Seplat Petroleum to acquire Eland Oil & Gas for $484m

Nigeria-based Seplat Petroleum has signed an agreement to acquire oil and gas production and development company Eland Oil & Gas for £382m ($484m).

The deal comes as part of Seplat’s move to become Nigeria’s biggest independent exploration and production (E&P) company.

Seplat’s acquisition includes Eland’s main asset, the OML 40 licence in the Niger Delta, which would enable the company to boost production to 64,000boe/d.

With the addition of Eland’s production to its capacity, Seplat will have 38,000bpd of liquids.

Seplat will pay 166p a share in cash for Eland or a premium of 28.5%.

The acquisition will be financed through a combination of existing cash resources of Seplat and a new loan facility available to the company.

Seplat Petroleum CEO Austin Avuru said: “The acquisition, made possible by our robust operational platform and headroom in our capital structure, is in line with a key part of our established strategy which is to pursue opportunities in the onshore and offshore areas of Nigeria that offer near term production with cash flow and reserves potential.

“The acquisition reinforces Seplat’s status as one of Nigeria’s leading indigenous, independent E&Ps and will create a Nigerian E&P champion with the footprint and technical capabilities to further grow and consolidate in Nigeria.”

Through the Elcrest E&P joint venture (JV), Eland has a 45% stake in OML 40 and a 40% stake in the Ubima field. Net production from OML 40 reached 9,948bpd in the first half this year.

Eland Oil & Gas CEO George Maxwell said: “Since founding Eland, we have, jointly with our partners in Elcrest, acquired our interests in OML 40, a non-producing asset, achieved an all-time record production on this asset and become a significant independent producer in Nigeria’s E&P landscape and one of the biggest oil producers on London’s AIM market.”

The transaction is slated for completion late this year.

In July, Eland Oil & Gas secured regulatory approval of its Gbetiokun field development plan (FDP) from the Nigerian Department of Petroleum Resources.