Pinnacle Oil & Gas: We‘ll Never Sell Substandard Fuel to Nigerians

·    In right of reply, firm maintains it has reputation for integrity, regulatory compliance

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

Pinnacle Oil & Gas yesterday stated that it will never sell substandard petroleum products to Nigerians. The statement by Pinnacle Oil was in right of reply to apparent statement issued on Sunday by the management of Dangote Refinery that a blending plant was setting up around its facility in Lagos, with the intention of selling substandard petroleum products to Nigerians.

In a press release made available to THISDAY, Pinnacle Oil & Gas stated that as the only depot close to Dangote Refinery in the area, it was responding to clear the air on the matter raised by the refinery.

The Dangote organisation had on November 3 issued a press release alleging, “An international trading company has recently hired a depot facility next to the Dangote Refinery, with the objective of using it to blend substandard products that will be dumped into the market to compete with Dangote Refinery’s higher quality products.”

But Pinnacle Oil & Gas stated that as a company with a history of integrity and strict compliance with existing regulations, it could not distribute low quality products to Nigerians.

The company maintained, “Pinnacle Oil & Gas has the only depot facility next to the Dangote Refinery. Without equivocation, we state that Pinnacle Oil & Gas would never engage or attempt to import or distribute any off-spec or substandard product into the Nigerian market.

“Our company has a reputation for integrity and regulatory compliance, which is extremely important to us.”

The oil and gas firm added that in a deregulated environment, the system worked a lot better when allowed to have multiple buyers and multiple sellers.

It said it was the right thing for Nigerians to have supply options, whether for imported fuels or locally refined ones. According to Pinnacle Oil & Gas, when this is allowed to happen, the lowest sustainable price will then be established.

Pinnacle Oil & Gas stated, “Deregulated commodity markets work best with an open system of multiple sellers and multiple buyers bidding to establish the market price. For Nigeria to have supply options that include local refineries or imports is the mechanism that will establish the lowest sustainable prices.

 “A free market is also regulated to ensure that all products meet the country’s specifications and that all players behave responsibly.”

Pinnacle is an indigenous oil and gas company active across the entire downstream value chain, with emphasis on the petroleum trading, marketing, distribution and retail segments of the Nigerian oil and gas sector.