Seplat appoints Brown as new CEO

Adewale Sanyaolu

The Board of Seplat Petroleum Development Company has appointed Mr.Roger Brown as its new Chief Executive Officer(CEO), effective July 2020.

Brown succeeds Mr.  Austin Avuru, the current CEO of the company, who will be retiring in July 2020 after 10 years of leading the company. In these 10 years,  Avuru led the development of a strong organisation, the deployment of agile systems, processes and stakeholder relationships that allowed the organisation to grow rapidly from a gross production of 22,700boepd as at December 2010 to peak of 111,368boepd gross production as at December 2018 through major drilling campaigns and major new oil and gas plants development.

The acquisition of 45 per cent of OML 53, post company’s IPO of 2014, created an opportunity in partnership with NNPC, to spawn a mid-stream subsidiary, ANOH Gas Processing Company Ltd currently progressing what will ultimately be a 300mmscf/d of gas, 22,500bdp of condensate and 1,200boepd of LPG processing company.

All these could not have been achieved without Avuru’s leadership skills, personal dedication and hard work, at the head of the company.

‘’The Board of SEPLAT is grateful to Avuru for these accomplishments and is looking forward to his continued service at the Board level. Looking forward, Seplat plans to position itself for a next phase growth ambition which would see the expansion of its footprint in terms of energy business activities, a plan to pursue offshore assets as well as opportunity driven entry into different geographies. The company believes that such a corporate transition would require a different kind of organisational structure, people skills set and mentality to compete well in the expanded space. In view of this, Seplat will be reviewing its current organisational and systems structure.’’.

The Board also decided that the CEO designate will lead the restructuring during the transition period between now and final exit date of Avuru on July 31, 2020.

Brown joined SEPLAT in 2013 as the CFO and played a key role in the successful dual listing of the company in 2014.  Similarly, since joining the company, he has played significant roles in various asset acquisitions by the Company.

Brown brings to the CEO role, a deep knowledge of the company in his six years as the CFO and a member of the board.  He has strong financial, commercial and M&A experience as well as proven people skills which will be an asset as the company embarks on the next phase of its growth plan.