Wale Tinubu’s Wizardry continues

For Wale Tinubu, the head honcho of leading Oil and Gas company, Oando Plc, getting positive result that will position Oando as a world class brand to reckon with remains his top priority. Despite the recent face off with Security Exchange Commission, SEC, the oil magnate had remained unruffled and unperturbed. He is hellbent on proving naysayers wrong that; he knows the Oil and Gas business like the back of his hands.

It’s no longer an hidden fact that the Oando boss, had always displayed his unrivalled wizardry and midas touch with his wealth of experience in business. This has helped him weathered all typhoon storm surfacing. Wale Tinubu is still standing tall like the proverbial iroko tree.

Away from the face, Tinubu and his team had yet again proved their worth by keeping Oando afloat and also put smiles on the face of investors by recording a revenue of N315.4 billion for the half year ended June 30, 2019, showing an increase of six per cent from N297.3 billion in the corresponding period of 2018. Oando ended the period with a profit-after-tax of N7.168 billion, down from N8.5 billion in 2018.

The company under Wale Tinubu’s watch, had also continued to reduce its total borrowings after its acquisition of ConocoPhillips Nigeria in 2014, following a proactive drive to significantly reduce its debt and liabilities.

According to information gathered, the total borrowings reduced drastically for the period by five per cent to N200.7 billion at the end of June 30, 2019, from N210.9 billion at the end of 2018, indicating a 58 per cent reduction in debt since 2014 from N473.3 billion.

After attaining such impeccable feat, Wale Tinubu divulged that; “Half year 2019 was a positive period for us as we achieved strong top and bottom line earnings despite our overall performance being tempered by a one-off N14 billion charge. Our crude oil and natural gas production grew by 15 per cent and eight respectively compared to the similar period last year while we also achieved a significant reduction in our Reserve Based Lending (RBL) facility to approximately $0.4 million from $450 million at inception- a 99 per cent reduction.”

Despite the fact that Nigeria witnessed no movement in its oil production compared with same period of 2018, Oando witnessed an increase in its oil production, which was attributed to the ingenious measures put in place by the company’s management and its partners to ramp up production.

“During the six month period ended June 30, 2019, production by the upstream subsidiary, Oando Energy Resources (OER), increased by eight per cent at 40,873boe/day, compared with 37,814boe/day in the same period of 2018. Oil production increased by 15 per cent from 14,675bbls/day in H1 2018 to 16,876bbls/day in H1 2019, and natural gas production increased by eight per cent from 118,866mcf/day in H1 2018 to 128,533 mcf/day in H1 2019,” Wale Tinubu added.