IN THIS ARTICLE WE WILL BE LOOKING AT CHEVRON, EXXONMOBIL SNUB NIGERIA IN 2024 SPENDING PLAN.
Oil major Chevron Corp opens new tab said on Wednesday that it expects to spend between $18.5 billion and $19.5 billion next year on new oil and gas projects, an 11% increase on this year. Its 2024 budget and that of rival Exxon Mobil, opens new tab reflect the industry’s continuing rebound after pandemic-influenced pullbacks, recent acquisitions and carbon reduction initiatives. Exxon plans to spend between $22 billion and $27 billion annually through 2027. While both are spending more, the combined sums are about half the combined $84 billion Exxon and Chevron spent in 2013, when oil prices often traded above $100 per barrel. The two are benefiting from higher energy prices and pandemic cost-cuts.
CHEVRON, EXXONMOBIL SNUB NIGERIA IN 2024 SPENDING PLAN
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 this 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.
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Chevron for example, ignored Nigeria’s 100,000-barrels-per-day (bpd) Nsiko offshore deep-water project, despite plans to spend between $18.5 billion and $19.5 billion this 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 deep-water 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 2023 that it would sell its onshore subsidiary to Oando Plc.
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Addax Petroleum Development Plc exited from its four major mining oil blocs in 2022. To mention but a few. ExxonMobil announced in February last year that it had agreed to sell its equity interest in Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, which holds a 40 percent stake in four oil mining licences, including more than 90 shallow-water and onshore platforms and 300 producing wells, to Seplat Energy Plc. But the transaction has been blocked by the regulator and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company.
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.