AfrOil: ExxonMobil reportedly preparing to exit Equatorial Guinea

The US super-major ExxonMobil has started ramping down oil production at Block B, located offshore Equatorial Guinea, and aims to exit the country once its licence for the site expires in 2026, two sources close to the matter informed Reuters on November 28.

According to the sources, the US giant is motivated partly by an industry-wide push to swap out ageing assets in West Africa for frontier African initiatives that have lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions intensity, such as deepwater drilling offshore Namibia.

One of the news agency’s sources also noted, though, that ExxonMobil had been cutting back at Block B for some time. The US-based company took its Zafiro production platform offline earlier this year and evacuated all staff after water entered the unit and has now trimmed output at the Serpentina platform to less than 15,000 barrels per day (bpd), the source said.