Seplat: As Orjiako Bows Out in a Blaze of Glory

In Seplat Energy, Dr. A.B.C Orjiako co-founded and co-built one of Nigeria’s corporate giants in the oil and gas sector, writes Roland Abe as the entrepreneur retires as Chairman of the Nigerian independent energy company.  

Although Seplat Energy Plc. had in November 2021 announced that the company’s pioneer Chairman, vision bearer, and co-founder, Dr. Ambrosie Bryant Chukwueloka Orjiako, would be retiring from the position in May 2022, the reality appeared not to have dawned on the various stakeholders of the company until he eventually did at the just concluded Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Seplat. 

The story of Dr. ABC Orjiako as a brand in Nigeria’s corporate world did not start with Seplat. Yet it can never be complete without a good mention of Seplat, just as no one can possibly tell the story of Seplat without a spacious ground for Orjiakor’s envisioning, birthing, and nurturing roles. A silent achiever, Seplat is has benefitted so much from his vision, tenacity, goodwill, integrity, smart thinking, courage, and good reputation.

Founded in 2009 through the coming together of Shebah Exploration and Production Company Limited, which he founded in 2004 and Platform Petroleum, founded by Mr. Austin Avuru, Seplat set sail, and started production in three OMLs in 2010. But by 2014, Seplat had powered so much that it became the first Nigerian company to be fully listed on the London Stock Exchange and the Nigerian Stock Exchange. 

From just three Oil Mining Licenses (OMLs), namely OML 4, 38, and 41 in 2010, today, Seplat boasts of eight oil and gas blocks in the Niger Delta, four of which it operates directly. It has recorded 51 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) production (30,029 boepd oil, 20,758 boepd gas). It delivers to the domestic gas market over 30 per cent gas needed to power Nigeria. It employs nearly 700 staff, has generated over $6.2 billion in revenue share for Nigeria, paid over $1.4 billion to Nigerian contractors and staff, and paid over $400 Million in dividends to shareholders. 

What is more, in 2014, Seplat became the first Nigerian company to acquire a UK-listed company, Eland Oil & Gas Limited. Seplat boasts of over $2.8 billion in assets and over $500 Million in market capitalization. Under Orjiako’s chairmanship of Seplat, the company has injected over $71 Million into providing services to host communities. 

Seplat recorded the first ever equal (50-50) Joint Venture by any company with the NNPC through the Seplat/Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) gas plant project – ANOH Gas Processing Company (AGPC). It raised $260 Million through a consortium of banks to fund its part of $650 Million financing for the ANOH Gas Processing Plant. All things being equal, the ANOH will deliver the first gas to the market between the first half of 2022 and first quarter of 2023. 

Orjiako rounded up his tenure as the Chairman of Seplat on a high note with the February 2022 announcement of a successful bid for the entire share capital of Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited (MPNU) from Exxon Mobil Corporation, Delaware, USA at $1.283 billion, plus up to $300 million contingent consideration. The deal comprises 40 per cent operating ownership of four OML leases (OMLs 67, 68, 70, 104) and associated infrastructure (NNPC is the 60 per cent partner) plus the Qua Iboe Terminal, 51 per cent interest in Bonny River Terminal, and Natural Gas Liquids Recovery Plants at EAP and Oso. Although the deal’s consummation by way of Ministerial Approval has still not come through, beating other equally formidable bids, is a massive plus.  

The lists of Seplat’s firsts, achievements, and pedigree under Orjiako and his team can go on and on. Nevertheless, although a highflier from the outset, it cannot be said that Orjiako set out to be an entrepreneur, let alone co-founding an energy giant like Seplat. Although he comes from a linage of entrepreneurs, he seemed to have charted a different path for himself as he headed to the University of Calabar to study Medicine and Surgery, emerging the best graduating medical student in 1985. He proceeded to the University of Lagos Teaching Hospital where he qualified as a Specialist in Orthopaedic Surgery and Trauma Management. He flourished in his chosen career, going on to become a Fellow of the West African College of Medicine and Fellow of the Nigerian Postgraduate Medical College.

On his foray into the business world, Dr. Orjiako told the London-based “African Business” back in 2014 that his career equally prepared him for the world of business.

 “As a surgeon, you cannot make mistakes. You have to be very disciplined, very organised, have an eye for detail, manage your team effectively, make tough decisions and take on big responsibilities.

“Besides, I come from a business family – my late father was a businessman – and all around me I could see business opportunities either going begging or being handled very poorly. So I tried to do other things and found myself naturally slipping into the stream of the Nigerian economy”, he said.

