French multinational oil and gas group, Total is working out a partnership with the Russian gas giant, Gazprom, aimed at seeing them cooperate in joint investment efforts to develop the global gas sector.
It was gathered at the weekend that one prospect for the take off of the partnership would be in a joint venture project being considered in Nigeria, where Gazprom late last year began negotiations with representatives of the Federal Government on the possibility of undertaking some gas development projects in the country. The two companies are already partners in Iran and in Russia.
Available information indicates that Total is ready to make available its technical and technological expertise in projects development, which it is also ready to transfer to Gazprom. The companies, it was gathered will agree on terms to share the risks related to local political instability in the Niger Delta and the development of hard-to-reach deposits.
Though details of the proposed partnership are yet to be made public, it gathered that both parties would committed to the development of a number of gas projects that would help utilize the part of the country’s huge proven gas reserves put at about 4.9 billion tons (about 3percent of the world’s reserves), gas – 5.2 trillion cubic metres (about 2.9 percent of the world’s reserves). In 2006, Nigeria produced 3percent of the world’s oil output.