TotalEnergies has completed the sale of its 10% stake in the Renaissance joint venture's oil licences to Vaaris for $800 million, it said on 27 October. The joint venture was formerly the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) partnership, the backbone of Nigeria's onshore oil industry for decades.
Second time lucky:
This is TotalEnergies' second attempt to sell. In July 2024 it agreed to sell the same stake to Mauritius-based Chappal Energies for $860 million. In September 2025 the upstream regulator, the NUPRC, withdrew its approval after the parties failed to meet their financial commitments.
Vaaris agreed to buy on 14 January, nine months before completion. It paid $60 million less than Chappal had offered. Vaaris was incorporated in Nigeria in December 2025. Former Seplat chief executive Austin Avuru has said he assembled a group of investors for the Renaissance assets, though Vaaris's full ownership has not been disclosed.
What changed hands:
The stake covers 15 licences that produce mainly oil. In 2025 they added about 16,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day to TotalEnergies' net production. The joint venture is owned 55% by NNPC, 30% by Renaissance (the Nigerian-led consortium that bought Shell's share), 10% by Vaaris from now on, and 5% by Eni.
TotalEnergies is not leaving Nigeria's gas, though. It keeps its full interest in three gas licences (OML 23, OML 28 and OML 77) which, it says, supply half of the gas that feeds Nigeria LNG.
The bigger picture:
The sale completes a pattern. Shell, ExxonMobil, Eni and now TotalEnergies have all sold onshore or shallow-water oil assets, and in each case Nigerian companies have bought them. The majors are keeping deepwater and gas assets. Nigerian owners are taking on the older onshore fields, with their history of pipeline theft and ageing infrastructure.
What it means for you:
More of Nigeria's oil is now owned and run by Nigerian companies. If they can lift output from ageing fields, the country earns more dollars and the government earns more revenue. That is a bet on local operators doing better with these assets than the majors did in their final years.
For investors, it is worth watching who is behind Vaaris. Several of the companies that have bought these assets, such as Seplat and Aradel, are listed on the Nigerian Exchange, so this shift is showing up in the stock market too.