Seplat Petroleum Development Company

Seplat Petroleum Development Company (Seplat) is a Nigerian oil company based in Lagos. The company was formed in 2009 by a merger of Platform Petroleum and Shebah Exploration and Production, both small Nigerian based companies.Maurel & Prom, a French oil exploration company, purchased a 45% share in the newly formed company.

Seplat acquired several oil blocks from Royal Dutch Shell in the Niger delta. The company was able to expand production to 43,000 barrels per day, which was doubled from when Seplat acquired the blocks.

In January 2014, Seplat became the preferred bidder on Chevron’s OML53 off shore block, after indigenous oil company Britannia-U did not show evidence that it could raise the US$ 1.2bn it had bid for blocks OML52, 53 and 55, estimated to contain proven oil and gas reserves of 555 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMBOE).

Seplat was bidding to acquire OML53, but was outbid by Brittania-U.

Chevron has been seeking to liquidate its 40 percent stake in blocs OMLs 52, 53, 55, 83 and 85 since June 2013, listing them for sale to local operators. Other international oil majors ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch Shell, Total and Eni are also disposing of stakes in onshore and shallow water offshore fields in the Niger Delta region.

However legal challenges have emerged that have slowed down Chevron’s Nigerian disposal programme and despite then agreeing to sell its biggest block, OML53 to Seplat, a Nigerian federal high court issued an interim injunction in December 2013 stopping the company from selling the blocks to Seplat and others after Brittania-U brought action against the U.S. major saying it had already agreed a deal to buy the assets.

It was also agreed to dispose of OML 52 to local firm Amni Petroleum and the smallest, OML 55, to Belema Oil, run by a local Delta community.

On 27 January 2014 Justice Mohammed Yunusa of the Federal High Court in Lagos extended an interim junction restraining Chevron and its Nigerian subsidiary from negotiating the sale of OML52, 53 and 54, with Seplat or any other bidder, apart from Brittania-U Limited.

The judge also extended the injunction restraining Chevron declaring Seplat as preferred bidder for the oil blocks, over Brittania-U Limited. Yunusa adjourned the case to 10 February. .

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Wikipedia