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That order will have the effect of suspending of anonymity as the matter was private.
Shell’s asset sale until the Supreme Court decides The sale of the SPDC stake will allow Shell
whether to uphold or overturn a lower court’s to shed most of its onshore portfolio in Nigeria.
decision on the spill. The lower court had ruled The company has said it wants to sell these assets
that the multi-national was obligated to pay the as part of a wider effort to optimise its portfolio
community NGN700bn ($1.69bn) in compen- and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
sation for a spill from its Trans Ramos Pipeline Ben van Beurden, the super-major’s CEO,
that occurred in May 2018. has linked this interest in decarbonisation and
SPDC “complies with the law, including any the energy transition with Shell’s ongoing strug-
court orders, and respects the judiciary and gle to contain sabotage, oil spills and theft at its
its role in upholding the rule of law,” Okunbor onshore pipelines and installations in southern
said in the statement. He also dismissed media Nigeria. In May 2022, he noted that the com-
reports alleging that Shell would proceed with pany had been experiencing increasing diffi-
the sale, declaring that this coverage “does not culties in recent years and indicated that it was
accurately reflect SPDC’s response to the order.” approaching a turning point. “In the end, we
He continued: “SPDC will continue to com- have to concede that this is beyond what we can
ply with the Supreme Court’s order to main- do,” he remarked.
tain the status quo. We have a strong belief in These struggles may end up affecting the final
the merits of our case, which we are vigorously sale price of the SPDC stake. Shell has been say-
defending.” ing it expects the 30% holding to fetch $2-3bn,
The statement did not say whether two Nige- but Bloomberg’s sources said last month that the
rian companies, ND Western Ltd and Heirs Oil valuation might be affected by expectations of
and Gas Ltd, had submitted their final offers for future costs related to environmental penalties
Shell’s 30% stake SPDC by the due date of June and litigation.
10 as expected. Sources with knowledge of the The multi-national, which has been active
matter had told Bloomberg on June 9 that ND in Nigeria since the 1930s, began discussions
Western and Heirs were the only two parties still with officials in Abuja on the sale of its holdings
on track to make binding offers for the stake. in SPDC last year. The remaining equity in the
The two other Nigerian firms that submitted joint venture is split between Nigerian National
non-binding bids earlier this year, Seplat Energy Petroleum Co. Ltd (NNPC Ltd), with 55%;
Plc and Sahara Group Ltd, were no longer in the France’s TotalEnergies, with 10%; and Italy’s Eni,
contest, they explained, speaking on condition with 5%. ™

Nigerian gas company Tetracore

aims to launch IPO by year-end

NIGERIA TETRACORE, a Nigerian natural gas producer
and distributor, has said it hopes to start listing
its stock on a foreign exchange before the end
of the year.
Olakunle Williams, the CEO and co-founder
of Tetracore, informed The Africa Report that
the company had been working on plans for the
initial public offering (IPO) since the start of
2022 and had already chosen a bank to act as its
advisor for the listing.
He did not name the bank or say which stock
exchange would be listing the shares. However,
he did emphasise that Tetracore had been mak-
ing “rapid progress” in talks with the relevant
parties.
Williams also explained that the upcoming
IPO would only represent a minority stake in the Tetracore’s gas distribution facility in Tema, Ghana (Photo: Tetracore)
company. He did not reveal exactly how much
equity Tetracore intended to offer to inves- He also noted that the IPO would serve as
tors, though he stated that he and his fellow part of a $300mn fundraising campaign that
co-founders would collectively retain a major- Tetracore intends to stage over the next three to
ity of stock. five years.

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