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Niger Delta exploration to raise $450m through public offer

By Businessnews Staff on September 19, 2014

Niger Delta Exploration and Production Plc, a Nigerian independent company, has unveiled plans to raise $450 million to acquire and develop crude fields in the country.

This is coming as Lafarge Africa, Finland’s Wartsila and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) have agreed to build a 220 megawatt gas-fired power plant in Nigeria to boost electricity supply.

Speaking at the company’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Lagos yesterday, the Chief Executive Officer of Niger Delta Exploration and Production Plc, Dr. Layi Fatona, said the company was planning a “public offer or special placement of shares.

“The first tranche of $200 million will be raised before the end of 2014.”
He disclosed that FBN Capital Plc and Chapel Hill Denham had been appointed financial advisers for the fundraising, stating that the fund would be raised in the local or international markets.

According to him, NDEP also plans to expand to South Sudan and Zambia.
The company operates the Ogbele oilfield in Oil Mining Lease (OML) 54, through its subsidiary, the Niger Delta Petroleum Resources (NDPR) Limited.

NDPR was the first Nigerian independent oil company to supply gas to the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) plant in Bonny Island in Rivers State, and also the first Nigerian independent oil company to build and operate a private refinery using crude oil from the company’s Ogbele flow station.

Built at Ahaoda East Local Government Area of the state, the refinery, which was completed in December 2010, began operation in 2011.

Fabrication work had started in January 2010 by Chemex Incorporated of Texas, in the United States.

Meanwhile, Lafarge Africa, Finland’s Wartsila and the World Bank’s IFC have agreed to build a 220 MW gas-fired power plant in Nigeria to boost electricity supply.

Under the agreement, Wartsila will build and manage the power plant, while Lafarge Africa, the Nigerian arm of the world’s biggest cement maker, will manage the project.

The IFC, the World Bank’s private sector development division, will provide financial support and advisory services.

The companies said in a statement that their plan was to help fast track increased power supplies to the national grid and that they expected to provide more electricity to about 1.4 million households.

Accordingly, the plan is to add a 220mw power plant to Lafarge Africa’s existing 90mw plant, which is used mainly for its cement operations in Nigeria.
The plant supply about 40mw of excess power already, so once the new plant is built, about 260 MW will go to the national grid under a power purchase agreement.

[This Day]

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