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ExxonMobil Under Fire Over Delayed $1bn Usan Oil Field Development

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ExxonMobil Usan Project promises new oil output but also raises questions over years of delayed investment and regulatory oversight in Nigeria

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The announcement by ExxonMobil of a $1 billion investment in the ExxonMobil Usan Project has been welcomed as a positive development for Nigeria’s oil industry.

Also readNNPCL Signs Bold Deal With Chinese Firms for Refinery Revival

The offshore development is expected to add about 40,000 barrels of crude oil per day when production peaks, offering a timely boost to a country seeking to raise output and improve foreign exchange earnings.

Yet, behind the optimism surrounding the investment lies a broader conversation about whether the project represents genuine progress or the delayed delivery of an opportunity that has existed for years.

For almost a decade, ExxonMobil’s Nigerian affiliate, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited, carried out little new drilling activity after its last major campaign in 2016.

During that period, Nigeria struggled with declining crude oil production, fluctuating government revenues, crude theft and reduced investment across the upstream sector.

Against that backdrop, industry observers argue that the Usan development raises an unavoidable question: why has a project capable of reaching first oil within months only now moved into execution?

The Usan field is not a newly discovered asset. Existing infrastructure, including the Floating Production, Storage and Offloading vessel, was already available, known reserves had been appraised and the technical capability to execute an infill drilling programme had long existed.

For some analysts, the latest investment therefore represents less of a breakthrough than the implementation of a project whose commercial potential had been evident for years.

That delay carries significant economic implications.

Throughout the period of inactivity, Nigeria sought to increase production to maximise earnings during periods of relatively favourable oil prices while also attempting to attract fresh upstream investment.

Each year without additional production represented forgone export earnings, government revenue and associated economic activity.

The discussion also extends beyond ExxonMobil itself.

Regulatory institutions, including the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, have statutory responsibilities to promote investment, improve efficiency and safeguard Nigeria’s interests within the petroleum sector.

While those agencies have welcomed the project as evidence of renewed investor confidence following the implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act, critics contend that questions remain over whether stronger regulatory engagement could have accelerated the development years earlier.

The project’s execution strategy has also drawn attention.

Rather than constructing entirely new production infrastructure, ExxonMobil plans to develop the field by tying new wells back to the existing Floating Production, Storage and Offloading facility.

From an operational standpoint, the approach reduces capital expenditure, shortens project timelines and improves commercial efficiency.

However, some industry commentators argue that under Nigeria’s Production Sharing Contract framework, lower upfront investment also enables operators to recover development costs more quickly before profit sharing with the government increases.

While such an approach is commercially rational for investors, it has prompted debate over whether Nigeria is fully optimising the long-term value of its hydrocarbon resources.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of the announcement is the project’s implementation schedule.

ExxonMobil has indicated that first oil is expected within six months of execution, with peak production anticipated within 18 months.

To many observers, that timeline suggests the principal obstacle was not technical capability but the pace of investment decisions and project execution.

If the additional production can be delivered so rapidly, questions naturally arise over how much output and revenue may have been lost during the intervening years.

At the same time, there are countervailing considerations.

Global upstream investment decisions have been shaped by volatile oil prices, changing energy transition policies, investor demands for capital discipline and the regulatory uncertainty that preceded Nigeria’s Petroleum Industry Act.

International oil companies have increasingly prioritised projects capable of delivering competitive returns within evolving global portfolios.

Those factors provide important context for understanding why several large-scale Nigerian upstream projects experienced delays across the industry rather than at ExxonMobil alone.

The ExxonMobil Usan Project nevertheless offers an important opportunity for reflection.

If successfully delivered, the investment will contribute additional crude production, support government revenues and reinforce confidence in Nigeria’s offshore sector.

Equally, it highlights the importance of creating a regulatory environment that not only approves investments efficiently but also encourages timely project execution and greater accountability from both operators and public institutions.

As Nigeria seeks to reverse declining production and attract fresh capital into its petroleum industry, the success of future projects may depend as much on reducing delays as on securing new investment commitments.

Also readNNPC Brings Together Top African R&D Chiefs For Energy Innovation Drive

The Usan development demonstrates that significant opportunities remain available, but unlocking them consistently will require coordinated action from investors, regulators and policymakers alike.

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Heirs Life Names Pastor Jerry Eze Independent Non-Executive Director

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Heirs Life appoints Jerry Eze as an Independent Non-Executive Director to strengthen financial inclusion, consumer trust and insurance adoption (more…)

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Shoreline Group secures US$200 million Afreximbank Facility

