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NNPC clears Total from inflating $16bn Egina project
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has cleared Total Upstream Nigeria Limited, TUPNI, from inflating the cost of the Egina project, stating that from inception the project had been agreed at $16.35 billion. Speaking at the Senate Ad-hoc committee’s investigative hearing on local content elements and cost variations relating to Egina oilfield and other related projects in Abuja, Chief Operating Officer, Upstream of the NNPC, Mr. Bello Rabiu, said that out of the $16 billion budgeted for the Egina project which started in 2013, $10.7 billion had been disbursed so far.
Bello stated that at the initial phase it was agreed that the project would cost $16.35 billion, adding that the cost element of the contract had not changed and still remained $16 billion now that the project is almost completed. Giving a breakdown of the project, Rabiu declared that the Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading, FPSO, vessel, which would sail in Wednesday, cost $3.5 billion, compressors cost $240 million; flow lines and risers was to gulp $3.6 billion; while the subsea production system was to gulp $1.5 billion.
In addition, he disclosed that drilling would cost $3.8 billion, while other miscellaneous costs, comprising salaries, insurance among others, was to cost $3 billion. Rabiu said the project, which started in 1993 when the oil block was awarded and in 2013 when FPSO project contract was awarded, would hit first oil by December 2018, while he noted that Total, by the terms of the agreement, was expected to undertake the project, provide the finance, recover its cost and later share profit with the NNPC.
Speaking in the same vein, Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board, Mr. Simbi Wabote, commended Total for the milestones achieved in the project, especially for its strict compliance to the local content initiatives. Wabote declared that Egina is the first FPSO project agreement to be signed and undertaken after the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development, NOGICD, Act was instituted in 2010. In his own submission to the committee, Managing Director of Total Upstream Nigeria, Mr. Nicolas Terraz, maintained that there had been no upward review of the budgeted costs for the Egina Project since the Final Investment Decision was made in 2013, adding that rather, concerted efforts were made to deliver the project within the budget and even below it.
He said, “Specifically, as we have earlier stated, the initial budget established in 2013 for the Egina Project was $16,354 million and after extensive cost optimization by TUPNI and the project partners, this figure was revised downwards to $15.75 billion in May 2013 and the Final Investment Decision was made on the basis of this reduced budget figure.
“In this respect, please be assured that it is the highest priority for TUPNI as operator to control the cost of the project during the execution phase and to deliver the project within budget.”
Terraz noted that with the arrival of the Egina FPSO this week, the Egina project was very much on course, as TUPNl and her partners are committed to the delivery of the project on schedule with first oil expected by December this year, adding that in doing so, we will be adding 200,000 barrels of oil to Nigeria’s oil production. The Total boss declared that the unprecedented record level of Nigerian Content on all the packages of the Egina project translated into increased work scopes for several fabrication yards at various locations in Nigeria, in some cases calling for significant facility development and capacity expansion investments by the project. He disclosed that the FPSO unit of Egina, a 330-meter long vessel designed to process oil and gas from the Egina field, would be berthed at the quayside in Nigeria for integration of locally fabricated modules a first for Nigeria.
According to him, Egina has six FPSO topside modules, the highest number ever, to be fully fabricated and integrated in Nigeria; while he noted that the assembly of the Integrated Control and Safety System of the FPSO was fully performed in Nigeria. He said the project includes the fabrication of the largest subsea equipment, such as manifolds and risers, ever completed in Nigeria. He said, “In terms of employment, the project represents a workload of 24 million man-hours worked in Nigeria, or 77 per cent of total project workload, equivalent to a workforce of 3,000 persons on average during five years.”
However, the Senate Ad-hoc Committee called for a value-for-money audit of the $16 billion Egina FPSO vessel contract, stating that unless the audit is conducted, it would no longer support other projects of such nature, such as the Bonga South-West and Zabazaba FPSO projects. Chairman of the Committee Mr. Solomon Adeola, said the audit becomes necessary to establish the actual cost of the projects and look at the implications of the project to the company, adding that the audit would focus on technical and financial aspects of the project. He said, “We are hereby directing the NNPC to conduct a value for money audit of the Egina project. We are aware such would last for about 16 weeks. Until that audit is done, no other contracts of this nature would be supported by this Senate, either Bonga South-west or Zabazaba among others.
“We do not want the audit to be conducted by auditors of Total, but independent auditors to give us a clearer and true view of things. He further stated that the essence of its investigations was to guide the country in making decisions on similar projects in the future. According to Adeola, this was because two similar projects scheduled to come up soon, Bonga South-West and Zabazaba, with a production capacity of 150,000 barrels per day, were budgeted at about $6 billion and $9 bilion, respectively, he also wondered why Egina would be valued at $16 billion going by the little difference in capacity of the vessels.
A new technology transfer agreement between the Nigeria–China Strategic Partnership (NCSP) and the Presidential Implementation Committee on Technology Transfer (PICTT) is expected to open more job opportunities, improve local skills, and expand access to advanced technology for ordinary Nigerians.
In a press statement reaching Vanguard on Friday, the MoU aims to strengthen industrial development, support local content, and create clearer pathways for Nigerians to benefit from China’s growing investments in the country.
