The Federal Government may approve ExxonMobil’s asset sale to Seplat in less than two weeks if parties agree to two mutually exclusive options relating to decommissioning and host community rights, according to the Executive Secretary, Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Council (NUPRC), Gbenga Komolafe.
However, he declined to mention the specific options being presented to the parties involved in the deal.
The NUPRC Executive Secretary told Reuters that a meeting between representatives of both companies would be called on Friday and the outcome would determine the approval status of the deal.
- He said, “Subject to the outcome of the meeting, consent…could be given in less than two weeks from the date of the meeting,”
- “As a commission, we don’t want our nation to carry unwarranted financial burdens arising from the operations of the assets over time by the divesting entities.”
Backstory
In February 2022, Seplat reached an agreement to acquire assets of Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited for about $1.28 billion. The transaction entails the acquisition of ExxonMobil Nigeria’s entire offshore shallow water business.
- As required by law, former President Buhari approved the deal in his capacity as Minister of Petroleum Resources, stating that the deal was in sync with the nation’s ambition to attract investment in the petroleum and gas industry.
- Following the President’s approval, the Executive Secretary of the NUPRC, Gbenga Komolafe declined the signing off on the deal, stating that that the commission is the sole regulator on such matters.
- This has led to series of back and forth over the acquisition, which has halted investment in the assets in question and threw spanner in the works of other possible deals in the oil and gas industry.
- Last year, Seplat’s CEO Roger Brown vowed to complete the deal, especially with the new President Bola Tinubu administration in place with a different approach calling the embattled acquisition “a game-changing operation.”
