After 25yrs, Rainoil positions for next growth phase

From humble beginnings, Rainoil has grown to become a major player n the downstream petroleum sector in Nigeria with three petroleum depots in three strategic locations including Oghara, Calabar, and Ijegun in Delta, Cross River, and the Lagos States, respectively.

Gabriel Ogbechie, the company’s founder and CEO on an occasion marking its 25th anniversary recently, said the company which started in the early 1990s began as a quest to diversity his earnings while working with Ascon Oil Limited and earning N30,000 as salary.

“One day, I sat down and asked myself a question: Gabriel, what else can you do and earn N30,000 a month. I then realised that I could sell just one 30,000 litre truck of diesel and make N30,000 and go and sleep till the next month.”

He said the name of the company, which was prophetic, was coined from two words: rain and oil, as suggested by his clergy friend, who explained rain as a blessing.

Ogbechie said the company was incorporated in 1994 as Rainoil and that by 1997, it had commenced operation with N300,000 investment realised from selling his shares on the stock market.

In addition to owning over 130 filling stations across the country, Ogbechie said Rainoil has an 80,000 metric tons Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) storage facility also in Ijegun Lagos and over 250 trucks for distribution of products nationwide.

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He noted that the last 25 years of the company had been characterised by hard work, innovation, and transition, adding that the recurring question to him now was what will happen in the next 25 years, especially as the industry is facing transition globally and people are fast embracing electric cars like the Tesla cars.

He, however, stated that the company was at the forefront of questioning what would disrupt the global downstream oil sector, saying Rainoil would be appropriately positioned to be ahead of that and would also be adequately prepared for whatever kind of that emanates from the transition.

He said Rainoil is at the forefront of questioning what is going to disrupt this industry so that it can position itself, “and whatever disrupts this industry, we ensure that we are appropriately positioned to be ahead of that curve so that that disruption does not take us unaware.

“Today, we celebrate 25 years of this great organisation, and we also prepare this organisation for the next 25 years in the energy space. What we don’t know is what that energy will be 25 years from today.

On the occasion, Mele Kyari. the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, and Dapo Abiodun, governor of Ogun State, commended Ogbechie and the company’s over 2000 workforce for the successes and profitability recorded in the last 25 years.

Kyari, who was represented by NNPC’s Group Executive Director, Downstream, Adetunji Adeyemi, said Rainoil, which started as a mere idea, had grown to become a major player in the downstream sector of the Nigerian oil and gas industry

He stated that Nigeria needed more stable and prosperous companies in the nation’s oil and gas industry and in other sectors of the economy, adding that the country needs companies that have succeeded and stayed up to 50 years plus as witnessed in other countries.