Prince Arthur Eze glides smoothly on the surface of life’s stormy seas; not as a diver, a mariner or seeker of buried treasure but as a real man in a sea of ciphers. Yes, Arthur Eze has received several Asian offers for his firm Oranto’s permits. Indian firms, Bharat (private) and ONGC (state-owned) as well as China’s Yanchang have their eye on this prized portfolio. Russian major Rosneft has also got in on the act to vie for the blocks.
Why target Oranto?
The four Asian firms, which each looking to acquire Oranto, are keen to get their hands on blocks the firm only recently picked up. Last year, the Nigerian oil firm snapped up South Sudanese block B3 – part of Total’s former block B – as well as two exploration permits in Uganda, Ngassa Shallow Play and Ngassa Deep Play (near to Tullow Oil’s Lake Albert discoveries). Bharat, ONGC and Yanchang are also eyeing up Oranto’s Senegalese assets: Cayar Shallow, acquired in 2008, and Saint Louis Shallow, signed in 2015. These two concessions bumped up in value with Cairn Energy’s recent oil discoveries on Sangomar Deep (FAN and SNE), which holds reported reserves of nearly 500 million barrels of oil.
Other key blocks
Over the past two decades, Oranto has been building up a very healthy portfolio of African blocks that extends beyond these three countries. The junior holds three exploration permits in Nigerian offshore as well one in the joint development zone between Nigeria and Sao Tome & Principe and others in Benin, Liberia (LB-14 licence operated by Chevron, though due to mature this year) and Namibia.
The junior also holds the producing Aseng oil & gas field in Equatorial Guinea which accounts for most of its total output. Relying on a small and efficient team, Eze is able keep outgoings to a minimum. He is sometimes even able to skirt around contractually mandatory work by pulling strings within his network of ties to state leaders and ministers.
While some countries, such as the Ivory Coast, have cancelled the firm’s permits due a lack of activity, Oranto has also managed to draw on support from majors, the likes of Chevron, thanks to one of Eze’s close associates, Kapo Simonia, chairman of London-based consultancy Simco Petroleum. With the majors support Oranto has been able to hold on to certain blocks as they were able to carry the firm’s participations during exploration work.
The company plans to pick up further assets. The management is looking at available geological data in a number of countries, including Gabon, Congo-B, Angola and even Kenya. Eze, an Ibgo community leader, has woven an unrivalled fabric of connections in Nigeria’s political sphere and can also count on a vast international network, especially in Israel.
Who’s negotiating?
It is only very recently that Eze has accepted to negotiate directly with oil & gas firms interested in the company’s assets. In late April he received two Bharat board members, Rajiv Bansal and Gopal Nanda, in Nigeria.
The deal signed in late May in Saint Petersburg between Eze and a Rosneft representative to create a global partnership (in the presence of its chairman Igor Sechin) appears to have placed the Russians in pole position.
According to sources close to Eze, he let his friend and confident, American businessman based in Tel Aviv, Allen Blattner, handle the file for several weeks. Blattner and Eze have known each other for many years. They were both board members of Diamond Hangar, an aviation company hub based at Stansted airport outside London, and Ebas Diamond Holdings.
