All articles in the Farm in, Farm Out Section:

M&P, ‘Co-Founder’ of Seplat Energy, Sells its Stake for ~ $500Million

Section: Farm in, Farm Out · January 2, 2026 · No comments |

Maurel & Prom S.A, the (then) French independent who provided a chunk of the money for Seplat Energy Plc to acquire its first set of upstream assets in 2010, has sold its entire stake in the London and Nigerian exchange listed firm.

M&P’s 120.4Million shares, representing a 20.07% interest in Seplat, was sold to Heirs Energies Ltd at a price of 305 pence per share, corresponding to a total consideration of $496Million, with an initial payment of $248Million and the balance payable within 30 days, secured by an irrevocable letter of credit, the company said in a statement on December 31, 2025.

An additional contingent consideration of $10Million may become payable, subject to share price performance over the next six months.

Once the regulatory issues are cleared, Heirs Energies will take a seat on Seplat’s board as the largest shareholder, a vantage space for a close competitor in the Nigerian oil patch.

“M&P has been one of Seplat’s three founders and its largest shareholder since inception in 2010, and has supported the company throughout its development into a leading Nigerian energy player with a diversified portfolio across oil and gas, playing a key role in Nigeria’s energy security”, the company’s statement explained.

M&P worked on the ground floor of the concept called Seplat Energy. In 2010, it paid $153Million as its contribution for Seplat’s purchase of Shell/TOTAL/ENI’s stake in Oil Mining Leases (OMLs) 4, 38 &41 in the Western Niger Delta. M&P also guaranteed the $187Million BNP loan facility advanced to Shebah E&P and Platform Petroleum, the two core founders of Seplat, to make up the balance for a total cash payment of $340Million to Shell, TOTAL & ENI. At that point, M&P was 45% owner of Seplat, with Shebah and Platform holding 31% and 24%.

OMLs 4, 38 & 41 became Seplat’s base business and was the springboard from which the company made the London Stock Exchange listing and acquired positions in several OMLs, until it gobbled up the entire shares of Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, which pushed its gross liquid hydrocarbon output to higher than 230,000Barrels of Oil Per day at optimum conditions.

“This investment has proven to be a great success for M&P, delivering very strong returns since inception in 2010. We believe that now is the right time for M&P to monetise this position and further focus on direct investments in oil and gas assets, in line with a growth strategy that we plan to accelerate” Olivier de Langavant, Chief Executive Officer of M&P, declared:

“We are incredibly proud to have supported Seplat’s journey over the last fifteen years and its transformation into a leading energy company in Nigeria across both oil and gas”

The story continues here…

Ghanaian Vehicle Finalises an Acreage Award in Guyana

Section: Farm in, Farm Out · December 16, 2025 · No comments |

Ghana’s Cybele Energy has inked a Production Sharing Agreement for a shallow water offshore acreage in Guyana.

In the week of December 8, 2025, the Accra-headquartered company, headed by president Beatrice Mensah‑Tayui signed a $17Milion- deal for Block S7, awarded under the country’s first competitive licensing round, which was announced in February 2025.

Block S7 is located outside disputed territorial zones and benefits from 3D-seismic data overlapping the Carapa‑1 area.

Cybele Energy was the second of the three groups awarded four blocks to sig its PSA with the Guyanese authorities. In November 2025, TOTALEnergies (leading its partners Qatar Energy and Petronas), signed a $15Million agreement for shallow-water Block S4, in what was described as a new deal under Guyana’s updated oil framework.

The 100% Guyanese-owned International Group Investment Inc. (IGI), which was awarded two blocks S5 & S10, has not concluded its negotiations.

Production figures published by Cybele Energy are a stretch. The statement says the plan is to produce up to 160,000Barrels of Oil Per day from a development concept using eight production wells and onshore early production facilities. This kind of output would suggest that a large discovery of at least 600Million barrels of oil is proven and that flow assurance dynamics have been determined to support it. AOGR believes that this statement is highly speculative. You can’t be talking about <100KBPD output in the same statement in which you are reporting the signature of a PSA agreement for a new block that you haven’t taken charge of.

