Energy giant Shell has committed to divesting its onshore oil and gas assets in Nigeria for $2.4 billion, indicating a strategic move away from onshore oil production.
A consortium, led by the Nigerian independent energy firm Renaissance Oil and including ND Western, Aradel Energy, First E&P, Waltersmith, and Petrolin, marks a significant transformation in Nigeria’s oil industry landscape.
Here are the titans behind Renaissance
Samuel Dossou Aworet
Samuel Dossu Aworet is the Chairman/founder of the Petrolin Group of Companies.
With more than 40 years of experience in the mining and oil industries, Aworet holds degrees from the Ecole Centrale de Marseille in Petrochemistry and Industrial Organic Synthesis and the French Institute of Petroleum (ENSPM 1972).
He held the positions of Chairman of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) Board of Governors, and Chairman of the Expert Committee of the African Petroleum Producers Organisation (APPO/APPA).
Dossou Aworet was the African Petroleum Institute’s first chairman as well as one of its founding members. He is a member of the African Energy Leaders Group – West Africa (AELG) and the board of the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA).
Layi Fatona
Layi Fatona is a retired petroleum geologist who was an entrepreneur with more than 48 years of experience in the oil sector.
Having served as the company’s founding managing director since 1994, he recently announced his resignation from The Niger Delta Group of Companies.
He received a bachelor’s degree in 1973 from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, where he studied geology.
After that, he graduated from the University of London’s Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine’s Royal School of Mines with a Master of Science (MSc) in petroleum geology and a Doctorate (PhD) in sedimentology in 1980.
He is the former president and chairman of Geotrex Systems Limited, a firm of Exploration and Production Consultant, which he joined after working with the Petroleum Engineering and Exploration Departments of the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), for seven years.
He is currently the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of ND Western Limited.
Abdulrazaq Isa
Abdulrazaq Isa is the Chairman and Co-Founder of Waltersmith Group of Companies.
He is an entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in business, financial services, and the oil & gas industry.
Isa founded Waltersmith with a focus on many economic areas, such as manufacturing, real estate, hospitality, agriculture, and upstream and midstream oil and gas.
Abdulrazaq belongs to several professional associations, such as the Institute of Directors (IOD), the Energy Institute (EI), and the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).
He is the Second Vice Chairman of the Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS) and a Board of Trustee member of the Independent Petroleum Producers Group of Nigeria (IPPG).
Adedamola Adeyemi-Bero
Adedamola Adeyemi-Bero is the managing director of FIRST Exploration & Petroleum Development Company Limited (FIRST E&P).
He has a Bachelor of Science (Offshore) Civil Engineering degree from Heriot-Watt University, Scotland, and a Master of Science degree in Petroleum Engineering from the Imperial College of Science & Technology, University of London, England.