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* Targets 250,000bpd oil output in five years 

* To start with $1bn Usan infill drilling programme in months 

* Says Owowo asset to deliver 100,000bpd crude, 100mmscf/d gas output 

Peter Uzoho 

American oil giant, ExxonMobil has indicated its plan, in collaboration with its joint venture partners, to soon declare readiness to proceed with the Final Investment Decisions (FIDs) on some major deep-water projects in Nigeria cumulatively valued at approximately $10 billion.

The investment would start with the infill drilling campaign at the existing producing Usan deep-water asset estimated at over $1 billion, of which Exxon has already made a 30 per cent commitment and aims to declare its investment readiness in a matter of months.

With a couple of investments and projects lined up, the company has also set an ambitious target of growing its total oil production in Nigeria from the current 100, 000 barrels per day (bpd) to 250,000bpd in the next five years. 

Chairman and Managing Director of ExxonMobil Affiliate in Nigeria, Mr. Jagir Baxi, disclosed the plans during an interview with THISDAY, in Lagos, at the back of the recent celebration of 20 years anniversary of uninterrupted oil production at the Erha oil producing asset by Esso Exploration and Production Nigerian Limited (EEPNL), Exxon’s affiliate and operating firm in Nigeria. 

As reported by THISDAY, ExxonMobil had in September 2024 during a meeting between its executives and Vice President Kashim Shettima in New York announced its decision to invest $10 billion in deep-water oil projects in Nigeria, expecting to unlock at least 180,000 barrels per day (bpd). 

Central to that investment is the Owowo deep-water asset, which holds between 500 million and one billion oil reserve, and whose development requires a tie-back to the company’s nearby Usan Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) facility.

ExxonMobil holds 27 per cent interest in the Owowo asset and is the operator, while Joint Venture Partners include Chevron Nigeria Limited (27 per cent), TotalEnergies E&P Nigeria Limited (18 per cent), Nexen Petroleum Deepwater Nigeria Limited (18 per cent), and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) (10 per cent).

Giving the latest information about the planned investments, ExxonMobil’s Chairman in Nigeria, Baxi, said the company was embarking on infill drilling campaign on the Usan field in order to recover more resource in it as shown by seismic result.

Though part of the original Usan reservoir, Baxi explained that the project would require new infrastructure, brand new wells, new subsea connections, and leveraged the Usan FPSO capability and capacity that exists today. 

He stated, “Back to the comment I made about seismic result, it became clear that there is resource, it’s material, it’s valuable, it can be produced with relative speed, different from a brand-new greenfield FID.

“We do plan to declare the investment ready in a short while.”

Baxi said the company had been working with all the stakeholders, including NNPC Ltd, as the concessionaire, their partners in OML 138, the regulators – Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) – to achieve all the relevant requirements needed to take the FID.

He disclosed that the investment for the Usan infill drilling programme was worth about $1 billion and ExxonMobil had already made 30 per cent commitment from that in the early works.

Baxi said, “And we are closing in on the point where all the important execution enablers will be clear and in place, and provide us the basis to declare that investment as ready to go. So, we’re excited that it’s close to the point you made. It will provide new production from deep-water in the near term.

“Within months of the campaign starting, we’ll be able to produce from this investment. The investment runs through almost all next year as a total campaign. It’s worth about one billion dollars in total, and we have already committed around 30 per cent of that in the early works, the early long-lead equipment and in the foundational contracts.

“That’s about the time a typical large investment would reach FID readiness. So, we’ll cross that gate or that milestone very soon.”