PARIS, Oct. 30, 2026 — French energy giant TotalEnergies has agreed to sell a 40% participating interest in Nigeria’s offshore oil block OPL257 to South Atlantic Petroleum Limited (SAPETRO), strengthening their partnership as the companies seek to accelerate the development of the Egina South oil field.
TotalEnergies announced the farm-out agreement Friday, saying the transaction would leave it with a 50% operating interest in the block, while SAPETRO would hold 40% and Nigerian energy company Conoil would retain the remaining 10%.
The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
OPL257 is located approximately 150 kilometers (93 miles) offshore Nigeria and lies adjacent to block PPL261, where TotalEnergies and its partners, including SAPETRO, discovered the Egina South field in 2005.
The field extends across both blocks, making cooperation between the companies important to its potential development.
TotalEnergies said an appraisal campaign on the OPL257 portion of the field would begin in the coming months to assess its development potential.
If successful, the companies plan to develop Egina South through a subsea tie-back to the existing Egina floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO), located approximately 30 kilometers (19 miles) away.
The proposed approach would allow the partners to use existing offshore production infrastructure rather than build an entirely new facility, potentially reducing development costs and shortening the time needed to bring additional oil resources into production.
“TotalEnergies is pleased to have SAPETRO as a partner in OPL257 as well as in the adjacent PPL261 block,” said Mike Sangster, senior vice president for Africa exploration and production at TotalEnergies.
“Consolidating our long-term partnership paves the way for a quick appraisal campaign and subsequent development of Egina South in the success case,” Sangster said.
“For TotalEnergies, this is consistent with our strategy to develop low-cost, low-emission resources while leveraging existing facilities.”
TotalEnergies currently holds a 24% interest in the adjacent PPL261 block, alongside other partners, including SAPETRO.
The agreement reinforces cooperation between the French energy company and SAPETRO in Nigeria’s deepwater oil sector, where operators are increasingly looking to develop discoveries near existing production facilities to improve project economics.
The proposed development of Egina South remains dependent on the results of the planned appraisal campaign, which will help determine the field’s commercial viability.
TotalEnergies said completion of the stake sale remains subject to customary conditions, including approval from Nigerian regulatory authorities.
The company did not provide a timetable for completing the transaction or indicate when production from Egina South could begin.
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