PICTT Chairman, Dr Dahiru Mohammed, said the partnership will immediately begin coordinated programmes that support local participation in infrastructure and industrial projects.
Special Adviser to the President on Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr John Uwajumogu, said the deal will help attract high value investments that can stimulate job creation and strengthen Nigeria’s economy.
NCSP Head of International Relations, Ms Judy Melifonwu, highlighted that Nigerians stand to gain from expanded STEM scholarships, technical training, access to modern technology, and collaboration across key sectors including steel, agriculture, automobile parks, and cultural industries.
The NCSP Director-General reaffirmed the organisation’s commitment to measurable results, noting that the partnership with PICTT will prioritise initiatives that deliver direct national impact.
The MoU signals a new phase of Nigeria–China cooperation focused on practical delivery, local content, and opportunities that improve everyday livelihoods.
EU regulators launched an antitrust investigation into Meta Platforms on Thursday over its rollout of artificial intelligence features in its WhatsApp messenger that would block rivals, hardening Europe’s already tough stance on Big Tech. The move, reported earlier by Reuters and the Financial Times, is the latest action by European Union regulators against large technology firms such as Amazon and Alphabet’s Google as the bloc seeks to balance support for the sector with efforts to curb its expanding influence.
Europe’s tough stance – a marked contrast to more lenient U.S. regulation – has sparked an industry pushback, particularly by U.S. tech titans, and led to criticism from the administration of U. S. President Donald Trump. The European Commission said that the investigation will look into Meta’s new policy that would limit other AI providers’ access to WhatsApp, a potential boost for its own Meta AI system integrated into the platform earlier this year.
EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera said the move was to prevent dominant firms from “abusing their power to crowd out innovative competitors”. She added interim measures could be imposed to block Meta’s new WhatsApp AI policy rollout. “AI markets are booming in Europe and beyond,” she said. This is why we are investigating if Meta’s new policy might be illegal under competition rules, and whether we should act quickly to prevent any possible irreparable harm to competition in the AI space.”
A WhatsApp spokesperson called the claims “baseless”, adding that the emergence of chatbots on its platforms had put a “strain on our systems that they were not designed to support”, a reference to AI systems from other providers. “Still, the AI space is highly competitive and people have access to the services of their choice in any number of ways, including app stores, search engines, email services, partnership integrations, and operating systems.” The EU was the first in the world to establish a comprehensive legal framework for AI, setting out guardrails for AI systems and rules for certain high-risk applications in the AI Act.
Meta AI, a chatbot and virtual assistant, has been built into WhatsApp’s interface across European markets since March. The Commission said a new policy fully applicable from January 15, 2026, may block competing AI providers from reaching customers via the platform. Ribera said the probe came on the back of complaints from small AI developers about the WhatsApp policy. The Interaction Company of California, which has developed AI assistant Poke.com, has taken its grievance to the EU competition enforcer. Spanish AI startup Luzia has also talked to the Commission, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
Marvin von Hagen, co-founder and CEO of The Interaction Company of California, said if Meta was allowed to roll out its new policy, “millions of European consumers will be deprived of the possibility of enjoying new and innovative AI assistants”. Meta also risks a fine of as much as 10% of its global annual turnover if found guilty of breaching EU antitrust rules.
Italy’s antitrust watchdog opened a parallel investigation in July into allegations that Meta leveraged its market power by integrating an AI tool into WhatsApp, expanding the probe in November to examine whether Meta further abused its dominance by blocking rival AI chatbots from the messaging platform. The antitrust probe is a more traditional means of investigation than the EU’s Digital Markets Act, the bloc’s landmark legislation currently used to scrutinize Amazon’s and Microsoft’s cloud services for potential curbs. Reuters
The spouses and children of billionaires inherited more wealth in 2025 than in any previous year since reporting began in 2015, according to UBS’s Billionaire Ambitions Report published on Thursday. In the 12 months to April, 91 people became billionaires through inheritance, collectively receiving $298 billion, up more than a third from 2024, the Swiss bank said. “These heirs are proof of a multi-year wealth transfer that’s intensifying,” UBS executive Benjamin Cavalli said.
The report is based on a survey of some of UBS’s super-rich clients and a database that tracks the wealth of billionaires across 47 markets in all world regions. At least $5.9 trillion will be inherited by billionaire children over the next 15 years, the bank calculates.
Most of this inheritance growth is set to take place in the United States, with India, France, Germany and Switzerland next on the list, UBS estimated. However, billionaires are highly mobile, especially younger ones, which could change that picture, it added. The search for a better quality of life, geopolitical concerns and tax considerations are driving decisions to relocate, according to the report.
In Switzerland, where $206 billion will be inherited over the next 15 years according to the bank, voters on Sunday overwhelmingly rejected 50 per cent tax on inherited fortunes of $62 million or more, after critics said it could trigger an exodus of wealthy people.
Switzerland, the UAE, the U.S. and Singapore are among billionaires’ preferred destinations, UBS’s Cavalli said. “In Switzerland, Sunday’s vote may have helped to increase the country’s appeal again,” he said. Reuters
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