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Shoreline Group today announced that African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has approved a US$200 million facility in favour of Shoreline Power Company Limited and co-borrowers including Arkad S.p.A., Shoreline’s majority-owned engineering and construction platform.
Approved in June 2026, the facility was arranged and provided by Afreximbank as sole mandated lead arranger and lender. It provides bonding and working-capital capacity for Arkad’s delivery of the Hassi Bir Rekaiz project and supports Shoreline and its affiliates in developing further pipeline and infrastructure
projects in Nigeria and other permitted jurisdictions.
“This is a defining transaction for Shoreline and Arkad. We built Arkad as an African- sponsored engineering platform capable of competing at the highest level, and it is now delivering against a billion-dollar energy contract. Afreximbank’s US$200 million commitment gives the platform the financial strength to match its engineering capability and pursue further major infrastructure mandates. It demonstrates that African enterprises can assemble the capital, capability and partnerships required to compete for infrastructure at international scale.”
Hassi Bir Rekaiz Phase 2a Arkad holds 44 per cent of the approximately US$1 billion EPCCS-1 contract awarded by Groupement
Hassi Bir Rekaiz (GHBR) to an unincorporated consortium led by Egypt’s Petrojet, which holds 56 percent. EPCCS-1 covers engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning and start-up for the Phase 2a central processing facility and related infrastructure at the Hassi Bir Rekaiz field in Algeria’s Berkine
Basin.
GHBR is the joint operating entity for the licence, held by Sonatrach with 51 per cent and Thailand’s PTTEP with 49 per cent. The project includes a new crude oil processing facility with capacity of 31,500 barrels per day, facilities for associated gas and produced-water treatment, approximately 217 kilometres
of pipelines and the brownfield modifications required to integrate existing Phase 1 infrastructure.
The facilities are designed to support later expansion to 63,000 barrels per day under Phase 2b.
“This financing addresses the instruments that determine whether an EPC contractor can execute at scale: performance guarantees, advance payment guarantees and working capital through the project cycle. Hassi Bir Rekaiz is a demanding scope, combining a new central processing facility, associated treatment systems, pipelines and brownfield integration. With Petrojet, and with the support of Shoreline and Afreximbank, Arkad is focused on disciplined delivery against the project’s safety, quality and schedule requirements.”
The transaction was structured under Afreximbank’s Engineering, Procurement and Construction Initiative, which supports African engineering and construction firms with the financial instruments required to compete for and execute large infrastructure contracts. Afreximbank also supported the Arkad-Petrojet partnership through its EPC twinning work at the Intra-African Trade Fair held in Algiers
in 2025.
According to Afreximbank, the transaction is its first support for a Sub-Saharan African contractor undertaking a major infrastructure project in North Africa. For Shoreline, it demonstrates a practical model for combining African ownership and capital with established international engineering andindustrial capability.

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BUSINESSWOMAN AISHA ACHIMUGU SPEAKS OUT, CALLS FOR PROTECTION OF LIFE AND RESPECT FOR RULE OF LAW

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Nigerian businesswoman and investor Aisha Achimugu has made a public appeal for the protection of her life, her family, and her business interests while alleging a sustained campaign of intimidation, media trial, and asset seizures.

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Achimugu, in a statement Tuesday, said she is facing actions that she described as an affront to the rule of law and natural justice.
She then called for the respect for court orders and for an end to what she termed misleading media coverage about her person and companies.
According to Achimugu, the widow of the late Engr. Sulaiman Achimugu, former Managing Director of the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company, PPMC, she has over the last three decades built businesses in the oil and gas and other sectors, and runs the SAM Empowerment Foundation, SEF, which she said has implemented health, education, and community projects across Nigeria.
The businesswoman, however, alleged that since 2023 she has been the subject of investigations and actions by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Narrating her ordeals, Achimugu noted that in 2023, the EFCC’s Port Harcourt zonal office froze her personal accounts, her children’s accounts, and company accounts linked to the Felak Group, based on an interim forfeiture order.
She said this was connected to a mistaken association with MBA Forex and Capital Investment.
Achimugu stated that in January 2024 she honoured an EFCC invitation with her counsel, clarified her company’s single transaction with MBA Forex, and refunded N58 million by bank draft to the EFCC recovery account.
In March 2025, the businesswoman said she received WhatsApp messages inviting her to the EFCC Port Harcourt office. Her lawyer responded in writing, proposing dates in April 2025. Despite this, she alleged a media campaign began on March 10, 2025 linking her to wrongdoing.
On March 28, 2025, the same day her company, Oceangate Oil & Gas Limited, submitted proof of $20 million payment to NUPRC for oil blocks PPL 302-DO and PPL 3007, subsequently, she claimed the EFCC declared her a “Wanted Person” for “conspiracy and money laundering.” She also alleged that EFCC operatives searched her home that day.
In April 2025, Achimugu said she filed a fundamental rights suit at the Federal High Court, Abuja. But upon returning to Nigeria on April 28, 2025 from a foreign trip, she alleged she was taken into EFCC custody, granted bail by a judge, but released five days later. She also said her international passport was collected.
She alleged further asset actions, including freezing of bank accounts, and the seizure of vehicles from her home in January 2026. She said matters relating to these actions are the subject of ongoing litigation and appeals.
Achimugu also alleged that her United States visa was revoked in April 2025, and that she encountered issues with visa processing related to her Grenadian citizenship, which she linked to media reports citing the EFCC’s declaration.
Achimugu stated that she has invested nearly $90 million in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector in the last five years and has attracted over $100 million in investments into the economy while directly employs close to 200 Nigerians.
However, she said the actions of the anti-graft agency have affected her business operations, international partnerships, and family, including her elderly parents and young children.
Achimugu then called on the National Assembly, the Judiciary, security services, and local and international human rights organizations to examine her case.
She also asked for the protection of her life and properties, respect for court orders, and an end to what she described as a “media trial”.
“I believe that justice delayed is justice denied, and I am not afraid to face the law provided due process is followed. My lawyers are pursuing all legal remedies locally and internationally,” she said.
Achimugu added that she remains committed to Nigeria and to supporting private sector growth.

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