The country’s PSA structure includes a 65% cost‑recovery clause for shallow‑water blocks. In Cybele’s view, this “enhances the block’s commercial viability”.

The block lies 50 kilometres from ExxonMobil’s Liza projects and is estimated to hold 400Million barrels of recoverable oil, Cybele claims. Drilling of the first exploration well is due within 12 months of the PSA’s effective date.

Cybele Energy’s technical partners include Norway‑based Well Expertise, which describes itself as providing “a one-stop shop for projects related to exploration, appraisal, development, PP&A, CCS, including consultancy services”. Well Expertise is represented on Cybele Energy’s Executve Management by Wim Kouwe, designated as Block S7 Geoscience Advisor, Well Expertise. Kouwe has worked as Chief Geologist for (the defunct German operator) Wintershall in Libya; he was asset and exploration manager for Cairn Energy for 11years, according to his LinkedIn. Cybele Energy’s Vice President for Geology & Geophysics is Segun Jebutu, who was, until March 2022, Regional Manager for Baker Hughes in the Gulf of Mexico, United States.

All of these indicate technical manpower, but Cybele has to raise the finance for operations.

The PSA on S7 was signed in Georgetown at a government‑hosted ceremony, supported by legal advisor Africa Legal Associates (ALA), local media reported. ALA advised Cybele Energy through a three‑year licensing and negotiation process.

TOTAL Annexes Mopane, Takes Operatorship of Namibia’s PEL 83

Section: Farm in, Farm Out · December 9, 2025 · No comments |

TOTALEnergies has won the keenly contested bid for farm in into Galp Energia’s Petroleum Exploration Licence (PEL) 83 in Namibia.

With 40% interest, the French explorer will be operator of the acreage, which hosts the huge Mopane discovery.

Galp will in turn acquire a 10% participating interest in TOTAL-led PEL 56 license, hosting the Venus discovery.

QatarEnergy, which is TOTAL’’s partner in PEL 56, did not go along into PEL 83.

“The transaction positions TOTALEnergies as the operator of the two largest oil discoveries in Namibia and opens the way for the development of a major producing hub, generating long-term value for the country and partners”, TOTAL said in a release..

TOTALEnergies will carry 50% of Galp’s capital expenditures for the exploration and appraisal of the Mopane discovery and the first development on PEL83. The carry will be repaid through 50% of Galp’s future cash flows from the project.

TOTALEnergies and Galp agreed to launch an exploration and appraisal campaign including three wells over the next two years, with a first well planned in 2026, to further derisk resources and progress diligently toward the development of the Mopane discovery.

FID on course for Venus in 2026

TOTAL reiterates its full commitment to the development of the Venus discovery, “and is working to secure all conditions enabling a potential final investment decision in 2026”.

Completion of the transaction is subject to customary third party approvals from the Nambian authorities and joint ventures parties, with completion expected to occur in 2026.

After completion of the transaction, TOTALEnergies will own:

a 40% operated interest in PEL83 alongside Galp (40%), Namcor (10%) and Custos (10%);

a 35.25% operated interest in PEL56 alongside QatarEnergy (35.25%), Galp (10%), Namcor (10%) and Impact (9.5%);

a 33.085% operated interest in PEL91 alongside QatarEnergy (33.025%), Namcor (15%), Galp (9.39%) and Impact (9.5%).

South East Offshore Assets Dominate Nigeria’s Current Bid Round

Section: Farm in, Farm Out · December 2, 2025 · No comments |

Nigeria’s Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has announced 50 Petroleum prospecting Licenses as the sum of its offering in the 2025 bid round, which opened on the first of December 2025.

The Niger Delta is responsible for 35 of these acreages. And out of the Niger Delta share, 11 are located in the south east offshore, the most prolific corner of the basin. The rest of the offered PPLs in the Niger Delta include 14 onshore nine (9) shallow water tracts and one deepwater asset (PPL 2010) on offer in this auction.

Most of the tracts in the current round are small acreages; what would have been described as “marginal fields” in the old order. But such terminology is no longer known to law as governed by the Petroleum Industry Act of 2021.

