| Wabeco operations both inside and outside the country involve exploration, drilling, processing and exporting with a skilled team of experts. |
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he West African Bitumen Emulsion Company (Wabeco) is an indigenous Nigerian group active throughout the oil and gas chain. The company is involved in exploration, drilling, processing and exporting, with various plants and facilities inside and outside the country. It houses a formidable technical team of geoscientists, geologists and engineers as well as operations personnel, which underpins its diverse approach.
Wabeco offers services
in all petroleum-related disciplines from the treatment of oil and gas,
gas utilisation, gas re-injection and flare-out, to power generation
and natural gas liquids extraction. Most recently, in its first foray
into the upstream business, it was awarded a small equity share in an
exploration block under the latest bidding round.
This move into exploration underlines the company’s ambition. “We
don’t know enough about exploration and production of crude but
we believe that we have the skill to learn,” says Silverius
Okoli, Chairman and Chief Executive, who took the reins in 1996.
Under his stewardship, Wabeco’s revenues have ballooned from £6 million just six years ago to some £145 million today. “And we are still growing.”
| www.wabeco-wa.com |
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Wabeco started with an emulsion
plant in Kaduna, selling products to contractors for road building.
“We began to expand from merely an emulsion products plant to what
I can call a medium-size downstream oil company now.”
The company has since established a petroleum storage terminal in Lagos,
and a nearby bitumen import plant. It also has a contract with the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation to distribute some of its products.
In addition to its activities in Nigeria, Wabeco is also engaged in Sierra Leone with a petroleum products plant serving the country. There are hopes of using this as a springboard into other territories. “Apart from operations in Sierra Leone we are trying to see if we can supply petroleum and bitumen products to landlocked countries in West Africa,” says Mr Okoli.
Last year, Wabeco formed a company in Benin, called Benin Petroleum Services, to target opportunities there. The intention is to improve the supply of petroleum products to the neighbouring state, and at the same time ease the burden on Nigerian supply.
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Wabeco is broadening its scope beyond storage into areas such as retailing, especially in the Nigerian market, and Mr Okoli hopes one day to compete in this area with established multinational operators. “My dream has always been to have a company that will survive the storm and have high international standards and quality staff that gives value to customers,” he says.
The vision is already in place with plans to have a Wabeco branded network of at least 250 outlets in five years time. Mr Okoli plans to draw on his background in retail and marketing at Shell to make the vision a reality, creating a distinctively Nigerian high quality brand.
“Most people in Nigeria do not know how detailed retailing can be because it is not just a petrol station selling fuel,” he says. “If you don’t have a brand it doesn’t work. We are putting all our training and experience into maintaining the high safety standard that Shell demonstrated to us. We’ll make a difference.”
Tel: +44 20 76296213, Fax: +44 20 74953707 - [email protected]