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Oil giant Shell will invest in a deep-water reserve in southern Nigeria that could produce 110,000 barrels of oil per day. The announcement comes days after another deal in Africa’s top oil producing country that sees ExxonMobil’s business in the country acquired by energy company Seplat for $1.2 billion.
Shell Nigeria’s Bonga North project will complement a two decade-old floating production storage and offloading operation that produced its one billionth barrel of oil last year, the company said on Monday. The Bonga North facility contains more than 300 million barrels of oil equivalent.
ExxonMobil Nigeria’s sale was first mooted in 2022 but was only approved by Nigeria’s president in October. The business is involved in a joint venture with state-owned oil company NNPC that contributes 12% of Nigeria’s crude oil production, a Seplat investor disclosure this month said.
Listed in Lagos and London, Seplat becomes one of Nigeria’s top oil industry players with this acquisition. The assets it takes over include over 600 wells the company said are operating at below a third of their production capacities.
— Alexander Onukwue in Lagos
