Inadequate investment in the downstream sector of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry was responsible for the perennial fuel scarcity, the Chief Executive Officer of Pinnacle Oil and Gas Limited, Peter Mbah, has said.
Mbah also said the company has, on its part, invested about $1bn to address the sluggish pace of investment in the downstream sector.
“So, we are indeed expecting that more investment in the downstream subsector would completely eliminate the sort of scarcity we are witnessing today,” the Pinnacle boss told State House correspondents shortly after his company’s board of directors paid a thank-you visit to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), in Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.
The board Chairman, Emir of Bichi, Nasiru Ado Bayero, led the delegation to the State House.
Mbah, who is the Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate in Enugu State in next month’s election, said his company’s intervention and investments from other Nigerians in the downstream sector would lessen the frequency of fuel scarcity.
“There has been a deficit in the set of investments Pinnacle has done in the last decades. But what we’re doing right now, is to address that stagnation of investment in the downstream oil and gas industry.
“This is an investment size of about $1bn. So we are expecting to see more of such investments because what the Pinnacle has done is create some efficiency in the supply and distribution value chain of the downstream sector.
“So, we are indeed expecting that more investment in the downstream subsector would completely eliminate the sort of scarcity we are witnessing today,” he said.
Asked what prompted his visit to the Villa, Mbah said Pinnacle’s board and the management team came to appreciate the president for accepting to inaugurate the company’s over $1bn product storage terminal in October.
“We, Pinnacle Oil and Gas Limited, have come here to express our profound gratitude and our heartfelt appreciation to Mr President.
“You will recall that on October 22, 2022, Mr President inaugurated our storage terminal adjudged to be the largest storage terminal in West Africa, with offshore intake facilities also adjudged to be the deepest intake facility in entire Africa, sitting at a water depth of 23 meters.
“So, we do have SPM (Single Point Mooring), and CBM (Conventional Buoy Mooring). Those are the offshore facilities we have,” he said.
Describing the facility as the largest in West Africa, the governorship hopeful said “Those facilities have the capability to take the largest vessels, you can discharge over 100 million litres of clean petroleum products within 24 hours. This is typically what takes the industry 32 days to discharge.
“So, we have largely come here to express our gratitude to Mr President for the honour he gave us in inaugurating this large facility, which has actually changed the face of the industry. This facility is located at the Lekki Free Zone, just by the Dangote Refinery.”
