ExxonMobil is making its biggest move in Nigeria’s upstream oil sector in nearly a decade, committing about $1 billion to a deepwater project expected to add 40,000 barrels of crude oil per day as Africa’s largest producer seeks to revive investment and reverse years of declining output.
The U.S. oil major, through its Nigerian affiliate Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Offshore East) Limited, has commenced work on the Usan Infill Project in Oil Mining Lease (OML) 138, marking its first drilling campaign in Nigeria since 2016.
The investment, announced on Wednesday during NOG Energy Week in Abuja, is expected to deliver first oil within 18 months and increase production from the Usan Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) facility through new infill wells identified after seismic studies completed in 2024.
The $1 billion project is being funded by Esso and its partners in OML 138, Chevron, TotalEnergies and Nexen, a subsidiary of China’s CNOOC, under a production-sharing contract with NNPC Ltd.
The announcement is significant for Nigeria’s oil industry, where international energy companies have scaled back investment over the past decade amid regulatory uncertainty, security concerns, crude theft and years of underinvestment.
