Forte Oil, Nigeria’s largest petroleum marketing company which is majority-owned by billionaire Femi Otedola, has signed an $83 million contract with Siemens to upgrade its 414-megawatt gas-fired power plant situated in Kogi State in Nigeria’s central region.
The $1.1 billion (market cap) publicly traded oil company said in a press statement on Monday that it has made a 75% downpayment for the work and the upgrade would be completed in 2016.
In 2013, Forte Oil, which owns more than 500 gas stations in Nigeria and Ghana in addition to fuel storage depots, purchased a controlling stake in the 414 MW Power plant under a government-led privatization programme in the power industry under the leadership of former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan. Forte Oil made the acquisition through Amperion Power Distribution Co Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Forte Oil. It paid $132 million at the time.
Forte Oil said it plans to upgrade to increase the overall capacity of its plant to 435 MW. The company’s shares climbed 5% to close at N191.10 (97 cents) per share on Monday following the news.
Femi Otedola, 53, who is the chairman and controlling shareholder of Forte Oil has a current net worth of $1.06 billion according to FORBES’ Realtime billionaire scoreboard on Tuesday.
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