Royal Dutch Shell has said that an audit of potential buyers for its onshore assets in Nigeria will take a few months, with a number of local players interested in buying the blocks.
An official said on Wednesday that the corporation had since last year been selling its onshore assets in Nigeria to indigenous companies in partnership with foreign firms. Executive Vice- President of Shell Exploration & Production for sub-Saharan Africa, Mr. Ian Craig, said the company was in talks with a number of companies.
”It‘s not an auction as such, but we are going through a due diligence process with them. This will take a few months,” he told Reuters on the sidelines of an Africa oil conference in Cape Town.
He declined to specify which blocks would be sold, but said it would be assets not core to Shell‘s strategy and where other players would find more value. The blocks would likely go to local companies, many of which have international backing, he said.
”There are opportunities and value that indigenous independents can have and it‘s part of the national agenda to get them more involved,” he said.
Nigeria‘s top fuel retailer and gas distributor, Oando, separately said it was interested in bidding for blocks owned by Shell, but declined to provide details.
Craig said there was no certainty that a proposed Petroleum Industry Bill would be passed before elections expected in April.
The PIB will re-write Nigeria‘s decades-old relationship with its foreign oil partners, altering everything from the fiscal framework for offshore oil projects to the involvement of indigenous firms in the sector.
The government has repeatedly said the passage of the bill is imminent but it has been subject to numerous revisions and debate.
”It might squeeze through, it might not. The industry is suffering because of this uncertainty,” Craig said, adding that Shell like other majors was holding up billions of dollars of investments pending the outcome of the bill.
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