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Editor's note: Billionaires.Africa will soon launch AMSI, the Africa $10 Million Shareholdings Index, which will rank and value the disclosed stakes that named individuals hold in companies with a primary listing on an African stock exchange. The index will combine each person's holdings across exchanges, include everyone whose disclosed holdings add up to at least $10 million, and update stock prices and valuations daily. Stock-market net worth reports such as this one, built on disclosed shareholdings and closing prices, are part of the work leading up to the launch. Tips on the beneficial owners of shareholding vehicles on African stock exchanges can be sent to tips@billionaires.africa.
Nigerian oil tycoon Augustine Avuru's stake in Seplat Energy Plc has climbed to ₦800.31 billion ($586.3 million) after the oil and gas producer he co-founded nearly tripled in value on the Nigerian Exchange this year.
Avuru, better known as Austin, holds 50,019,178 Seplat shares, or 8.34% of the company's 599.9 million shares in issue. Seplat last traded at ₦16,000 in Lagos, the level it first reached on Sept. 24, when it closed at a record high. The stock opened the year at ₦5,809 and is up 175% since then, giving the company a market value of about ₦9.6 trillion ($7 billion).
At the start of January, Avuru's stake was worth ₦290.56 billion ($212.9 million). The rally has added ₦509.75 billion ($373.4 million) to its value since then.
The shares are held through Professional Support Ltd., a company Avuru wholly controls. He also owns part of Platform Petroleum Ltd., which holds a separate block of Seplat shares not counted here.
Seplat's climb gathered pace after Heirs Energies Ltd., the oil company controlled by Nigerian banker Tony Elumelu, bought French producer Maurel & Prom SA's entire 20.07% stake for about $500 million in a deal completed on Dec. 31, 2025. Heirs has since raised its holding to 21.07%, or about 126.4 million shares, after buying another 6 million shares in September. At ₦16,000 a share, the Elumelu stake is worth about ₦2.02 trillion ($1.48 billion).
Petrolin Group, the oil group founded by Gabonese billionaire Samuel Dossou-Aworet, is Seplat's second-largest shareholder, with 81,015,319 shares, or 13.5%. That holding is worth ₦1.3 trillion ($949.6 million).
In April, Seplat became the first stock on the Nigerian Exchange to trade above ₦10,000.
From NNPC to Platform Petroleum
Avuru, 68, studied geology at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and later earned a postgraduate diploma in petroleum engineering from the University of Ibadan.
He spent about 12 years at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. as a geologist and reservoir engineer, then a decade at Kase Lawal's Allied Energy Resources, where he rose to technical manager. In 2002 he founded Platform Petroleum, which became the operator of the Egbaoma marginal field in Delta State.
Building Seplat
In 2009 Platform Petroleum teamed up with Shebah Petroleum Development Co., the company of oil executive A.B.C. Orjiako, to form Seplat Petroleum Development Co. Maurel & Prom joined as a partner.
Avuru became chief executive officer on May 1, 2010. Two months later, Seplat bought a 45% interest in three onshore Niger Delta blocks, Oil Mining Leases 4, 38 and 41, from Shell, Total and Eni's Agip, and became their operator.
He built Seplat into one of Nigeria's biggest locally owned producers, listing it in Lagos and London in 2014 and expanding its gas business. He retired as CEO in July 2020, handing over to Roger Brown, and left the board on March 1, 2022.
A bigger company
Seplat's scale changed in December 2024, when it completed the purchase of Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, ExxonMobil's shallow-water offshore business in Nigeria. Agreed in 2022 at a headline $1.28 billion, the deal was held up for more than two years by a legal challenge from the state oil company and closed at an adjusted $800 million.
The acquisition more than doubled the company's output. Seplat produced an average of 131,506 barrels of oil equivalent a day in 2025, up 148% from the previous year, and revenue rose 144% to $2.73 billion. The ANOH gas plant, started under Avuru, delivered first gas in January.
In results released in late October, Seplat said pre-tax profit rose 53% to ₦1.34 trillion ($981.7 million) in the nine months through September. Revenue climbed 13% to ₦3.78 trillion ($2.77 billion), and profit after tax more than doubled to ₦355.55 billion ($260.5 million). Third-quarter output topped 155,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day.
Seplat declared a third-quarter dividend of 19 U.S. cents a share, taking this year's payouts to 40 cents, or about $20 million on Avuru's holding.
The company is now run by Effiong Okon, who replaced Brown as CEO on Aug. 1. Elumelu is set to take over as chairman from Udoma Udo Udoma in January 2027.
Beyond Seplat
In April 2025, President Bola Tinubu named Avuru a non-executive director of Nigerian National Petroleum Co. Ltd. when he overhauled the state oil company's board.
He chairs AA Holdings, a Lagos family investment company, and the AA Foundation, which funds education, healthcare and entrepreneurship programs in Nigeria.
A fellow and former president of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists, Avuru chaired the technical committee that drafted the policy framework for Nigeria's 2010 local content law.
Figures were converted at ₦1,365 to the dollar.
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