Seplat announces the appointment of new CEO

SEPLAT Petroleum Development Company Plc has announced the appointment of Mr. Roger Brown as the new CEO to take over from its pioneer Managing Director, Mr. Austin Avuru who will be retiring in July 2020 after 10 years of leading the company.

Seplat, a Nigerian independent oil and gas firm, said its board of directors had selected Mr Roger Brown as the successor to Avuru to lead the company in its latest aspirations.

It said Avuru led the development of a strong organization, and the deployment of agile systems, processes and stakeholder relationships that allowed it to grow rapidly from a gross production of 22,700 barrels of oil equivalent per day as of December 2010 to 111,368boepd as of December 2018.

The company said in a statement that the acquisition of 45 per cent of Oil Mining Lease 53, after its initial public offering of 2014, created an opportunity in partnership with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to spawn a midstream subsidiary, ANOH Gas Processing Company Limited.

It said, “All these could not have been achieved without Mr 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.”

According to the statement, the board also decided that the CEO designate, Brown, will lead the restructuring during the transition period between now and final exit date of Avuru on July 31, 2020.

Mr. Brown joined seplat in 2013 as the CFO and played a key role in the successful dual listing of the company in 2014.

Since joining the company, he had also played significant roles in various asset acquisitions by the company.

Mr. Brown brings to the CEO role, a deep knowledge of the company in his 6 years as the CFO and member of the Board. He has strong financial, commercial experience as well as proven people skill which be an asset as the company embarks on the next phase of its growth plan.

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 time at the bank, he was instrumental in providing advice and deploying capital across the African continent in the Oil and Gas, Power and Infrastructure and the renewable energy sector.