Fasken Martineau, a leading international business law firm, announced today that it advised Oando Energy Resources Inc. (TSX: OER), a company focused on oil and gas exploration and production in Nigeria, in the completion of its acquisition of the Nigerian Upstream Oil and Gas Business of ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) for a total cash consideration of US$1.5 billion.
This is one of the first transactions where an international oil company has sold to a locally owned indigenous company on free market terms using international financing.
“We were pleased to have been corporate counsel to Oando in this landmark deal which marks one of the largest such transactions in Africa and moves a large oil and gas asset into indigenous hands,” said Abayomi Akinjide, the lead lawyer and co-leader of Fasken Martineau’s Global Energy Group. “The deal is also unique in that although there was equity involved, it relied substantially upon traditional forms of bank financing, using a mixture of local and international capital,” added Mr. Akinjide.
“The combination of local and international capital demonstrates the faith of the financial community in Nigeria’s indigenous upstream sector and in Oando in particular,” concluded Mr. Akinjide.
Fasken Martineau acted as counsel to Oando with a team led by Abayomi Akinjide that included Al Gourley, Jodi Katz, Richard Cliff, Stuart Hills, Andrew Thomas, Vanessa McMinn, Claire Read, Laura Bradley, Fiona Coady, Zehra Kasapoglu, Lisa Ing and Felix Ndi-Obiosa in London and John Elias, Mitch Thaw, Krisztián Tóth and William Bies in Toronto and Brian Mainwaring in Calgary.
