Vitol, Glencore, Shell, three leading oil and gas players across the globe, are running to buy the African division of Petrobras, which has interest in two major offshore oil blocks in West African country Nigeria
This follows Petrobras’ decision in 2017 to sell 100 per cent of its oil and gas stakes in Petrobras Africa, which is in line with the company’s plan to discharge US$21bn in assets in 2018.
The company has interest in two offshore oil and gas fields in West Africa including the Agbami field in OML 127 and the Akpo field in OML 130. Agbami field is operated by a regional Chevron affiliate and the Akpo field is operated by French multinational oil and gas company Total.
As reported by Reuters, Geneva-headquartered Vitol placed the bid along with the Warburg Pincus and Canadian-listed Africa Energy. Glencore placed the bid with Seplat and French company Maurel & Prom, said the source.
The source further added that the third bidding was placed by Famfa Oil with Shell. Famfa Oil is one of the concessionaires in the Agbami oil field where Chevron, Statoil and Petrobras hold stakes.
According to the source, Petrobras is set to take a final decision in Africa’s oil and gas bid by the end of May 2018. However, this could slip because there is as a chance that it could be split between the two oil block stakes.
