Discovered in 1973, the offshore Ima gas resource has reached a final investment decision. The government says the $800 million project could eventually supply Nigeria LNG Limited.
A gas discovery that has remained undeveloped since 1973 has reached a new investment milestone. President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday welcomed a final investment decision worth $800 million for the offshore Ima Gas Project. The decision clears the way for development of the resource, according to a statement issued by Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga. It does not mean production has begun.
Ima lies in Oil Mining Leases 112 and 117 and is being developed by Nigerian company AMNI International in partnership with TotalEnergies. The project is expected to produce about 300 million standard cubic feet of gas a day at its peak, the statement said. Its gas could potentially supply Nigeria LNG Limited.
For the government, the decision is a test of whether changes to the investment environment can move long-stranded gas discoveries into development. Tinubu said Nigeria’s resources would deliver economic benefits only when investment enabled them to be produced and used.
“The Final Investment Decision on Ima demonstrates what is possible when we provide investors with a competitive, predictable and enabling environment,” the President said in the statement. He identified industrial use, exports and employment as goals of the administration’s gas strategy. The statement also listed fertiliser and petrochemical production, improved power supply and opportunities for Nigerian businesses among the uses the government hopes greater gas development will support. Those outcomes remain ambitions for the project, rather than reported results of the investment decision.
Ima is the fourth major gas project to reach a final investment decision since Tinubu took office, following the Iseni, Ubeta and HI projects, according to the statement.
The administration has sought to address investment obstacles in the oil and gas sector. Although the Petroleum Industry Act was enacted in 2021, the statement said fiscal and commercial difficulties had continued to hold back some projects. In 2024, Tinubu issued directives intended to improve fiscal terms, lower costs and reduce the time required to conclude contracts.
Special Adviser on Energy Olu Verheijen said Ima illustrated what those measures were designed to achieve. A discovery alone, she argued, could not generate jobs or revenue without the financing, construction work and eventual use of the gas needed to bring it into production.
The statement said AMNI holds a majority interest in the project and that Nigerian financial institutions arranged 77 per cent of its financing. It also said about 60 per cent of the project workforce is expected to come from host communities, including Bonny, Finima and Andoni in Rivers State.
The investment decision marks a significant step for a resource discovered more than five decades ago. The next measure of progress will be its development and whether the projected gas supply and local employment materialise.