Africa-Press – Nigeria. The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission has explained that the federal government withdrew its ministerial consent for the TotalEnergies and Chappal divestment deal.
NUPRC said the decision to withdraw the ministerial consent was because Chappal Energies, owners of Telema Energies Nigeria Limited, failed to consummate the deal after approval on October 28, 2024.
The commission issued the clarification in a statement released on its X account on Thursday.
This comes after NUPRC had, in October last year, conveyed a grant of ministerial consent to the transfer of TotalEnergies’ entire 10 per cent participating interest in the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Joint Venture – excluding OMLs 23, 28 and 77 – to Chappal Energies.
Details of the divestment approval involved TotalEnergies’ 10 per cent participating interest in Oil Mining Leases (OML) 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 27, 28, 31, 32, 33, 35, 36, 43, 45, 46, 74, 77 and 79 in the country’s oil fields.
In an update on the status of the ministerial consent, NUPRC stressed that months after the approval, Chappal Energies failed to consummate the deal despite extensions graciously granted by the Commission.
The commission said the ministerial consent to the TotalEnergies/Chappal Energies deal had been withdrawn since May 29, 2025.
“Months after the approval, Chappal Energies failed to consummate the deal. This was despite extensions graciously granted by the Commission.
“Based on this, the ministerial consent for the deal was withdrawn on May 29, 2025,” NUPRC stated.
It further clarified that the decision does not nullify the possibility of a future divestment by the concerned parties.
“Also, the withdrawal of a ministerial consent does not in any way rule out the possibility of a future divestment by the interested parties, provided such an asset sale is in line with extant laws.
“The NUPRC affirms that, in line with Section 6(h) of the Petroleum Industry Act, it remains committed to promoting an enabling environment for investments in upstream petroleum operations.”
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