EXXON SEEKS TO SELL OUT OF TANZANIAN GAS FIELD

An Exxon gas station is viewed in a Brooklyn neighbourhood, New York City. The firm is seeking buyers for its stake in a large undeveloped gas field off Tanzania.

Exxon Mobil is seeking buyers for its stake in a large undeveloped gas field off Tanzania, according to three banking and industry sources, as the company focuses on the development of an even bigger project in neighboring Mozambique.

The planned sale is an example of Chief Executive Darren Woods’ strategy of freeing up cash and narrowing the American firm’s focus on a number of giant projects around the world deemed to have the best prospects, including in Mozambique, Guyana and US shale.

Woods, who became CEO in January 2017 after predecessor Rex Tillerson retired and became US secretary of state, has come under heavy pressure from investors over the past year to turn around the world’s largest publicly-traded oil and gas company as its output and earnings sagged.

Exxon holds a 35 percent stake in Tanzania’s deepwater Block 2 field that was discovered earlier this decade.

It holds an estimated 23 trillion cubic feet of gas, according to the website of Norway’s Equinor, which operates the block and holds a 65 percent stake.

The prospect has faced repeated delays in recent years due mainly to a lack of infrastructure and regulation for the country’s nascent oil and gas sector, complicating any sale.

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