General News
Total Resumes $2.5B Nigerian Deepwater Oil Field Sale
France’s Total SA, Europe’s second largest oil company, has put one of its offshore Nigerian oil fields up for sale again, the company said, after a 2012 deal with Sinopec Corp failed.
Total has hired BNP Paribas to find buyers for its Usan deepwater oil field located in the Nigeria Oil Prospecting Lease (OML) 138, which could be worth about $2.5 billion, according to sources familiar with the matter.
“We have selected an advisor to pursue the sale process of Usan,” a spokeswoman for Total said.
BNP Paribas declined to comment.
Usan is not expected to be an easy sale for Total because deepwater exploration requires significant investment and the new owner’s returns could be limited if Nigeria rises taxes on foreign investor profits as part of a long expected sector reform called the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).
Before deciding to sell the asset, which is about 100 km off the coast, Total was planning to drill several horizontal deepwater wells and build a deep offshore drilling rig.
“Anything in Nigeria is a tough sell,” said a London-based sector banker. “And anything with capex is even tougher these days. Very few players would be willing to acquire assets that have big investment commitments attached.”
Total said in November 2012 it had sold its 20 percent interest in the field to China’s Sinopec for about $2.5 billion in cash. It is not known why the sale failed.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is the OML 138 concession holder. Other partners include Chevron, ExxonMobil and Nexen, which is owned by Chinese state company CNOOC Ltd.
Total is working on several asset disposals to meet a $10 billion 2015 cash flow generation target. The French group is seeking to raise about $2.5 billion through the sale of its Super Glu maker Bostik, Reuters reported.
A deal for the Usan field may have to involve a local company because Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer, is renewing efforts to recoup the benefits from its oil and gas sector.
But few Nigerian players would have the money and ability to complete the necessary drilling and building works, several sector bankers said.
This means Total’s hopes may lie again in the hands of Asian buyers like China’s CNOOC, which already has an interest in the USAN field, or India’s ONGC and Indian Oil.
International oil & gas majors are not expected to show interest because most of them are under pressure from shareholders to cut capital expenditure and improve dividends. Most are seeking to leave Nigeria instead.
Earlier this year, ConocoPhillips sold its Nigerian operations to Nigerian oil company Oando for $1.5 billion.
Chevron is also in the process of selling assets in Nigeria and Shell recently sold off four oil fields in the West African country.
Taleveras and Transcorp are among the best placed Nigerian potential buyers because they have the strongest financial firepower, said one of the sources.
A sector banker said state-backed NNPC could also be interested though it already has a number of commitments with foreign investors, Oando is digesting the ConocoPhillips deal and Seplat is focused on Chevron’s assets.
“(Total) needs a couple of local players with deep pockets. The international banks aren’t showing as much interest as they were, and the local banks no longer have capacity to raise that kind of debt,” said a local industry source.
Commodity traders and miners such as Glencore or Mercuria could also be interested, in theory, as they have been actively hunting for oil & gas assets to diversify from volatile mining operations, said several sector bankers.
But trading houses may not have the required expertise to operate deepwater assets, said one of the bankers.
Glencore and Mercuria were among the short-listed bidders for Shell’s Nigerian energy assets worth about $3 billion, sources previously told Reuters.
RBC Capital Markets said in a report this week that Total was likely to miss production and cash flow targets for next year as it grapples with project disruptions. Total will update the market at a mid-year outlook investor’s day on September 22.
Dangote Petroleum Refinery is reportedly nearing completion of a $2.5 billion private placement that values the company at about $40 billion ahead of its planned public listing.
Private placement is the direct sale of company shares or bonds to pre-selected investors instead of the general public and it is used to raise money quickly while avoiding strict public reporting rules.
People familiar with the transaction said investors acquired as much as 6 per cent of the refinery, according to a BusinessDay report.
The reported terms would value the business at approximately $40 billion.
Neither Dangote Group nor the refinery has publicly announced the final amount raised, the identities of most subscribers or the precise percentage sold.
The figures should therefore be treated as transaction details supplied by unnamed sources rather than confirmed company disclosures.
The reported $2.5 billion total is nevertheless significant as it indicates strong demand for exposure to a privately controlled refinery that has rapidly become central to Nigeria’s fuel supply and an increasingly important exporter of petroleum products.
The placement was said to have attracted more demand than the available shares, allowing the company to secure substantially more than the amount initially associated with the fundraising exercise.
Femi Otedola, chairman, First HoldCo, is the only major participant publicly identified in the report.
