2 days Ago By Adebayo Adeoye
Sometime in 1994, the trio of Wale Tinubu, Omamofe Boyo and Onajite Okoloko had a brainwave of sorts to float an oil firm, Ocean and Oil Services Limited. It was not with any intent to just swell the number of existing players in the sector; rather, it was to radically change the narrative in the nation’s oil and gas industry. Of course, they were not totally strangers to the inclement business environment in the country or even the vagaries of the market they were eyeing at the time.
This is simply because the three business partners had individually garnered some experiences in the oil and gas business before venturing into it. For the uninformed, Tinubu started out as a lawyer, specialising in corporate and petroleum laws; Moyo, also a lawyer, specialized in shipping and oil services while Okoloko, an economist, had worked in the sales, marketing and business development in the US before returning home to work in the oil industry. Buoyed by a clear vision and mission, they floated Ocean and Oil Services to supply diesel and Low Pour Fuel Oil (LPFO) to various shipping firms and offshore exploration companies in Nigeria.
At the time, the upstart company commenced business only with a vessel, MT Carolina, anchored in Bonny Island, Rivers State to supply diesel and Low Pour Fuel Oil (LPFO) to off-shore companies from the Port-Harcourt, Rivers State refinery. Their humble beginning notwithstanding, they were able to acquire six more ships, within six years of their operations. The development, it was gathered, was a pleasant surprise to their fierce critics.
But Tinubu and his partners chose to spring more surprises on their competitors and muckrakers in subsequent years. In 2000, they took another bold step by expressing an interest in acquiring a 30% controlling interest in the defunct Unipetrol, following the government’s decision to sell its controlling 60% stake in the integrated downstream oil marketing company. Though many saw the move as a wild goose chase, the company, with support from its foreign technical partners, Compagnia Espanola De Petroleos (CEPSA), the second largest oil group in Spain, pulled through and later increased its shares in Unipetrol to 42 % in 2001.
Certainly, for the trio, the journey had just begun. A year later, Ocean and Oil Services Limited acquired a 60% stake in Agip Nigeria Plc. This came about when Agip Petroli International BV of Italy decided to divest from the downstream sector, hence the partners bought over the foreign company’s shares and added Agip Nigeria Plc, the company’s local subsidiary, to their portfolio.
This was achieved with a N9.2 billion four-year syndicated loan from a consortium of local and international lenders, to finance its purchase. But this turned out to be a precursor to the metamorphosis of Ocean and Oil Services Limited to Oando Limited, after the merger of the two newly acquired companies.
Again, the company’s profile received a boost when it successfully secured a cross border listing on the Johannesburg Stock of Exchange (JSE) in South Africa in 2005! Over the years, the company that started like a mustard seed has not grown to be like an oak, with several subsidiaries, including Oando Marketing Limited (OML), one of the largest downstream petroleum marketing companies in Nigeria with over 500 retail outlets across Nigeria, Ghana, and Togo; Oando Supply and Trading Limited (OST), one of the largest independent traders of crude and refined petroleum products in sub-Saharan Africa incorporated in 2004; Oando Gas & Power Limited (OGP), a pioneer in the development of Nigeria’s foremost gas distribution network, spanning 264km and serving over 150 industrial and commercial customers in Lagos, Calabar and Port Harcourt incorporated in 2004; Oando Energy Services Limited (OES), Nigeria’s largest indigenous oilfield services provider incorporated in 2005 to enhance indigenous participation with a fleet of 5 rigs; Oando Energy Resources (OER), one of Nigeria’s foremost indigenous upstream oil and gas companies..
