Nigeria’s state oil and gas company ends legal case halting $1.3 billion ExxonMobil, Seplat deal

(Bloomberg) – Nigeria’s state oil company has withdrawn its legal challenge to Exxon Mobil Corp.’s sale of its oil and gas assets to Seplat Energy Plc., removing a hurdle that stalled the conclusion of the deal.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Co. applied to a high court in the nation’s capital Abuja to drop the case, its legal firm Afe Babalola confirmed by email on Thursday.

This follows an agreement reached last month between the NNPC and Exxon to conclude the $1.3 billion deal based on terms that were not disclosed. In court documents seen by Bloomberg, all parties agreed that the NNPC could resume its case if the terms of the settlement are not met.

The Exxon sale to Seplat, which was signed in February 2022, still require approvals from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, which had indicated an August deadline, and the Nigerian President Bola Tinubu.

Adding the blocks to Seplat’s assets will swell the company’s natural gas fields in an area where it is already one of the biggest suppliers of domestic gas to Nigerian power plants. It would almost quadruple Seplat’s output to more than 130,000 bpd.

Another divestment deal by Shell Plc, which agreed to sell its Nigerian onshore oil business to a consortium of local companies for more than $1.3 billion, is also awaiting approval after it was announced in January.