Seplat to Revive Lots of of Exxon’s Outdated Idle Nigerian Oil Wells

Seplat Power Plc will revive a whole bunch of idle Nigerian oil wells after finishing its buy of Exxon Mobil Corp.’s onshore oil and gasoline belongings within the West African nation.

“Our instant focus is rig intervention, short-term oil-generation actions, rejuvenating idles wells and bringing them again to manufacturing,” Chief Working Officer Samson Ezugworie stated in an interview Thursday in Lagos. “Solely 200 of about 600 blocks are producing.”

Nigeria permitted Exxon’s sale of the belongings to the unbiased power provider in October. The deal took benefit of overseas firms exiting Africa’s largest oil producer.

- Advertisement -

Seplat this week paid $800 million of the acquisition value, which adopted an preliminary $128 million paid when the deal was signed in 2022. It deferred switch of an extra $257.5 million to December subsequent yr on account of sure decommissioning, abandonment and three way partnership prices, the corporate stated.

Seplat, which is listed in Lagos, Nigeria and London, views the acquisition as a superb deal when it comes to prices and returns.

“It’s just a bit over half of the Ebitda for the total yr, so it pays again itself in a short time,” stated Chief Monetary Officer Eleanor Adaralegbe, referring to earnings earlier than curiosity, taxes, depreciation and amortization, which rose 25% to $383 million for the 9 months by means of September from a yr earlier.

The corporate additionally sees the deal doubling its manufacturing and stated it boosts mixed belongings to 11 blocks in onshore and shallow water Nigeria, 48 producing oil and gasoline fields, 5 gas-processing amenities, and three export terminals.

Seplat’s aim is to carry output to greater than 200,000 barrels a day, from about 71,000 barrels of oil equal day by day now, Chief Govt Officer Roger Brown stated in the identical interview, with out including how rapidly this may occur.

“Within the portfolio we’ve got important gasoline alternatives,” Brown additionally stated. “There may be big alternative in LNG and the home gasoline area.”