 28 billion m³ of gas and 60 million barrels of condensate. We will allocate a significant proportion of this gas to the domestic market in order to improve the availability of electricity on a local level. Once the well ramp-up phase is complete, production levels will reach around 3 million m³ of gas and 3,000 barrels of condensate per day. We will treat the gas produced at the Ob-Ob plant - a hub operated by Eni - before it is shipped off to the Okpai plant - the first independent power plant and one of the most efficient in the country -, also operated by Eni. Development activities in 2019 concerned the increasing generation capacity of the combined cycle power plant at Okpai to achieve about 1 GW. 

Development activities in the country in 2018 focused on blocks OML 60, 61, 62 and 63, of which we operate 20%. We have primarily launched workover and rigless operations for maintaining the production profile and maintaining and restoring facilities damaged through sabotage or bunkering. We also completed the water injection project for the Ebocha field in block OML 61, enabling us to achieve a reinjection capacity of approximately 30,000 barrels of production water per day, as well as the phase 2 operations at the Okpai power plant to double the installed capacity of block OML 60. Furthermore, we completed drilling activities to increase production and workover operations in 2018 with a view to curbing the natural decline in block OML 118, in which we have a 12.5% share, and the Abo field in the OML 125 operated block, of which we are the sole operators. We also completed the associated gas development projects - the Forkados Yokri Integrated Project in block OML 43 (in which Eni holds a 5% stake) and the Gbaran phase 2A/2B and SSAGS project in block OML 28 (in which Eni also holds a 5% stake). The gas produced here, too, will be destined for the domestic market. 

Last but not least, we have a 10.4% stake in Nigeria LNG Ltd, which operates the Bonny natural gas liquefaction plant in the eastern Niger Delta. The plant has a production capacity of 22 million tonnes of LNG per year, corresponding to around 35 billion m³ of feed gas per year. We have secured gas supplies to the plant under a gas supply agreement stemming from three joint ventures - the SPDC JV (in which Eni holds 5%), the TEPNG JV and the NAOC JV (in which Eni holds 20%). The plant handled volumes of approximately 32 billion m³ in 2018 as we sell our LNG production under long-term contracts on the US, Asian and European markets using the fleet of LNG carriers belonging to Bonny Gas Transport - a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nigeria LNG Ltd. In December 2019, the FID was sanctioned for the construction of the seventh treatment unit of the Bonny liquefaction plant (Eni’s interest 10.4%). The additional treatment unit will increase the actual production capacity to over 30 mmtonnes of year. Development activity is expected to be completed in 2024 with production start-up.

In January 2020, we also signed a new 10-year supply contract for 1.5 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (GNL) with the company Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG), a joint venture between NNPC, Shell, Total and Eni (with a share of 10.4%). The agreement, together with the similar one signed in December with NLNG for 1.1 million tonnes of liquefied gas, will provide further volumes for our global LNG portfolio, beginning in 2021 and help develop our work in the main markets.

We collaborate with the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to provide access to clean, safe water in the country, by building wells powered by photovoltaic plants. This is a development partnership in which both parties are relying on their specific skills to provide the local people with a primary need.