December 18, (THEWILL) – The government of President Bola Tinubu has given approval to Shell’s $1.3 billion bid to sell its onshore and shallow water assets to Renaissance, about 3 months after initially withdrawing approval for the transaction to go forward, THEWILL can report.
An industry source familiar with the development told THEWILL that the deal was brokered and done last week on the back of Shell’s $5 billion investment in the Bonga North project “amongst several other deals which I cannot disclose for now,” the source added.
Shell had in January this year announced it had reached an agreement to sell its assets to Renaissance, a consortium formed by five indigenous oil companies – ND Western, Aradel Energy, First Exploration & Production (E&P), Waltersmith, and Petrolin.
It said the completion of the transaction is subject to the Federal Government’s approval.
However, in October, the Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), announced that the proposed sale did not scale regulatory approval.
THEWILL’s authoritative source, who is familiar with the deal, said the NUPRC will formally announce its approval of the sale shortly.
