Atlas Oranto Petroleum Restricted, the Nigerian impartial vitality firm based by billionaire Arthur Eze, has suffered a serious blow in Senegal after the federal government revoked its offshore exploration license, a call that indicators greater than the tip of a long-stalled contract.
Senegal revokes Oranto offshore license
Senegal’s authorities moved to reclaim the Cayar Offshore Shallow block after concluding that Oranto repeatedly failed to satisfy core obligations tied to the license. Based on officers in Dakar, the corporate failed to supply necessary financial institution ensures and carried out little substantive exploration work for the reason that acreage was awarded in 2008.
The revocation, accredited below President Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s reform-minded administration, underscored a harder stance on license compliance and a transparent message that petroleum rights should be actively earned. Authorities officers stated the choice adopted years of extensions and unmet commitments, leaving little justification to maintain the block idle.
By withdrawing the license, Senegal joined a rising variety of African producers searching for to curb speculative holding of oil and gasoline acreage and push capital towards operators keen to drill, spend and develop.
Debate grows over Liberia oil contracts
The setback in Senegal provides to mounting scrutiny of Atlas Oranto elsewhere in West Africa. In Liberia, stress has intensified after two senior lawmakers warned in opposition to ratifying proposed production-sharing contracts involving the corporate.
In an October 2025 letter to fellow legislators, former Home Speaker J. Fonati Koffa and Consultant Musa Hassan Bility described the agreements as “corrupt and harmful,” elevating issues about transparency, fiscal phrases and the corporate’s monetary capability to develop deep-water blocks.
Liberia’s authorities, led by President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, has introduced the Atlas Oranto agreements as a bid to restart a petroleum sector dormant for greater than a decade. Officers cite bonuses and pledges on participation. Critics query who suggested the state, how native fairness could be financed, and why figures linked to the offers have modified positions. They warn the contracts might depart the state uncovered if discoveries happen however tasks stall.
On the heart of the controversy is execution. Lawmakers and analysts say Atlas Oranto’s historical past throughout West and Central Africa reveals uneven follow-through, with licenses typically altering arms earlier than wells are drilled. Liberia itself awarded acreage to the group within the late 2000s that later modified possession with out a single exploration properly, reinforcing doubts about whether or not the present offers mirror growth plans or monetary optionality.
Arthur Eze’s African vitality footprint
Arthur Eze based Atlas Oranto in 1991, constructing it into one among Nigeria’s largest privately held oil and gasoline teams, with pursuits spanning 22 nations, together with Equatorial Guinea, South Sudan, São Tomé and Príncipe, Uganda and Zambia. But challenges persist. In April, Equatorial Guinea pressed the corporate to pay a $10 million license-related bonus—about N15 billion—amid compliance disputes tied to recovered oil blocks.
In September 2025, it secured 4 offshore exploration blocks in Liberia, as curiosity within the nation’s offshore basin picked up. TotalEnergies acquired 4 blocks earlier within the 12 months, and ExxonMobil re-entered Liberian waters in 2023, elevating expectations on capital and execution. For regulators, Senegal’s transfer might set a benchmark. For Atlas Oranto, it intensifies scrutiny of capability, credibility and whether or not licenses translate to drilling and manufacturing.