15 other PPLs are located…

Read more

TOTALEnergiess Takes Operatorship from Conoil in OPL 257

Section: Farm in, Farm Out · November 19, 2025 · No comments |

TOTALEnergies has announced the signing of agreements with Conoil Producing Limited (Conoil), under which TOTALEnergies is to acquire from Conoil a 50% operated interest in block Oil Prospecting Lease (OPL) 257 and Conoil is to acquire the 40% participating interest held by TOTALEnergies in block Oil Mining Lease (OML)136, both located offshore Nigeria.

Upon completion of this transaction, TOTALEnergies’ interest in OPL257 will be increased from 40% to 90%, while Conoil will retain a 10% interest in this block.

Covering an area of around 370 square kilometres, OPL 257 is located 150 kilometres offshore the coast of Nigeria. This block is adjacent to Petroleum Prospecting lease (PPL) 261, where TOTALEnergies (24%) and its partners discovered in 2005 the Egina South field, which extends into OPL 257. An appraisal well of Egina South is planned to be drilled in 2026 on OPL 257 side, and the field is expected to be developed as a tie-back to the Egina FPSO, located approximately 30 kilometres away.

“This transaction, built on our longstanding partnership with Conoil, will enable TOTALEnergies to proceed with the appraisal of the Egina South discovery, an attractive tie-back opportunity for Egina FPSO”, TOTALEnergies says in a release. “This fits perfectly with our strategy to leverage existing production facilities to profitably develop additional resources and to focus on our operated gas and offshore oil assets in Nigeria”, said Mike Sangster, Senior Vice-President Africa, Exploration & Production at TOTALEnergies.

Completion of the transaction is subject to customary conditions, including regulatory approvals.

VAARIS is Now the Likely Winner of TOTAL’s 10% Stake in the RAEC Operated JV

Section: Farm in, Farm Out · November 13, 2025 · No comments |

By Prosper Mugambi, in Port Harcourt

There are strong indications that TOTALEnergies is close to signing a Sale and Purchase Agreement with an SPV named VAARIS for its 10% equity in the Renaissance Africa/NNPC/ENI/TOTAL Joint Venture, covering 18 oil mining leases (OMLs) in onshore and shallow water eastern, central and western Niger Delta basin.

VAARIS was the reserved bidder in the bid process to purchase the asset from TOTAL, coming second after Chappal Energies who won the bid.

TOTAL and Chappal did not close the transaction even after they had both received regulatory approval for the sale and purchase

Read more.

QatarEnergy Is All Over the African Map

Section: Farm in, Farm Out · November 6, 2025 · No comments |

When QatarEnergy announced its farm-in transaction with ENI, acquiring a 40% stake in the North Rafah block in late October 2025, media reports cited it as the company’s seventh offshore position in Egypt.

The North Rafah acquisition had come less than three weeks after the company had teamed up with Shell to acquire a 27% participating interest in the North Cleopatra block in the same country.

Qatar’s state hydrocarbon firm had been creeping up the African hydrocarbon map for a while, but now it is all over the place. Last June, it was involved in the Algerian bid round, winning a new exploration block, named Ahara, as a partner with TOTALEnergies.

From Namibia through Côte d’Ivoire to Morocco, the one mid-eastern company likely to show up in an African bid round…

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Aradel Moves towards Owning 53% of Renaissance

Section: Farm in, Farm Out · November 5, 2025 · No comments |

Aradel Holdings has reached an agreement for the acquisition of an additional 40% equity interest in ND Western Limited.

This takeover is largely about the Switzerland based Petrolin selling its 40% of ND Western, which is the holder of the Oil Mining Lease (OML) 34 Joint Venture with the NNPC E&P.

It also means that, when the regulatory hurdles are cleared, Aradel will have 53% of Renaissance (RAEC), an outcome that will make RAEC a subsidiary of Aradel.

As Aradel Plc already owns 41.7% of NDWestern, this move means that it is aiming at owning 81.7% of the company.

