Almost 2 and also a half years after going out Nigeria’s downstream oil industry, ExxonMobil is actually analyzing the sale of some oil as well as gas fields in the country.
The United States-based oil major just recently held talks on the sale of a suite of oil as well as fuel fields in Nigeria as the company currently pays attention to brand new progressions in US shale and also Guyana, Reuters quoted industry and financial sources as saying.
The potential disposals are expected to feature concerns in onshore as well as offshore fields and also could possibly raise approximately $3bn, depending on two sources.
“Exxon is actively divesting in Nigeria,” one source, that was informed on the divestment plannings, was quoted as stating.
The company is one of the most extensive oil as well as fuel developers in Nigeria, along with 106 operating platforms. Its own oil output in the country averaged 225,000 gun barrels each day in 2017, its website stated.
Exxon authorities were pointed out to have held talks in recent weeks with a number of Nigerian companies to evaluate their interest in the fields.
One source said Exxon was soon due to open a “data room” – which would provide technical information on the fields, such as seismic and production details – in Nigeria.
The conversations concentrated on a number of onshore fields Exxon shares in joint ventures with Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, including Oil Mining Leases 66, 68, 70 and 104, according to one source.
Exxon’s allotment of oil production in those fields arrived at 120,000 bpd in 2017, the final year for which information was actually offered.
Exxon is actually also examining the possible purchase of concerns in offshore fields in Nigeria, according to two sources.
When asked for comment, the Manager, Media as well as Communications, Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, Mr Oge Udeagha, declined to discuss the issue.
“ExxonMobil is committed to its long-term business operations in Nigeria. As a matter of practice, we don’t comment on business discussions,” he told our correspondent in an emailed response to an enquiry.
In October 2016, the oil primary divested its own 60 per cent concern in Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc to Nipco Plc, an indigenous Nigerian downstream oil and also gasoline firm.
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The Nigerian government has in the last decade sustained a drive by domestic companies such as Oando Plc, Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc as well as Aiteo Group to expand their operations in the country as international companies including Royal Dutch Shell sought to lower their presence due to oil spills resulting from pipeline sabotage.
Exxon recently launched the sale of its stake in Azerbaijan’s largest oilfield, which would mark its retreat from the former Soviet state after 25 years.
Exxon declared earlier this year plans to enhance its own capital spending coming from $26bn in 2018 to $30bn in 2019 and also approximately $35bn the following year as it looks for to develop oilfields in Guyana and the United States Permian basin along with gas projects in Mozambique and also the US Gulf Coast.
In an expert discussion last month, Exxon mentioned it would certainly accelerate its own divestments to around $15bn by 2021.
