MANAGING DIRECTOR’S FORWARD
Distinguished shareholders, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am pleased to welcome you to the 14th Annual General Meeting [AGM] of NIPCO Plc ..Since taking over the position of Managing Director of our dear company, this occasion marks my maiden address of this nature to you .
I wish to seize this opportunity, however, to appreciate your immeasurable support since the inception of the company and particularly in the 2017 financial year. An immediate challenge I had to deal with on assumption of office, was fashioning the most adequate focus to channel NIPCO’s energies by my management team ..Luckily we were able to achieve that sooner than expected. .With the benefit of hindsight and taking into consideration the change affecting the global business community and particularly the hydrocarbon industry, we settled for a strategic standpoint that was hinged on all inclusive administration.
The administrative style has also resulted in high quality engagement with our numerous publics – external & internal with the company’s operations being better from it.
REVIEW OF 2017
The main challenge with the downstream sector of Nigeria’s Oil and Gas industry stemmed largely from the lack of marketing margins for PMS due to pricing surge in the international market and the commitment of the government to the Nigerian public by maintaining a price cap across the nation for petrol
It is noteworthy that Federal Government is, through the Ministry of petroleum resources, working assiduously to revamp the country’s refineries to address part of the supply challenges plaguing the sector.
LIQUIFIED PETROLEUM GAS [LPG]
Our status as Liquefied Petroleum Gas [LPG] marketer grew positively in 2017 with the technical commissioning of the largest sphere in Africa and the continuous deployment of skids across the country to deepen domestic gas utilization. The sphere with a total storage tank of 5,000MT now puts the company total storage at 10780MT.
Our gas stations remains first choice outlets as consumers are assured of clean energy for cooking at the right quality, quantity at an affordable /competitive prices These efforts have elicited comments from various stakeholders ranging from marketers to suppliers.
Managing Director, Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas limited (NLNG), Mr. Tony Attah had, during a facilities visit, described NIPCO liquefied petroleum gas (LPG] terminal as a world class facility that could assist the nation effectively as a game changer in the gas industry.
The President of Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers (NALPGAM), Barrister Nosa Ogieva- Okunbor, commented that the coming of Nipco into the LPG market has broken the monopoly being enjoyed by International Oil Companies [IOCs].
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY [CSR]
The Social investments intervention of the company in 2017 resulted in the continuation of support to two public primary schools in Lagos. The schools are – Ijora Oloye Nursery and primary School; and Apapa Nursery and Primary School, all in Apapa LGA area of the state.
NIPCO also supported quality education among primary schools in Lagos state through the sponsorship of merit award event organized by the State Universal Basic Education Board [SUBEB]
The company extended its charity for the second year running to SOS Children’s village, Isolo through the donation of food items and drinks for the upkeep of children and families being taken care by the organization.
AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS
NIPCO won the Nigerian Oil Marketing Company of the Year 2017 organized by the World Stage Economic Summit (WES) in recognition of its contribution to economic development of its host community in the year under review. The award is coming on the heels of NIPCO’s acquisition of 60 per cent stake in Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc (MON), a deal seen as the biggest in the downstream sector so far .
The Lagos state Universal Basic Education Board, through its Apapa district, gave a commendation plaque to NIPCO for facility upgrade and promotion of sports in the state.
The National Association of LPG Marketers [NALPGAM] presented an award to NIPCO as the 2017 best LPG marketing company and identified its Chief Retail Officer, Harjeet Tuteja, as the best salesman of the year.
FUTURE OUTLOOK
In all modesty, I am optimistic despite the numerous challenges in the downstream sector, NIPCO management would continue to place emphasis in transforming the company’s systems and processes to deliver meaningful value to our stakeholders, among whom you rank high.
We are not oblivious of the fact that to achieve the foregoing, we must improve on our core competencies and exploit other business ventures and opportunities.
Even though the present operating environment is very challenging, my management remains focused on pursuing its major targets, inclusive of the following:
-Growing our market share in petroleum products marketing;
-Making steady progress in the attempts to ensure NIPCO stations visibility;
-Ensuring friendly customer care across the nation;
-Aligning with government in providing access to LPG as cooking fuel at affordable price;
-Supporting government in providing viable alternative fuel to motorist through use of Compressed Natural Gas; CNG].
NIPCO is upbeat of improved performance taking into consideration the organization highly motivated and skilled employees as well as excellent customer service delivery across its business lines.
I wish to assure you that NIPCO will remain a reference point as a market leader in products marketing, working for the benefits of our stakeholders. We shall also maintain our lead as a major player in ensuring unfettered access to petroleum products at market friendly rates.
APPRECIATION
I want to acknowledge the contributions of our esteemed shareholders and the workforce through which management has been able to implement the broad guidelines of the Board in positioning NIPCO eminently in the nation’s oil and gas industry.
May I extend our appreciations to numerous stakeholders in the hydrocarbon industry in the Country ,including : Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation [NNPC], Department of petroleum Resources [DPR], Nigeria Petroleum Marketing Company [NPMC], Petroleum Products Pricing & Regulatory Agency [PPRRA]and Debt Management Office [DMO] ..
I feel confident to thank Board of Directors for the umpteenth times for its foresightedness on the future of the company
Once again, I appreciate you all for your unwavering support in the financial year under review and look forward to more resounding success in 2018.
Kindest regards,
Sanjay Teotia
Managing Director