Brazil’s Petrobras is preparing to re-enter Nigeria’s oil industry, focusing on deepwater exploration, Nigerian media reported, quoting a senior government official.
Stanley Knwocha, a senior aide in Nigeria’s vice president’s office, told Business Day that ties between Nigeria and Brazil have not been fully leveraged. He said the upcoming Strategic Dialogue Mechanism (SDM) offers a chance to finalize sector-specific agreements and attract investment.
Nigeria’s foreign minister told Reuters that Petrobras, which is currently inactive in Nigeria, is eager to return and is interested in frontier deepwater blocks. Petrobras operated in Nigeria’s deepwater sector about 30 years ago but exited a decade ago by selling its assets to fund growth at home.
Petrobras plans to invest $111 billion from 2025 to 2029. Of this, $77 billion will go toward oil and gas exploration and production. This is an increase from an earlier plan of $73 billion and from a prior $102 billion total budget.
Most of the spending will focus on Brazil, where Petrobras aims to increase output by improving recovery at existing fields. However, billions will also support new discoveries and international growth.
Nigeria is actively seeking oil investors as it aims to boost production. Earlier this year, Exxon announced a $1.5 billion investment in deepwater oil and gas development in Nigeria, providing a positive sign for the country’s oil sector.
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