Seplat Petroleum Development Company and Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL) have won the case brought against them by Brittania -U Nigeria Limited over OMLs 53 and 55.

The Supreme Court gave the verdict in favour of Seplat and C hevron at the weekend.

The litigation had prevented the full transfer to Seplat of a 40.00% working interest in OML 53 and effective 22.5% working interest in OML 55 (held through 56.25% ownership of the share capital of Belemaoil Producing Limited) that the company had acquired from Chevron in February 2015.

“We are naturally very pleased with today’s ruling, not least because it means we are now free to deploy our proven operating expertise to realise the significant reserve, production and value potential these blocks hold.

To give an idea of scale, we estimate these blocks to hold recoverable volumes of around 200 million barrels of oil equivalent net to Seplat, a material volume by any standard and one which has now been unlocked for us,” said Austin Avuru, the Chief Executive Officer of Seplat, leading Nigerian indegenous oil and gas company listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange.

“OML 53 fits neatly within our strategy of securing, commercialising and monetising natural gas in the Niger Delta to supply the rapidly growing domestic market and will further reinforce our position as a preeminent supplier of gas in Nigeria.  OML 55 provides us with a number of attractive opportunities to boost oil and gas output, and is consistent with our strategy of prioritising assets that offer near-term production growth, cash-flow and reserve replacement potential in the onshore and shallow water offshore areas of Nigeria”.

On February 5, 2015, Seplat had announced that it had acquired a 40.00% working interest in OML 53 from  CNL.  Simultaneously the company announced that it had concluded negotiations to purchase 56.25% of the share capital of Belemaoil Producing Limited (“Belemaoil”), a Nigerian special purpose vehicle that had completed the acquisition of a 40.00% interest in the producing OML 55, also from CNL. Seplat’s effective working interest in OML 55 as a result of the acquisition is 22.50%. NNPC holds the remaining 60.00% interest in both OML 53 and OML 55 and, pursuant to the Joint Operating Model, Seplat was designated operator of OML 53 and OML 55 (together the “Assets”).

However, the full completion and transfer of these assets and operatorship was hindered by a litigation brought against CNL and Seplat by Brittania-U, one of the counter bidders that also sought to acquire the assets from CNL and contested the outcome of the sales process.