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The boss of London-listed Seplat needs to “demystify” Nigeria for worldwide buyers after finishing a tortured billion-dollar deal with ExxonMobil that has remodeled the corporate into one among nation’s greatest oil producers.
Two years in the past chief govt Roger Brown’s visa was revoked for 3 months after a petition from unidentified “employees and shareholders” accused him of racism amid a drawn-out effort to amass Exxon’s onshore oil and gasoline blocks within the troubled Niger Delta.
Finally it took practically three years and a change of presidency to finish the transaction, which was sealed in December. However Brown insisted that any Nigeria “low cost” utilized to Seplat’s shares was unwarranted.
“We’ve acquired an enormous low cost on our share value for the Nigeria [factor],” the British govt instructed the Monetary Occasions. “The one solution to pierce that notion is simply . . . continue to grow manufacturing and maintain speaking about it.”
The $1.28bn acquisition of Exxon’s enterprise, which was accomplished in December, has made Seplat one among Nigeria’s greatest home producers with an asset base of 11 onshore oil blocks, 48 oil and gasfields, three export terminals and 5 gasoline processing services.
The deal will allow it to broaden manufacturing from 50,000 barrels a day to roughly 120,000 b/d earlier than September, when Brown plans to deal with shareholders at an investor day in London. “We’ll attempt to lay out the longer term and we’ll attempt to demystify what’s occurring in Nigeria,” he mentioned
The transaction has consolidated Seplat’s place amongst numerous indigenous Nigerian oil firms, together with Oando and Heirs Energies, that now management nearly the entire nation’s onshore and shallow water oil belongings following the exit of worldwide gamers together with Shell, Exxon and Addax Petroleum.
The offers have remodeled the form of the sector in a constructive method, Brown mentioned, noting that the Nigerian producers had been dedicated to rising manufacturing from the fields they’ve acquired in a method that worldwide oil firms (IOCs) weren’t doing.
“When you’re an IOC you’re trying all all over the world the place to place your cash subsequent, whereas the indigenous gamers, by and enormous, are solely taking a look at Nigeria,” he mentioned.
Seplat was co-founded in 2009 by its Nigerian former chief govt Austin Avuru. Brown, who had served as chief monetary officer since 2013, took on the highest job in 2020 following Avuru’s retirement.
Seplat’s path to progress, nevertheless, has not been simple. It reached an settlement with Exxon in February 2022, however confronted a protracted delay after state-owned oil firm the Nigerian Nationwide Petroleum Corp secured a courtroom order blocking the sale.
Then-president Muhammadu Buhari appeared to have authorised the deal in August 2022 solely to rescind the approval three days later.
The next yr, whereas the battle over the transaction continued, Brown was accused of racism and had his visa briefly revoked, allegations which Seplat strongly refuted.
Brown mentioned he was “shocked” by the allegations however had labored by means of the courts to resolve the difficulty and trusted “the method”.
Finally, President Bola Tinubu accepted the deal final yr together with a number of different comparable transactions. Brown mentioned he had been impressed with the brand new administration’s “forensic” method.
“It was a tremendous course of to have all of these offers unlocked and accepted and it’s nice for Nigeria [as] you’re going to begin to see Nigeria [oil production] develop,” he mentioned.
In an additional signal of change that was welcomed by many within the sector, Tinubu this week sacked NNPC’s entire 11-person board and changed its long-serving chief govt with a former Shell engineer Bashir Ojulari. Former Seplat chief Avuru is likely one of the new board members appointed.
Over the following 5 years Brown intends to broaden manufacturing past 110,000 boe/d by means of additional drilling, improve the amount of gasoline Seplat suppliers to the Nigerian market, whereas additionally starting liquefied pure gasoline exports.
“I feel it was time to maneuver from Exxon possession the place there was little or no funding since 2019 and even sooner than that,” he mentioned. “Indigenous possession of power sources is clearly the way in which ahead for Nigeria.”
