Africa shines for ExxonMobil
By Upstream staff
US supermajor ExxonMobil aims to boost its African output by 50% by the end of the decade as it expands in major producers Nigeria and Angola and steps up exploration in targets like Madagascar, a top official said today.
"By the end of the decade, planned developments in several countries are expected to increase our African production by about 50%," Kevin Biddle, vice president for Africa, told an oil conference in Cape Town.
ExxonMobil currently produces about 2 million oil equivalent barrels per day in Africa on a gross basis. New projects will add around 4 million barrels a day, but part of this will go to offset declining production at certain operations, he said.
Biddle asked for partners to join ExxonMobil in Madagascar, which could turn into an important new producer.
"In terms of maturity, the deep water in Madagascar today is where deep water in Angola was in the early 1990s. There's a high degree of uncertainty and risk but the potential is also high," he told Reuters
ExxonMobil has interests in four blocks in the north-east part of the island that total 22 million acres, a third of the company's total African acreage, he said.
"Additional seismic and magnetic surveys are planned for 2006 and we anticipate drilling of our first deep-water well in 2006 or 2007."
Biddle said most of the company's new output would come from big players Nigeria and Angola.
In Angola, ExxonMobil seeks to boost output by 1.3 million barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2010 with eight project start-ups, including an liquefied national gas project.
In block 15 - which has combined recoverable resources of 4.5 billion barrels - Kizomba B is now producing 250,000 barrels per day, up from 200,000 when it started production in July.
Kizomba C and D are due to come into production in coming years with more than 200,000 barrels and 125,000 barrels respectively, Biddle said.
In Nigeria, where ExxonMobil has 15 blocks, around 10 new projects are due to add 1.2 million bpd of production by the end of the decade.
The supermajor has invested $12 billion in Africa since 2000 and plans to spend an additional amount before the end of the decade, he added.
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09 November 2005 13:13 GMT | last updated: 09 November 2005 13:13 GMT