So, even as a surgeon, he honed his interest and skills in business, gradually nurturing enterprises until he finally made a break from his first love, Medicine. He founded theAbbeycourt, a crude oil and refined petroleum products trading company; Glencore, Uk; Zebbra Energy and Shebah Exploration and Production Company Limited and also engraving his imprints across several other sectors – shipping, real estate, construction, and so on. 

On precisely why he ventured into oil and gas despite its highly competitive, risky, and demanding nature, the energy magnate explained: “Oil and gas is the mainstay of the Nigerian economy. I wanted to be at the heart of where it was really happening”. 

Also, he believed that: since he had successfully established and ran a number of other businesses on the principle of good corporate governance; given the emerging changes in the structure of the industry where International Oil Companies (IOCs) dominated the upstream (exploration, drilling and production where the real oil business resides) to the tune of about 95 per cent at the time; given the prospects of a bourgeoning divestments by IOCs especially from onshore and shallow wells to deepwater due mainly to insecurity, instability, and dipping relations with host communities (a prediction that came to pass); given the greater prospects for local content that would come with the Petroleum Industry Bill (which only became an Act in 2021); and given the prospects inherent in commercialising Nigeria’s abundant natural gas, farsightedness only demanded that he leaped into Nigeria’s upstream sub-sector. This led to the birthing of SEPCOL in 2004, which, in 2009, became one of the two progenitors of Seplat.

But the real story of Seplat dates back beyond 2009. Moved by the both patriotic and business conviction, Orjiako believed that it was of national strategic import for Nigerian indigenous companies to take over parts of the IOCs operations in the upstream subsector. More so when there were so many assets that were not optimised, not for want of the technical knowhow by the IOCs, but mainly for the massive size of the assets. He therefore championed the struggle both on government’s front and on the front of the IOCs until it yielded dividends culminating in the birthing of Seplat and subsequent acquisition of the firm’s its first sets of assets from Shell Nigeria, namely OMLs 4, 38, and 41. 

It was such a promising venture, coupled with the renowned integrity of Orjiako that Maurel et Prom acquired 45 per cent share in the new company, while the remaining capital came from equity and debt. The rest, they say, is history and Seplat is a success story, which plot is unfolding by the day.

Therefore, to say that Seplat will miss Dr. ABC Orjiako’s service is to put it mildly. Seplat’s stakeholders have expectedly been wondering how the big vacuum created by his exit could ever be filled. But the Board has taken two huge steps to the relief of all. First was the announcement that it was working out a contract that would enable the company to partially retain Dr. Orjiako’s services in the specific and essential external stakeholder engagements he is currently involved and which would continue beyond his stepping down. Although the details are yet to be worked out, this comes across as an ingenious thinking given Orjiako’s deep knowledge of the industry, his reach and goodwill among critical stakeholders, and the institutional memory of Seplat he commands.

Second is the appointment of another energy sector guru with a good knowledge of Seplat, Mr. Basil Omiyi, as Orjiako’s successor. Omiyi became a member of Seplat’s Board of Directors in 2013 and Senior Independent Non-Executive Director in February 2021. 

He served at the Royal Dutch Shell for over 40 years, rising to the position of Managing Director of Shell Nigeria and Country Chairman of Shell Companies, Nigeria until 2009. He has equally served as Chairman, Upstream Industry Group (Oil Producers Trade Section, Lagos Chambers of Commerce & Industry); Chairman, Energy Sector, NEPAD Business Group, Nigeria; Board Member, NEPAD Business Group; Chairman, Oil & Gas Commission, Nigerian Economic Summit Group; Board Member, Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI); and an Independent Non-Executive Chairman, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, etc.  

Meanwhile, Dr. Orjiako surely would be beaming with smiles as he reflects his golden footprints on Seplat’s road to renown. A shareholder and National Coordinator of Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria, Prince Anthony Omojola, added a voice to the streams of tribute to Orjiako’s at the last AGM.

Omojola said: “That Seplat Energy Plc. is a reliable energy company with limitless potentials is not a mere statement. We are proud of the strong foundation you have laid to position Seplat as a leading indigenous energy company in Nigeria within a short space of time. You have shown leadership by example by your actions as we pray to reap the benefits of this well planned out accelerated growth pattern. We congratulate you”.

In his letter to the Roman Senate around 47 BC after recording a quick victory against Pharnaces II of Pontus at the battle of Zela, Julius Caesar, penned the popular line: “Veni, vidi, vici” (I came, I saw, I conquered). As Orjiako bows out in a blaze of glory, it can rightly be said that he came, he saw, and he conquered. 

Abe, an energy analyst writes from Lagos