Equinor Exits Nigeria, Azerbaijan with $2 Billion Asset Sales

Norwegian energy giant Equinor has officially exited the upstream oil and gas markets in Nigeria and Azerbaijan after completing asset sales worth $2 billion, the company announced on Monday.

Equinor revealed it will receive $745 million from the sale of its portfolio in Azerbaijan and up to $1.2 billion for its Nigerian assets. The deals, first announced last year, align with the company’s strategy to streamline and optimise its upstream operations.

In Nigeria, Equinor divested its assets to Chappal Energies. The sale included a 53.85 percent ownership stake in Oil Mining Lease (OML) 128, encompassing a unitised 20.21 percent stake in the Chevron-operated Agbami oil field.

In Azerbaijan, the company sold its 7.27 percent shareholding in the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) oil fields, with 6.655 percent acquired by SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) and 0.615 percent by India’s ONGC.

Additionally, Equinor divested its 8.71 percent share in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, transferring 7.96 percent to SOCAR and 0.75 percent to ONGC.

“With these exits we realise value and execute on our strategy to focus the international portfolio, and in combination with recent acquisitions and investments in our competitive projects, we seek to sustain long-term production and profitability,” said Philippe Mathieu, executive vice president for international exploration and production in Equinor.

These divestments and exits “enable investments to deepen further in countries where Equinor can add the most value and build a more focused and robust international portfolio,” the Norwegian company said.

Just last week, Equinor and Shell announced they would merge their UK oil and gas assets in a 50/50 joint venture which will be the largest independent oil and gas producer in the UK North Sea.

Shell and Equinor are currently defending in court their plans to develop the planned Jackdaw and Rosebank oil and gas projects in the UK North Sea, respectively, after environmentalists won landmark court battles earlier this year and the Labour government dropped its right to challenge judicial reviews brought against the development consents for the fields.