As Valuechain Celebrates 1st Anniversary

-By Benjamin Ike

History was made Wednesday July 10, 2019 in the ever fledgling capital city of Abuja when Valuechain, an Oil and Gas related magazine celebrated the first anniversary of the publication with Awards and launch of a Sickle Cell Foundation.

The event which took place at the Fraser Suites located in the central business district (CBD) attracted the creme de la creme of the oil and gas sector and the society in general among whom were the Executive Secretary, Petroleum Equalization Fund, Alhaji Ahmed A. Bobboi, former Deputy Managing Director of Nigeria LNG, Alhaji Basheer Koko, former Managing Director of Eterna Oil, Mr. Ibrahim Boyi, Managing Director of Daily Times Newspapers, Mr. Aliyu Akoshile, member representing Keana/Awe/Doma Federal constituency, Hon. Abubakar Hassan Nalaraba, among others.

The proceedings got underway about 1500hrs with a rendition of the national anthem ably delivered by Vicky Makun, closely followed after the rituals by a welcome address by the publisher, Alhaji Musa Bashir Usman. Entitled the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry in the last four years: Achievements, Gaps and Prospects, Usman said the theme was deliberately chosen to x-ray the performance of the first term of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration; in the oil and gas sector.

According to him “while we acknowledge the various achievements made by this administration in the Oil and Gas Industry, in their first term in office, however, it is important to point out that the two sensitive aspects of the Industry are yet to receive deserved attention.

“The aspects which are namely Refineries and Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), are critical to the development of the Oil and Gas Industry.

“We call on the stakeholders involved, particularly the Executive and the National Assembly, to ensure speedy passage of the PIB and put measures in place that will make our local refineries work.”

While commending the new Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mallam Mele Kolo Kyari for admitting, in his inaugural speech that the nation’s Oil and Gas Industry isn’t at the place it’s supposed to be, the publisher noted: “that is a clear indication that he (Kyari), is coming with the zeal to improve on the current reforms embarked upon by his predecessors.

“We want to assure the GMD of our support as he pursues this onerous task”.

Alhaji Usman pointed out “Let’s applaud them where they got it right. Let’s inform them of the areas they need to do more and let us advise them on how to ensure support for new opportunities”.

Appreciating the efforts of the last leadership of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, and the NNPC, particularly on the reforms they pursued while in office, he urged the new appointees that have started to emerge, to set aside their personal interests and ego in order to work together harmoniously. “The country, no doubt, stands to benefit a lot if they eschew conflict among themselves.”

The publisher further revealed that two categories of Awards “will be given; the first being Valuechain Beacons of Oil and Gas Industry and the second Valuechain Stars of the Industry.

“While the former category seeks to identify and recognize the contributions of big players in the Industry who are daily solving economic problems by generating employment opportunities, the latter category seeks to appreciate individuals that are excelling in their career of managing the various Oil and Gas establishments, whether public or private,” he added.

In his goodwill message to the event, the Secretary-General of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), H.E. Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, who was also a recipient of the Valuechain Award, thanked the management of the Valuechain for the Award “I am delighted to have been selected to receive an Award as a Valuechain Star of the Oil and Gas industry at this event and would like to thank you for this honour.” The OPEC boss who expressed his regret for inability to grace the event due to long-standing engagements in the month of July, congratulated Valuechain on the occasion of its first anniversary and all other recipients of the awards.

Delivering his remarks at the occasion, the Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF), Alhaji Ahmed A. Bobboi disclosed that his organization, under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, has “introduced automation distribution system which has helped greatly in the monitoring of movement of petroleum products across the country”.

He said that the fund in partnership with other stakeholders had achieved positive results in tracking the distribution of petroleum products in the country.

“PEF is collaborating with sister agencies in the industry to achieve this because it is NNPC that brings in fuel.

“In PEF, we play our part in paying for transportation and when the product is available, we need to distribute it.

“So, the innovation you are talking about is the automation that we have introduced which now tries to push the product from point of loading to point of receiving at the Depot.

“We monitor the movement of the products electronically so that when product are loaded we know what quantity is loaded and the destination it is going to.

“And when we get to the Depot, we also know the quantity that arrives safely before it is distributed to the marketers,” he said.

According to him, the marketers will also sell within their own method of operation and also at the appropriate price.

He said that the fund would continue to enhance its strategy to ensure effective distribution of petroleum products in all parts of the country at uniform price.

He further noted that PEF would continue to collaborate with NNPC, its subsidiaries and marketers to achieve results. The Executive Secretary eulogized Valuechain Magazine for its quality and consistency. “ I was first attracted to the magazine due to its quality of print and content,” he said. He congratulated the management of the magazine for their uncommon achievement in one year and thanked them for the award given to him.

Also in his goodwill message, the President Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, thanked Valuechain for the Award of Beacon of the Oil and Gas Industry bestowed on him, wishing the management a successful event

Earlier, a team of panelists constituted for the singular purpose of taking a potshot on the vexed issue of the desirability or otherwise of the deregulation of the Downstream sub-sector of the Petroleum Industry had brainstormed on the hot topical issue and arrived at what even if one could not call a consensus of opinion on the need to deregulate was as near as made no difference.

Alhaji Basheer Koko, former Deputy Managing Director of Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas (NLNG); Mr. Ibrahim Boyi, ex-Managing Director of Eterna Oil; Mr. AbdulAzeez Abdullahi, Manager Corporate Communications, Kaduna Electric Company were specifically lined up for the talkshop and absolutely did justice to the topic. Moderated by Hajiya Safiya Adamu, one-time Chairman, Editorial Board of the Leadership Newspapers, the discussants could not agree more that petroleum subsidy does more harm than good to the nation’s economy.

Maintaining that ordinary demurrage paid on vessels laden with imported petrol go as high as thirty thousand United States dollars ($30,000) per day, they argued that there is urgent need to reactivate the pipelines and save the cost of demurrage, while deregulation remained the best option, even as they agreed that deregulation does not necessarily create price hike but efficiency through healthy competition.

The event also featured the launch of the Valuechain Sickle Cell Foundation. Speaking while delivering a short presentation, the coordinator of the Foundation, Dr. Ibrahim Suleiman said the aim of the Foundation is to develop, monitor and evaluate the control of the sickle cell disease in Nigeria in a bid to sensitize the public on the preventive measures as well as provide psychological and genetic counseling to the affected people. The Foundation was formally launched by Mr. Ibrahim Boyi, former Managing Director of Eterna Oil Plc.

Highlights of the occasion was the presentation of awards to 15 recipients, among whom was the late Minister of Petroleum Resources, who was one time Secretary-General of OPEC, Rilwanu Lukman. Recieving the award on behalf of the family, Umar Lukman said, “On behalf of our family – the family of Dr Rilwanu Lukman, we are sincerely grateful to “The Valuechain Magazine” for recognising the contributions of our late father posthumously. We are grateful indeed for the Award. We congratulate you on your one year anniversary andwish the Valuechain Magazine many years of success ahead in their quest for consistent, reliable and qaulity’ Oil & Gas publications in Nigeria.”

First to receive an award at the occasion was the Executive Secretary of Petroleum Equalisation Fund, Alhaji Ahmed A. Bobboi who was conspicuously present to add glamour to the event