Heirs Holdings Oil Company Appoints Igiehon Pioneer CEO

07 May Heirs Holdings Oil Company Appoints Igiehon Pioneer CEO

Heirs Holdings Oil & Gas (HHOG), has announced the appointment of its management board, with Mr. Osayande Igiehon as the pioneer chief executive officer with effect from May 4, 2021.

The company, in a statement yesterday, said Igiehon would be working with a non-executive board, which brings together leading industry figures with considerable global and regional experience to steer the company to growth and sustainability.

Igiehon, who joins from the Royal Dutch Shell, where he was a vice president with the group in The Hague, Netherlands, brings to HHOG, his over 27 years of experience and expertise in the oil and gas sector with Shell.

He previously served as chairman and chief executive officer of Shell Gabon, where he led the successful turnaround of the operational, safety and financial performance of the organisation.

HHOG also announced the appointment of private sector and senior industry leaders into its board, including Mr. Tony Elumelu as the chairman.

Elumelu is also the Chairman of Heirs Holdings, the United Bank for Africa (UBA), Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp), and Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation.

Other members of the board are Ms. Sally Udoma, who previously served as general counsel for Chevron Europe, Eurasia, and the Middle East Exploration and Production.

Also on the board is Mr. Anil Dua, a founding partner at Gateway Partners Limited, a private equity fund specialising in dynamic growth markets, including Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

Mr. Ahmadu Musa, who previously served as deputy managing director of Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited, with over 32 years of experience in the oil and gas industry got the company’s board appointment.

Musa, according to the statement, brings considerable expertise in Nigerian oil and gas into the company.

The company also appointed Dr. Stanley Lawson, who currently serves on the board of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc, as a member of its board.

The other member of the board is Mr. Samuel Nwanze, who is the chief finance officer at Heirs Oil and Gas.

Prior to his latest appointment, Nwanze was the chief investment officer at Heirs Holdings, where he was responsible for the investment and capital management of the group.

Heirs Holdings Limited’s (HH) portfolio company, HHOG, completed the acquisition of Oil Mining Lease (OML) 17 in January 2021 in one of the largest oil and gas financing in Africa in more than a decade with a financing component of $1.1 billion.

The transaction represented a further implementation of the HH Group strategy of creating the leading integrated energy business in Africa.

Commenting on his appointment, Igiehon stated: “HHOG represents an extraordinary opportunity to create Africa’s first true integrated energy company, with a mission to ensure that Africa’s natural resources are directed toward value creation in Africa, powered by sustainable, robust and abundant African energy.

“I am excited to join the Heirs Oil and Gas leadership team and look forward to the opportunity to transform the energy sector, purposefully address Africa’s energy needs and improve the lives of people across Africa.”

On his part, Elumelu expressed satisfaction with the appointments, saying: “I am delighted to welcome our new board members. We are building a role model institution for African businesses and our investment in human capital is a further strong demonstration of our intent.

“The regional and global expertise of our board members will serve to further drive value creation to our continent, as we execute our goal of becoming Africa’s largest, indigenous, integrated, energy company.”

Heirs Oil & Gas is a leading African, indigenous owned, integrated energy company headquartered in Nigeria, whose assets include Nigerian oil block OML 17, with a current production capacity of 30,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and 2P reserves of 1.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent, with an additional one billion barrels of oil equivalent resources of further exploration potential.

Heirs Oil & Gas is jointly owned by Heirs Holdings, the leading African strategic investor, and its affiliate company, Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc (Transcorp), Nigeria’s largest publicly listed conglomerate.