Nigeria: NNPC, Exxonmobil Meet As Usan Infill Work Begins On ml 138

What the report says

NNPC Limited has held talks with ExxonMobil on increasing deepwater oil production and advancing new offshore investment in Nigeria, according to Leadership as republished by AllAfrica. The meeting took place in Abuja and involved NNPC’s group chief executive officer, Bashir Bayo Ojulari, and an ExxonMobil delegation led by Jagir Baxi, who oversees the company’s Nigerian affiliates.

The discussions came shortly after work started on the Usan Infill Project in Oil Mining Lease 138, an offshore block operated by ExxonMobil under a production sharing contract with NNPC. The project is valued at about US$1 billion and is expected to add roughly 40,000 barrels per day when completed, based on the reporting provided. It is also described as ExxonMobil’s first drilling campaign in Nigeria since 2016.

The Usan work is intended to improve recovery from the existing field through additional wells and infill drilling, while also extending the asset’s productive life. More broadly, the engagement reflects efforts by NNPC and its foreign partners to raise output from current assets and attract fresh capital into Nigeria’s deepwater oil sector.

For Nigeria, the development matters because offshore production remains an important part of national crude output and investment in the segment has been uneven in recent years. The article suggests the renewed activity at Usan could signal a broader pickup in deepwater interest, though it does not detail any final investment commitments beyond the talks reported by NNPC.