Oil and gas underwriters in the Nigeria insurance market have displayed the strength of the insurers involved in this special and volatile risk and honoured their claim obligation denominated in Dollars notwithstanding. Recently a claim on fire on oil rig adjusted to $55 (N83bn) was paid to Brittania-U a wholly Nigerian oil drilling firm that operates Ajapa marginal field and owns the FPSO Brittania U that was involved in a major fire in July 2024.
This feat by the local underwriters was disclosed by the Commissioner for Insurance, National Insurance Commission, Olusegun Ayo Omosehin at the 2025 NAICOM Annual Journalist Seminar at Abeokuta, Ogun State.
The CFI said the amount involved after it was finally adjusted from $72 to $55 jolted the insured who thought that the local market would not meet the obligation and took their plea to the National Assembly and the regulator was summoned. Excited Omosehin explains, “Even the insured never believed the market will pay. So they ran to the National Assembly and the regulator was summoned. Obviously there was no need for legislative intervention. One the claim was clearly just discharged, the provision of the law with respect for guidelines for settlement for discharge was 90 days and at that point NIIRA had not been accented to at that time. However I realised the need for the regulator to step in. Se we wrote the entities and we gave them a timeline of 90 days within which they must settle.
“Honestly, I have never been more proud of this market until that time; I realised in terms of speed some were faster than others like in any race but like any race at the end of the time frame the market had paid the $55 million in full,” he said.
Remarkably, he said the same company have had several claims in millions paid including a $5 million and $15 million before now underscoring the credibility and capacity of the local market to protect special risks as volatile as oil and gas. He said it should be of interest that the premium for the risk was $170,000.
Featured picture: From left: Deputy Commissioner Finance and Administration National Insurance Commission, Ekerete Ola Gam-Ikon; Commissioner for Insurance Olusegun Omosehin and Deputy Commissioner Technical Dr. Usman Jankara at the event.
