. Committed to transforming Nigeria into a gas driven economy
A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. —John Maxwell
Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. —Warren Bennis
The Managing Director /CEO of Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc, Mr. Roger Brown is a consummate, distinguished, seasoned leader and administrator who has proven beyond every reasonable doubt his capacity and ability to lead men, show them the way and translate vison into reality.
Just one year in office Mr. Brown who is the second CEO of Seplat, a leading Nigerian independent energy company has demonstrated a great capacity to lead men where they ought to be and shown that nothing so conclusively proves a man’s ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself.
He has also continued to drive transformational innovation, world-class governance and accountability in the nation’s oil and gas space, despite the challenges engendered by the COVID-19 pandemic and challenging operating environment in the country.
No wonder, under his leadership, Seplat won the Most Profitable Company (Oil & Gas: Exploration and Production), with its chairman Dr. ABC Orjiako, emerging as the Board Chairman of the Year at the Nigerian Investor Value Award (NIVA) organized by BusinessDay Media Limited in conjunction with the Nigerian Exchange Limited.
As the Most Profitable Company (Oil & Gas: Exploration and Production), Seplat was recognized for recording the highest percentage growth in profits year-on-year in its sector. The company was said to have achieved this feat, while experiencing faster growth relative to its peers, and maintaining a relatively high operating performance.
“In 2020, like in previous years, Seplat has shown that its high profit margins are sustainable. Its strong profit position is not a flash in the pan, neither is it likely to be frittered away in coming years. This consistency has enabled the company to pay dividends regularly, service debts taken for recent strategic acquisitions, and underwrite new investments, while maintaining positive credit ratings,” the organizers explained.
The notch of this great leader of our time is seen in terms of the strength and forte of his leadership commitments, the validity of his friendships, the genuineness of his purpose, the inaudible bravery of his convictions, his capacity to lead and his willingness to bear in order to achieve success and put the company in the prosperity trajectory.
Brown is indeed a man you could say has continued to make reasonable and quantum impact in the nation’s Oil and Gas sector.
He is clearly one of the CEO’s that has distinguished himself not only as a dynamic business administrator, innovative manager, technocrat , transparent and accountability advocate but also has shown a high degree of integrity, transparency and corporate governance in both private and public affairs.
His ingenious, creative, pragmatic and resilient approach to leadership has brought a lot of transformation to Seplat ,which has continuously contributed immensely to the nation’s economy.
Mr Brown joined Seplat in 2013 as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and played a key role in the successful dual listing of the company in both the London and Nigeria Stock Exchanges in 2014.
Also, since joining the company, Mr Brown has played significant roles in various asset acquisitions by Seplat.
“He 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 merger and acquisition (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,” the official said.
Prior to joining Seplat, Mr Brown was an advisor to the company since 2010, while he was the Managing Director and Head of EMEA Oil and Gas at Standard Bank Group.
During his stint at the bank, he was instrumental in providing advice and deploying capital across the African continent in the Oil & Gas, Power & Infrastructure and renewable energy sectors.
His love for Nigeria’s socio -economic development is unparalleled as he assured of his company’s strong commitment to the aspirations of Nigeria and would continue to invest towards the objective and growth of the nation.
Recently while speaking at a conference in Lagos, he commended the federal government for initiating projects and programmes to boost gas development in Nigeria, which include the National Gas Expansion Programme, National Gas Transportation Network Code and Nigeria Gas Flare Commercialization Programme.
According to him, the construction of infrastructures such as the NLNG Train 7 Project, Ajaokuta- Kaduna-Kano (AKK) and the Obiafu-Obrikon-Oben (OB3) pipelines will help deepen gas utilisation in Nigeria.
Brown said Seplat would continue to make investments to support the vision of the government, adding that the company was currently supplying 30 per cent of gas to the electricity sector.
On the company, Brown said that Seplat’s cash position remained strong in the full-year of 2020 and the $318 million of cash it generated from operations was significantly more than the $150 million invested for future growth.
He noted that the company’s capital expenditure in the 2020 business year was higher than the $125 million spent in 2019, which demonstrates the company’s commitment to growth; as it voluntarily repaid $100 million of its Revolving Credit Facility and ended the year with $225 million in cash and net debt of $440 million.
Also, The company’s average working interest production was 51,183boepd, including 33,714bopd of liquids and 101MMscfd gas (17,469boepd).
He said: “Of this, our Eland assets contributed 8,855bopd, or 26% of total liquid volumes. Our financial performance enabled us to maintain our commitment to paying dividends. While other companies were cutting back or cancelling payments for the 2019 financial year, because of prevailing uncertainties, we honoured our commitment and paid a final dividend of US$0.05, for a total dividend of US$0.10 for 2019.
“In October 2020, the company announced an interim dividend of US$0.05 and the Board has since approved an additional top-up of US$0.05, maintaining our US$0.10 dividend for the 2020 financial year. Since we raised $535 million at our initial public offering in May 2014, we have returned $344 million to shareholders in the form of dividends.
“The strengthening of our Board is part of the ongoing desire to achieve world-class governance of our company. Six of our 13-member Board members are independent and we continue to work towards increasing diversity. In addition, as we announced in March, we have taken the bold decision to eliminate all Related-Party Transactions – a move that exceeds the requirements of the UK Code of Corporate Governance,” he stated
According to Brown, it is the responsibility of the Board to plan for the long-term sustainability of the company, as scenario analyses on Seplat’s assets have been conducted under different climate change and demand scenarios, whilst looking towards a future in which Seplat is much more involved in promoting low carbon environment in its operations and the company adopting Seplat Energy as its new name following the passage of the resolution at its AGM.
