Nigeria: Seplat Targets 500,000 boepd By 2030 – CEO

Seplat Energy Plc, a Nigeria-based independent oil and gas company, has increased its liquids production from 14,000 barrels per day in 2010, when it acquired assets from Shell, to about 360,000 barrels per day, Chief Executive Officer Effiong Udofia Okon said.

Gas production has also risen from about 90 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscf/d) over the same period to between 600 million and 700 million mmscf/d, he said.

“From 2010 when Seplat started buying assets from Shell, production was 14,000 barrels of oil per day, gas was 90 mmscf per day. Today we produce about 360,000 barrels of oil liquids per day. So just imagine, from 14,000 barrels to 360,000 barrels. And then on the gas side, you know, Shell old assets, there was about 90 mmscf, today we do roughly about 600-700 mmscf of gas per day. It’s gone up really, really massive,” Okon said.

He was speaking during a fireside chat on the Regional Strategic Outlook on the first day of the three-day Africa Oil Week conference in Accra, Ghana.

Speaking about the company’s growth trajectory, Okon said Seplat listed in 2014, raising $530 million, and had since paid $835 million in dividends to investors, a feat he said few independent oil and gas companies had achieved.

“Today we are worth over $5 billion market cap. When I joined Seplat in 2018 we were just under half a billion dollars market cap. So the numbers themselves speak volumes,” he said.

Looking ahead, Okon said Seplat was targeting close to 500,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) by 2030 and more than $1 billion in dividends to shareholders.

He said the next phase of growth would be driven by the company’s newly acquired shallow-water assets, where it is restoring integrity, reliability and availability to top-quartile levels, as well as through aggressive seismic acquisition and exploration drilling aimed at replacing and growing reserves.

On gas monetisation, Okon said that while current gas production serves the domestic market, Seplat was exploring export opportunities through floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG).

He cited a recent 200 million standard cubic feet per day gas deal with UTM Offshore, signed in Abuja.

Okon said Seplat had a strong balance sheet, management team, corporate governance structure and board to take advantage of opportunities as they arise.

“We are really, really hungry and we are not just going to grow just looking at existing portfolio. We are well positioned as well, very strong balance sheet, very strong team, corporate governance, strong board to snap whatever comes available anytime from now. I think that’s sort of the growth story of Seplat,” he said.