By Isaac Anyaogu
LAGOS (Reuters) -Nigeria’s oil regulator has approved a $510 million deal by TotalEnergies to sell its entire 12.5% interest in oil mining lease (OML) 118, which hosts the offshore Bonga oilfield, to the field’s operator Shell, and Agip, the agency said on Thursday.
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) said TotalEnergies will transfer 10% of its interest to Shell at a cost of $408 million while Agip will pay $102 million for the remaining 2.5%.
The deal raises Shell’s stake in Bonga to 67.5%, highlighting its continued interest in offshore Nigeria production after selling its spill-plagued onshore assets to Renaissance, a consortium of four local companies and an international energy group.
The regulator said it conducted due diligence on Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPco) and Nigerian Agip Exploration Limited (NAE) to confirm their competence to operate the asset.
“SNEPco and NAE have demonstrated both technical and managerial competence to optimally contribute to the upstream operations in OML 118,” it said.
The deal, which remains subject to ministerial consent, requires SNEPco and NAE to assume all decommissioning, abandonment, and community liabilities tied to the divested interest. They will also pay a combined 7% of the transaction value as premium and processing fees.
The NUPRC on Tuesday pulled approval for TotalEnergies’ $860 million asset sale to Mauritius-based Chappal Energies because the two sides had not met financial commitments required to complete the deal.
(Writing by Chijioke Ohuocha and ElishaEditing by Leslie Adler, Franklin Paul and Marguerita Choy)
