Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is offering project-specific, investment-linked incentives to support Shell’s proposed Bonga South West deepwater oil project with expectations that Shell and its partners will make a $20-billion final investment decision (FID) by 2027.
While meeting with a Shell delegation led by CEO Wael Sawan at the presidential villa in Abuja, Tinubu said, “My expectation is clear: Bonga South West must reach a [FID] within the first term of this administration.”
“These incentives are not blanket concessions,” Tinubu continued in a statement published on the president’s website on 22 January. “They are ring-fenced and investment-linked, focused on new capital and incremental production, strong local content delivery, and in-country value addition.”
Sawan noted in the same statement that Nigeria’s investment climate has improved remarkably under the Tinubu administration, adding that Shell is increasingly confident that the West African country is becoming a destination for long-term investment.
Shell’s delegation included senior executives from the supermajor’s global and Nigerian leadership, including Peter Costello, president of Shell Upstream.
Strategic Importance to Nigeria
Tinubu emphasized the strategic importance of Bonga South West to Nigeria’s economy in terms of job creation and foreign-exchange inflow over the project’s lifetime.
The project also expands the country’s knowledge base in offshore engineering, fabrication, logistics, and energy services, the president said, noting that Shell and its partners have invested nearly $7 billion in Nigeria over the past 13 months, most notably in the Bonga North and HI field gas offshore projects.
In October 2025, Shell declared a $2-billion FID with Nigerian operating partner Sunlink Energies and Resources on the 350-MMscf/D HI shallow-water gas project, which is expected to come on stream in 2028 and supply one-third of the feed gas required for a seventh liquefaction train at Nigeria LNG on Bonny Island, according to the administration.
Shell’s Other Bonga FID
Shell also made a $5-billion FID on its operated Bonga North deepwater oil project in December 2024, targeting first oil by 2030 and peak production of 110,000 B/D from an estimated 330 million BOE of recoverable reserves.
Bonga North will be tied back to an existing floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) facility that serves the producing Bonga Main and Bonga Northwest fields.
Earlier plans for the delayed Bonga South West project envisaged a three-phase development comprising 23, 20, and 20 wells, targeting estimated recoverable reserves of 590 million, 210 million, and 193 million BOE, respectively. Argus Media previously reported that Shell is considering the use of an FPSO with a capacity of 150,000 B/D for the project.
The Bonga South West discovery extends from a Shell-operated lease area into a neighboring lease area, where Chevron and Russia’s Lukoil hold 22% and 18% stakes, respectively, and is expected to be unitized for development, according to Argus Media.
Shell holds a 65% operating stake in the Bonga block, with ExxonMobil at 20% and Eni at 15%. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company is the concessionaire under the production-sharing contract.