Shell’s Bonga South West Deepwater Project Approved by Tinubu With Investment-Linked Incentives

Nigeria’s President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has approved a set of targeted, investment-linked incentives to support Shell’s proposed Bonga South West deepwater oil project. This signals a renewed push by the Federal Government to attract large-scale investment into the country’s offshore energy sector.

The approval followed a high-level meeting between President Tinubu and Shell’s Chief Executive Officer, Wael Sawan, in Cape Town, according to a statement released by the Presidency on Thursday.

The incentives, the President stressed, are not broad-based concessions but carefully structured measures designed to unlock new capital and boost production. “These incentives are not blanket concessions,” Tinubu said. “They are ring-fenced and focused on new capital, incremental production and strong local content delivery.”

Nigeria, Africa’s largest crude oil producer, has in recent years rolled out a series of regulatory and fiscal reforms aimed at reversing declining output and restoring investor confidence. The latest move forms part of that wider strategy to reposition the oil and gas sector as a driver of economic growth.

President Tinubu also set a clear timeline for the project. He expressed expectation that the Bonga South West development would reach a Final Investment Decision (FID) within the first term of his administration.

Shell has already taken an FID on the Bonga North project in 2024. It links this development to the Bonga Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) facility, while seeking to sustain production levels from the offshore field.

The Shell Bonga Project Plan

The President’s Special Adviser on Energy, Olu Arowolo Verheijen, said the meeting reaffirmed Shell’s long-term commitment to Nigeria’s energy sector. Verheijen, who is leading efforts to finalise the incentive framework, revealed portions of the investment plan in a separate LinkedIn post.

She said that Shell informed the President of plans to invest an additional $20 billion in the proposed Bonga South West project. Shell has yet to officially confirm the figure or provide a timeline for when it expects to reach a Final Investment Decision on the project.

The renewed focus on offshore investments comes amid Shell’s broader portfolio realignment in Nigeria. Last year, the company increased its stake in the Bonga oilfield to 65 per cent after acquiring shares from TotalEnergies, underscoring its continued interest in offshore production.

This followed Shell’s divestment from its onshore assets, which were sold to Renaissance, a consortium comprising four Nigerian companies and an international energy group.