Emeka Offor’s Starcrest clinches Shell’s oil block

The Nation

3 April 2011

Emeka Offor’s Starcrest clinches Shell’s oil block

After a keen bidding, Elcrest Exploration and Production, a consortium comprising of UK-based Eland Oil and Gas and Starcrest Nigeria Energy, a subsidiary of Chrome Group, an indigenous oil firm, has been chosen as the preferred bidder for Shell’s oil block in oil mining lease (OML) 40 located in the Northwest of Niger Delta.

Although the cost of the transaction was not revealed by Shell and the consortium, it was gathered that the latter upped its bid from the initial $147 million to $154 million.

The deal, which was sealed last Thursday, has ceded 45 percent equity in the oil licence in which Shell holds 30 per cent, Total 10 per cent and Agip (Eni) five percent, to the consortium. The remaining 55 per cent equity is held by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Emeka Offor’s Starcrest clinches Shell’s oil block