Seplat Confident of Winning Chevron's Assets

Seplat Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Austin Avuru

Nume Ekeghe with agency report

Seplat has said it is confident it will win the dispute over the purchase of a Chevron asset.

The company’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Austin Avuru was quoted by Reuters to have said this during the presentation of Seplat's interim management statement. He said the company had appealed against a ruling which gave jurisdiction to a Nigerian court in deciding the outcome of a Chevron oil block sale, for which Seplat's bid was the second-highest.

A judge last week ruled the Federal High Court should have jurisdiction over Chevron's asset sale dispute with Nigeria's Brittania-U, dealing a blow to Chevron which had hoped to have the case dismissed.

Chevron and Brittania-U are at loggerheads after the Nigerian firm said it paid a deposit to buy some onshore oil blocks from the United States group, only for Chevron to look for alternative bids.

The US firm had argued the sale was a private matter and should not be subject to court involvement.

"We remain confident that the Chevron acquisition will be settled in our favour," Avuru said.

Avuru said Seplat had lost out on a separate bid for a Shell block in Nigeria because its bid was not the highest.
Shares in Seplat traded flat on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and the London Stock Exchange (LSE) yesterday at N625 and 228 pence respectively. Seplat said its interim results would be released in July.

Avuru said Seplat, which raised $500 million via a debut stock market listing on the NSE and in London in April, was considering three acquisitions seriously and expects to conclude them before the end of the year.

It said it had $285 million in net cash after its Initial Public Offer and is on track to achieve a production rate for 2014 of 72,000 barrels per day.

Culled from ThisDay