The recent vitriolic attacks on the corporate entity of Nigeria’s foremost energy firm, Seplat Energy Plc, and its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr. Roger Brown, could threaten the nation’s historic Gas Development Plan and, also, jeopardise investors’ assets in the equity market currently at N645 billion capitalisation.
Seplat has faced unbridled campaigns of calumny by individuals and groups allegedly determined to pull down the organisation, reverse its gains as a major energy firm and jeopardise investor’s huge assets in the company dually listed on the Nigerian and London Exchanges.
According to reports, the target of the groups and individuals attacking Seplat and its CEO is three-pronged: First is to remove the CEO of the company on trumped up allegations of anti-Nigerian workers’ activities and, second, take over total control of the company with a view to ultimately milking it dry. The third is to sell off whatever remains of the company to cronies and make it susceptible to asset stripping.
A stockbroker, Abimbola Kazim, said the recent attacks on Seplat and its leadership constitute a serious threat to the corporate existence of the firm and could inflict injury on investors’ confidence at a time domestic investors are taking position to build the equity market ‘deserted’ by foreign investors.
“Seplat is a strong firm on the Nigerian Exchange. It is among the highest net-worth companies with a market capitalization of N645 billion and a price N107.50 per share. It announced an impressive performance for the 2022 financial year and fortune hunters are already taking position in the earning season. Those championing the attacks on Seplat are indeed enemies of Nigeria’s economic development,” Kazim said.
Besides investors’ assets, analysts express concern that the recent development would threaten Nigeria’s Gas Development Plan 2021-2025 in which Seplat is a key player.
The sterling performance of Seplat under the leadership of Mr Brown showed that the firm has delved deeply in the gas business despite the absence of an enabling environment for private participation on gas development.
From the beginning, Seplat showed it was set to tackle the challenges deeply rooted in the dearth of gas gathering and distribution infrastructure, fiscal and regulatory policy, funding, and more importantly, the prevailing security situation in the main gas supply source, the Niger Delta region.
Information gathered from the firm’s annual reports showed it is determined to reverse the effects of lack of energy intensive plants across Nigeria to utilise vast proportions of natural gas and the imposition of price control mechanisms are a serious threat to gas development. One way of achieving this is through its major project: the $700m Assa North-Ohaji South (ANOH) Gas Processing Plant located on (Oil Mining Lease) OML 53 in Imo State.
Speaking to newsmen on the sideline of the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston (OTC) Texas, United States, in May 2022, Brown described the completion of ANOH as a game changer that would positively boost supply chain in the nation’s oil and gas industry.
He said: “The ANOH is a game changer in terms of gas business. By mid next year, the project will be up and running.
“The first gas is being delayed because one of the pipelines connecting into it is being delayed by supply chain issues in getting the steel pipes from China. However, it is a temporary issue.
“For us, the 300mmscf/d gas plant is material and will do dry gas processing that will be supplied to industrial customers.
“ANOH field which is one of the biggest onshore fields in Nigeria is a condensate rich field. The liquid is in two reservoirs, but one of them in particular is rich in it.”
“We started investing in gas in 2012, when we first bought the first assets from Shell. Gas had no value then, it was a headache,” Brown added.
Analysts and industry experts who condemn the spate of attacks on Seplat and its CEO observed that instigating baseless and trump-up charges against Seplat and its leadership amid such a strategic plan to support Nigeria’s gas development plan must be condemned.
Experts have confirmed that Nigeria is increasingly a hub centre for natural gas with sustainable economic growth and development in addition to the prospect of sustained environmental benefits. The environmentally friendly, cost effective and cleanliness aspect of natural gas makes it the first choice for energy users.
Commenting on the role of gas in Nigeria’s industrialisation, the Managing Director of Shell Nigeria Gas Limited (SNG) and President of the Nigeria Gas Association. Mr Ed Ubong, said partnership with indigenous businesses will play a key role.
According to him, Nigeria will only achieve industrialisation if it develops its natural gas resources further and builds the infrastructure to convert this into electricity to power businesses and homes.
He noted that Nigeria has around 200 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves and about 600 trillion cubic feet of unproven reserves but that a lack of adequate power grid infrastructure results in unreliable power supply from the electricity grid and power shortages in urban and rural areas remain a key obstacle.
By declaring 2021-2030 the ‘Decade of Gas Development for Nigeria’, the government is determined to develop the gas sector as Gas has enormous potential to diversify and lift the Nigerian economy, Ubong noted in a statement in the company’s journal.
“It’s no secret: Nigeria has a lot of gas. It needs to be brought to the surface. It needs to be monetised and it needs to be consumed.
“Simply put, Nigeria needs more gas for power and electricity generation. Nigeria needs more gas for homes. Nigeria needs more gas for industry. We need to have big industries; industries that can employ hundreds of thousands of people and produce goods for domestic use and export,” said Ubong.
“But to be able to deliver that, Nigeria needs a business climate that is investor-friendly and a business climate that honours contracts. The country also needs a pricing and regulatory framework that is friendly for businesses to operate and allows businesses to plan.”
There has been widespread condemnation of the recent attacks on Seplat and its CEO, with prominent Nigerians cautioning against creating a situation that would lead to the wane of investors’ confidence and threaten Seplat’s contributions to the nation’s Gas master Plan.
Recently, a group of experts drawn from the industry, academia, trade and civil society organizations called for a quick resolution of the misunderstanding that caused the Interior Ministry to revoke the visa and work permit of Mr. Roger Brown, CEO of Seplat Energy Plc.
The experts, who spoke at a One-Day Investment Summit, hosted by the Barrister Ogbonnaya Agbafo-led Factsmill Consulting Limited, in Lagos were in unison that urgent steps should be taken to quickly nip the misunderstanding in the bud as it is an ill-wind that blows no one any good. To them, the more the Seplat imbroglio festers, the more both the image of Seplat and that of Nigeria will continue to be rubbished in the comity of nations.
Sam Diala is a Bloomberg Certified Financial Journalist with over a decade of experience in reporting Business and Economy. He is Business Editor at THEWILL Newspaper, and believes that work, not wishes, creates wealth.
