FG Approves Sale of Shell’s $2.4bn Onshore Asset to Renaissance
Renaissance Africa Energy Company Limited, a local oil and gas consortium, says it has received ministerial consent to acquire Shell Petroleum Development Company.
The company announced the development in a statement on Wednesday.
The approval was reportedly given by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri. Efforts to get official confirmation from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission were unsuccessful.
In January, Shell said it agreed to sell its Nigerian onshore oil assets to Renaissance Africa for over $1.3bn — subject to regulatory approvals.
The assets are said to hold an estimated 6.73 billion barrels of oil and condensate, along with 56.27 trillion cubic feet of associated and non-associated gas.
Renaissance is a consortium formed by ND Western, Aradel Energy, First Exploration & Production, Waltersmith, and Petrolin.
However, on October 21, when the federal government announced the approval of other divestment deals, the Shell-Renaissance transaction did not scale the regulatory test.
NUPRC’s CEO, Gbenga Komolafe said the commission rejected the deal because it “could not scale (the) regulatory test.”
There are also concerns about numerous lawsuits and allegations hanging over Shell Nigeria over human rights abuses and environmental degradation in the Niger Delta region.
NUPRC said that it would only approve the sale if Shell takes responsibility for oil spills and agrees to fund cleanup efforts in the Niger Delta.
But providing updates in the statement, Renaissance said the deal has now been consented to by President Bola Tinubu, who doubles as the minister of petroleum resources.
“Renaissance Africa Energy Company Limited is pleased to announce that the Minister of Petroleum Resources has granted his consent to the sale of The Shell Petroleum Development Company to Renaissance,” the statement read.
“This approval marks a significant step forward from the announcement of the Sale and Purchase Agreements in January 2024.”
On October 30, the special adviser to the president on energy, Olu Verheijen, said the issues around Shell’s proposed sale of its onshore assets to Renaissance would be resolved soon.
Recall that in October, the government announced four divestment request from Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited to Seplat Energy Offshore Limited divestment, Equinor Nigeria Energy Company Limited to Project Odinmin Investments Limited, TotalEnergies EP Nigeria Limited to Telema
Energies Nigeria Limited, and the Nigerian Agip Oil Company Limited to Oando Petroleum and Natural Gas Company Limited divestment.
