An indigenous oil company, Seplat, is poised to increase oil production with the recent acquisition of the assets of ExxonMobil worth $1.28bn.
Roger Brown, CEO of the oil firm listed in the Nigerian and London stock exchanges, reiterated the deal amidst rising optimism over recent deals in the oil and gas industry with potentials to ramp up oil production.
Apart from the Seplat-ExxonMobil deal, Shell's asset sale for up to $2.4 billion to Renaissance Consortium, comprising five companies, has been concluded.
The Shell assets hold a combined estimated volume of 6.73 billion barrels of oil and condensate and 56.27 trillion cubic feet of associated and non-associated gas.
Under Exxon's deal, Seplat will own 40% of four oil mining leases and associated infrastructure, including the Qua Iboe export terminal, and 51% of the Bonny River natural gas liquids recovery plant previously owned by Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, Exxon's local unit.
With the assets under its kitty, Seplat has emerged as one of Nigeria's biggest domestic producers with an asset base of 11 onshore oil blocks, 48 oil and gas fields, three export terminals and five gas processing facilities.
Brown, in a recent interview with the Financial Times of London, described the deal as a game changer in Seplat's drive to become one of Nigeria's biggest oil producers.
Presently, Nigeria's oil production averages 1.7m barrels per day, with the government setting an ambitious target of 2.2m before the end of the year.
The upstream sector regulator, the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), in December last year concluded the bidding process for the 2024 licensing round even as it announced a fresh oil licensing round for 2025.
With all these positive developments, Brown stated that Seplat will expand production from 50,000 barrels a day to roughly 120,000 b/d before September.
"We'll try to lay out the future and we'll try to demystify what's going on in Nigeria," he said in the FT interview.
According to him, the deals have transformed the shape of the sector in a positive way, adding that Nigerian producers were committed to increasing production from the fields they have acquired in a way that international oil companies (IOCs) were not doing.
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"If you're an IOC, you're looking all around the world where to put your money next, whereas the indigenous players, by and large, are only looking at Nigeria," he said.
Seplat, which was co-founded in 2009 by its former Nigerian chief executive, Austin Avuru, has faced several challenges in operations. At a time the NNPC blocked the asset sale deal after securing approval from former President Muhammadu Buhari. Buhari withdrew the approval.
At one point, Brown was battling immigration authorities in Nigeria over allegations of racism leading to temporary revocation of visa; the allegation was denied. He has been left off the hook by the Nigerian court.
He is now confident that recent deals will transform the oil sector in Nigeria and improve production.
"It was an amazing process to have all of those deals unlocked and approved and it's great for Nigeria [as] you're going to start to see Nigeria [oil production] grow.
"I think it was time to move from Exxon ownership, where there was very little investment since 2019 or even earlier than that," he said.
He backed indigenous ownership of energy resources; the move being championed through the Nigerian content. "Indigenous ownership of energy resources is clearly the way forward for Nigeria," he said.
