Exxon Mobil to sink billions into Africa

Exxon Mobil to sink billions into Africa

Oil giant plans to raise production there by 50 percent

Bloomberg News

Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil company, said Wednesday it will spend $24 billion in Africa over the next decade as it seeks to boost production from the continent by 50 percent.

"Over the last five years we have invested $12 billion in the African continent," Kevin Biddle, the company's vice president for Africa, said at the Africa Upstream oil conference in Cape Town, South Africa. "We plan to double that over the next decade."

The company will focus mainly on Nigeria and Angola, he said. Next year, Exxon Mobil plans to drill its first deep-water well off Madagascar, where it owns four exploration blocks.

Irving-based Exxon Mobil is expanding projects in West Africa and Russia to make up for drops in U.S. production.

The company gets about 650,000 barrels of oil a day from Africa.

"Africa is becoming more and more important," Biddle said. "By the end of the decade, planned developments in several African countries are expected to increase our production in Africa by about 50 percent."

Exxon Mobil has invested in 29 new production projects in Africa this decade, 11 of which already produce oil.

Those projects will potentially add 4 million barrels of production capacity, "although it's unlikely we will ever reach that," Biddle said in an interview.

Eight new projects are planned in Angola and 10 in Nigeria. Exxon Mobil will also drill 30 exploration wells off Angola and in the Congo basin and 10 off Nigeria.

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