‘Our strategy will encourage zero tolerance for disparity’

Pinnacle Oil and Gas recently opened a new mega petrol retail outlet in Lekki Lagos. PETER MBAH, CEO, Pinnacle oil and gas in this interview with KELECHI EWUZIE, explains the aspiration behind this new strategy and how the company hopes to set standard in the downstream operation in the oil and gas industry amid the sector challenges. Excerpt:

What is the aspiration of Pinnacle oil as a major player in the downstream sector?

The aspiration of Pinnacle oil and gas limited is to be the market leader. We do not have any company that we use as a bench mark; indeed what we are doing is to raise the bar of whatever existing standards that we met. Essentially, we want to be the company of reference in terms of quality and excellent service. We are totally committed to raising the bar in terms of service and that is the aspiration for us.

Pinnacle brand is an integrated brand. Even though we set out as a marketing company, over time has grown to become an integrated brand in the sense that we play in all the value chain of the downstream sector.

The word pinnacle is inspired because it is in our culture. Once we are involved in anything, we do not use the existing standard as a point of reference; we believe we can go beyond standard which is why we see ourselves as the pinnacle in the industry.

This station is mega because it can dispense with 28 nozzles which mean the station can service 28 cars at a time. It takes a maximum of 5 minutes to attend to 28 cars. By any standard in the world, it is indeed a mega station.

What is your experience in doing business in this sector?

The oil and gas sector particularly the downstream is quite an interesting sub sector. Indeed there are still a number of rooms for improvement that is why it is an interesting sector. Since Pinnacle brand is driven by excellent service, we feel there is still so much we can contribute in this sector that is why we are doing what we are doing.

We want to set the pace and blaze the trail in term of service, integrity, honesty indeed we want to build sustainable brand that we can all make reference to as a great brand. So all we are doing is just to be part of that big story?

What does the recent oil price challenge do for you as a businessman?

Again we believe that the outlook may not be as bright today, but we only see that within the short and medium term. In the long term, the outlook is excellent. Indeed if you have reviewed some of the reports by analysts, you will notice that by 2030, the demand for refined petroleum products would have quadrupled. What that means is that you are still going to notice an increased demand in the use of petroleum products.

However, we do not see alternative energy which is being advocated for affecting the demand projections that the industry already has. Although the oil industry is going through some challenges in the short and midterm plan, that will not affect the long term outlook of the industry.

Plans for pinnacle oil

Our short/ medium term plan is to create more outlets. We are not interested in numbers; we are interested in location and the quality of service. We are not going to say we want to compete with numbers rather, we will identify good locations to site our brand and also ensure they can compete with the quality we deliver.

We have a storage capacity of over five hundred liters, which means the Pinnacle stations are always going to have petrol. When customers come in at anytime of the day or night, they are sure to see fuel to buy. We are never going to have a down time. Also customers are never going to be sold petrol beyond the controlled price. This implies that customers are never going to be short changed.

As a business, we are also mindful of the issue of bureaucracies associated with obtaining petroleum products. At Pinnacle, we are blessed because we are not only playing in the retail outlet segment; we are also a company that plays actively in the supply chain. So we have our depot and our own trucks, so we would in the absence of the regulators also provide fuel. We are prepared. We have plan A, B and even C in terms of fuel supply.We are also constructing another mega station along Apapa- Oshodi express way and that will soon also come on board.

Dealing with competition/security

It is very healthy competition  because just doing a traffic analysis on the Lekki Epe express way shows that there are over a hundred thousand cars on the road on a daily basis and the petrol stations on this axis is hardly enough to service these cars.

Again, Pinnacle oil and gas is not going to compete beyond any other thing than service. We will have our service as one of our competitive edge.

On the issue of security, customers don’t need to come to the petrol station late at night with cash because when they do, they are would be taking risk. We have provision for POS machines so that customers can conveniently pay with their cards and avoid the risk associated with coming with cash.    

KELECHI EWUZIE