“Such a transition will involve significant new innovations, technology, skills and relationships, compared to our existing expertise of subsurface exploration, drilling and hydrocarbon processing, but we are determined to be a major part of Nigeria’s future energy mix and help drive the country towards more sustainable energy generation,” the Seplat MD emphasized.
He added: “Our ANOH Gas Processing Plant will be a major step forward in Nigeria’s drive to reduce carbon emissions, replacing potentially millions of small-scale, inefficient, and polluting generators with cleaner utility-scale power generation fired by Nigerian natural gas. In addition, we intend to increase our disclosure of environmental, social and governance (ESG) data, by adopting the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures and will commit to reporting CO2 emission data to the Carbon Disclosure Project in the near future.
“Helping our communities, part of our ESG commitment is already apparent in the long-term projects we implement in our host communities. As the COVID-19 pandemic struck Nigeria, it was our duty to help our host communities and States in whatever ways we could.”
He said there is pressure to reduce oil extraction and the carbon emissions it creates; but that, he noted, depended on the rest of the world adopting less oil-intensive ways to travel and generate power.
He explained: “Nigeria’s per-capita energy consumption and carbon emissions are actually very low, and its national electricity grid is still very poorly developed. This is why the country is so reliant on small-scale diesel generation to satisfy its energy needs and this is the problem we need to address most urgently.
According to Mr. Brown: “Seplat is embracing climate change opportunities on two fronts. Firstly, we continue to invest heavily in expanding our domestic gas business in line with the Government’s strategy to achieve universal access to electricity, and to make that energy cheaper and cleaner by replacing diesel generation, which is very damaging to the environment and the economy. Gas is clearly the next step for Nigeria, and we have a leading position domestically with the Nigerian Government declaring the ANOH project as one of the seven critical gas development projects for the country.
“Secondly, we have created a New Energy unit to focus on lower carbon to zero carbon fuel sources and the natural extension beyond gas is for Seplat to participate in renewable energy, such as solar power, and in emerging technologies such as carbon capture and storage. Our view is that Nigeria will benefit from being able to deploy renewable energy on its electricity grid rather than solely developing an off grid renewable solution. By providing a base load of cheaper, lower carbon gas on the grid, the acceleration of grid-based renewables will be possible, which is why we are currently focusing on accelerating our midstream gas business and additionally expanding into LPG, which is a good fuel source for cooking, preventing deforestation.”
“The priority for 2021 is to address our responsibilities as part of the global energy transition and to set realistic targets for how we as a company evolve to drive that transition along. Having survived the worst year in the history of the Oil and Gas industry, the actions we’ve taken before and during 2020 have left us in a position of strength and I am confident that as demand recovers and the imperative for gas increases, Seplat will exit 2021 a larger, stronger, more profitable company and strengthen its position as Nigeria’s indigenous energy leader.”
Under his leadership, Seplat had a robust financial performance in 2020 which demonstrated the importance of a prudent approach to managing its finances, focusing on capital allocation, revenue diversification, cost control, hedging and debt management.
Despite a challenging year, Seplat under Brown repaid $100 million debt, invested $150 million for growth and maintained dividend at $0.10 per share for the year.
Also, Brown noted that ,Seplat Energy Plc recorded an impressive half year (H1) 2021 scorecard with profit before deferred tax (PBT) of $62.1million, representing an increase of 142.7percent as against H1’20. Highlights of the company’s financial further show that revenue went up 32percent to $308.8 million in H1’21, from $233.5million in H1’20; earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of $178.9 million; cash generated from operations ($125.8 million); cash at bank ($298.8 million) and net debt of $456.4 million.
In the half year (H1) period, Seplat pronounced an interim dividend at a rate of US2.5 cents (United States Two and Half Cents) per Ordinary Share, subject to appropriate withholding tax (WHT), to be paid to Seplat Energy’s shareholders whose names appear in the Register of Members as at the close of business on August 12, 2021.
Both the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited and London Stock Exchange hosted Seplat Energy Plc on July 29 , 2021 to commemorate Seplat’s first dual Capital Markets Day. The event marked an important milestone for Seplat marking its name change from Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc to Seplat Energy Plc.
The operational highlights show: working-interest oil and gas production within guidance at 50,786 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd); liquids production of 30,028 barrels of oil per day (bopd) in H1 2021, gas production up 21percent to 120 million standard cubic feet per day (MMscfd); Oben-50 and 51 gas wells completed in the period and producing; safety record extended to more than 20.5 million man hours without LTI on Seplat-operated western assets; while first liftings from Amukpe-Escravos Pipeline is expected fourth-quarter (Q4) 2021.
Seplat successful issue of $650 million 7.75% senior notes to redeem existing $350 million 9.25% senior notes and repay $250 million drawn on $350 million Revolving Credit Facility (RCF); Refinanced $100 million Westport RBL facility; raised a $50 million offtake linked to the RBL in July; and total capital expenditure of $57.5 million.
As we celebrate the first anniversary of this outstanding corporate leader and energy sector icon , a man of great repute, leader of men, a man with dignity, an achiever, a man of the people for the people, a humanitarian , Roger Brown philosophy of his life is fortified by his deep personal commitment to the self-worth of work being more treasured and ensuring he puts smiles on the faces of many.
Obviously, Mr. Roger Brown stands high as a real global leader. His love for humanity is profound, it stands him out as an outstanding corporate private sector leader.
