Nigeria’s Federal High Court has ordered Oriental Energy Resources Limited, the oil company founded by billionaire businessman Muhammadu Indimi, to pay $43.51 million to his twin daughters following a fierce legal battle over unpaid dividends that has exposed deep cracks in their family.
According to The Africa Report, the two daughters, Ameena and Zara Indimi, instituted legal action against the family-owned oil company, accusing it of unlawfully excluding them from dividend payments arising from its highly profitable offshore oil operations.
Court filings showed that the dispute centred on the sisters’ claim to a combined 10 per cent equity stake in Oriental Energy, which they argued entitled them to a share of dividends tied to approximately $435.1 million allegedly declared by the company.
The twins further alleged that their individual shareholdings were significantly diluted under circumstances they said effectively denied them their rightful financial benefits.
By ordering the payment of $43.51 million, the court effectively upheld the daughters’ position that outstanding funds were owed to them, intensifying a bitter family conflict that has now shifted from internal corporate disagreements into full public and judicial scrutiny.
Oriental Energy, a privately owned Nigerian exploration and production company with major offshore operations in the Niger Delta, has long been a cornerstone of Indimi’s vast business empire.
The company is regarded as one of the most prominent indigenous players in Nigeria’s upstream oil sector, an industry where ownership structures and financial arrangements are often shielded from public view.
The case has drawn widespread attention partly because of the enormous sums involved and partly due to Indimi’s status as one of Nigeria’s most influential oil magnates, with extensive interests spanning energy and finance.
What might ordinarily have remained a private family disagreement has instead evolved into a high-profile legal confrontation raising broader questions about governance, succession planning, and shareholder rights within family-controlled corporations.
Reports indicate that the disagreement extends beyond the twins, with lingering tensions within the wider Indimi family over control of company holdings and whether previous financial transfers to certain relatives constituted gifts, buyouts, or settlements that nullified future dividend entitlements.
Although full details of how the court arrived at the $43.51 million figure and the timeline for compliance were not immediately disclosed, the ruling is expected to significantly alter the balance of power in ongoing negotiations among family members and company stakeholders.
In 1990, OPL 224 was awarded to Oriental Energy Resources Limited by the Federal Government of Nigeria with a mandate requirement to acquire a minimum of up to 1000 km of seismic data and to drill at least three exploratory wells.
Oil Prospecting Licence, OPL is a license granted by the government to companies, giving them the exclusive right to explore and prospect for oil within a specific area.
In the course of its operation, Oriental Energy entered into a Technical Services Agreement with DuPont Nigeria Ltd, according to information from its website, acquired the committed 2D seismic survey as well as drilled four wells including the Ufon discovery well.
This continued until the first half of the 1990s.
“At the end of the decade, the Nigerian Department of Petroleum Resources gave an approval to convert OPL 224 to OML 115 on 20 May 1999, as a result of the successful work done on the Block. OML 115 was reduced to 248 km² from its original size of 310 km² as a result of international boundary redefinition,” Indimi was quoted by BusinessDay as telling journalists in 2025.
In early 2000s, the growth of Oriental Energy proceeded quickly. Ebok marginal field (May 2007) and Okwok marginal field (2006) were awarded to Oriental Energy Resources Limited from ExxonMobil’s OML 67, through a Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) between the Nigerian government and ExxonMobil under the Marginal Fields Scheme, as a compensation for the loss of acreage to ExxonMobil Equatorial Guinea.
Strategic alliances followed with Addax Petroleum (Okwok), Nexen E&P Services Nigeria Ltd. (OML 115), and Energy Equity Resources Oil & Gas (OML 115).
In March 2011, Oriental Energy received approval from the Federal Republic of Nigeria for the establishment of the Ebok Terminal for the offloading of crude oil.
By the end of March 2011, the production, processing, and storage facilities were installed at the Ebok field and readied for first oil. By the end of 2011, the Ebok field had produced approximately 3.0 million barrels of oil.
