Oando Boss, Wale Tinubu Deserves His Flowers

BY FUNSHO AROGUNDADE

Entrepreneurial and deal making skills are two special gifts energy tycoon, Adewale Jubril Tinubu is blessed with.

As a young man, he has been trained as a lawyer specialising in Corporate and Petroleum law. He started working as a lawyer at his father’s firm to hone his skills but it was not for long as a very impliable young Tinubu soon became restless.

Although he was generating a decent income from his small business, the young lawyer was actively on the lookout for bigger challenges and opportunities. However, the landscape shifted in 1994 when Tinubu and his two friends —Mofe Boyo and Jite Okoloko— birthed Ocean and Oil Services, a small trading company in the business of supplying diesel and Low Pour Fuel Oil (LPFO) to various shipping firms and offshore exploration companies in Nigeria.

Few years into their operations, the three partners bought their first vessel MT Carolina anchored in Bonny to supply diesel to off-shore companies from the Port-Harcourt Refinery.

In six years, Ocean and Oil Services had grown its fleet to seven ships.

Within that short time, Tinubu emerged the new face among the oil & gas elite and caught the attention of the business world and piquing the curiosity of many eager to learn more about this rising titan.

Tinubu’s meteoric rise is fueled by the massive success of Oando’s expansion. The cornerstone of this success? Tinubu stumbled across an even bigger opportunity when in 2000, he landed a blockbuster deal with the acquisition of government controlling 40 per cent equity in the defunct Unipetrol Plc, an integrated downstream oil marketing company. The three friends made an audacious bid for the company.

For an upstart Ocean and Oil —an oil trading and shipping company trying to find its feet in the downstream sector made the move to acquire a controlling interest in an oil & gas behemoth, it was indeed daring! Stumbling blocks dotted their paths as a result of their youthful age (they were all less than 33 at the time). But Tinubu eventually won the confidence of all the varying factions- the investing public, labour unions, employees and the government. Along with his team, he went to work on developing a solid business plan and a blueprint for the strategic direction of the company. Tinubu focused squarely on rejuvenating the ailing petroleum marketer.

With the gravitas you might expect of a Booker prize winner, Tinubu, two years later, took another bold step as he led the largest ever acquisition of a quoted Nigerian company with Unipetrol Plc’s purchase of Agip Nigeria Plc.

Thereafter, with another giant brand on their roster, the Group rebranded as Oando Plc and today, it has become Nigeria’s largest non-government owned company in the energy industry with a market value soared to record highs from N74 billion in 2023 to N1 trillion.

Oando is one of the many success stories coming out of Africa’s corporate space. With a load of challenges he has had to maneuver while growing Oando, Tinubu, on his part, silently contributing to the economy and cementing his standing among the global financial elite to the extent that Forbes magazine, recognizing his impressive impact, dubbed him the ‘King of African Oil’.

Tinubu’s latest deal marks a pivotal shift in Nigeria’s energy sector.

Recently, Tinubu and Oando recorded an historic milestone of a monumental deal with the Italian energy giant, ENI for the acquisition of 100% shares of Nigerian Agip Oil Company Limited.

The $783 million deal, sealed and signed at a glittering ceremony held at The Peninsula Hotel in London, cements Oando’s position as Nigeria’s leading indigenous energy solutions conglomerate.

The transaction, first announced in September 2023, promises a brighter future for the company and industry alike.

“It is rather uncanny that this acquisition comes exactly a decade after Oando’s landmark $1.8 billion acquisition of ConocoPhillips’ Nigeria interest, a transaction which incidentally made the company a Joint Venture (JV) partner on the asset alongside NNPC E&P Ltd (NEPL) and NAOC. The ConocoPhillips transaction propelled Oando’s production from approximately 4,500 barrels of oil per day to 50,000 barrels of oil per day at the time,” Tinubu said.

He added on the AGIP’s acquisition: “Today’s announcement is the culmination of 10 years of hard work, resilience, and an unwavering belief that we would realise our ambition. It is a win, not just for Oando, but for every indigenous energy player as we take our destiny in our hands.

“This is a new dawn for the Nigerian energy sector, and we are confident that indigenous companies will play a pivotal role in this next phase of the nation’s upstream evolution. With our assumption of the role of operator, our immediate focus is on optimising the assets’ immense potential in contributing to our strategic objectives, whilst complementing the nation’s plan to boost production outputs.”

Tinubu revealed that the acquisition now increases Oando’s current participating interests in Oil Mining Licences (OMLs) 60, 61, 62, and 63 from 20 per cent to 40 per cent and increases its ownership stake in the Joint Venture (JV) assets and infrastructure which include 40 discovered oil and gas fields, of which 24 are currently producing as well as approximately 40 identified prospects and leads. It also involves 12 production stations, approximately 1,490km of pipelines, three gas processing plants, the Brass River Oil Terminal and the Kwale-Okpai Phases 1 & 2 Power Plants, with a total nameplate capacity of 960MW, and associated infrastructure.

Furthermore, the deal will significantly boost Oando’s production reserves which currently stands at 505.6MMboe to 1.0bnboe.

For those who think Tinubu is leaning on his political connections with his uncle, Bola Tinubu as Nigeria’s President in achieving these great milestones, they need to check themselves or see a shrink.

Being a good entrepreneur or successful business owner doesn’t exactly mean you’re a dealmaker. But Tinubu combines the three. In all, Tinubu has exceeded expectations. He has successfully built an empire with a verifiable trajectory.

When he acquired Unipetrol’s assets in 2000, very few competitors and contemporaries gave him any chance of success. Now, they take him very seriously. He’s stated that someday, Oando is going to be Africa’s first oil major. It seems like an unrealistic ambition, but when it is Wale Tinubu speaking, just believe as all pointers show that the billionaire energy tycoon deserves and has earned his flowers!