Afren plc was an international independent oil exploration and production company. It was formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange, however it was de-listed in 2015. The company is currently in administration.
History
The company was founded in 2004 by the Europe-based West African entrepreneur Ethelbert Cooper, with assistance from the former OPEC president and secretary general Rilwanu Lukman, as an exploration and production company focused on Africa. Most of Afren's production is in Nigeria. After the Initial Public Offering in March 2005, Afren rapidly expanded its portfolio across six countries: Nigeria, São Tomé & Príncipe JDZ, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Iraqi Kurdistan. In March 2015, Afren reported lenders approved a three-month payment deferral for a $300 million debt facility. Afren said it won a payment deferral for a $50 million amortization payment for a $300 million Ebok debt facility that was due 31 January. On 4 March 2015 Afren defaulted on its 2016 bonds after refusing to make a $15 million interest payment in order to preserve cash for an ongoing capital structure review. In April 2015, Afren appointed Alan Linn its new chief executive, following the sacking of CEO Osman Shahenshah over allegations of unauthorised bonus payments to themselves by an Afren joint venture partner. On 15 July 2015, Afren shares were suspended after its failure to raise enough funds to continue operating, and reduced production levels. On 31 July 2015 Afren plc released a corporate update announcing that, having failed to secure refinancing, the board of the company would file papers to put the organisation into administration. AlixPartners were appointed as administrators. On 10 August 2015 the company was delisted from the London Stock Exchange. About 130 small shareholders in Afren have written to the City regulator demanding an investigation into whether the troubled oil producer was involved in "the withholding of material information". The shareholders have also asked the Financial Conduct Authority to investigate whether Afren operated in "potential collusion with certain bondholders". Afren Legal Action, the group of small shareholders, wrote to Martin Wheatley, the chief executive of the FCA, last week to demand a "full and prompt regulatory investigation" into Afren's conduct. Stakeholders criticize Blackstone's involvement in Afren Administration. Concerns over a potential conflict of interest in the process for winding up Afren, the oil exploration company, have further irked shareholders, creditors and employees of the firm, still reeling from its sudden collapse at the end of July. The plaintiff, Petroleum Zion Exploration and Production Ltd, in a suit filed at the Federal High Court, Lagos, claims that the said company unlawfully interfered with the plaintiff's transaction to purchase Afren's stake in Oil Mining Lease 26, with a production potential over 10,000 barrels of oil per day. Joined in the suit, as co-defendants, are PJT Partners UK Ltd, FHN 26 Ltd, Wilmington Trust Ltd, Vertex Energy Ltd, Department of Petroleum Resources, and Ministry of Petroleum Resources. Others parties are Simon Jonathan Appell, Daniel Imison and Ms Catherine Williamson. The plaintiff contends that PJT Partners disclosed the sensitive information it gathered from it including renegotiated terms to ACA, which made it easy for ACA to want to close the transaction. Petroleum Zion is, inter alia, asking the court for an order mandating First Hydrocarbon Nigeria Company Ltd and or Wilmington Trust to execute the draft SPA in the form agreed with Petroleum Zion as at 24 May 2016. The plaintiff is also seeking $230 million as damages against PJT Partners UK for disclosing its sensitive information to competitors and an additional $8.94 million as compensation for expenses it incurred as a result of the defendants’ bad faith. On 27 October 2015, a Financial Times article reported on estimates that the sale of Afren's assets would raise only $200 million, leaving $1.7 billion of outstanding debt. In September 2017, Afren's former chief executive Osman Shahenshah and chief operating officer Shahid Ullah appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court charged with money laundering and fraud, after a two-year investigation by the Serious Fraud Office. Ex-CEO and COO of collapsed oil giant, Afren Plc, charged with Money Laundering and Fraud over $400m Nigerian business deals. The administrators of Afren PLC, AlixPartners UK chase funds meant to ensure environmental clean-up.
Operations
The group in 2009 produced circa of oil equivalent per day from its then-current portfolio. Okoro Setu Fields The Okoro Field and Setu Field are two oil fields located in OML 112 in shallow water offshore Nigeria, which were originally awarded to Amni - a well established indigenous oil company - in 1993 as part of the Nigerian government's indigenous licensing programme. First oil was achieved during June 2008 when production from the first two production wells drilled commenced at a rate in excess of of oil per day from each well. A further five wells were subsequently drilled, completed and brought onstream. The wells drilled were a mixture of horizontal and highly deviated penetrations of the reservoir intervals. The field is currently producing at a rate of from all seven wells. Ebok Ebok is an undeveloped oil field located in OML 67, 50 km offshore in of water in Nigeria's prolific south-eastern producing area. The field was discovered by the ExxonMobil / NNPC JV in 1968, and two subsequent appraisal wells were drilled in 1970. First oil was originally targeted in H2 2010 but was subsequently pushed back to February 2011.
