According to our sources, Kainos E&P Co , a Nigerian firm founded by former Mobil Oil and ENI executives, will reportedly front up with the funds needed to get production back underway at OML 110 in exchange for a 40% stake in the block.
OML 110 has been operated by the family-owned Nigerian firm Cavendish Petroleum since 1996 but has not had an official title holder since Cavendish’s rights to the zone expired in 2016. Meanwhile, production on the Obi deposit ground to a halt in 2007 as it was no longer viable. Kainos has reportedly all the cash Cavendish needs to get things moving on OML 110 again.
The company is led by Nigerian James Onyejekwe, who previously held senior positions with Mobil in Nigeria. The firm is partly owned by fledgling investment firm PetroExplorer, run by a former ENI executive, Nigerian entrepreneur Abiodun Adesanya as well as American national Scott Spears, head of SP Offshore. Spears has helped create several exploration firms including Mozambican concern Petroinveste, whose partners are Frelimo nomenklatura (AEI 736).
Kainos needs to pay several million to the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to renew OML 110 in exchange for its 40% stake midway through the year. All it needs now is the nod from the ministry of petroleum resources to get the ball rolling. Kairos has committed to finance the entire work programme agreed to by Cavendish and the DPR, including drills at Obi 4 and Obi 5. It aims to produce 8,000 bpd in the very near future.
Cavendish Petroleum was founded by the late entrepreneur Alhaji Mai Deribe, who hailed from the northern Borno State. He was able to pull strings under Sani Abacha, president from 1993 to 1998, to pick up oil blocks and become one of the richest businessmen in his state. Since production at Obi grinded to a halt in 2007, the Deribe clan’s star has considerably fallen along with the family fortune. Cavendish is still headed by a family member, Ibrahim mai Deribe.
