Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission said it has commenced the evaluation of the divestment processes of Shell’s 75-year-old onshore assets to Renaissance company, the new investors. Shell in January announced that it had reached an agreement to sell its onshore assets in the Niger Delta region to Renaissance and focus on Deepwater and Integrated gas investments. Renaissance Africa Energy Company Limited is a consortium of five companies comprising four exploration and production companies based in Nigeria and an international energy group. Gbenga Komolafe, the chief executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission at the start of the exercise, said the 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.
“Our goal is clear at this due diligence meeting: to identify successor who not only possesses the requisite financial resources but also demonstrates the technical expertise to responsibly manage these assets throughout their lifecycle”, Komolafe said, adding, “as regulators, we will ensure that this evaluation is conducted with precision and impartiality, with a focus on transparency and accountability.” The regulator would also look at other issues like the seller’s labour relations and liabilities to workers, if any, and the obligations to host communities. According to Komolafe, the Shell JV assets were originally awarded as Oil Exploration Licence 1 (OEL-1) on January 1949 covering the whole of southern Nigeria and Cameroon, and were converted to OMLs in 1962 and subsequently renewed in 2014 and 2018.
