Nigeria, Shell tout progress on potential $20 billion Bonga South West oilfield
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Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has approved what his office described as “investment-linked” incentives for Shell’s proposed Bonga South West deepwater oilfield after meeting Shell CEO Wael Sawan, as Nigeria steps up regulatory reforms aimed at attracting new upstream investment.
Tinubu said the incentives would not be blanket concessions and would be ring-fenced around new capital, incremental production and strong local content delivery, without providing further detail on their structure. He said he expects Bonga South West to reach a final investment decision within the first term of his administration.
Sawan said he hoped the project could reach a final investment decision in 2027, which he said could translate into around $20 billion of spending by Shell and its partners, according to a video shared by the president’s special energy adviser, Olu Arowolo Verheijen. Sawan said roughly half of that would be capital expenditure and the remainder would be operational expenses and other spending, and added that Shell was also interested in Nigeria’s exploration licensing round.
Shell has been expanding investment in Nigeria’s offshore portfolio in the last year, with Sawan citing $5 billion invested in Bonga North and $2 billion in a gas project supplying Nigeria LNG over the past 12 months. Shell took a final investment decision on Bonga North in 2024 as it sought to maintain output at the linked Bonga floating production, storage and offloading facility.
Shell increased its stake in the Bonga oilfield last year after acquiring an interest from TotalEnergies that lifted Shell’s share to 65%, underlining continued focus on offshore production after selling onshore assets, while other Bonga shareholders include units of Exxon Mobil and ENI.
