ExxonMobil is one of the largest oil producers in Africa. The production base currently includes operations in Angola,Chad, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and Nigeria. In addition to those countries, exploration activities are ongoing in Libya, Madagascar, the Republic of Congo, and the Nigeria-Sao Tome and Principe Joint Development Zone.

ExxonMobil is also progressing LNG opportunities in the region.

In deepwater areas offshore Africa, ExxonMobil holds interests in 22 blocks, totaling more than 24 million gross acres. ExxonMobil participated in 22 West Africa deepwater exploration wells during 2006.

Older fields, new oil

For many years Nigeria’s Ubit field production was limited to 30,000 barrels of oil per day. Then in the mid 1990s, an ExxonMobil 3-D survey unlocked the field’s true potential. Production was raised to 130,000 barrels per day with estimated proven  reserves almost doubling to one billion oil-equivalent barrels. ExxonMobil has also launched the East Area Additional Oil Recovery Project that will reinject gas to greatly improve oil recovery from several older fields and eliminate routine gas flaring.

Chad-Cameroon

The largest ExxonMobil -operated oil development project in continental Africa is being constructed in Chad and Cameroon. The US $3.5 billion project unlocking one billion barrels of oil in Chad, has raised the hope for significant economic growth in the country.

The project team consulted more than 250 international aid, health care, human rights and environmental groups in the eight years preceding development, and tens of thousands of people expressed their views in thousands of consultation meetings.

Over 35,000 Chadian and Cameroonian nationals have been employed during the development of the oil fields, and the construction of the pipeline. The project has also led to the upgrading of the rail system, construction and improvement of 400 miles of road infrastructure and the installation and repair of many new bridges.