Mobil House

Mobil House is a completed office building on Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria. Its construction is credited to Cappa & D'Alberto, a building and civil engineering contractor founded in 1932 and based in Lagos, according to Wikipedia. According to available information, the building was completed in 1987 and refurbished in 2012. For a long time it housed the Nigerian headquarters of ExxonMobil (formerly Mobil), which left after 33 years for smaller offices in Ikoyi, according to Estate Intel and Reuters, as cited by Nairametrics. It is not a development on sale: no price or rent has been published for the building.

Where is Mobil House? Estate Intel, a Nigerian real estate data company, places the building on Victoria Island. In trade records published by Panjiva, Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited gives its address as Mobil House, 1, Lekki Expressway, Victoria Island, Lagos. Coverage from May 2024 based on Reuters, such as The African Mirror, refers to the Lekki district instead. The Lekki Expressway address may explain why both names are used.

The building at a glance

• Use: office building.
• Status: completed.
• Completed, according to available information: 1987. Refurbished: 2012 (the scope of the works has not been published).
• Height: 12 floors, according to Reuters as cited by Nairametrics on 30 May 2024.
• Contractor: Cappa & D'Alberto.
• Not published: office floor area, number of parking spaces, architect, current owner.

ExxonMobil's departure. According to Estate Intel, ExxonMobil left Mobil House after 33 years and moved to Karaa Place, in the Osborne Phase 2 estate in Ikoyi. Reuters, as cited by Nairametrics on 30 May 2024, reported that the Mobil House lease cost about 10 million dollars a year. The new six-floor building was designed to hold half the staff of the former headquarters. The same report linked the move to the group scaling back its operations in Nigeria. ExxonMobil's official Nigeria page now gives the correspondence address of its subsidiary Esso Exploration & Production Nigeria Limited as Karaa Place, 26 Acacia Drive, Osborne Foreshore Phase II, Illubirin-Ikoyi, Lagos.

The contractor. Cappa & D'Alberto is a building and civil engineering firm headquartered in Lagos. Its company page gives 1932 as its founding year and carries the line 'Builders to the nation since 1932'. According to Wikipedia, it was founded by two Italian immigrants, Pietro Cappa and Viginio D'Alberto. It was once listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and delisted in 2009. The same source lists Mobil House among its works on Lagos Island and Victoria Island, alongside Civic Center Towers, Zenon House, the Union Marble building and the Wings complex.

What has not been published. None of the sources consulted say how Mobil House has been used since ExxonMobil left. They also do not give the building's owner, the floor area available, the asking rent or a price in naira (NGN). To get this information:

• technical details of the building (structure, 2012 works): contact Cappa & D'Alberto through its official channels;
• current use of the building and any occupancy terms: this information rests with the owner or its managing agent, whom commercial property professionals in Lagos are able to identify; such information is best obtained as a written description;
• ExxonMobil's presence in Nigeria: use the contact address published by the group, [email protected].