Scarcity of petroleum products which results in long queues witnessed in filling stations across Nigeria, have been linked to dearth of long term investment in the downstream sector.
Chief Executive Officer, CEO of Pinnacle Oil and Gas Limited, Peter Mbah adduced this reason, while speaking to State House correspondents shortly after the oil firm paid a thank-you visit to President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He disclosed that Pinnacle Oil and Gas has invested about a billion dollar with a view to addressing the stagnation of investment in the downstream sector.
On whether the country will surmount the intermittent scarcity witnessed every time,he stated that with the intervention by his company and investments from other Nigerians in the downstream sector, the problem will become a thing of the past.
He said, “There has been a deficit of 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 a billion dollars. So we are expecting to see more of such investments because what the Pinnacle has done is to 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 sub sector would completely eliminate the sort of scarcity we are witnessing today.”
He said the team visited the State House to express appreciation to Mr. President for accepting to inaugurate the company’s storage terminal adjudged to be the largest storage terminal in West Africa.
He said the offshore intake of the storage terminal is also adjudged to be the deepest intake facility in the entire Africa.
He added:”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 the 22nd day of October 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 the 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. Those facilities have the capability to take the largest vessels, you can imagine and discharge over 100 million liters 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 honor he gave us in inaugurating this largest facility, which has actually changed the face of the industry, because it has eased as you know, this facility is located at the Lekki free zone, just by the Dangote refinery.
“So, what it has done, it has eased the congestion and the gridlock we have at the Apapa area in Lagos. It has also reduced the cost of supply and delivery of petroleum products in different parts of the country. It has also provided jobs for teeming unemployed Nigerians. So, this is why we thought it necessary to come and say thank you to Mr. President.”