The Federal Government, through the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), has rejected the proposed $1.3 billion sale of onshore oilfields to the Renaissance Group, citing the buyer\u2019s lack of qualification to manage the assets, according to a Reuters report.<\/p>\n
Shell, which owns the assets via Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), said it was providing NUPRC with all the required information.<\/p>\n
However, NUPRC declined to approve the sale on the grounds the Renaissance consortium could not show it could manage the assets, the report notes.<\/p>\n
According to the report, the NUPRC has communicated its decision to all the parties.<\/p>\n
\u201cShell and the government are in ongoing communication as part of the approval process for the sale of SPDC. SPDC will continue to provide the regulator with all information needed to complete the approval process,\u201d<\/i><\/em>\u00a0a Shell spokesperson told Reuters.<\/p>\n There was a previous report\u00a0in January that Shell Plc has reached an agreement to sell its Nigerian onshore oil assets to a local consortium for over $1.3 billion, pending government approval.<\/p>\n Shell\u2019s Integrated Gas and Upstream Director, Zoe Yujnovich, confirmed the development, emphasizing the importance of the transaction as part of the company\u2019s strategy to streamline its portfolio and prioritize investments in deepwater and integrated gas projects in Nigeria.<\/p>\n However, the upstream oil regulator, NUPRC, has indicated that it will only fast-track the approval if Shell accepts responsibility for oil spills and commits to financing cleanup efforts in the Niger Delta.<\/p>\n NUPRC\u2019s Chief Executive, Gbenga Komolafe, detailed that this will allow for a faster approval process as a short-term option if the companies agree to the terms. However, a longer-term option would involve waiting until the NUPRC identifies and assigns all liabilities, Komolafe noted.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, residents from the host communities have also filed a N500 billion suit against Shell Petroleum development Company alleging that the company violated an existing \u201cMareva\u201d injunction and seeking to block the sale of its onshore assets.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Federal Government, through the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), has rejected the proposed $1.3 billion sale of onshore oilfields to the Renaissance Group, citing the buyer\u2019s lack of qualification to manage the assets, according to a Reuters report. Shell, which owns the assets via Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), said it was providing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":52425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52424"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52426,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52424\/revisions\/52426"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}