The Nigerian company that won the bid for the sale of OML 30 in the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) divestment program last year has come out to clear the controversy that arose from reports that it had been sold to Heritage Oil, a British company.
In a media parley over the weekend, Shoreline Natural Resources, a wholly indigenous company revealed that it was the actual winner of the bid and Heritage Oil was its partner.
“Shoreline Natural Resources Limited is a Nigerian company born in 2010. Shoreline Natural Resources was born in partnership with Heritage Oil Plc and 55 per cent is owned by Shoreline Power and 45 per cent of Shoreline Natural Resources is owned by Heritage Oil Plc,” said Mr Kola Karim, the Chairman of the company.
He explained that after the lead bidder, Conoil was dropped, Shoreline Natural Resources became the preferred bidder. He also said that the company was backed strongly by international investors like JP Morgan, Standard Bank and China Development Bank.
Twelve (12) companies bade from the beginning and after due process; Conoil won the bid while Shoreline Natural Resources came second on the bidders’ list. Along the line, Conoil could not meet up with the requirements and we were called on next. On March 7, 2012, Shoreline Natural Resources became the preferred bidder. Shoreline Natural Resources is an indigenous company with all employees as Nigerians except only one foreign expatriate working for us.
Different groups including labour unions had thrown accusations at the Federal Government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for failure to conduct due diligence on Heritage Oil.