Inside the Battle for Control: Lagos and Akwa Ibom Primaries Preview

According to the head of the Nairobi Securities Exchange Plc, Aliko Dangote wants to sell shares in his oil-refining company on several African stock exchanges.

According to FirstCap Chief Executive Officer Ukandu Ukandu, Dangote hired Stanbic IBTC Capital Ltd., Vetiva Advisory Services Ltd., and FirstCap Ltd. to help with the IPO for Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals Fze.

Frank Mwiti, the CEO of the Nairobi exchange, said after a meeting last week in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, between the heads of African exchanges and billionaire Dangote, “The plan is to structure a pan-African IPO.”

A spokesperson for the Dangote Group told Bloomberg that the meeting between exchange officials did happen, but they wouldn’t give any more information.

The sale of shares on several African exchanges would be a first for the continent. It will help make Nigeria’s equity markets stronger, as well as those of other countries where it is listed. Nigeria is about to return to the FTSE Russell frontier-markets benchmark.

The report said that Dangote wants to increase the refinery’s capacity to 1.4 million barrels per day over the next three years, which would make it compete with Mukesh Ambani’s facility in India.

Right now, Dangote’s refinery can handle 650,000 barrels of oil a day. Last month, the African Export-Import Bank said it had backed $2.5 billion of a $4 billion syndicated loan for the refinery expansion.

Dangote plans to spend at least $40 billion on a growth push over the next five years. This includes expanding the facility, quadrupling fertilizer production, and more than doubling the capacity of its oil refinery.

The plant has been selling refined fuel to other African countries besides Nigeria. These countries are having a hard time getting gasoline and diesel because of the war between the US and Israel and Iran.

According to a spokesperson for the Nigerian exchange, Dangote, the chairman of the refinery, met with officials from the Nigerian Exchange Group and member organizations of the African Securities Exchanges Association earlier this month to talk about letting investors take part in the IPO across all African markets.

As part of efforts to improve transparency and meet Nigeria’s climate commitments, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has told upstream oil and gas companies to use standardized reporting templates and switch to measurement-based systems for methane and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions.

The Commission Chief Executive, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, said in a policy directive that operators must set up reliable Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) practices for emissions inventories. This is in line with the 2022 Guidelines for the Management of Methane and Greenhouse Gases in the upstream sector.

The order comes at a time when there is more and more pressure on fossil fuel companies around the world to take real steps to keep warming to 1.5°C, especially by cutting down on methane emissions, which is a very strong greenhouse gas.

NUPRC said that since 2022, operators have had to use the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Tier 1 method to measure emissions, and there has been a planned shift to more advanced methods. Companies must switch to Tier 2 methodologies by the third quarter of 2026 at the latest, and they must fully switch to Tier 3 or a similar high-level measurement-based system by January 2027.

The commission said that operators can still follow other recognized standards like OGMP 2.0, API, and ISO as long as their submissions meet its requirements. It also said that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) framework will continue to be the baseline for reporting under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The regulator says the change is happening because of technical capacity issues and gaps in MRV infrastructure that have been seen across the industry. It said that targeted workshops and guidance sessions had been held to help operators build the skills they needed for the transition.

The commission said that Nigeria needs a strong, science-based, and verifiable emissions accounting system to reach its climate goals, which include net-zero emissions by 2060, no routine gas flaring by 2030, and a 60% cut in methane emissions by 2035.

To make sure everyone is on the same page, operators must now use set templates for Greenhouse Gas Emissions Management Plans (GHGEMP) and detailed inventories of methane and GHG emissions. The commission said that all submissions must be based on evidence, clear, and follow MRV principles.

The NUPRC also said that the changes are meant to make people more responsible, make Nigeria look better in the global energy and carbon markets, and make the upstream sector more appealing to climate-friendly investors.

The commission said again that it would help the industry by continuing to build capacity, give technical advice, and set up MRV infrastructure that makes things easier.

Operators must follow the guidance templates for the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Management Plan (GHGEMP) and the Reporting of Methane and GHG Emissions Accounting and Inventories to make sure that the upstream MRV and emission inventories are all the same.

“All submissions to the Commission that will take effect right away must follow the templates on the NUPRC website and be verifiable, open, and based on evidence in line with MRV principles.”

The commission said, “These steps are meant to make accountability stronger, make Nigeria more credible in global markets, and open up climate-smart investors for the upstream sector.”