Court Grants NNPC Decision To Halt Mobil’s Asset Sale to Seplat

By Tolulope Oke

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) has won a court decision temporarily halting Exxon Mobil Corporation from selling assets in Nigeria to Seplat Energy Plc.

Blomberg reported on Monday that a judge in Abuja granted NNPC a “order of interim injunction” on July 6, 2022, prohibiting Exxon Mobil from “completing any divestment” in a unit that ultimately operates four licenses in Nigeria.

In February, Seplat agreed to buy the subsidiary of the US oil major for at least $1.28 billion.

According to the report, NNPC intended to halt the transaction and seize control of the authorization.

According to Bloomberg, NNPC sued Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited on July 5, 2022, asking the Federal High Court to either order that a dispute over preemption rights had occurred between the parties or to order them to go to arbitration, citing a statement from Seplat.

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Seplat, which was not a defendant in the lawsuit, stated that its agreement with Exxon was “still valid” and that it “remains confident that the matter will be brought to a proper conclusion in accordance with the law.”

The acquisition would provide Seplat with an additional 95,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from shallow-water assets operated by Exxon in a joint venture with NNPC.

International oil companies with operations in Nigeria have been offloading large portions of their portfolio to domestic players for more than a decade, a trend that has recently accelerated.