Shell has received approval from Nigeria’s oil Minister for the sale of $2.4 billion in onshore and shallow-water assets to Renaissance Group, Renaissance said in a statement on Wednesday.
The approval marks the end of Shell’s nearly a century of operations in Nigerian onshore oil and gas and is part of a broader retreat by Western energy companies from Nigeria, including Exxon Mobil Italy’s Eni and Norway’s Equinor.
Shell’s sale to Renaissance, comprising five companies, was announced in January but was blocked in October by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).
The regulator had cited Renaissance’s inability to demonstrate its capacity to manage the assets, which hold an estimated 6.73 billion barrels of oil and condensate, and 56.27 trillion cubic feet of gas.
The NUPRC and Shell did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Renaissance said, “This approval marks a significant step forward from the announcement of the sale and purchase agreements in January”.
This week, Shell announced its Nigerian subsidiary had made a final investment decision on Bonga North, a deep-water project off the coast of Nigeria.
The project, which will help maintain oil and gas production at Bonga, will be connected to Shell’s Floating Production Storage and Offloading facility, where the oil company has a 55% stake.
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