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French oil company, Total, has said it would soon approve plans to proceed with the Ikike oil field project off the coast of Nigeria. Patrick Pouyanné, Chief Executive Office of the oil and gas giant, made this disclosure on Monday while speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of Nigerian and French businesses in Paris, according to Reuters.

The endorsement of a final investment decision (FID) on the 60,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) Ikike project has been expected for about a year. The Ikike field, estimated to hold reserves of 70 million barrels of oil equivalent, is located in the OML 99 licence offshore Nigeria. As the operator, Total has a 40 percent stake in the field.

The announcement comes following the launch last year of Total’s $3.3 billion Egina Floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) in Nigeria. Production officially started on the Egina oil field on December 29th, Total said earlier in January. The project is set to peak at 200,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) and exports from the new ultra-deep oil field should begin as early as next month.

“There is a huge potential in Nigeria, it is probably the most prolific country in West Africa in terms of oil and gas and it is time to launch new projects and we are working on many of them,” Pouyanné told journalists.

Total reportedly has interests in 34 leases in Nigeria, including OML 100, OML 102 and two exploration licenses. The oil major is also preparing FIDs for the 70,000 bpd deepwater Preowei project, to enable it increase its output.

Total's CEO also mentioned the company's ambition to expand its liquefied natural gas (LNG) assets in Nigeria.