TotalEnergies Takes FID on Ima Gas Field to Feed Nigeria LNG Train 7
The Ima development will supply roughly one-third of the feed gas needed to push Nigeria LNG's capacity from 22 to 30 million tons per annum.
TotalEnergies SE approved a final investment decision on Monday (2026-09-21) to proceed with the Ima Gas Development in Nigeria, a project the French supermajor says can deliver up to 350 million cubic feet per day of feed gas to the Nigeria LNG plant at Bonny Island.6
Once on stream, Ima is designed to supply about one-third of the gas volumes required for Nigeria LNG's Train 7 expansion, which would lift the facility's liquefaction capacity from 22 million tons per annum to 30 Mtpa — an 8 Mtpa addition at a plant already among Africa's largest LNG exporters. Asian LNG, priced at $26.05 per MMBtu on the JKM benchmark as of Wednesday (2026-09-23), gives Atlantic basin suppliers a clear commercial incentive to push new volumes toward Asian buyers.6
Ima is not the first upstream piece TotalEnergies has locked in for Train 7. The company took an FID on the Ubeta gas development on June 20, 2024, a field projected to reach peak production of 300 MMcfd, or roughly 70,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day including condensates. Ubeta and Ima together form the core of the onshore gas supply TotalEnergies is assembling to keep Bonny Island running at expanded capacity.6
A third project, HI, rounds out the upstream package. TotalEnergies estimates HI holds around 285 million barrels of oil equivalent and envisions a wellhead platform with four wells, a pipeline to transport gas to Bonny and a gas processing plant on the island, from where processed gas moves to the LNG facility. All three developments must come online in sequence for Train 7 to operate anywhere near its nameplate capacity.6
Nigeria anchors TotalEnergies' African strategy more broadly. The company draws the equivalent of 450,000 barrels per day from the African region, representing nearly a fifth of its total hydrocarbon production and more than any other major oil company draws from the continent, according to The Economist. Rystad Energy estimates TotalEnergies' current plans could add another 374,000 barrels per day across Africa.1
That commitment spans asset types. The Economist reported in May 2026 that TotalEnergies is leading the new wave of African upstream investment, including Uganda's East African Crude Oil Pipeline — a $20 billion development in which it holds a 26.5% stake — described as one of the largest foreign investments ever made on the continent. The Nigeria LNG expansion is a different kind of commitment: gas-focused, export-oriented and tied to a long-established liquefaction asset rather than a greenfield crude corridor.1
TotalEnergies' balance sheet gives it room to press ahead. The company reported IFRS net income of $13.1 billion in 2025, with cash flow from operations excluding working capital of $27.8 billion, and it invested $17.1 billion during the year. Gearing ended 2025 at 15%, operating costs held at $5 per barrel, and a reserve replacement rate of 116% kept proven reserve life above 12 years.3
The Nigeria LNG expansion is part of a broader European supermajor push into gas export infrastructure. Eni, a partner in several Nigerian assets, has been building its own LNG supply chain, signing long-term offtake agreements for volumes from its operated projects in Indonesia's Kutei Basin and targeting more than 20 Mtpa of contracted LNG supply by 2030.2 Eni and TotalEnergies also jointly approved an FID for the Cronos offshore gas project in Cyprus in July 2026, targeting production from 2028 and piping gas to Egypt for liquefaction and export to European markets.5
Domestically, Nigeria is seeing parallel upstream gas activity that introduces a degree of competition for the same resource base. In July 2026, UTM Offshore, Seplat Energy and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company signed a gas sales agreement as a step toward developing Nigeria's first indigenous-led floating LNG project. These projects are at different stages of maturity, but multiple large calls on Nigerian gas simultaneously could complicate the supply picture for Bonny Island over the medium term.4
ICE Brent crude front-month traded at $101.57 per barrel as of Wednesday (2026-09-23), up 0.95% on the session. Stronger oil prices support TotalEnergies' upstream cash generation, reducing the financial drag of long-cycle gas projects where returns are slower and less directly oil-linked.
Execution is the unresolved variable. Nigeria has a long record of feed gas shortfalls that have kept LNG plant utilisation below design capacity, and Train 7's 8 Mtpa capacity addition requires Ima, Ubeta and HI all delivering simultaneously and on schedule. Whether three parallel upstream developments can collectively avoid the underperformance that has historically plagued Nigerian gas infrastructure is the question LNG offtakers and equity analysts watching Train 7 will be tracking most closely.6