Italian energy company Eni has completed the sale of Agip Energy and Natural Resources (Nigeria) Limited (AENR) to Apex Global Energy Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sterling Oil Exploration and Energy Production Company Ltd (SEEPCO). The sale ends Eni’s participation in the onshore joint venture formerly operated by Shell.

In a statement issued from San Donato Milanese on 26 October, Eni said the transaction had been approved by all relevant authorities and completed at an undisclosed price. Eni described Sterling Oil as “one of Nigeria’s leading operators in the onshore sector”.

AENR holds a 5 per cent interest in the Renaissance joint venture. NNPC Ltd holds 55 per cent. Renaissance Africa Energy holds 30 per cent and is the operator, having taken over Shell’s SPDC in March 2025. TotalEnergies held 10 per cent. Eni keeps its deep offshore assets and its stake in Nigeria LNG, and has presented the sale as portfolio rebalancing and the divestment of non-strategic assets.

Sterling Oil is family-owned by the Sandesara family. It is privately held and debt-free, with no public shareholders or institutional investors.

The company operates OML 143 in Anambra State. It says it entered Nigeria through the 2005 licensing round and developed the Okwuibome field on the block. It also says it has produced Okwuibome Blend, a low-sulphur crude, since 2011 for buyers in Europe and Asia. The company says it has operated in Nigeria for more than 20 years and is led by Nitin Sandesara and Chetan Sandesara. It says it has shipped more than 13 million barrels of crude to Indian public-sector refiners so far this year.

The AENR interest is non-operated. Decisions on drilling, budgets and field operations rest with Renaissance as operator and with NNPC Ltd as majority partner. A 5 per cent holder pays its share of joint venture costs and takes its share of production. Sterling Oil, which is debt free, takes on that cost share without the burden of running the fields.

Eni’s departure is the latest in a run of onshore divestments by international oil companies. Eni sold Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) to Oando in August 2024 for about $783 million. Seplat Energy completed its purchase of Mobil Producing Nigeria from ExxonMobil in December 2024 for about $800 million. Shell sold SPDC to Renaissance in March 2025, and this month agreed to sell Shell Nigeria Gas to Vaaris Energy.

On 27 October, a day after Eni’s announcement, TotalEnergies said it had sold its 10 per cent oil interest in the same joint venture to Vaaris Energy for about $800 million. TotalEnergies keeps its economic interest in gas licences OML 23, 28 and 77, which supply about half of the gas used by NLNG.

After the TotalEnergies sale, none of the three international companies that sat alongside NNPC Ltd will hold an oil interest in the venture. The oil side will rest with NNPC Ltd, Renaissance, Vaaris Energy and the Sandesara family’s company. The Tinubu administration has moved to speed up regulatory approvals for what officials describe as capable local buyers, and the AENR sale closed with all approvals in place.

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) opened its 2026 licensing round this month with 40 blocks on offer, and requires bidders to disclose their beneficial owners. Neither announcement says whether Sterling Oil intends to bid. The company is privately held and family owned, controlled by the Sandesara family, with no outside shareholders, and now holds a producing onshore block and a minority stake in the former Shell venture.