TotalEnergies SE has closed the sale of its 10 percent non-operated stake in the Renaissance joint venture’s oil licences in Nigeria to Vaaris Energy Limited for $800 million.
The deal takes the French major further out of Nigeria’s onshore oil fields while leaving it fully operating in the gas that feeds the country’s biggest LNG export plant.
The transaction was completed by TotalEnergies EP Nigeria, known as TEPNG, the company’s local subsidiary, according to a statement shared with BusinessDay.
Further findings by BusinessDay showed TotalEnergies keeps its full economic interest in the three gas licences of the Renaissance JV: OML 23, OML 28 and OML 77.
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The three blocks currently supply about 50 percent of the gas going to Nigeria LNG, the export facility on Bonny Island in which TotalEnergies is also a shareholder.
Onshore oil in the Niger Delta has become costly and difficult to run due to crude theft, pipeline sabotage and spills that have repeatedly interrupted output and exposed operators to legal and reputational risk.
Gas, by contrast, feeds a liquefaction plant that ships cargoes to Europe and Asia, and demand for LNG has stayed firm since the supply shocks of the early 2020s.
The Renaissance name dates to the sale of Shell’s onshore Nigerian business. Shell agreed in 2024 to sell its Nigerian onshore subsidiary to a consortium of local companies, and the group rebranded the assets as Renaissance after the deal closed.
The licences had been held through a joint venture in which the Nigerian National Petroleum Company is the majority owner, with international partners holding minority stakes. TotalEnergies has been one of those partners.
For TotalEnergies, the sale is the latest in a series of disposals of non-operated onshore positions. Major oil companies have been shifting capital away from older, mature fields toward deepwater projects and LNG, where returns are easier to forecast, and environmental scrutiny is lower. Nigeria’s offshore fields remain a core part of TotalEnergies’ African production.
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Nigerian operators have taken up much of what the majors have left behind. The government has encouraged the handover of onshore assets to domestic companies as part of a push to raise output and keep more of the industry’s earnings inside the country.
Whether the new owners can invest enough to lift production remains the main question for the sector. Many of the licences need heavy spending on pipelines, flow stations and security to keep volumes steady.
What to watch
Investors will look at how TotalEnergies redeploys the cash. The company has pointed to LNG, integrated power and selected upstream projects as priorities, and it has continued to return a large share of its cash flow to shareholders.
Analysts will also watch whether Nigeria’s gas supply to the Bonny Island plant stays reliable as the Renaissance operators change their approach on the oil side.
Dipo Oladehinde is a skilled energy analyst with experience across Nigeria's energy sector alongside relevant know-how about Nigeria’s macro economy. He provides a blend of market intelligence, financial analysis, industry insight, micro and macro-level analysis of a wide range of local and international issues as well as informed technical rudiments for policy-making and private directions.
