ExxonMobil has indicated it could reach a Final Investment Decision on its Owowo deepwater project in Nigeria as early as next year, a move that would trigger one of the largest capital commitments the country’s oil sector has seen in years and potentially add up to one billion barrels of reserves to active development.
The company’s vice president for deepwater offshore stated this in comments reported by S&P Global, signaling that 2026 and 2027 would be a critical period for front-end engineering, regulatory clearances, and alignment with the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission on field development planning, domestic value retention, and environmental compliance.
ExxonMobil holds a 27 percent operating interest in Owowo, which straddles Oil Mining Leases 139 and 154. Joint venture partners include Chevron Nigeria Limited at 27 percent, TotalEnergies E&P Nigeria Limited and Nexen Petroleum Deepwater Nigeria Limited each at 18 percent, and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited at 10 percent.
The project is estimated to cost between seven and eight billion dollars and holds between 500 million and one billion barrels of oil reserves. Development would require a tie-back to ExxonMobil’s existing Usan floating production, storage, and offloading facility in the area.
ExxonMobil’s chairman and managing director in Nigeria has separately outlined the company’s ambition to grow its total Nigerian oil production from the current 100,000 barrels per day to 250,000 barrels per day within five years, with Owowo sitting at the center of that expansion plan alongside the Bosi field in OML 133, which could attract a further 15 to 16 billion dollars if developed with a new FPSO.
The company had previously announced its intention to invest 10 billion dollars in Nigerian deepwater projects during a 2024 meeting between its executives and Vice President Kashim Shettima in New York. ExxonMobil has described Nigeria’s improved investment climate as a key factor in its renewed commitment to the country, including extensions on existing production sharing contracts and life extension works on the Erha FPSO to restore it to maximum performance.
