Venkataraman Venkatapathy, the managing director, NIPCO plc, has observed that the scores of acrimonious challenges that bedevilled the downstream sector of the nation’s hydrocarbon industry accounted principally for the hitch in petroleum products supply in 2012.
He said the challenges, some routine and others highly pernicious and diversionary, led to the serious disruptions and hiccups in the overall supply of petroleum products in the country with the attendant effect on product availability at filling stations.
Venkatapathy made the observations while addressing shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting [AGM] held in Abuja.
The managing director noted that the series of investigations, invitations from several agencies and bodies left a sour taste in the buds of operators. But NIPCO, noted for its professionalism and operational excellence, nudged on.
He affirmed that the company did not only confront the challenges headlong and emerged unscathed at the end of the rigourous and excruciating exercise but also forged ahead to the delight of stakeholders.
The NIPCO boss noted that the successful emergence from the rubbles of interrogations and probes, lends eloquent credence to the painstaking diligence deployed by the company’s management in its operations.
According to him, the company was given a clean bill of health with commendations and appreciations from relevant government agencies and “We became a reference point at the end of the gruelling and forensic investigations,” he said.
He expressed profound gratitude to the company’s shareholders who remained major catalysts in the phenomenal growth of the organisation even as he assured them of building on the implicit confidence reposed in the management in their quest for improved performance in 2013 and beyond.
