ExxonMobil highlights the opportunity
ExxonMobil recently highlighted the scale of the opportunity if Nigeria can manage to attract investment. The oil is there, but Nigeria needs to green light new projects.
ExxonMobil currently operates two deepwater FPSOs in the country and both are sorely underperforming due to lack of investment.
The Erha FPSO averaged production of around 63,500 bpd in 2025, well below its capacity of 210,000 bpd. The production sharing contract for Erha deepwater field has now been extended by the Nigerian Government to 2042, so ExxonMobil is now undertaking life extension works on the FPSO to increase production.
The company is also considering developing Bosi field, located adjacent to Erha, which Exxon says would require a new FPSO and associated pipelines. Production from the FPSO? That would be 150,000 bpd, as per sources, the same as Zabazaba and Bonga South West. The Bosi reservoir is believed to contain reserves of 600 million barrels.
As per newspaper Punch, ExxonMobil is also gearing up for potential new investments on the billion-barrel Owowo deepwater project, which will be developed as a subsea tieback to its existing Usan FPSO. Like the Erha FPSO, the Usan FPSO is under-performing due to reservoir depletion over two decades of production. Average production from the Usan facility was only 27,900 bpd in 2025, compared to nameplate capacity of 180,000 bpd.
ExxonMobile describes Owowo as a US$7 billion to US$8 billion project and its country manager has said that the company hoped to approve FID as early as next year.
Like Zabazaba, like Bonga South West and like Bosi, Owowo was discovered years ago and has sat there undeveloped since 2012. These are testaments to Nigeria’s greedy and incompetent regulatory framework.
The war in the Middle East provides a huge opportunity for countries like Brazil and Nigeria to raise their production as countries scramble to diversify their sources of supply. However, investment requires good government and stable laws. America and the UK could learn that, too.
Even Somalia might stand a chance in the oil business if TPAO strikes it lucky.
We’ll keep you posted.
Background reading
For all your Somalian news, Goobjoog News is your number one go-to site.
The Somalian Petroleum Authority website has some excellent articles on the background to the nation’s geology and oil and gas licencing rounds (of course it does).
If I had to choose between Ed Milliband, the UK Energy Secretary, and his Somali counterpart, Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Dahir Shire Mohamed, I would have to say Mr Shire Mohamed is doing a better job of promoting his country’s national interests and energy security. Shame on Mr Milliband.