He reportedly committed $100 million to the transaction and sold his investment in Geregu Power Plc to finance the acquisition.
Nigeria’s pension industry was also reportedly cleared to participate.
Access to more than $17 billion in retirement assets would broaden the refinery’s potential investor base beyond wealthy individuals and conventional institutional buyers.
Participation by Pension Fund Administrators would, however, require careful attention to valuation, liquidity and portfolio-concentration limits.
Retirement funds must balance the attraction of a large Nigerian industrial asset against their responsibility to protect contributors’ savings.
The implied $40 billion valuation represents investor expectations about the refinery’s future earnings rather than only the physical cost of constructing the facility.
Its ability to process 650,000 barrels of crude daily gives it a central role in supplying Nigeria and other markets, but its commercial performance remains connected to crude availability, product prices, exchange rates and regulation.
The refinery has struggled to obtain all the Nigerian crude it requires under the government’s naira-for-crude arrangement.
It has consequently purchased some feedstock internationally and recently moved local petroleum-product pricing into dollars to align sales revenue more closely with its foreign-currency expenses.
Those constraints will be important during any public offering.
Prospective shareholders will want greater clarity on crude-supply contracts, debt, operating margins, export revenue and the company’s relationship with Nigerian regulators.
It is also unclear whether the private placement involved newly issued shares, a sale by existing owners or a combination of both.
That distinction determines whether the reported $2.5 billion becomes fresh capital for the refinery or proceeds received by selling shareholders.
The transaction could provide a useful price reference for the planned initial public offering.
Federal government will next month launch Nigeria’s first national organized crime strategy to strengthen the country’s response to terrorism, cybercrime, human and drug trafficking, kidnapping, illicit financial flows, and other forms of organized crime.
Major General Adamu Laka, national coordinator of the National Counter Terrorism Centre under the Office of the National Security Adviser, disclosed this in Abuja during the validation of the strategy document.
He said the strategy provides a coordinated national framework for tackling organized crime through improved intelligence sharing, stronger collaboration among security agencies, and closer cooperation with the criminal justice system, civil society organizations, and international partners.
Major General Laka explained that the document was developed through a partnership involving the Federal Government, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the United States Government, and other stakeholders.
Speaking at the event, Cheikh Toure, UNODC representative, said the strategy would strengthen Nigeria’s capacity to combat transnational crimes, including drug trafficking, cybercrime, human trafficking, kidnapping, and illicit financial flows.
Also speaking, Douglas Grane, acting director of the United States Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, reaffirmed the U.S. government’s support for Nigeria’s efforts to tackle organized crime through stronger inter-agency and international cooperation.
Representatives of the National Institute for Strategic Studies, the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit, and the National Cyber Security Centre also endorsed the initiative, describing it as a major step towards improving Nigeria’s fight against organized crime.
FATE Foundation, with funding from the Citi Foundation, has launched the Youth Entrepreneurship Incubation Programme to equip young people in Nigeria with financial literacy and entrepreneurship skills.
Delivered through free, safe, and accessible platforms, the programme supports the incubation and scaling of youth-led enterprises, enabling income generation and job creation.
In October 2025, FATE Foundation was selected as a recipient of Citi Foundation’s 2025 Global Innovation Challenge to Accelerate Youth Employability. Joining the cohort of 50 organisations globally, the Foundation will receive $500,000 over two years to advance its youth employability initiative.
“We are excited to be selected for Citi Foundation’s 2025 Global Innovation Challenge,” said Ayomide Akindolie-Igwe, Executive Director of FATE Foundation.
“This support enables us to equip young entrepreneurs in Nigeria with the financial literacy and skills needed to build and scale sustainable businesses.”
The programme addresses youth employability by tackling Africa’s growing jobs crisis. By 2030, the African continent will be home to 40% of the world’s youth, and with one in three under 35 already unemployed, this initiative will support Nigerian youth with a two-phase approach. It begins with financial literacy training before progressing to entrepreneurship development, incubation support, and access to tools needed to build viable, job-creating businesses.
“Through this innovative initiative, FATE Foundation is supporting low-income Nigerian youth to develop essential financial and entrepreneurial skills using accessible platforms.
“This support is not just helping individuals to succeed; it is building a solid foundation for sustainable enterprises that will drive job creation and contribute significantly to our nation’s economic vitality. This initiative is empowering and investing in the future of Nigeria, one youth at a time,” said Nneka Enwereji, MD/CEO Citibank Nigeria Limited.
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