By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)- First listed Nigerian oil and gas upstream firm, Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc has until January 30, 2015 deadline to make a firm offer on its merger with Afren Plc, a U.K. oil and gas explorer, Afren said in a statement on Monday.

Seplat on January 08 confirmed to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) its proposed merger deal with Afren getting a January 19 deadline to solidify the deal.

‘’Following the receipt of a request from Seplat, the board of the company has received the consent of the UK Takeover Panel (the Panel) for an extension to the Deadline until 5.00 p.m. on 30 January 2015 to enable the parties to continue their ongoing discussions.

By this time Seplat must either announce a firm intention to make an offer for Afren or announce that it does not intend to make an offer for Afren, in which case the announcement will be treated as a statement to which Rule 2.8 of the Code applies. This new deadline can be extended with the consent of the Panel in accordance with Rule 2.6(c) of the Code,’’ Afren said.

At the close of Monday’s trading on the Nigerian bourse, Seplat lost N0.13 opening at N311.11 and closing at N311.00 declining by 0.04 percent.