Oando celebrates a brighter outlook

Prospects for Nigeria’s oil and gas sector in the December quarter were positive after a 14% increase in the oil price in the September quarter and the country’s official exit from recession, Wale Tinubu, group CE of Nigerian energy company Oando plc, said on Wednesday.

Oando, which is listed in Nigeria and SA, is under scrutiny by Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission into various breaches of corporate governance and disclosure after a complaint filed by two shareholders. Last week, Oando filed a full response to the commission’s findings, but the shares remain under technical suspension. They can trade but only at the last price before the order was imposed. On the JSE, the price is 30c.

In the nine months to September, Oando grew revenue from continuing opera- tions 16% to 383.5-billion naira (R15.1bn) and posted an aftertax profit of 7.1-billion naira, a turnaround from a loss of 35.8billion. Profit from all operations was 9 kobo a share, from the previous 315 kobo a share loss.

Oil and gas production fell to an average 39,844 barrels of oil equivalent a day, from 43,617, mainly because of a rupture in the gas line.

In December, Oando sold part of its interests in Oando Gas & Power to Helios Investment Partners and rebranded the company as Axxela.

Axxela had completed a gas pipeline between Lagos Island and Victoria Island, which would enable it to expand its customer base, Tinubu said.

In the downstream business, Oando Trading grew volumes 25% compared with the previous period. It traded more than 11-million barrels of crude oil and more than 800,000-million tonnes of refined products.