For $860 million, the French energy giant TotalEnergies sold Chappal Energies, located in Mauritius, its minority stake in a significant onshore oil joint venture in Nigeria.
The transaction was announced on Wednesday.
In February, CEO Patrick Pouyanne announced that TotalEnergies intended to sell its 10% ownership in the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC).
The SPDC has experienced hundreds of oil spills due to theft, sabotage, and operational problems, which have resulted in expensive repairs and public litigation.
Chappal Energies is primarily involved in troubled brownfield and deep-value upstream assets located in the Niger Delta.
According to the firm, the transaction includes a stake in 15 licenses that produce primarily oil, with a total production potential of 14,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2023.
Laptops 1000Currently, three more licenses, which generate primarily gas, supply 40% of TotalEnergies’ Nigeria LNG gas supply.
Total announced that it has sold Chappal the participation interest in the gas licenses. However, Total will continue to own the production share and have access to the pipelines and related infrastructure needed to send gas to the Nigeria LNG project.
Nicolas Terraz, president of exploration and production at TotalEnergies, stated,
“This divestment…allows us to focus our onshore Nigeria presence solely on the integrated gas value chain and is designed to ensure the continuity of feed gas supply to Nigeria LNG in the future.”
The deal is expected to close by year’s end, pending regulatory clearances.
Earlier this year, Shell also consented to sell a group of five primarily local businesses its 30% share in SPDC for a possible $2.4 billion.
55% of the joint venture is owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and Eni of Italy owns 5%.
In recent times, Exxon Mobil, Eni, and Equinor of Norway have divested their properties in Nigeria to concentrate on their more recent and lucrative ventures abroad.
