Chevron announced it is expanding its exploration acreage in key African oil producers, including Nigeria and Angola, citing potential for a production rebound despite years of decline, Bloomberg reported.
The company’s Vice President, Global Exploration, Liz Schwarze, said that Chevron was interested in ramping up its activities in the African countries where there had been a decline in production in recent years.
West Africa is “such a hydrocarbon rich part of the world and relatively under-explored compared to other jurisdictions,” said Schwarze. While some peers area heading for the exit, Chevron is adding multiple blocks.
In Nigeria — where oil production has slipped about half a million barrels a day over the last five years — Chevron acquired a stake in a new exploration block and made a separate discovery last month, Schwarze said.
The company also took on two deep-water licenses in nearby Equatorial Guinea, another declining producer. “The proof is in the action,” Schwarze said in an interview with Bloomberg in Cape Town.
The biggest crude producers on the continent have fallen far below their peak production levels as oil majors have focused their investments elsewhere, or departed countries completely after decades of operations.
Frontier exploration remains an important aspect of Chevron’s search for resources on the continent, Schwarze added.
Chevron’s recent oil discovery in the Niger Delta, also has the potential to produce up to 17,000 barrels per day.
The discovery, termed a “near-field find,” was made with the Meji NW-1 well within Petroleum Mining Lease 49, according to a statement from Chevron released last month.
