TotalEnergies has sold 15 Nigerian oil licences at a price $60 million below the figure agreed in 2024, despite the assets increasing production from 14,000 boe/d in 2023 to 16,000 boe/d in 2025 on TotalEnergies' net share. The buyer is Vaaris, a special purpose vehicle incorporated in Nigeria, whose ultimate ownership and financing structure the article does not detail. The discount is notable because it comes against a backdrop of rising output, suggesting that factors beyond reservoir performance — likely regulatory, fiscal, or strategic portfolio considerations — drove TotalEnergies to accept a lower price than originally negotiated.
The divestment forms part of TotalEnergies' continuing rationalisation of its Nigerian onshore and shallow-water portfolio, a trend the French major has pursued over several years as it concentrates capital on lower-risk, higher-margin deepwater and LNG positions. Crucially, TotalEnergies is not exiting Nigeria's gas business. The three licences it has retained now supply 50% of Nigeria LNG's feed gas, up from 40% in July 2024. That growing feed-gas contribution signals that TotalEnergies views the NLNG value chain — where it holds equity — as a strategic anchor worth protecting, even as it exits producing oil assets.
The NLNG feed-gas angle is the most significant operational detail in this transaction. Lifting TotalEnergies' share of NLNG's feed-gas supply from 40% to 50% in under twelve months points either to accelerated gas field tie-ins, production optimisation on the retained licences, or a reallocation of gas volumes following the disposal of the oil-weighted assets. Either way, the retained gas licences are now central infrastructure assets within one of Africa's largest LNG export facilities, which processes roughly 22 million tonnes per annum across six trains.
For the Nigerian energy sector, the arrival of Vaaris as a licensee continues a pattern of indigenous or SPV-based acquirers absorbing assets that international oil companies are shedding from the onshore and near-shore acreage. Whether Vaaris has the technical capacity and capital to sustain or grow the 16,000 boe/d production base will determine whether these licences fulfil their output potential under new ownership. Nigerian regulatory approval from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission will be required to complete the transfer, and the timeline for that process is not specified in the available reporting.