The Federal Government of Nigeria has reportedly approved the sale of onshore assets of the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to Renaissance Africa Energy Company Limited, a local oil and gas consortium,
Reuters reported that the approval was announced by Renaissance in a statement on Wednesday.
Renaissance stated in the statement that “this approval marks a significant step forward from the announcement of the sale and purchase agreements in January”.
The approval was reportedly given by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Heineken Lokpobiri.
According to Africa Report, Shell’s $5bn investment in the Bonga North project was instrumental in persuading the government to approve the sale of the onshore asset which was initially agreed at $1.3bn.
Naijaonpoint reported that the sale was blocked by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) in October, even though both SPDC and the Renaissance had reached an agreement in January.
Shell Plc reached an agreement to sell its Nigerian onshore oil assets to Renaissance Group, a local consortium.