Richard Ginika Izuora
Hyde Energy Limited, and indigenous oil and gas company, is about making fresh investment in the midstream sub-sector of the industrial specifically targeting expansion in the Liquified Natural Gas, chain.
At a media parley, the company revealing its achievements in the LPG market said it is keying into federal government’s decade of gas initiative.
The Chief Executive of Hyde Energy, Olademeji Edwards while providing information on the intended investment, said the firm has made reasonable contributions to the country by assisting local businesses to convert from charcoal to LPG.
Hyde Energy is also expanding its LPG operations to capitalise on massive potentials in the Nigerian market. It has built trusted reputation in the global, regional and national wholesale LPG markets.
Hyde Energy operates across the value chain of the energy industry. The company deals with the importation of petroleum products including Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, Gasoil, Dual Purpose Kerosene, DPK, Jet Fuel, Liquified Petroleum Gas, LPG, automotive lubricants and Naphtha.
Oladimeji said, “In our Nigerian home market, we have established Hyde retail stations, launched a comprehensive range of Hyde Energy branded lubricants and developed an end-to-end Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) distribution system. Through excellence – our guiding light – the Hyde Energy management team, is building a truly global oil and commodities business. In doing so, we are helping balance global supply and demand with the needs of the developed and emerging economies we serve.
“Bear in mind that that is one of the challenges of LPG in the market today because 50 to 55 per cent of LPG consumed in the country today is still being imported. So there is a foreign exchange component in that mix. Those are the things the incoming government has to manage especially as far as the economy is concerned. If they are able to reduce the cost of the dollar, you will see that it will reflect on the pump price.
He said the company is poised to penetrate the Lagos and south West markets with its quality products and brands, having made inroads in some other zones of the country.
He also spoke on subsidy removal.
He said, “Subsidy removal has been a 20-year-old conversation and there are no ifs but or maybe on the removal of subsidy. Unfortunately, we missed several opportunities in which subsidies would have been removed and where the cushion on the increased price would have been easy on Nigerians. That has come and come especially during the pandemic when the crude oil prices were low and we would have enjoyed a period of low petrol prices. It is inevitable.
“The challenges the country has are the absolute price of oil and the exchange rate. As long as you have high oil prices and a weak naira, the price of petrol pump price will be relatively high. But as investments are happening in the country and there is an increase in the Naira, we expect the value of the naira to go up and ultimately, that should ultimately affect the price.
Oladimeji further said the firm is set to relaunch Luminor, one of the company’s automotive lubricants.
“The Hyde Luminor brand is a fantastic brand and has infiltrated the hearts of a few Nigerians.
“We launched that particular lubricant in 2017, and in our first year we sold five thousand litres in a quarter; today we are doing almost three thousand litres in a month which is not a lot compared to other companies.
“But in the next six months, we are performing a relaunch of our products. We are going launching new labels, new bottles, and a new winning strategy coming into Lagos.
“We have not really been popular in Lagos; we have mostly been operating in the Southeast, Abuja, East and Calabar which is where we get most of our volumes, but you will be hearing more and more of the Hyde Luminor brand going forward in weeks and months ahead, and we will enter into partnership with key people that would help us penetrate the market, and work with stockiest, so they can enjoy and know about us,” He said.
