Shell’s $2bn offshore gas project excites Tinubu, says Presidency

By Egena Sunday Ode

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has welcomed the news of Shell’s $2 billion Final Investment Decision (FID) on a new gas project in the shallow offshore HI Field, in OML 144.
The new Non-Associated Gas (NAG) development project will deliver approximately 350 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (mmscf/d) from 2028, equivalent to almost a third of the requirements of Nigeria LNG Limited’s Train 7 project.
Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday.
According to the statement, the announcement brings total significant upstream investment commitments through Final Investment Decisions (FIDs) in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector to over US $8 billion since President Tinubu assumed office in 2023, underscoring the success of his reform agenda and the renewed confidence of global investors.
This investment decision is Nigeria’s third major oil and gas FID in the last 18 months, following the Ubeta Non-Associated Gas project and the Bonga North deepwater project. It marks yet another milestone in Nigeria’s journey to unlock its abundant gas resources for domestic and export use, Onanuga noted in the statement.
He added that the Ubeta and HI gas projects can supply up to 15 percent of the NLNG’s total feedgas requirements, covering Trains 1 to 7.
The statement recalled that since 2024, President Tinubu had issued targeted directives as part of the industry reform coordinated by the Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Energy, adding that those directives had introduced unprecedented fiscal incentives, regulatory clarity, operating process simplification, cutting contracting costs, and reducing approval cycle times.
The statement further read: “These reforms, now embedded in legislation, have restored investor confidence and repositioned Nigeria as a competitive investment destination.
“The three landmark FIDs—the HI and Ubeta gas projects, and Bonga North deepwater—represent blueprint projects selected and unlocked by the Federal Government to drive the implementation of the presidential directives. Specifically, the development of the HI gas field—discovered four decades ago, in 1985—is being enabled by Presidential Directive 40, which introduced a competitive fiscal framework for Non-Associated Gas in onshore and shallow offshore fields.”
Onanuga quoted the Special Adviser to President Tinubu on Energy, Olu Arowolo Verheijen, to have said: “With the Ubeta FID and now the HI FID, we have secured the gas supply needed to make NLNG Train 7 not just possible, but transformative. These projects will significantly strengthen the reliability of Nigeria’s LNG exports to global markets while expanding LPG supply for domestic use — reducing imports, boosting foreign exchange earnings, and advancing clean cooking access for millions of Nigerian households. And this is only the beginning; more FIDs are on the horizon, proving that with the right policies in place, investment and impact follow.”