Nigeria’s NNPC Ltd. announced on Tuesday that Sinopec’s Addax Petroleum Development (Nigeria) Ltd. has ceded its four main oil mining blocks in Nigeria to the state-owned oil corporation.
By establishing Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) with NNPC, Addax launched operations in Nigeria in 1998.
“NNPC Ltd and Addax Petroleum Development (Nigeria) Ltd signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the Transfer, Settlement and Exit Agreement for Oil Mining Leases (OML) 123/124 and OMLs 126/137,” NNPC said on its official Twitter account.
With this deal, Addax is no longer the PSC contractor for the asset, according to Bala Wunti, the chief investment officer of NNPC Upstream Investment Management Services.
The conditions of the contract were not disclosed by NNPC or Wunti.
The oil licences were terminated in April 2021 by the petroleum regulator, who charged Addax with failing to develop them properly. President Muhammadu Buhari, however, overruled the decision three weeks later.
According to Addax’s website, three of the licences have producing fields.
In order to prepare for an anticipated initial public offering in the second half of next year, NNPC, which became a commercial organisation in July, is building up its asset base.
