ExxonMobil Reaffirms Commitment to Nigeria with $1.5 Billion Deepwater Oil Investment
ExxonMobil has announced a fresh $1.5 billion investment in Nigeria’s deepwater oil exploration and development, reinforcing its long-term commitment to the country’s energy sector despite recent industry speculation.
The announcement came during a courtesy visit by ExxonMobil’s Managing Director, Shane Harris, to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) CEO, Gbenga Komolafe, on Tuesday.
According to a statement from the commission, the new capital injection will be focused on rejuvenating production in the Usan deepwater oil field. The investment is scheduled for implementation between Q2 2025 and 2027, with a final investment decision (FID) expected by late Q3 2025, pending final approvals.
“This is in addition to investment targeted at the accelerated development of the Owowo and Erha deepwater oil fields, amongst others,” the NUPRC stated, highlighting the scale and breadth of ExxonMobil’s future plans.
The development comes as a clear rebuttal to persistent rumors about ExxonMobil’s possible exit from Nigeria. Instead, the company appears to be doubling down, signaling a strategic expansion of its operations.
Shane Harris emphasised that the $1.5 billion pledge reflects ExxonMobil’s strong confidence in Nigeria’s upstream capacity and its willingness to play a pivotal role in revitalising oil production.
He also reaffirmed the company’s support for NUPRC’s ambitious “Project 1 Million Barrels,” an initiative aimed at scaling national crude output to 2.4 million barrels per day in the medium term.
Responding to the commitment, Komolafe described ExxonMobil’s decision as a “vote of confidence” in Nigeria’s regulatory framework. He pledged the commission’s full support to facilitate the smooth execution of the project and stressed the importance of investor-regulator synergy in achieving national energy goals.
Komolafe also reiterated the importance of adhering to Nigeria’s Domestic Crude Supply Obligation (DCSO), and called on operators to ensure transparency and accountability, particularly under Section 109 of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), which governs market-based crude sales under the “willing buyer, willing seller” framework.
The $1.5 billion pledge follows an earlier announcement by ExxonMobil in September 2024 to invest $10 billion in Nigeria’s deepwater oil operations. That momentum continued with Seplat Energy’s acquisition of Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited (MPNU) from ExxonMobil three months later, further reshaping Nigeria’s oil landscape.
