Seplat Energy sells 10% stake in JV assets to NNPC for $281.6million

Seplat Energy Plc has agreed to sell a 10 percent working interest in assets held within the NNPCL/Seplat Joint Venture to NNPC Limited, the company said, in a deal that trims its stake in the operation while handing shareholders a fresh payout.

The Nigerian oil and gas producer signed a legally binding Heads of Agreement with NNPC for the sale, with a headline transaction value of $281.6 million. Seplat said that figure represents roughly 25 percent of the gross transaction consideration it paid for its acquisition of SEPNU, based on the company’s own reasonable estimate.

“With continued strong business performance and the announced sale of a 10 percent interest in our offshore JV to NNPC Limited, means that total dividends paid for the current financial year are expected to represent nearly 50 percent of all previous dividends paid to shareholders,” Roger Brown, chief executive officer of Seplat Energy, said.

Once the sale closes, Seplat said it will retain a 30 percent working interest in the joint venture assets and will continue on as operator, meaning day-to-day control of the fields stays with the company even as its ownership share shrinks.

“The effective date for the transaction is 1 April 2026, and completion is expected in 2H 2026,” Seplat Energy’s unaudited results for the six months ended 30 June 2026.

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Where the money goes is arguably the more consequential part of the announcement for investors.

Seplat said it intends to direct approximately half of the sale proceeds toward paying down gross debt, with the remaining 50 percent earmarked for shareholders in the form of a transaction dividend.

Subject to the deal completing, the company said it plans to distribute $140 million to shareholders, equivalent to 23.3 cents per share. That payout would come on top of the underlying business performance dividend the company already outlined separately in its results.

Taken together, Seplat said planned dividends to shareholders for 2026 are now expected to total $410.0 million, or 68.3 cents per share, a figure that folds in both the transaction dividend tied to the NNPC sale and the ordinary dividend flowing from operating performance.

The disclosure came as part of Seplat’s unaudited results for the six months ended 30 June 2026, and marks one of the more significant portfolio moves the company has flagged this year.

Divesting a slice of the joint venture while staying on as operator lets Seplat monetise part of its position without giving up control of production decisions, a structure companies in the sector increasingly favour when trying to balance debt reduction against shareholder returns.

NNPC Limited’s willingness to buy into the stake also underscores the state oil company’s continued appetite for direct participation in upstream joint ventures alongside indigenous operators, a dynamic that has shaped much of the reshuffling of Nigerian oil and gas assets in recent years following the exit of several international majors from onshore and shallow-water positions.