Uche Sampson Ogah – Meet the Top 10 Oil Tycoons Fueling Nigeria

Dr. Uchechukwu Ogah is president, Masters Energy Group, which commands a big stake in the downstream oil and gas industry in Nigeria. From its origin as a core downstream petroleum marketing company engaged in importing, bulk buying and marketing of petroleum products, it has metamorphosed into an integrated energy centre offering services in the broad spectrum of energy field.

Masters Energy Oil & Gas Limited focuses on marketing, refining, exploring and producing petroleum products. The company sources petroleum products from imports and coastal allocations from NNPC/PPMC. It is licensed by Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), published by Nipex and endorsed by NAPIMS – NNPC for Joint Ventures (JVs) and production sharing contracts.

It has built a large tank farm with which it stores vast amounts of products. The company’s business of bulk buying and marketing of petroleum products are supported by huge investments in transportation and logistics, marine and shipping, retail distribution centers for petroleum products and gas distribution plants. It has vessel trans-shipments, coastal bunkering and other facilities with which it effectively meets products demands of its clients in Nigeria and other countries of West Africa.

While consolidating its position in the downstream, the company has launched into the league of big players in the midstream and upstream sectors of the oil and gas industry, having received a crude oil lifting licence in 2011.

As a key player in the downstream oil and gas sector, Masters Energy presently has over 100 retail outlets spread all over Nigeria. It plans to increase its retail outlets to cover all the 36 states of the country, including the Federal Capital Territory in a very short time from now.

The company has impacted positively on the Nigerian economy through its extensive investments and scale of operations in the oil and gas sector. Its Masters Energy City in Rumuolumeni, Port Harcourt, built on over 110 hectares of land, is an integrated oil and gas logistics centre – a one-stop energy solutions infrastructure.

The Energy City houses the company’s 158,000MT capacity petroleum products storage facility, reputed to be the biggest in sub-Saharan Africa.  The gigantic storage facility has 60,000 MT storage capacity for PMS, 30,000 MT for AGO and 20,000 MT for DPK. It also has 10,000 MT storage capacity for ATK, 10,000 MT for LPFO and 28,000 MT for other chemicals.

The company has within the Energy City a very busy and active Three Finger Jetty capable of conveniently berthing three vessels simultaneously. The jetty has achieved 9.5 meters and been included on the NPA global map. The company also established a multi-million dollar fabrication yard within Masters Energy City. The yard will construct locally oil and gas equipment and facilities presently being done offshore by oil firms.

The facility serves as the center for distribution of petroleum products to the eastern, south-south and northern parts of the country. It also serves as a major center for fuelling and refueling of vessels for logistics operations and a major stop-over point for vessels moving deep offshore and the gulf of Guinea.

Ogah has succeeded in positioning Masters Energy Oil & Gas as a fully integrated logistic/oil and gas company, equipped to offer services to both the downstream and the upstream oil and gas sectors of the Nigerian economy. Speaking on the choice of Port Harcourt for the development of the Masters Energy City, he said, “this storage facility is strategically located in Port Harcourt with business initiatives to capture the eastern, south-south and northern markets of the Nigeria downstream sector and to maximize the associated pressure often experienced by marketers in marketing and distribution of petroleum products especially from Lagos to other parts of the country”.

Masters Energy Group has a transport arm operated through Masters Transport Limited. The company has over 50 (33,000 litres) trucks in its fleet that bridge petroleum products to all parts of Nigeria. It also has 10 (10,000 litres) metered digitalized trucks, which peddle petroleum products to smaller local consumers. The facilities enable customers to move products from Energy City to different locations of the nation thus bridging distribution and supply gaps especially in the eastern and the northern parts of the country.

There is also a marine and shipping subsidiary – Destiny Marine & Shipping Company Limited, which renders shipping, tug boat, barges and flyboat services. Its operations also cover chartering and brokerage of vessels, marine construction and shore protection works as well as dredging and reclamation services. It also undertakes engineering design, importation of pipeline petroleum products, port services, offshore, technical services and inspections.

The logistics centre is expected to become a full subsidiary in future and to expand into importation, sales and services of trucks with a fully equipped workshop to handle repairs of trucks. The plan is to provide supply chain management services to customers.

The centre is also progressing towards providing integrated chain solutions to offshore drilling as well as offering production support services, offshore logistics support, including onshore supply base, container hire, project management for offshore work, charter of marine vessels, supply of equipment for various offshore works and procurement management.

The company’s future development plans include the setting up of a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) plant, bitumen plant, lubricant plant and a 20,000-barrel per day modular refinery, all within the Energy City.