Post #473

🔴High-Profile Schemer Helps to Acquire Assets🔴 French oil major is selling its oil assets to a brand new Nigerian firm 🌐 TotalEnergies has sold its 10% stake in Nigerian onshore and shallow-water oil assets to Vaaris Resources, a brand new local firm founded by a local industry heavyweight. The deal marks another chapter in the exodus of international oil majors from Nigeria’s oil sector. 🔸Vaaris Resources, itself a consortium of local firms, was reportedly assembled by Austin Avuru, a man of impressive credentials: he was a co-founder and former CEO of another indigenous oil producer Seplat and since April 2025 he serves as a non-executive director of the state oil corporation NNPC. 🔸 The assets Vaaris is taking on—18 licenses in the Niger Delta—produced about 16,000 barrels a day for TotalEnergies in 2025. In 2024 the French giant had already tried to sell the same asset to a Mauritius-based company Chappal Energies, which allegedly failed to muster enough funds for the deal leading to its subsequent cancellation by the Nigerian oil regulator in September. One of the masterminds behind the inception of Chappal Energies back in 2020 was also Austin Avuru. Having separated from Chappal in 2022, Avuru built up a record of a local industry heavyweight with links to both political and oil elites — which apparently makes it easier for him to gather funds and secure nods of approval from high-profile officials. ➡️ Stay informed - @devilsbelow