Read more

Nigerian Indies Have Had Sour Experiences in the Rest of Africa

Section: Farm in, Farm Out · October 9, 2025 · No comments |

First E&P’s entry into Tanzania’s Mnazi Bay North Block (MBNB) is the company’s second foray into a jurisdiction outside Nigeria, its home country. Prior to signing an MoU with the Tanzania Petroleum Development Company, to assess the potentials of MBNB, the company had been in negotiation with Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), trying to complete the Petroleum agreement on Block GH_WB_02m since 2019.

These interests place First E&P among a few select Nigerian independents.

For, despite the fact that they have a large appetite for acquiring E&P assets and they control over 60% of crude oil and gas production in their own country, Nigerian indies hardly acquire assets outside Nigeria.

And when they do, it almost, always doesn’t work out.

Lekoil is a Nigerian company whose first exploration licence was in Namibia.

Read more

Three Months After Licence Expiration, over 20 PPL Holders Left with Questions

Section: Farm in, Farm Out · September 23, 2025 · No comments |

By Oluwatobi Odeyinka, Staff Reporter

Over 20 Nigerian marginal oilfield operators whose Petroleum Prospecting Licences(PPL) expired in June 2025 are lamenting being left in limbo three months after filing applications for licence extensions.

More than 40 PPLs expired on 27 June, 2025, and over 20 of the licence holders had submitted requests for extensions to the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), as mandated by the Commission.

However, operators who spoke to AOGR say that after meeting the Commission’s deadline to file optional extension requests by June 27, the trail has gone cold.

Attempts to get an explanation regarding the delay from the NUPRC was futile as the Commission’s Head of Communication and Media Strategy, Eniola Akinkuotu, promised to revert but never did.

According to section 78 of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021, a holder of a of a PPL must commit to a work programme, which may include, among others: drilling at least “one exploration well to a minimum depth specified in the licence… except only for frontier acreages, where the work programme during the initial exploration period may only consist of geophysical work”

The NUPRC is empowered by the PIA to receive applications for licences and approve or decline such applications. However, the Minister of Petroleum is empowered to grant or revoke licences on the recommendation of the Commission.

Chapter 2 of the PIA empowers the Commission (NUPRC) to “approve” licences and leases, but Section 3 (1) (g) says the Minister shall “upon the recommendation of the Commission, grant petroleum prospecting licences and petroleum mining leases…”

AOGR learnt that the Commission has submitted the list of approved licences to the Ministry of Petroleum Resources for final approval.

However, as of September 23, 2025, the holders of the expired PPLs are yet to receive a clear answer on the status of their licences.

“The Minister Received the List on September 15, 2025” – Spokesperson

In an exclusive chat with Nneamaka Okafor, the Special Adviser on Communication to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, she said the Minister received the list from the NUPRC on September 15, 2025.

She argued that the Minister has up to 60 days to review the list of approved licences before granting them.

The PIA does not say the Minister has up to 60 days to review the list contrary to Ms Okafor’s claim.

The Law also does not require companies to make presentations to the Minister of Petroleum, after they have gone through the process with the NUPRC. But that’s what they are having to do now.

“This process is just adding gatekeepers along the way”, one operator said, requesting anonymity.

Ms. Okafor stressed that the Minister has not had enough time to review and give his verdict as required by the law.

Meanwhile, she noted that if the applicants had fulfilled all requirements by “reaching the threshold stipulated by the PIA, they have nothing to fear.”

“The Minister wants all wells in operation in order to increase production and for the good of the nation. So, whoever meets the threshold have nothing to fear,” she added.

AOGR reported in June 2025 that only two of the expired PPLs have been converted to Petroleum Mining Leases. The two that were converted to PMLs are PPL 218 of Multisub Energy in the Olure field, and Ingentia Energies’ PPL 202 in the Egbolom field. They can now proceed to commercial production of hydrocarbons having met the requirements stipulated in section 79 of the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021.

It was also gathered that three other PPLs of marginal field operators are close to being converted to PMLs. They are: PPL 225 of Apani Energy for the Apani field, and PPL 219 Omofejo field held by Nuway Oaklane, as well as Tulcan Energy’s PPL 244 in the Tom Shot Bank field which is due for expiration in February 2026.

Please click here for the list of licences that expired on June 27, 2025 and the companies holding them.