Kachikwu made this known while briefing newsmen after a facility tour of ExxonMobil ERHA Floating Production Storage and Offloading Vessels (FPSO), in Lagos on Sunday.

The floating production storage and offloading vessels unit is a floating vessel used by the offshore oil and gas industry for the production and processing of hydrocarbons for the storage of oil.

ERHA FPSO has a liquid storage capacity of 2.2 million barrel, making it one of the biggest of its kinds in the world.

The fields are located approximately 97 kilometers offshore Nigeria in water depths ranging from 1,000m to 1,200m. They were developed with an investment of 3.5 billion dollars.

He said that it was not possible for a company like ExxonMobil to sell off its assets for the small amount quoted in the report, as its assets were worth more than that.

Kachikwu urged the company to brace up to the challenges in the sector as oil has recently been found in many African countries.