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[Obeahman]

Total Rakes In $1bn From Oil Asset Divestment In Nigeria

Chika Izuora

— Mar 31, 2015 | Leave a comment

French oil major, Total, has earned about $1 billion from three divested exploration assets in Nigeria.

The company also announced completion of divestment of its stake in onshore Oil Mining Lease (OML) 29 to Aiteo Eastern E&P, a Nigerian company, for $569.

Total had recently divested its interests in the OML 24 and OML 18.

Since 2010, Total has divested its interests in eleven onshore blocks to Nigerian companies in line with the Federal Government of Nigeria’s aim of developing Nigerian companies in the sector. Together with the recently completed divestments of the OML 24 and OML 18, Total’s share of sale proceeds from these three onshore Nigerian blocks amounted to over $1 billion.

“The sale of these non-operated onshore blocks in Nigeria is yet another example of our strategy of dynamic portfolio management, achieved at attractive valuations. These transactions also reduced our exposure to non-operated blocks onshore Nigeria, and allowed us to focus on our core, operated developments, such as the Egina project,” said the chief financial officer at Total, Patrick de La Chevardière.

Total holds a 10 per cent stake in several onshore blocks in Nigeria via the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), a Joint Venture, alongside the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (55 per cent), SPDC (30 per cent, operator) and Nigerian Agip Oil Company Limited (5 per cent).

[mouserman]

Nigerian Natinal Petroleum Corp seems to be behind most of these buys, and I suspect they will back MW's buyout of Mart. Seems the Nigerian Govt wants more direct control over their oil resource.