Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance advises Shell on sale of its Nigerian onshore subsidiary SPDC

Global law firm Clifford Chance advised Shell on the disposal of its Nigerian onshore subsidiary The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited ("SPDC") to Renaissance, a consortium of five companies comprising four exploration and production companies based in Nigeria and an international energy group.

Shell will sell SPDC for a consideration of US $1.3 billion, while the buyers will make an additional payment of up to US $1.1 billion relating to prior receivables at completion.

SPDC is the operator and one of the joint venture partners in the SPDC Joint Venture (SPDC JV), which holds 15 oil mining leases for petroleum operations onshore and 3 for petroleum operations in shallow water in Nigeria and supplies a major portion of the feed gas to Nigeria LNG. It is expected that Shell will retain a role in supporting the management of SPDC JV following completion.

The Clifford Chance team was led from London by energy and infrastructure partners Olamide Oladosu and John Wilkins, supported by Keith Hauck, Thomas Hobbs Martin and trainee Seika Osafune. Employment advice was provided by Chinwe Odimba-Chapman and Ben Purkiss with Capital Markets advice by Simon Thomas and Yuli Adagun.