When, on September 1, 2025, the French oil major TotalEnergies inked a Production Sharing Contract (PSC) for two offshore blocks – designated PPL 2000 and PPL 2001 – in partnership with Nigeria’s South Atlantic Petroleum (Sapetro), the ceremony was presented with the pomp of inevitability. Smiles were exchanged, signatures affixed, and speeches delivered about Nigeria’s renewed attractiveness under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA). Yet beneath the celebratory choreography lies a festering legal sore: the unfinished contestation of title by Zebbra Energy, the original license holder of what was once OPL 248, a block whose troubled history mirrors Nigeria’s fraught relationship with its extractive governance.
This is not merely a quarrel over a license. It is a referendum on whether Nigeria’s new petroleum governance framework can finally deliver stability or whether old ghosts—procedural irregularities, judicial ambiguities, and regulatory overreach—will continue to haunt investors.
The Backstory: OPL 248 and Zebbra’s Long March Through the Courts
The license history reads like a case study in Nigerian administrative opacity. In 1999, under the transitional administration of General Abdulsalami Abubakar, OPL 248 was granted to Zebbra Energy, founded by Ambrosie Bryant Chukwueloka (ABC) Orjiako, a medical doctor turned oil magnate. Barely had Zebbra secured the block than it was revoked by President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government.
Litigation ensued. In 2002, the Supreme Court of Nigeria sided with Zebbra, effectively affirming its rights. Yet, despite the ruling, Zebbra was unable to progress, caught in a tangle of bureaucratic obstruction and political indifference.
The matter took a darker turn in the 2010s, when Zebbra entered into technical partnerships with TotalEnergies (2009–2012, and briefly in 2019). These collaborations failed to yield development but provided the French major with intimate knowledge of the block’s geology and legal encumbrances.
By 2024, the regulatory successor to the DPR—the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), headed by Engr. Gbenga Komolafe—revoked Zebbra’s license on the grounds of non-payment of a $5 million fee. The asset was reclassified and included in the 2024 licensing round, where TotalEnergies–Sapetro emerged as winners.
Zebbra promptly sued. Though the Federal High Court dismissed its complaint in June 2025, the dismissal is not final. Under Nigerian law, Zebbra retains the right to appeal, with a September 28, 2025 deadline. Should Orjiako file, the dispute could once again ascend to the Supreme Court, resurrecting two decades of contention.
Orjiako’s Legal Strategy: Re-arguing the Past to Protect the Future
At the core of Zebbra’s strategy lies the argument of improper revocation. Orjiako’s legal team is expected to advance four major planks:
1. Procedural Irregularity: They will contend that NUPRC’s revocation in 2024 ignored binding precedent—the 2002 Supreme Court ruling—which had established Zebbra’s rights. This, they will argue, is not merely administrative error but judicial contempt.
2. Frustration of Performance: Zebbra will argue that its alleged “non-performance” and failure to pay the extension fee were consequences of government-induced paralysis. By obstructing Zebbra’s ability to act on its Supreme Court victory, the government created a fait accompli in which compliance became impossible.
3. TotalEnergies’ Constructive Knowledge: Having been Zebbra’s technical partner, TotalEnergies cannot claim ignorance of the dispute. The French major’s participation in the new PSC, Zebbra may argue, was made in bad faith.
4. Tainted Licensing Round: If the revocation was illegal, then the 2024 licensing exercise that produced the new PSC is void ab initio. The concession process, in Zebbra’s view, is nothing more than a house built on sand.
In terms of remedies, Zebbra has a menu of options: outright reinstatement of OPL 248, financial compensation (including claims for lost profits running into billions), or an out-of-court settlement. Most disruptive, however, would be an injunction – a court order halting TotalEnergies from conducting any work on PPL 2000 and PPL 2001 until final adjudication. Such an order would freeze the project, embarrass the NUPRC, and expose Nigeria to reputational injury.
