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Shell in talks to sell $2 billion Nigerian oil asset
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The Anglo-Dutch oil major is discussing selling oil mining licenses 11 and
17 to Heirs Holdings Ltd, a company run by Nigerian tycoon, Tony Elumelu.
The Royal Dutch Shell Plc is in talks to sell two Nigerian oil licenses for $2 billion, people familiar with the plan told Bloomberg.
The Anglo-Dutch oil major is discussing selling oil mining licenses 11 and
17 to Heirs Holdings Ltd, a company run by Nigerian tycoon, Tony Elumelu.
The sale also includes infrastructure assets, such as natural gas-fired power plant that would be managed by Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc, another company run by Elumelu, Bloomberg reported.
Exiting the two blocks would cut Shell’s exposure in the Niger-Delta region. In the past decade, the company has sold billions of dollars of Niger Delta assets amid local opposition, civil conflict, militant attacks and accusations of causing pollution.
The latest sale would leave Shell to focus on its operations in Nigerian waters, where the risks of attacks on infrastructure and theft are relatively low.
Discussions between Shell and Elumelu have been advanced at times and run into hurdles at others as he is yet to secure financing.
No deal has been reached and the talks could still fall apart.
A spokeswoman for Heirs Holdings Ltd. told Bloomberg she has no knowledge of the talks, while Shell declined to comment.
Shell’s Niger Delta operations had faced international scrutiny. The United Nations Environment Programme stated in a 2011 report that the company had not applied its own procedures when operating in the delta and the environmental destruction was worse than previously thought, creating a “tragic legacy.”
Shell discovered oil in the Niger Delta in the 1950s and became one of the biggest producers in the country.
Shell’s share of total production in Nigeria was 266,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day last year, compared with 258,000 barrels in 2016, according to its annual report.
“Security issues, sabotage and crude oil theft in the Niger Delta continued to be significant challenges in 2017,” it said in the report.
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