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UNCLAS CASABLANCA 000282 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/29/2018 
TAGS: ECON EPET ENRG EFIN MO
SUBJECT: EXXONMOBIL SELLS SHARES IN MOROCCAN AFFILIATE 
 
 
This message is sensitive but unclassified.  It contains proprietary 
information, not for public release. 
 
REF: 06 TUNIS 02970 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: ExxonMobil will announce on January 30 a strategic 
decision to sell its shares of Mobil Oil Maroc to Libya Oil Holdings 
Limited, a Libyan-government entity.  The sale's impact on Morocco is 
expected to be minor.  End Summary. 
 
--------------------------------------------- 
EXXONMOBIL SELLS MOBIL OIL MAROC TO LIBYA OIL 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Henri Soudan, Lead Country Manager for Mobil Oil Maroc, 
informed the CG on January 29 that ExxonMobil will announce on 
January 30 an agreement signed last week to sell its shares in Mobil 
Oil Maroc to Libya Oil Holdings Limited, a company owned by the 
Libyan government. 
 
¶3. (SBU) The sale's impact on Morocco is expected to be minor. 
Contractual obligations to customers and employees will remain in 
force, and Libya Oil will maintain the existing work contracts and 
benefits held by Mobil Oil Maroc's 120 employees.  Soudan estimates 
the transition from Mobil Oil Maroc to Libya Oil will take about two 
to three months, and he anticipates that it will be calm and, in his 
words, "quieter than in other African countries."  As part of the 
changeover, ExxonMobil will stipulate a phase-out period for Oil 
Libya to rebrand Mobil Oil Maroc's service stations, as well as 
change the fuel and lubricants sold. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Soudan said ExxonMobil's decision to sell its shares of 
Mobil Oil Maroc does not reflect the quality of the Moroccan 
workforce, the situation of ExxonMobil itself or the economic 
environment in Morocco, which he deemed safe and attractive for 
investment.  Rather, the company has made a strategic decision to 
withdraw from non-integrated markets in Africa, where other operators 
can give higher value to the smaller markets that exist there.  In 
the past eight years, ExxonMobil has divested its shares in 
downstream operations in all but two of its Africa-based affiliates, 
while Libya Oil is now present in 15 African countries.  ExxonMobil 
will retain its significant upstream operations in Africa, which are 
expected to reach production of one million oil-equivalent barrels 
per day by 2010. 
 
GREENE