The Key Stakeholders and Their Roles
• Zebbra Energy – Founded by ABC Orjiako, Zebbra is the aggrieved party, asserting a claim to the block that spans decades. Orjiako has become both litigant and symbol of Nigeria’s oil sector dysfunction.
• TotalEnergies EP Nigeria – Represented by Matthieu Bouyer, Managing Director. The French supermajor insists it has a valid PSC and is keen to press forward, but may privately be exploring a financial accommodation.
• South Atlantic Petroleum (Sapetro) – Originally founded by Gen. Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma (Rtd.), Sapetro provides the Nigerian partnership for TotalEnergies, adding political ballast to the consortium.
• NUPRC – Led by Engr. Gbenga Komolafe, the regulator asserts that Zebbra lost its rights through non-payment. The commission’s credibility is now intertwined with the case.
• NNPC Ltd. – Represented at the signing by Bashir Bayo Ojulari, the state oil company holds equity in the PSC and a strong interest in seeing the deal survive.
• The Nigerian Presidency – President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as Minister of Petroleum Resources, has taken personal interest in ensuring Nigeria’s upstream revival. The optics of another major dispute would undercut his investment drive.
The Sword of Damocles Over Nigeria’s Investment Narrative
The stakes transcend Zebbra and TotalEnergies. The very credibility of Nigeria’s post-PIA regime hangs in the balance.
1. Investor Confidence: International oil companies are inherently risk-averse. A successful appeal, voiding a duly signed PSC, would send shockwaves through boardrooms in Paris, Houston, and Beijing. Contracts would be seen not as binding covenants but as provisional instruments, contingent on perpetual litigation.
2. Regulatory Crisis: The NUPRC has marketed itself as a transparent and reliable regulator. An appeal victory for Zebbra would cast doubt on its processes, making every subsequent license vulnerable to retroactive challenge.
3. Operational Delays: Even without a victory, a prolonged appeal would delay exploration activity. In an era when Nigeria is desperate to augment reserves and stabilize production, every year of litigation is a year of lost output.
4. Fiscal Consequences: Nigeria relies on oil for the majority of government revenues. Litigation-induced paralysis translates directly into foregone royalties, delayed taxes, and increased borrowing needs.
5. Legal Precedent: A Zebbra victory would embolden other claimants with dusty grievances. Nigeria could face a cascade of revived disputes, each one undermining the sanctity of its licensing rounds.
The Broader Economic Reverberations
Should the dispute escalate, the economic consequences would metastasize:
• Revenue Shortfalls: Delayed projects mean less forex inflow, worsening fiscal deficits and pushing Nigeria deeper into debt.
• Currency Weakness: Reduced dollar inflows would exert downward pressure on the naira, fueling inflation.
• Investor Distrust: Beyond oil, disputes of this magnitude contaminate perceptions of Nigeria’s entire investment climate.
• Energy Insecurity: Exploration paralysis today means reserve depletion tomorrow, compromising Nigeria’s long-term energy security.
• Diversification Setback: A weakened oil sector leaves the state with fewer resources to invest in non-oil growth sectors, sabotaging its own diversification agenda.
Between Law, Politics, and Realpolitik
The TotalEnergies–Sapetro PSC is both a triumph and a gamble. It reflects Nigeria’s determination to reanimate its upstream sector under the Petroleum Industry Act, but it also embodies the unresolved contradictions of its oil governance. Ambrosie Orjiako’s appeal is not a mere nuisance; it is a live grenade tossed into the delicate machinery of Nigeria’s petroleum architecture. Should Zebbra succeed, the consequences will reverberate from Abuja’s Ministries to Parisian boardrooms. Should it fail, the litigation may still linger, freezing billions of dollars of investment. Either way, the case reaffirms a sobering truth: until Nigeria resolves its chronic inability to separate political expediency from contractual sanctity, its oil sector will remain a theatre of uncertainty, haunted by old ghosts even as it proclaims new dawns.
