Nigerian oil giant Oando is nearing fund completion to purchase the Nigerian assets of ConocoPhillips. This was confirmed by Oando's CEO Wale Tinubu through an interview with Reuters.
Tinubu was allaying fears that his company is unable to raise the necessary funding for the US$1.79 billion purchase. In the inteview held in Lagos, the commercial hub of Nigeria, he said that additional equity needed has been raised through a rights issue and now the companies have agreed as to the transfer of the necessary debt.
Oando is in the process of reinventing itself from a marketer of refined petroleum products to an upstream company with oil and gas exploration and production interests.
The deal involves the acquisition of the Conoco owned oil fields that produce nearly 43,000 barrels per day in 2012 and reserves of 213 million barrels of oil equivalent.
According to Tinubu, in reaction to analysts questioning the ability of Oando's investors to provide the funds, "We're confident in our ability to raise finance because we have a diverse group. We've been able to raise equity from our shareholders and extract value from parts of our business to reinvest in the upstream."
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