By Dipo Olowookere
The desire to become the leading integrated energy company in Africa has made Heirs Oil & Gas (HHOG) hire the vice president of Royal Dutch Shell Group in Hague, Netherlands, Mr Osayande Igiehon, as its new Chief Executive Officer.
Mr Igiehon, whose appointment became effective May 4, 2021, brings over 27 years of experience and expertise in the oil and gas sector with Shell into Heirs Oil.
When he was the Chairman and CEO of Shell Gabon, he led the successful turnaround of the operational, safety and financial performance of the organisation.
These are a few of the many things that attracted Heirs Oil to him and he is expected to reposition the company to a global brand, with the support of a distinguished non-executive board.
“HHOG represents an extraordinary opportunity, to create Africa’s first true integrated energy company, with a mission to ensure that Africa’s natural resources are directed toward value creation in Africa, powered by sustainable, robust and abundant African energy.
“I am excited to join the Heirs Oil leadership team and look forward to the opportunity to transform the energy sector, purposefully address Africa’s energy needs and improve the lives of people across Africa,” Mr Igiehon stated.
Expressing his delight over the appointment, the Chairman of Heirs Oil, Mr Tony Elumelu, stated that, “I am delighted to welcome our new board members.
“We are building a role model institution for African businesses and our investment in human capital is a further strong demonstration of our intent.
“The regional and global expertise of our board members will serve to further drive value creation to our continent, as we execute our goal of becoming Africa’s largest, indigenous, integrated, energy company.”
Mr Igiehon will work with a board filled with leading industry experts like Sally Udoma, a former general counsel for Chevron Europe; Anil Dua, a founding partner at Gateway Partners Limited; Ahmadu Kida Musa, a former Deputy Managing Director of Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited; Stanley Lawson, a board member of Transcorp Plc; and Samuel Nwanze, the Chief Finance Officer of Heirs Oil.
Recall that in January 2011, Heirs Oil completed the acquisition of OML17, one of the largest oil and gas financings in Africa in more than a decade, with a financing component of $1.1 billion.
The transaction represents a further implementation of the Heirs Holdings Group strategy of creating the leading integrated energy business in Africa. Through a series of strategic portfolio holdings, Heirs Holdings is executing this strategy.
Most recently, its affiliate company, Transcorp, made a $300 million acquisition of Afam Power, increasing the group’s installed electricity generating capacity to 2,000MW.
