For Ardova Plc, life now begins at 60

No doubt, Ardova Plc is excited to mark a significant milestone as the company celebrates six decades of excellence, innovation, and commitment to fueling Nigeria’s growth and progress.

Ardova Plc was incorporated in 1964 as British Petroleum (Nigeria). In 1979 it changed its name to African Petroleum Limited (AP). In 2010, it rebranded to Forte Oil with new management and 3-year turnaround programme. In 2019, Ignite Investments and Commodities Limited concluded acquisition of 74.02 percent equity stake in Forte Oil Plc’s downstream operations.

As part of this momentous occasion, the company held a press conference on Thursday December 19 where the members of board and management shared insights into Ardova Plc’s journey over the years.

In presentations made respectively by AbdulHakeem Buhari, Chief Strategy Officer, Ardova Plc and Moshood Olajide, Managing Director, Ardova Plc, the company showcased its transformation story, and the vision that propels Ardova into the future as it believes that life begins at 60.

The event was also an opportunity for participants to get answers to some interesting questions directed to the management. Ardova Plc is a leading indigenous player in the downstream Oil, Gas, and integrated Energy sector. With a network of over 450 stations spread across the six geographical zones of Nigeria.

“In 2019, when the business was acquired by Ignite Investments & Commodities Limited, we realised that the best way to project the business into the future is to consolidate its market share within the downstream oil and gas business. There were two options we had. One option we had was to start acquiring stations one by one.

“Another option we had was to acquire a bucket of stations in a transaction. And that’s what led to the Enyo Acquisition. It was to consolidate our market share in the downstream oil and gas business. We own 100 percent stake in Enyo. Enyo Retail Services Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ardova Plc. As part of our future, Enyo will be a significant part of that. The stations will remain under the control of Ardova Plc as it is currently.

“The reputation that people have had to associate with Enyo and Ardova, we hope to take the best of the two reputations and project that into the future in terms of our retail chain. Enyo, the stations, the sites, the services, the customer loyalty that you have with Enyo will remain a part of our future, because life begins at 60,” Olajide added.

“We are the only downstream energy company with a full slate of products in the market and will continue to solidify its position in the industry. We will continue to scale and prioritise delivering excellent service to our customers (internal and external),” Olajide said.

Responding to question around energy transition, he said, “As a business, we believe fundamentally in energy transition. And you know why? Because it would be stupid of a business of our scale to pretend like we don’t understand the impact of businesses on the environment; and how there’s been a global shift away from polluting the environment or making the environment unlikely to be available for our children.

“And we’re already seeing the impact. You can see the floods that are happening in Nigeria. You can see the altered rain patterns and things that are happening. This is the period, maybe like a month or two ago, we should have had a lot of food in the market,” Olajide said.

“There were two things that were responsible for that. One is security, internal security, and the second is climate change. People can’t predict the form of rainfalls, even the sequencing, so it’s difficult to plan. That’s part of the impact of climate change. So, we believe in Ardova Plc, we believe in energy transition. However, we believe that within the Nigerian context, energy transition is going to take longer than it has taken in other developed countries.

“We believe that in Nigeria, there will need to be a just transition. And part of that transition, gas is going to play a very significant part of that. Gas is a cleaner form of energy than other sources that we’re talking about. We believe that renewable energy sources such as solar and maybe wind and even hydro will play a significant part of that future. At Ardova Plc, what are we doing about that? What we’re doing about that is to invest in those things that we know will disrupt our business in the future,” he further said.

“Because if you look at our business, energy transition then is more or less a business disruptor for us. Because we supply energy right now, if there’s a new energy source, then it reduces our share of the market. So, what we are doing is investing in our own disruption. We’re investing in solar; we’re investing in gas.

We have the single largest storage facility for LPG in the whole of West Africa. Each of our spheres that we have in Nigeria is the single largest sphere in Africa. So, it’s a huge investment for which we’re very, very proud. That’s what we’re doing on the gas side. On the solar side, specifically, we have a subsidiary that is called AP Renewables. As you can see, we’re very energized about the idea of renewables,” the managing director noted.

The company is committed to delivering renewable energy solutions across various sectors, operating a distribution model that combines solar and waste to energy biofuel solutions to provide Nigerians with affordable energy sources to meet their basic lighting needs.

Ardova is also a leading supplier of Aviation fuel to local and international Airlines providing aircraft refueling services through our aviation-joint hydrant in Lagos and our joint aviation depot in Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano.

“We are the largest privately-owned, fully-integrated, downstream oil and gas business in Nigeria with assets across the entire value chain…and the business is still growing,” AbdulHakeem said.

Also responding, AbdulHakeem noted that Nigeria with its abundant sunshine is exceptionally well suited for solar energy, especially in the north.

“We have a concept called horizontal irradiation, which is how, not just the amount of sunshine you get, but how it heats the earth.

“And Nigeria is just exceptionally well suited for this. And so, for us, we see it as a tremendous opportunity to capitalize on that. I think the second thing is to highlight Ardova’s investment and commitment to renewables, like the managing director was saying.

“So, AP Renewables as an entity, we’re going to hear more about this in the coming months. But we’ve rapidly scaled up our investments in that space. So, over the next couple of months, you’ll start to see solarisation occurring at several of our retail locations powered by AP Renewables. You’re going to see us start to invest in solar-powered kits or solar home systems for small households, especially in rural communities that do not have the ability to afford big systems,” he said.

“You’re going to start to see us partner with commercial and industrial customers to give them industrial-level grid-like connections. And so, there is a lot of investment coming in that space within AP Renewables to ensure we disrupt ourselves. And internally, you’re going to start to see the solar entity or the AP Renewables entity battle for some of our traditional customers for the same attention. And we think that’s a healthy mix, right? And so, the final point I’ll say here is Nigeria will have a multi-energy future, no doubt about it. We will need gas. We will need solar. We will need diesel. We will need petrol. But that multi-energy future is the one we’re headed to,” AbdulHakeem said.

Responding further, Olajide said, “At Ardova Plc, if you look at our structure, we’re probably the only downstream oil and gas business that has a fully integrated business model. We call it from coast to home. We have investments across all of that value chain. We’re used to investing across the value chain”.

Also, while speaking on the relationship with the local refineries, Abiola Babatunde-Ojo, deputy managing director, Ardova Plc said “We have local refineries that are able to provide supply security. We’re happy to partner with the refineries, especially Dangote Refinery. For us at Ardova Plc, Dangote Refinery is a major source of energy supply for us. In fact, we’re one of the biggest off-takers from Dangote Refinery.

“And it will interest you to know that when they started selling by coastal marine sales, our organisation, Ardova Plc, was the first organisation to off-take gasoline, that’s PMS, from them. And the way our business model is positioned, we see Dangote Refinery as a catalyst to our business. It enhances our way of securing products from them.

“We’re proud of what Ardova Plc has done, and we will continue to partner with them. We do not see Dangote Refinery as a disruption to our business. Rather, it is a way to aid our business operation through energy supply security,” she said.