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African
Petroleum Plc: Swimming in the Down Stream Sector…
By Mohammed Zayyad <zaymohd@yahoo.com>
Nov 2, 2006
Playing
in the Nigerian down stream sector of the oil industry, is complex, and
one that requires players to be effective, proactive, and responsive to:
firm competitions, impromptu pump price changes and growing customers’
demands for qualitative but low-priced services.
Sometimes it is easy for
us to drive our cars into fuel service stations and filled-up our cars’
tank, but not knowing the process it take for a quantity of fuel to
reach these stations that serve us- it involves painstaking and
Herculean tasks, where the NNPC and oil companies have to content with,
this writer came into direct contact with the chain of activities that
do take place before petroleum products reach their last point for final
use by consumers, when serving in NNPC–PPMC Yola Depot as a SIWES
student; from raising of a bank draft, in the case of cash and carry
customers, issuance of meter-ticket, to loading a truck , haulage
gauging and
product-standard-compliance-lab-test, meter-ticket
dispatch and the final offloading of product at fuel service station.
Nevertheless one will only see the big picture, and appreciate more, the
ingenuity and professionalism of Nigerians and Nigerian companies, when
one is enlighten on the intricate tasks performed by management and
staff of oil company in the down stream sector of the oil industry, for
a liter of fuel to reach fuel service stations, this writer had had a
first-hand experience when serving as a Youth Corp. Member in African
Petroleum Plc, Abuja District office.
African Petroleum Plc is
a distinctive player amongst the major oil companies in the down stream
sector of the oil industry in Nigeria, though; this may not be
unconnected to the old historical background of the company and the
skill and proficiency it inherited from its initial beginning as an
international oil company when it was first incorporated in 1964 as BP
Nigeria limited. AP management do placed a great deal importance on
performance support, employee continuous skill development, customer
satisfaction, and cost per resolution. Most current organization’s
structures are hierarchical in nature and this produces a perspective of
the organization having a "top," but one aspect of the operations in
African Petroleum Plc, is, top management always emphasize on
‘flatten pyramid’ – where there is flexibility in
decision making and cordiality in interaction amongst all staff
regardless of position.
Fuel service stations,
licensees and service station pump attendants are the ‘faces’ of
marketing companies in the down stream of the oil industry in Nigeria,
because this set of individuals are always at a direct contact with
customers, thus the company placed more emphasis on fuel service station
standardization, licensee productivity and pump attendants’ candor and
first-rate average time to resolution in serving consumers.
What riggers this piece,
is the recent confirmation of Mr. Zira
Maigadi by AP’s management board, as the new Managing Director of the
company, his appointment has marked a new beginning for African
Petroleum PLC, because of precisely two important factors: foremost is
the vast experience and knowledge the man is coming into the job with,
after navigating from a manager, to executive director finance and
supply, to acting Managing Director; but the most central factor is Mr.
Zira’s believe in building a company base on Knowledge Management, Staff
Performance Support, And the Future, the man once said: “To create a
future world class company; time and effort must be spent deciding and
planning how the future is desired to be.” Many decision makers shared
this his judgment, because most organization that failed on their ways,
they are simply victims of the future, instead of them focusing and
planning for the future, they spent 100% of their time focusing on the
day to day operations, and completely forgetting to utilized some
fractions of the time on focusing on next week, next month, next year,
and years beyond.
With the largest number
of fuel service stations that is spread nation-wide, over 350 human
resources, its British Petroleum branded lubricant products and
forty-two years in the business of marketing petroleum product coupled
with experience and commitment of the new Managing Director, certainly
African Petroleum Plc will put behind it, the trial times it went
through, AP is positioned to continue to swim perfectly in the down
stream sector of the Nigerian oil industry as a leading player in the
sector.
Zayyad I. Muhammad
writes Jimeta, Nigeria
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