TotalEnergies and BlackRock Forge $1.8 Billion Pact for African Oil and Gas Assets

TotalEnergies and BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners have signed a partnership agreement covering some of the French energy major’s oil and gas infrastructure assets in Africa. GIP will provide a $1.8 billion capital contribution under the arrangement.

In exchange for that contribution, TotalEnergies will pay GIP a tariff linked to the throughput of the assets included in the partnership. The payments will continue for a period of up to 15 years, according to TotalEnergies.

The structure gives GIP exposure to infrastructure activity through tariffs determined by asset throughput. TotalEnergies, meanwhile, is crystallizing value from part of its African midstream infrastructure portfolio through the agreement.

TotalEnergies did not specify which oil and gas infrastructure assets would be included. The announcement therefore outlined the financial structure and payment period without identifying the individual facilities covered by the partnership.

“We are pleased to strengthen our relationship with GIP through this infrastructure agreement which crystallizes the value of some of our midstream infrastructure assets in Africa,” said Jean-Pierre Sbraire, chief financial officer of TotalEnergies.

The transaction arrives as TotalEnergies increases its activity across Africa’s oil and gas sector. The company has recently advanced investments and operations in Angola, Namibia and Uganda, spanning exploration, discoveries, development control and export infrastructure.

Earlier this month, TotalEnergies announced a new discovery offshore Angola. It also acquired operated interests in two additional exploration blocks located close to operating hubs, as international majors return to exploration in Angolan waters and seek to use existing infrastructure.

The company said the Acacia-5 discovery was made in Block 17. According to TotalEnergies, first oil from the discovery would be achieved only three months after it was made in June 2026.

The Angola moves combine additional exploration acreage with proximity to established operating hubs. That approach places existing infrastructure at the center of renewed exploration activity by TotalEnergies and other international majors in the country’s waters.

TotalEnergies has also expanded its offshore exploration portfolio in Namibia. The additional acreage lies north of a block where a major oil discovery has been made, supporting the company’s effort to increase activity in what the source described as a new global exploration hotspot.

Last year, TotalEnergies signed an agreement with Galp that formalized its operatorship over Mopane and Venus, Namibia’s two largest offshore oil discoveries. The agreement used a strategic asset swap to consolidate development control under the French major.

The company’s African portfolio also includes major development work in Uganda. TotalEnergies and China’s CNOOC have been developing the Tilenga and Kingfisher oil fields as the landlocked country prepares to begin exporting crude.

Those fields are expected to make Uganda the world’s newest crude oil exporter in early 2027. The export system centers on the $5 billion East African Crude Oil Pipeline, known as EACOP, which will transport Ugandan crude to Tanzania’s port of Tanga.

Together, the projects show the range of TotalEnergies’ African activity described in the announcement, from offshore exploration and discovery work to field development and export infrastructure. The GIP agreement adds a long duration tariff arrangement involving some of the company’s existing midstream assets.

The precise assets remain undisclosed, but the commercial terms establish the central exchange. GIP will contribute $1.8 billion, while TotalEnergies will make throughput based tariff payments for up to 15 years under the newly signed infrastructure partnership.