American oil giants Chevron and ExxonMobil have unveiled their 2024 spending plans, leaving Nigeria’s major oil projects hanging in uncertainty.
Despite rebounding from the 2020 crisis and experiencing robust cash flows in 2021, the multinational corporations have decided to exclude Nigeria from their strategic capital expenditure outlook.
Chevron, slated to spend between $18.5 billion and $19.5 billion on new oil and gas projects next year, made no mention of Nigeria’s ambitious 100,000-barrels-per-day Nsiko offshore deepwater project.
Similarly, ExxonMobil, eying an annual spending range of $22 billion to $27 billion through 2027, remained silent about Nigeria’s 80,000bpd Bosi oil field and the 110,000bpd Uge deepwater project.
In 2023, ExxonMobil’s funding plan also omitted Nigeria’s Owowo oil reserve field discovered in 2012.
The exclusion of Nigeria from the 2024 spending plans underscores a broader industry trend of international oil majors divesting from onshore and shallow-water assets due to challenges like insecurity, oil theft, and inadequate infrastructure in the region.
As Chevron and ExxonMobil prioritize ventures in Libya, Ivory Coast, Kazakhstan, Guyana, Brazil, and Singapore, Nigeria faces an uphill battle in attracting the essential investments required for its oil and gas sector’s development.
The move by these oil giants offers an opportunity for indigenous Nigerian companies to potentially gain market share by acquiring divested assets, signaling a shifting landscape in the nation’s oil industry.
