Nigerian Brittania-U seeks to acquire Chevron oil blocks

Nigerian upstream oil operator Brittania-U Nigeria Ltd. said Tuesday it hoped to buy stakes in three oil blocks being sold by Chevron Corp.
Chevron said in June it was selling its 40 percent stakes in three blocks in OMLs 52, 53 and 55, as part of a scaling down of its operations in Nigeria's southern oil region.
"As far as we know, the subject divestment exercise is ongoing and we like other participants, are quite hopeful of our chances of success in the bid," Brittania-U Nigeria said. "Accordingly, we are prepared and are able to progress to the next stages of the transaction."
The Chevron assets, in shallow water offshore Bayelsa State in the Niger Delta, have been estimated to hold more than 250 million barrels of oil and 14.1 billion cubic meters of gas.
Other local companies bidding to take over the assets include Niger Delta Petroleum, Sahara Energy and Seplat.
Sources familiar with the talks said bids worth between $600 million and $1.5 billion had been submitted for the Chevron's 40 percent stake in the oil blocks, which local analysts said were on the high side considering that the buyers will not operate the fields.
State oil firm Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which holds the remaining 60 percent in the blocks, said in September the buyers of the Chevron stakes would not assume automatic status as operators because an existing agreement with Chevron, the current operator, that the blocks would revert to NNPC.