Oil magnate ABC Orjiakor’s stock can’t stop rising
There is that popular saying that the human mind is quite capable of taking great leaps from one area of expertise to another. Oil magnate Dr. Ambrose Bryant Chukwueloka Orjiako popularly known as ABC Orjiakor has proven that aphorism right.
The handsome billionaire is a trained orthopaedic and trauma surgeon with a successful practice. As a man that has the world as his oyster, Orjiakor left his comfort zone to make the big switch to full-time business in perhaps the most competitive and demanding sector in the economy – oil and gas
and he had managed to so seamlessly trade in his surgeon’s gowns and gloves for the cut and thrust of the business world; thanks to his adroit business acumen as he has become one of Nigeria’s wealthiest men.
In 2010, Orjiakor led a momentous deal when he co-founded SEPLAT Petroleum Development Company Ltd. which was the first Nigerian company to take over the operating of a Joint Venture asset from Shell, Total and Eni.
For more than seven years, it has been rollercoaster for the company under the chairmanship of the self-effacing Orjiako. However, in the last few weeks, Orjiako and Seplat have been in the news, but on the pleasant side.
As the Chairman of Seplat, the oil firm has been in the running for acquisition of Brazil’s national oil company, Petrobras’ Nigerian assets valued at up to $2 billion.
Petrobras participates in two Nigerian oilfields, Akpo and Agbami, operated by French oil giant, Total where they produce a total of 368,000 barrels a day but it’s planning to offload its Nigerian subsidiary as part of a massive divestment programme.
Orjiako’s Seplat is looking good to come out better whenever the result of the auction is expected to be announced in early May.
On the heels of that was the news of Seplat breaking the record by becoming the first Oil & Gas Company to migrate to the Premium Board of the Nigerian Stock Exchange? The pre-eminent Nigerian independent alongside three other companies,
joined the elite club of only three members on Monday, April 16. The migration is historic because Seplat became a listed company just four years ago on April 14, 2014.
