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ExxonMobil declares force majeure on Nigeria’s Qua Iboe crude oil: spokesman

15 July 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) – ExxonMobil subsidiary Mobil Producing Nigeria has declared force majeure on exports of Nigeria’s Qua Iboe crude oil, the country’s largest export stream, a spokesman said on Friday.

The declaration came after the company observed a “system anomaly” during a routine check of its loading facility on July 14.

“We are working to ensure loading activities at the facility return to normal. We cannot speculate on any timeline for repairs,” the spokesman said. “Qua Iboe Terminal is operating and production activities continue.”

Nigeria has struggled to maintain its crude oil production following a spate of militant attacks and technical problems that in May pushed production briefly to 30-year lows. While the cause of the latest issue was not immediately clear, traders said it would take least two to four weeks to repair.

Earlier this week, Exxon denied claims from militant group the Niger Delta Avengers to have blown up the Qua Iboe 48″ crude oil export pipeline operated by the company.

Spokesman Todd Spitler said on Friday there was no connection between the force majeure and militant attacks.

Exxon has struggled to bring production of Qua Iboe back to normal after an accident in May on a drilling rig that damaged a pipeline, after which the company also declared force majeure.

Since lifting that declaration in early June, there have been roughly three revisions to loading schedules, attributed to a slower-than-expected resumption of flows, with loading delays of at least five days.

 

(Reporting by Libby George; editing by David Clarke and David Evans)

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Exxon Mobil in talks to buy into Eni’s giant Mozambique gas field

25 March 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

MILAN/LONDON (Reuters) – Exxon Mobil is in talks to buy a stake of around 15 percent in Italian oil major Eni’s giant Area 4 gas field in Mozambique, two sources familiar with the matter said. Exxon is seen as a front-runner to buy into Eni’s gas development and this would be the U.S. firm’s first big acquisition since the oil price collapse. Area 4, in which Eni holds a 50 percent operating stake, is located in Mozambique’s Rovuma Basin, where gas in place amounts to some 85 trillion cubic feet — one of the richest gas discoveries of recent times.It will feed a series of onshore LNG export plants, mainly supplying Asian markets. ENI said previously it aimed to sell around 15 percent of the field.

Two sources said Exxon was in talks to buy a stake of that size, one of whom said Eni was also negotiating with other firms. “I am upbeat a deal will be reached fairly soon,” the second source said. A banking source familiar with the matter said Exxon was interested in buying Eni’s whole 50 percent stake, while a fourth source said Exxon was looking at unspecified stakes in all Eni holdings up for sale, also including assets in Egypt and elsewhere in Africa. Exxon and Eni declined to comment. Eni, a front-runner among the majors in finding reserves, said earlier this month it would sell 7 billion euros of assets to 2019, most from farming down prize acreage. But it aims to hang on to operatorship of the fields. “The disposals will be mainly through the dilution of our stakes in recent and material discoveries,” CEO Claudio Descalzi said earlier this month, picking out Mozambique and Egypt as prime candidates. Descalzi said the group was not far from disposal in Mozambique, where it was holding talks with “a lot of interested parties”. Sales talks have got bogged down in recent years after crashing oil and gas prices drove a wedge between buyers’ and sellers’ price expectations, industry sources have said. Eni has been in talks with several buyers including China’s Huadian Corp, sources have said. The huge productive capacity of Eni’s Mozambique acreage attracted peak valuations two years ago, when Eni sold 20 percent to China’s CNPC for $4.2 billion, amid strong competition for reserves.

 

(Reporting by Oleg Vukmanovic and Stephen Jewkes in Milan, Ron Bousso and Freya Berry in London, Terry Wade in Houston; editing by John Stonestreet)

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Exxon Mobil to drill offshore post-Ebola Liberia in 2017

15 November 2015 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

MONROVIA (Reuters) – Exxon Mobil Corp said it plans to start drilling in Liberia in 2017, in what President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said was a sign of economic recovery after the Ebola epidemic.

The West African country produces no oil but has awarded a number of exploration blocs offshore, following the examples of Gulf of Guinea neighbours Ghana and Nigeria.

Exxon Mobil intends to start drilling late 2017, Steven Buck, its country manager for Liberia and Ivory Coast, said. The U.S. oil major signed for bloc 13 in 2003 but put the project on hold due to the Ebola epidemic.

The worst known outbreak of the haemorrhagic fever killed 4,800 people in the country and deterred investors. Liberia was declared Ebola-free in September but Johnson Sirleaf has said it will take two years to regain its economic footing.

“I am very excited to see Exxon Mobil here,” she said on Thursday after a meeting with Buck. “Their presence demonstrates to the world that Liberia is once more on the move.”

The United States has lifted economic sanctions on Liberia that it had put in place against former president Charles Taylor, who is serving a 50-year sentence for atrocities committed in Sierra Leone during its civil war.

 

(Reporting by Alphonso Toweh; Writing by Emma Farge and Makini Brice, editing by William Hardy)

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