The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) has found buyers for one of the two rigs parked at the outer Marina in Lagos it seized from debtors, in an indication that local producers are returning to oil fields to restart production.
Rig Onome and Rig Oritsetimeyin were built at a cost of $508 million. First Bank took possession of the rigs following the inability of indigenous service company, Seawolf Oil Services Limited, to pay back an over N100 billion loan which was subsequently sold to AMCON in 2011.
Over the years, AMCON has been struggling to get buyers for the assets before recently finding a buyer for Rig Oritsetimeyin.
Jude Nwauzor, AMCON’s head of corporate communications, told BusinessDay that Rig Oritsetimeyin is presently at the Ajapa Oilfield (offshore Delta State) which belongs to Brittania U Limited and the rig is on work-over.
“Rig Onome is still in Marina and we (AMCON) are in discussion with several companies who have indicated interest to lease it as well. We are hoping that this can be concluded as soon as possible so that the rig can be properly engaged as well,” Nwauzor said.
The AMCON spokesman said Rig Oritsetimeyin is being operated and managed by Selective Marine Oil & Gas Company Limited.
Established in 1995, Selective Marine Oil & Gas Company Limited is a Middle East & Gulf region-based company registered in British Virgin Island and Seychelles but has grown to be a regional company, with offices in UAE, India, Singapore, Nigeria, China, Malaysia, France and The Netherlands.
“Every asset AMCON has is for sale, both our marine assets, airlines, real-estate, hotels, factories, plants and machineries and so on. AMCON is not in the business of running businesses. Our recovery can come in the form of cash or assets. Even at that, the assets are meant to be converted to cash at the end of the day just to recover the loan,” Nwauzor told BusinessDay.
All efforts by BusinessDay to get the industry regulator to comment on the matter proved abortive as Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) spokesman, Paul Osu, refused to respond to messages concerning the matter.
Recall that on July 1, 2018, AMCON published a notice for auction of Seawolf oil rig Delta Queen, with Aliyu Kiliya & Co, an auctioning firm appointed by the receiver/manager of Seawolf Oil Services.
The notice also disclosed that the rig had been cold stacked since 2012. When a rig is cold stacked, it is essentially shut down and kept in storage.
Seawolf Energy Services was established in April 2007 by Adolor Uwanu and Remi Okunlola. The company was mainly financed by First Bank while Leadway Assurance plc and Pan African Infrastructure Development Fund took up stakes in the firm.
BusinessDay gathers that Rig Oritsetimeyin was previously working for Total E&P Nigeria, and Onome for Addax Petroleum Development Company, with each generating $130,000 daily.
Over the years, Nigeria’s rig count, a standard yardstick used in measuring a nation’s activeness in exploration and production of crude oil and gas, has been performing badly.
BusinessDay analysis of data obtained from Baker Hughes Incorporated and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) showed since the beginning of 2019 Nigeria’s oil rig, which depicts the level of oil production activities by operators, has been hovering around 14 rigs count, a sharp decline from a three-year high of 35 rigs count recorded in February 2018.
Rig count is largely a reflection of the level of exploration, development and production activities occurring in the oil and gas sector.
Wunmi Iledare, Ghana National Petroleum professor and chair, University of Cape Coast’s Institute of Oil and Gas, said a number of factors contributed to the decline in Nigeria’s rig count ranging from poor investment clouds due to lack of reforms, lack of passage of the petroleum industry bill (PIGB), and the need to renew some OMLs due to expire.
“The activities levels in other places are higher because Nigeria has not given out any oil leases in recent times and, once the contract expires they (rigs) move to another location where they are needed,” Iledare told BusinessDay.
ISAAC ANYAOGU & DIPO OLADEHINDE
