Seplat Moves To Acquire Shallow Water Assets, Eyes Shell’s $4 Billion Oil Stake

Seplat Energy is currently holding talks with another oil driller, ExxonMobil towards purchasing its Nigerian shallow water assets.

This was disclosed by the company’s Chief Financial Officer, Emeka Onwuka.

Seplat Energy, formed in June 2009 through the partnership of Shebah Petroleum Development Company Limited and Platform Petroleum Joint Ventures Limited is aimed at meeting Nigeria’s energy needs in a responsible way.

In 2021, the company accelerated asset divestments in Africa, selling an 80 percent interest in a Ghanaian offshore block and proposing to offload its stake in the Doba oilfield in Chad.

Investors King gathered that the energy company is also in contention with Sahara Group, ND Western Limited and Tony Elumelu-backed Heirs Oil and Gas to take over an equity interest said to be worth $4 billion, held by the Nigerian unit of Hague-based oil major, Shell Plc, via a joint venture.

According to a report by Bloomberg, the four bidders handed in the non-binding offers last month for a stake, estimated by Wood Mackenzie in August to be $2.3 billion using a long-term oil benchmark of $50 per barrel.

Shell’s slice of the joint venture is 30 per cent, while state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) owns 55 per cent, TotalEnergies SE 10 per cent and Eni 5 per cent.

Woodmac had listed the assets up for sale as OML 11, OML 20, OML 21 (Asda North), OML 22 (Eneche), OML 23 (Soku), OML 25, OML 27, OML 28 (Gbaran-Ubie), among others.

Bloomberg reports that Shell is yet to disclose to buyers the scale of potential future costs related to litigation or decommissioning and abandoning oil wells, which could bring down the sale price significantly.

However, the company is disposing of its assets in Africa’s biggest producer in a bid to move to cleaner energy as part of the push to boost its climate credentials.