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ExxonMobil has confirmed two senior representatives as speakers at the African Energy Week (AEW) 2026 Conference and Exhibition in Cape Town from October 12-16: Brian Unietis, President and Lead Country Manager of ExxonMobil Angola, and Jonathan Pratt, Senior Director of International Government Relations. Their participation reflects the breadth of ExxonMobil's engagement across the continent at a time when the company is advancing major projects in multiple African markets simultaneously.

ExxonMobil has invested more than $46 billion in Africa since 2006 and employs over 3,300 people on the continent, more than 90% of whom are respective nationals. The company's current footprint extends across Angola, Mozambique, Nigeria and Gabon, with active upstream operations, frontier exploration campaigns and one of the largest LNG developments on the continent moving toward a final investment decision.

In Angola, where Unietis assumed leadership in late 2025, the company is executing on two fronts. In April 2026, ExxonMobil awarded Subsea7 a major EPCI contract for the Likembe Redevelopment 2.0 project, which will connect additional reservoirs to existing Block 15 infrastructure through subsea tiebacks, extending the productive life of one of the country's most important deepwater assets.

At the same time, the company has partnered with TotalEnergies and the National Oil, Gas & Biofuels Agency to secure exploration rights across multiple blocks in the Benguela and Namibe basins – two frontier regions that could shape the next phase of Angolan offshore development. Geological evaluation continues following the company's first drilling campaign in the Namibe, a province that extends into Namibian waters.

In Mozambique, the $24 billion Rovuma LNG project is advancing toward a final investment decision after ExxonMobil lifted force majeure in late 2025 following improved security conditions in Cabo Delgado. ExxonMobil leads construction and operation of the onshore liquefaction facilities, which are designed to produce up to 18 mtpa of LNG. The project is one of the largest energy investments anywhere in Africa and would make Mozambique a major global gas exporter alongside the TotalEnergies-led Mozambique LNG and Eni's Coral floating LNG operations in the same basin.

In Gabon, ExxonMobil and bp signed memoranda of understanding in October 2025 for deepwater exploration, and the government confirmed earlier this year that PSCs are being finalized to convert those agreements into active licenses across acreage where roughly 72% of the deepwater remains unexplored.

Pratt, a former senior U.S. diplomat with extensive Africa experience, joined ExxonMobil's international government relations team and will represent the company's policy engagement across the continent at AEW 2026. The ExxonMobil Foundation's STEM Africa Challenge, which brings together high school students from Nigeria, Namibia, Angola and Mozambique, will also feature at the event.

“Having ExxonMobil's operational leadership and its government relations team both present at AEW reinforces the scale of the company's commitment to African energy,” says NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber. “This is an operator investing in new barrels, new basins and the long-term relationships needed to sustain that investment.”

At AEW 2026, Unietis and Pratt are expected to engage with operators, governments and investors on upstream development, frontier exploration and the policy environment shaping energy investment across Africa.