Inadequate investments in the downstream of the oil and gas sector have been responsible for ceaseless petroleum products’ scarcity and its attendant discomfort being experienced in the country.
The Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Pinnacle Oil and Gas Limited, Mr. Peter Mbah, stated this while speaking with State House correspondents at the weekend after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
There have been protracted bouts of petroleum products scarcity, especially the premium motor spirit (PMS) also called petrol, across the country, leading to series of controversies and buck-passing between the regulatory agencies and petroleum marketers.
But Mbah told reporters during his visit to President Buhari that the scarcity was caused by a deficit of investment in the downstream sub-sector.
To address the problem, he said Pinnacle Oil and Gas started the largest storage terminal in West Africa in Lagos last year.
He said: “There has been a deficit of the sort of investments Pinnacle has done in the last decades. But what we’re doing right now is to address that stagnation of investments in the downstream oil and gas industry.
“As you know, this is an investment size of about $1 billion. So, we are expecting to see more of such investments because what the Pinnacle has done is to create some efficiency in the supply and distribution value-chain of the downstream sector.
“So, we are indeed expecting that more investment in the downstream sub-sector would completely eliminate the sort of scarcity you are witnessing today,” he said.
Explaining why he had come along with the Chairman of Pinnacle Oil and Gas, who is the Emir of Bichi Kingdom in Kano State, Alhaji Nasiru Ado-Bayero, to the Villa to see the President, Mbah said it was a visit to express appreciation to President Buhari for inaugurating the company’s huge facilities at Lekki in Lagos State last October.
