Index to Nigerian Newspapers

President Bola Tinubu yesterday pledged to ensure competition in the oil and gas industry in the country, following a visit by officials of ExxonMobil Nigeria, to the State House in Abuja.

None of the parties at the meeting disclosed details of the issues discussed, but THISDAY recalls that a pending matter which could not be resolved by the Muhammadu Buhari administration was the $1.3bn assets sale imbroglio between the company and Seplat Energy Plc on the one hand and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) on the other.

While the acquisition had been scheduled to be completed in the second half of 2022, with Buhari initially giving approval in August 2022, he reversed the decision after the industry regulator, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) disagreed with the takeover. The NNPC insists that it has first refusal rights and has since then blocked the deal between Seplat and ExxonMobil, maintaining that the company has a right to take over the 40 per cent stake for itself.