01 April 2013, Abuja – Indigenous downstream operator, Nipco Plc has expanded its operations to the upstream sector, with the establishment of a new subsidiary, Nipco Upstream Limited.
Disclosing this to shareholders at the company’s Annual General Meeting in Abuja, last week, the Board Chairman, Chief Bestman Anekwe, said the upstream subsidiary is being floated with a clear mandate of actualising NIPCO’s objective of becoming an integrated oil and gas company.
He noted that with the coming on stream of the subsidiary, management is poised to ensure that it becomes a success story in the upstream sector like its parent company which is a household name in the downstream realm.
Anekwe recalled that the parent company floated by Indigenous fuel marketers under the aegis of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, and a core investor – Purebond Limited UK, has made tremendous inroads in the downstream sector and is now poised to replicate the success in the upstream segment of the nation’s oil and gas industry .
“We have already carve a niche for ourselves in the downstream sector and our future has become brighter than ever before in the light of our enhanced relationship with several government agencies in the country,” the chairman said .
According to him, the board in outlining policy directives for the organization is committed to building a formidable integrated oil and gas company that will complement the energy reforms of the government while delivering greater value to both customers and shareholders.
Reflecting on the performance of the company in 2012 financial year, Anekwe said the organization was able to make a lot of inroads into the liquefied Petroleum Gas, LPG market through enhancement of its distribution network and also in the provision of cylinders and other gas accessories at pocket friendly rates and also deepen usage.
On the Compressed Natural Gas, CNG project which is a JV scheme with Nigeria Gas Company, NGC, incorporated as Green Gas Limited, GGL, he said the project had gained tremendous momentum with more and more vehicles as well as tricycles switching over to gas in the city of Benin, Edo State.
Anekwe said with about eight CNG stations already completed in Benin to facilitate easy access to gas as auto fuel, GGL is currently constructing more outlets and conversion workshops in Ogun and Ondo states which are expected to be completed in 2013.
The Chairman told the shareholders that as part of the company expansion scheme, a lubricant unit was set up to boost operations in year 2012, and it is expected to mature and blossom in the years ahead.
