Blessing Bello, Reporting
NNPC Limited has signed a 24-month contract extension with TotalEnergies to continue deployment of advanced methane and carbon emissions detection technology across its upstream operations, as the national oil company pushes towards near-zero methane emissions by 2030.
The renewed agreement will see the continued rollout of the Airborne Ultralight Spectrometer for Environmental Applications (AUSEA) – a drone-mounted detection system designed to identify, measure and mitigate methane and carbon emissions.
The contract was finalised on Wednesday at NNPC Towers in Abuja, with Udy Ntia, NNPC Ltd’s Executive Vice President, Upstream, and Matthieu Bouyer, TotalEnergies Nigeria Country Chair and Managing Director, signing on behalf of their respective companies.
Strengthening Decarbonisation Efforts
The extension builds upon the initial AUSEA agreement signed between both companies in 2023 and supports three key environmental targets: complying with gas flare reduction regulations, honouring commitments under the Oil & Gas Decarbonisation Charter, maintaining active participation in the Oil & Gas Methane Partnership 2.0, and achieving near-zero methane emissions by 2030.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Ntia expressed satisfaction with the first phase results and called for expanded deployment 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,” Ntia stated.
“Through the AUSEA initiative, we are strengthening our ability to detect, quantify and prioritise methane abatement opportunities using advanced measurement technology.”
He further emphasised the need for formal progress reporting to meet compliance standards and advocated for exploring technology transfer arrangements that would enable NNPC to operate AUSEA independently in future.
TotalEnergies’ Methane Reduction Track Record
Mike Sangster, TotalEnergies’ Senior Vice President for Africa, praised NNPC’s partnership efforts and highlighted his company’s environmental credentials, noting that TotalEnergies was the first oil producer in Nigeria to eliminate gas flaring across all its assets.
Sangster credited AUSEA as instrumental to that achievement and reaffirmed the company’s commitment to near-zero methane emissions by 2030.
Technology Behind The Initiative
The AUSEA system, developed by TotalEnergies in collaboration with France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the University of Reims, represents a significant advancement in emissions monitoring technology.
The drone-mounted spectrometer enables operators to identify hidden emission sources that might otherwise go undetected, establish accurate baselines to challenge and improve existing reporting methodologies, supply data to audit operating systems and rectify issues, and calculate flare combustion efficiency.
Stonix News reports that the partnership extension comes as oil and gas operators face increasing pressure to demonstrate tangible progress on methane reduction commitments, with methane recognised as a potent greenhouse gas with significantly higher warming potential than carbon dioxide over shorter timeframes.
