TotalEnergies has left out a final investment decision date for its multibillion-dollar Venus oil development in its latest global strategy, while announcing an FID on the Absheron gas development in Azerbaijan on the same day.
The French energy major’s Strategy and Outlook presentation, released on Monday, identifies Namibia among six countries expected to support its oil and gas growth beyond 2030, but does not say when the Venus project will be sanctioned.
The omission follows TotalEnergies’ earlier target of a Venus investment decision in 2026, with an earlier ambition to reach FID around midyear.
On the same day it released the new strategy, TotalEnergies announced that it and its partners had taken FID on the full-field development of the Absheron gas and condensate field in Azerbaijan.
TotalEnergies operates Absheron with a 35% interest alongside SOCAR, which also holds 35%, and XRG with 30%.
The Absheron decision contrasts with Venus, whose investment timetable remains unresolved despite TotalEnergies previously saying the Namibian project was technically ready to proceed.
The two projects are at different stages and operate under different commercial, fiscal and regulatory conditions. Still, Monday’s announcements show that TotalEnergies continues to sanction major upstream developments while Venus awaits a final decision.
Absheron, located in the Caspian Sea about 100 kilometres southeast of Baku, contains approximately 140 billion cubic metres of recoverable gas reserves.
Its first development phase began production in 2023, with a capacity of 1.5 billion cubic metres of gas annually and 12,000 barrels per day of condensate.
The newly sanctioned full-field development will increase production to six billion cubic metres of gas annually and 47,000 barrels per day of condensate, with start-up expected in 2029.
“We are pleased to announce the launch of Absheron Full Field development, a project that unlocks the full production potential of one of the Caspian Sea’s largest gas discoveries,” TotalEnergies chairman and chief executive Patrick Pouyanné said.
“In line with TotalEnergies’ strategy, Absheron Full Field Development is a low cost and low emissions project that will provide a long-term additional gas supply to the domestic and international markets, supporting regional energy security”.
In February, TotalEnergies told investors that Venus was targeting FID in 2026 and said it was engaging with Namibian authorities, with a target of a decision by mid-year.
The company said the field had been fully appraised, front-end engineering and design had been completed, and competitive bids from engineering, procurement and construction contractors had provided greater certainty over the project’s expected capital costs.
TotalEnergies put Venus resources at about 750 million barrels of oil equivalent and outlined a development capable of producing about 150,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, with first oil targeted for 2030.
The mid-year FID target subsequently passed without a decision.
In August, TotalEnergies Namibia joint venture and development director Carlos Menezes said the company was technically ready to proceed but still needed to conclude discussions with the government.
He warned that contractor bids obtained for the development could not remain open indefinitely and rejected suggestions at the time that the decision could move into 2027.
“2027, that’s not going to work. We really need to be moving soon on [the decision],” Menezes said at the Namibia Oil and Gas Conference.
TotalEnergies chief executive Patrick Pouyanné also told investors in July that it had selected contractors and was ready to make the investment decision, subject to finalising discussions with the Namibian government.
The timing subsequently reached Parliament after reports suggested that FID could slip into 2027.
Industries, mines and energy minister Modestus Amutse said this month that TotalEnergies had not officially informed the government that it had postponed the decision to next year.
TotalEnergies’ latest strategy neither confirms a postponement to 2027 nor provides another FID target.
Despite the absence of a Venus decision date, TotalEnergies continues to include Namibia in its longer-term upstream plans.
“In Oil & Gas, TotalEnergies already possesses a rich portfolio of organic projects (Namibia, Nigeria, Libya, Malaysia, Mozambique and Papua New Guinea) and a proven reserves life index of more than 12 years allowing the Company to maintain a production plateau of around 3 Mboe/d until 2035,” the company said.
“This solid base allows TotalEnergies to set an ambition for 2-3% growth per year over the period 2030-2035 by leveraging its proven track record in exploration and accessing discovered resources.”
The company plans net investments of between US$14 billion and US$17 billion annually between 2027 and 2032, although it did not say how much it would allocate to Namibia.
TotalEnergies is targeting average oil and gas production growth of more than 3% annually between 2025 and 2030 before pursuing growth of between 2% and 3% annually during the following five years.
Venus is not TotalEnergies’ only major Namibian development.
The company has also taken operatorship of the Mopane discovery after acquiring a 40% interest in Petroleum Exploration Licence 83 from Galp.
TotalEnergies has said it plans further appraisal of Mopane and is targeting an FID in 2028.
That leaves Venus as the more immediate unanswered investment decision in TotalEnergies’ Namibian portfolio.
Monday’s strategy presentation continues to place Namibia within the company’s growth plans beyond 2030, but does not say whether Venus can still reach its targeted first production around 2030 after the earlier FID timetable passed without a decision.
