The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has given approval for the Sales Purchase Agreement (SPA) by TotalEnergies Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited to transfer its entire 12.5 per cent contractor interest in Oil Mining Lease (OML) 118 to two companies, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo) and Nigerian Agip Exploration Limited (NAE).
The NUPRC disclosed this in a statement on X on Thursday.
The Commission noted that its decision is pursuant to Section 95 of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021.
This comes after due diligence was carried out on SNEPCo to ascertain its financial capacity and technical competence.
Details of the SPA showed that TotalEnergies will transfer 10 per cent of its interest to SNEPCo at a cost of $408,000,000, while NAE will pay $102,000,000 for the remaining 2.5 per cent.
“SNEPCo and NAE have demonstrated both technical and managerial competence to optimally contribute to the upstream operations (explore, develop and produce) in Oil Mining Lease 118. They already maintain a participating interest in the asset.
“Based on the presentations and documents submitted, there is clear evidence that they have access to funding to meet their financial obligations,” the Commission said.
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