According to reports in the last few months from various news outlets including Africa Intelligence and Africa Oil + Gas Report, ENI – the Italian Energy Giant – has received bids from several Nigerian and Foreign owned Energy Companies for the acquisition of its five per cent working interest in the Renaissance JV.
The JV originally owned by NNPC (55 per cent), Shell (30 per cent), Total Energies (10 per cent) and ENI (five per cent) have seen a number of divestments in the last three years including that of Shell to Renaissance Africa Energy Company, and Total Energies to Vaaris Resources JV Co.
The process, run by Lazard-an American investment bank-on behalf of ENI is reported as not only rigorous but designed to favor only bidders with proven cash reserves in the Bank.
ENI’s position held through Agip Energy and Natural Resources Ltd is considered small at five per cent but is reported to have generated keen interest from the likes of Bayo Ogunlesi – the Nigerian American Billionaire, Renaissance Africa Energy Company – the current operator of the Renaissance JV, a consortium led by Midwestern Oil and Gas Ltd, and the Austin Avuru led Vaaris consortium who recently signed a deal acquiring Total Energies 10 per cent stake in the same JV.
While for a long time, it was believed that Renaissance were in poll position to win the bid, recent events as highlighted by parties close to the divestment process suggests that the process may be favorable to the cash-rich Sandesaras Brothers – owners of Sterling Oil Exploration and Energy Production Company Ltd (SEEPCO) Nigeria. The transaction valued at between $400million and $500million has been described as unconventional, with ENI demanding that only potential buyers who put up 100 per cent of their bid amount are to be seriously considered.
The process is schedule to reach a close following receipt of regulatory consents sometime in June, 2026.
The Sandesaras Brothers – Nitin and Chetan – who arrived in Nigeria after being declared fugitive economic offenders in India seems to have found a home to not only hide their funds, but also flourish by establishing SEEPCO, which produces over 50,000 barrels of oil per day through various production sharing contracts with the Nigerian National Oil Company.
In a landmark resolution in November 2025, the brothers were discharged of all wrongdoings by the Supreme Court in India after agreeing to a settlement of $570million, roughly one-third of the $1.7Billion proceeds of bank fraud carefully diverted through a massive network of over 300 shell companies.
While this judgement and resulting settlement remains challenged by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) at the instance of setting a bad precedence on how economic offenses are resolved in India, the Supreme Court have recently ruled that SEBI discontinues its actions against the Brothers, and that all media outlet in India desists from publishing news linking the Brothers to Bank Fraud.
In Nigeria, while the Indian Brothers control one of the largest independent energy conglomerates in the Country, they have been accused of many wrongdoings including oil theft, flouting local content rules, bad treatment of Nigerian staff, depriving the Nigerian state of tax revenue, and environmental negligence among others.
SEEPCO, run by family members including Moit Barot continues to flourish in Nigeria and may have succeeded in finally laundering their image with the proposed acquisition of Agip Energy and Natural Resources Ltd from ENI.
If this transaction miraculously scales the Italian KYC standards and potentially receives the regulatory consents of the Nigerian Government, it can be concluded that the Brothers have not only demonstrated how sophisticated schemes of this nature can be, but further substantiates an indictment on the Nigerian Government that welcomed them, and also refused to extradite them at the request of the Indian Government.
This could also question the role of large multinationals like ENI in helping such organisations prosper in a world that supposedly frowns at Financial related crimes, while carefully seeking to protect themselves from any backlash that may result from such transaction using all available legal and corporate means.
While this is a developing story, the pictures painted across Bloomberg, OCCRP, and multiple investigative outlets is of a family that used fraudulently obtained capital to build a Nigerian oil empire and then leveraged that economic clout -contributing two per cent of Nigeria’s federal revenue at peak-to purchase protection at the highest levels of the Nigerian state.
Any regulatory approval of a further acquisition by SEEPCO would deepen this already deeply compromised relationship between the Nigerian state and a family whose fortune is built on widely documented financial crime.
Anslem Onuchukwu writes in from Lagos…
