American oil giants, Chevron and ExxonMobil have snubbed Nigeria in their 2024 spending plan, ignoring several major projects in the country.
The two oil companies have recovered from the 2020 crisis with bumper cash flows in 2021 and are making plans to boost their capital spending next year. There is no mention of Nigeria in their capital expenditure outlook. While Libya, Ivory Coast, Kazakhstan, Guyana, Brazil and Singapore, among others, feature prominently in it.
Chevron for example, ignored Nigeria’s 100,000-barrels-per-day (bpd) Nsiko offshore deepwater project despite plans to spend between $18.5 billion and $19.5 billion next year on new oil and gas projects, an 11 percent increase this year.
ExxonMobil was silent about Nigeria’s 80,000bpd Bosi oil field it discovered in 2006, and the 110,000bpd Uge deepwater project.
Their decision comes as Nigeria grapples with a number of challenges, including insecurity, oil theft, and a lack of infrastructure. These challenges have made it difficult for the country to attract the investment needed to develop its oil and gas resources.
Many international oil companies have sold their assets in Nigeria in the past year.
Equinor had last month sold its Nigerian subsidiary to a little-known Nigerian company Chappal Energy, Italy’s Eni announced in September that it would sell its onshore subsidiary to Oando Plc. Addax Petroleum Development Plc exited from its four major mining oil blocs last year. To mention but a few.
Charles Akinbobola, an energy analyst at Sofidam Capital, said that the global oil companies are pulling out of their investment in onshore and shallow water assets, because of the widespread of theft and vandalism over the years.
