Goddy Egene
The Chief Executive Officer of Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc, an indigenous oil and gas firm, Mr. Austin Avuru said the company remains committed to more asset acquisitions in the exploration and production space and to organic growth’
Avuru, who said this at the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) January Technical/Business Meeting on mergers, acquisitions and divestments in exploration and production (E&P) business held in Lagos on Wednesday, explained that one of Seplat’s key mandate is to leverage opportunities in the oil and gas industry through acquisition of more oil and gas assets.
He said: “We are delighted to successfully complete the acquisition of Eland Oil and Gas Plc, which further enhances Seplat’s footprint in Nigeria and provides opportunities for enhanced scale, diversification and growth. We welcome our new colleagues and Nigerian partners as we look forward to working together in this exciting phase of our development.”
Addressing stakeholders at the meeting, Avuru said Seplat had positioned itself as an early mover through the acquisition of a 45 per cent operated interest in OMLs 4, 38 and 41 from Shell, Total and Agip in 2010, thus, becoming the first Nigerian independent to acquire a package of oil and gas blocks directly from the major international oil companies (IOCs) as part of a disposal process.
Avuru explained that the company has demonstrated its ability to work its assets and produce its reserves despite external negative factors such as downtime and losses.
“Seplat also began to invest in its gas business in 2010 in response to the Nigerian Government’s initiatives to improve the debilitating impact of poor power generation and supply in the country by opening the domestic supply obligation pricing to market forces,” he said.
