Tsuen Wan International: Royal Dutch Shell’s Nigeria oil sales awaiting minister’s approval.

June 29, 2011 - PRLog -- Shell together with foreign oil major partners Total and Eni have agreed to sell their share in four onshore oil blocks which Shell operates in the onshore wetlands of the Niger Delta, Tsuen Wan International has learned, but the incoming energy minister still needs to approve the deals.

President Goodluck Jonathan, who was sworn in for his first full term in May, submitted a list of nominees for his new cabinet on recently. The nominees include outgoing oil minister Deziani Alison-Madueke.

"The deals are on the desk waiting for the signature of the oil minister when he or she arrives. Obviously the buyers would like the previous minister back because she understands the deals well,” one source involved in the deals disclosed.

State-oil firm NNPC which owns the majority stake in the blocks has informed Tsuen Wan International that its subsidiary would take over from Shell as operator of the fields as soon as the deals are completed.

But Poland's Kulczk Oil Ventures, which is part of a consortium that has a deal for one block, understood that one of its partners would be taking over as operator.

There could be a compromise where NNPC's subsidiary NPDC operates some, but not all four, of the blocks, however in the event of the two parties not being able to reach an amicable decision over who operates the block they could enter arbitration which would cause lengthy delays.
Kulczk's consortium agreed to buy block OML 42 while independent energy firm Eland Oil, in partnership with Nigeria's Starcrest, has agreed acquire OML 40 and according to the source the  foreign firms will  likely want to be the operators of these blocks
.
The two remaining blocks were won by local Nigerian partnerships. Niger Delta E&P and Petrolin won OML 34 and Conoil picked up OML 30. Alison-Madueke said earlier this month that NPDC has the go-ahead to operate these blocks.

"Since NNPC has 55 percent of the said blocks the decision was taken that in those two we would hold operatorship of those blocks on behalf of the federal government for the safety and security of our assets and the security of the economy as a whole," she told Tsuen Wan International.

# # #

Tsuen Wan International is a leading independent investment company, based in the heart of Hong Kong. Tsuen Wan International offers a variety of investment products for institutional, corporate and high net worth investors in equity debt and FX markets.