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The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has acquired the downstream assets of OVH Energy Marketing Company, effectively making it the biggest downstream company in Africa.
The acquisition was announced yesterday in Abuja during the unveiling and rebranding of one of the retail stations of OVH to NNPC.
With the acquisition, OVH retail stations trading under the Oando brand will now join the NNPC Brand.
The event was attended by the Chairman of the NNPC Ltd Board, Mrs Margary Okadigbo; the Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPC, Mele Kyari; the Chief Executive of the Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Farouk Ahmed; and the Executive Vice Chairman, Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, Babatunde Irukera; among others.
OVH Energy is the company behind the Oando retail brand in Nigeria. It is an indigenous marketer of choice providing trusted petroleum products and services.
Speaking at the event, the NNPC Board Chairman said that the acquisition of the downstream assets of OVH would position the NNPC to become the biggest downstream company in Africa.
She said that with the partnership, the NNPC would now have reception jetty (ASPM) with 240,000MT monthly capacity, eight LPG Plants, three Lubes Blending Plants , three Aviation Depots, and 12 warehouses.
Okadigbo said that as a result of the acquisition, additional 380 filling stations would be added to what the NNPC had, adding that with this, the aspiration of the National Oil Company to have 1,500 retail fuel stations would soon be achieved.
Her words: “With this partnership, we have the capacity to have eight LPG plants, three blending plants, three aviation depots, 12 warehouses.
“You are going to have the biggest filling station collection in Africa and when you have 380 additional filling stations under NNPC, that is indeed huge.
“We also have NNPC retail brand now in Nigeria and Togo and we are on the journey to attaining 1,500 fuel stations target.”
In his speech at the event, the Group CEO, Kyari, said that the partnership would further unlock the potentials of the NNPC to guarantee energy security for Nigeria.
He said: “Our president who is also the Minister of Petroleum Resources has consistently insisted that this company must ensure energy security for our country.
“Providing energy security means access to product. There is no way we can do this except you have a robust system and processes, you have a network that will work, you have an institution that will deliver value to shareholders.”
He described OVH as a company that has systems, processes and the competence that align with the energy transitioning aspiration of the NNPC.
“We have struggled with this for many years and we saw the opportunities to latch on the competences of OVH. We have worked with them, they are our partners and we have also worked with them and we know their capability and ultimately we knew that this company will work for us.
“It has systems, it has processes, it has the network and it has potentials to make us achieve our aspiration to be the global company of choice.
“This is not about assets, its about us building a relationship that is based on value. As at this moment, we are the largest downstream company in the country. By this acquisition, we are also likely to be the largest downstream company in Africa.
“This is a vehicle that will enable us to deliver on the energy transition for our country. We will use this vehicle to deliver LPG, CNG to the market.
“Our poor communities who are relying on biomass to cook, 70 per cent of our people don’t have cooking fuel, this is an opportunity for us to latch on this,” Kyari said.
He explained that the partnership would also enable the NNPC to not only deliver value to its stakeholders, but also generate revenue.
“This is a very competitive business. We are not here to cause disruptions; we will integrate it into our existing businesses. We have experiences that you don’t have, we have capacity that you don’t have and we will bring all this for the success of the partnership,” he assured.
