Page 4 - AfrOil Week 33 2022

AfrOil COMMENTARY AfrOil

The deal would boost Seplat’s production to 146,000 boepd (Image: Seplat Energy)
ExxonMobil’s Nigerian asset sale

encounters yet another setback

President Buhari has now revoked his earlier approval of the US super-major’s sale of its shallow-water
portfolio to Seplat Energy, a Nigerian firm, and acknowledged NUPRC’s authority over the transaction

OVER the last week, ExxonMobil has suf- The president’s move was swiftly met with
fered another setback in its ongoing campaign condemnation from the Nigerian Upstream
WHAT: to divest its shallow-water Nigerian portfo- Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC),
Buhari has acceded to lio to Seplat Energy, a local company. The US which challenged Buhari’s authority to take such
NUPRC’s claim of sole super-major was forced to take yet another action. Later on August 8, Gbenga Komolafe,
authority over certain detour on August 11, when President Muham- the commission’s CEO, asserted in a separate
asset transfers. madu Buhari announced that he was rescind- statement that Nigeria’s Petroleum Industry Act
ing the document of ministerial consent he had (PIA) identified NUPRC as the sole government
WHY: issued on August 8. entity with the power to assign or transfer such
The president had been In that document, Buhari said he was using licences without prior written consent.
hoping to fast-track new his statutory authority as Nigeria’s Minister Komolafe appears to have carried the day. On
oil and gas investment. of Petroleum Resources to green-light the US August 11, Buhari reversed his earlier position.
super-major’s plan to divest its 40% holding in In a statement read to the press by Garba Shehu,
WHAT NEXT: Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited (MPNU), his senior special assistant for media and public-
This episode indicates the joint venture that operates the shallow-wa- ity, the president said he was taking this step in
that the path toward full ter assets in question. His declaration served to line with NUPRC’s position – namely, that the
implementation of the PIA
will probably continue to authorise the $1.283bn sale agreement struck commission is the only entity with the power to
be rocky. between ExxonMobil and Seplat Energy earlier approve such a deal under the “status quo” pre-
in the year. vailing since the passage of the PIA.

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