ExxonMobil Returns to Nigeria With $1B Deepwater Drilling Bet

ExxonMobil Returns to Nigeria With $1B Deepwater Drilling Bet

Quick Reads

• ExxonMobil is back drilling in Nigeria for the first time since 2016. The US oil major and its partners have committed $1 billion to the Usan Infill Project a deepwater oil development located about 70 kilometres off the Niger Delta coast with the ambition of adding 40,000 barrels of oil per day to Nigeria’s output within 18 months.

• Low oil prices, security issues in the Niger Delta, and regulatory delays including a long-running dispute over the sale of its onshore assets to Seplat Energy kept the company out of new drilling activity since 2016.

• UPRC, has a programme called Project 1 Million Barrels, targeting a jump in Nigeria’s production to 2.4 million barrels per day.

ExxonMobil and its partners have committed $1 billion to the Usan Infill Project offshore Nigeria, marking the first drilling activity by the US oil giant’s local affiliate in the country in a decade and expected to add 40,000 barrels per day to Nigeria’s crude production.

A Decade-Long Drilling Gap Ends in the Niger Delta

The ExxonMobil Usan Infill Project Nigeria announcement was made at the 25th Nigeria Oil and Gas Energy Week in Abuja by Jagir Baxi, Managing Director of ExxonMobil’s Nigerian affiliates, alongside NNPC Ltd and NUPRC Chief Executive Oritsemyiwa Eyesan. ExxonMobil’s Nigerian subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria, operates the Usan field under a production-sharing contract with NNPC Ltd on block OML 138, approximately 70 kilometres off the eastern Niger Delta coast.

The Usan field has been producing crude oil since 2012 and currently hosts around 34 subsea production and injection wells across eight subsea manifolds. Eyesan said first oil from the infill project expected within 18 months.

The return of ExxonMobil to active drilling in Nigeria carries significant weight. The company’s last drilling operation in the country was in 2016, a period when low oil prices, Niger Delta security threats, and regulatory uncertainty drove international oil companies into a prolonged retreat from new capital commitments.

ExxonMobil had separately agreed to sell its shallow-water onshore Nigerian assets to Seplat Energy in a $1.3 billion deal that suffered repeated delays before eventually receiving government approval. The Usan deepwater project structurally different offshore operations largely insulated from the land-based security and community tensions that shaped ExxonMobil’s onshore exit from Nigeria. Physical execution of the infill project begins in August 2026, with a deepwater drilling rig mobilised for the block and the sail-away of subsea equipment confirmed.

Nigeria’s regulator says the Usan project aligns with its Project 1 Million Barrels drive to reach 2.4 million barrels per day.