Inside Story of Segun Adebutu’s Multi-billion Dollar Oil City

FUNSHO AROGUNDADE

Call business magnate Segun Adebutu, a Nigerian visionary, you would, probably, not be faulted. This is because his vision is as huge as his 6-feet stature.

For 10 years, Adebutu has quietly nurtured his energy firm, Petrolex Oil & Gas Limited, into a key player in a volatile sector that is vulnerable to price swings.

The businessman has done great exploits in the industry without much noise. But sometime in December 2017, Adebutu came under the spotlight when he drew high and mighty including the Nigeria’s Vice President to Ibefun in Ogun State to announce his major and landmark projects.

For the debonair businessman, it was the first time many will truly see him outside the shadow of his multi-billionaire father, Chief Kessington Adebukonla Adebutu.

On that day, the Vice President commissioned Africa’s largest tank farm built by young Adebutu’s indigenous Oil and Gas company. The tank farm is a 300-million litre storage facility with 20 storage tanks.

But commissioning the largest petroleum products depot was just a tip of the iceberg as Spotlight gathered that the intention of young Adebutu is to systematically turn the sleepy, border town of Ibefun, particularly, the project axis, into one large energy estate that will be reckoned as the biggest and best in Africa.

This he hoped to do with other mega projects such as the ongoing 250,000 bpd oil refinery, a lube plant, a fertilizer plant, gas processing facility and a power plant to power all the operations with an option to sell the excess to the national grid. 

Sources said Adebutu, a multi-billionaire and man of immense wealth in his own right, is not given to excessive publicity. He is said to be less concerned about the razzmatazz and more committed to see his over $5 billion refinery helping to make up for the poor output of government-owned refineries that have been operating between 5 and 10 per cent capacity.

He believes Nigeria should not be selling crude oil but refined petroleum products so there will be value-added. Therefore, when completed, his refinery, described as the second largest in sub-Saharan Africa, will complement the Dangote refinery in Lekki, Lagos, which will process 650,000bpd and already nearing completion.

Despite his patriotic zeal, the grapevine has been busy recently with wicked tales swirling around the billionaire mogul.

According to the rumour mill, Adebutu must have bitten more than he can chew as they claimed the massive project has been stalled and the businessman is battling with a cash-flow challenge. In fact, some of the cynics have gone to town to insinuate that Adebutu’s Petrolex has not gotten the necessary foreign technical support required to start the construction of the refinery.

But sources close to the business magnate said these claims are far from the truth as works are ongoing at the various plants with most already at the completion stage.

Spotlight learnt that the timeline for all the projects is being adhered to religiously —everything planned to be up and running by the end of 2019, except the refinery, which will take two years longer.

So much has been said already about the refinery. And as at date, work is going on at the refinery with Petrolex’s technical partners on site. In fact, the choice of Ibefun, the border town between Lagos and Ogun States, located at the bank of a river connecting the Lagos Lagoon, as the location for Adebutu’s legacy investment has put the Ijebu ancient town’s name on the global business map and created immense opportunities for her people— and the natives are ever grateful to this scion of the Adebutu dynasty.

The Economics graduate of the prestigious University of Ibadan, started trading in oil and gas in 2004.

His entrepreneurial dexterity has seen him grow that small business into a world-class conglomerate with interests in shipping, mining, construction, infrastructure, real estate, telecommunications and entertainment.

Aside his own businesses, the amiable businessman who also sits on the Board of Premier Lotto, Nigeria’s most successful lotto and sports betting firm, founded by his philanthropist father, Odole Kessington Adebutu, is a major philanthropist.

His insatiable desire to solve problems and contribute in ameliorating pain in the society propelled him to create the Oladiran Olusegun Adebutu Foundation, a non-profit and non-political organisation he uses as a vehicle to support philanthropic initiatives in the areas of education, health, shelter and recreation.

The article was first published by TheSUN