Connect with us

General

NUPRC Cancels Chappal’s 10% Stake in TotalEnergies’ Assets

Published

11 months ago

on

Chappal Energies

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has withdrawn the sale of a minority stake in TotalEnergies assets to Chappal Energies over the failure to meet financial commitments.

Last July, TotalEnergies agreed to sell a 10 per cent stake in Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) to the relatively unknown Chappal Energies.

In October 2024, the deal was granted regulatory approval by the NUPRC, leaving the assent of the President as the final step to transfer ownership to complete the deal.

Now, regulatory approval for the sale has not met financial commitments required to complete the deal, according to Mr Eniola Akinkuoto, spokesperson for the commission.

“The ministerial consent was accompanied by certain financial obligations to the Nigerian people with strict deadlines. However, both parties failed to meet their financial commitments after repeated extensions, forcing the commission to cancel the deal,” Mr Akinkuoto said on Tuesday.

As per Reuters, Chappal failed to raise the $860 million valuation fee, and as a result TotalEnergies did not fulfil its requirement to pay regulatory fees and cover funds for environmental rehabilitation and future liabilities.

The failed deal leaves TotalEnergies saddled with its stake in a business which has struggled with hundreds of oil spills as a result of theft, sabotage and operational issues that led to costly repairs and billions in debt.

Recall that Chappal Energies last December successfully closed the purchase of Nigerian assets from Equinor for $1.2 billion, with financial backing from Mauritius Commercial Bank and commodities trader Trafigura. However, Chappal has not disclosed other financial backers for the proposed purchase from TotalEnergies.

Prior to this, Chappal Petroleum unsuccessfully bid for Nigerian shallow-water oil blocks that Exxon agreed to sell to Seplat in February 2022.

In July 2025, TotalEnergies’ chief executive, Mr Patrick Pouyanne told investors in July the Nigerian sale was one of three deals that would bring in $3.5 billion before year-end and lower the company’s debt-to-equity ratio.

The failed sale will also leave TotalEnergies with interests in 15 licences in mostly oil-producing fields that netted the company about 14,000 barrels of oil-equivalent per day in 2023, as well as three licences in gas fields that account for 40 per cent of its Nigeria LNG gas supply.

Related Topics:

Adedapo Adesanya is a journalist, polymath, and connoisseur of everything art. When he is not writing, he has his nose buried in one of the many books or articles he has bookmarked or simply listening to good music with a bottle of beer or wine. He supports the greatest club in the world, Manchester United F.C.

3 Comments