Adenuga, Conoil Boss Bags Lifetime Award

Dr. Mike Adenuga, business mogul and chairman of Conoil Plc, a major player in the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry, has been inducted into the Nigerian Oil and Gas Hall of Fame, in recognition of his pioneering role in the promotion of truly indigenous Nigerian participation in the highly technical, upstream sector of the oil industry.

The award was conferred on Adenuga, who is also the Chairman of Nigeria’s largest independent oil producing company, Conoil Producing Limited, at an impressive ceremony in Abuja to mark the Nigerian Petroleum Golden Jubilee Awards.

According to the organisers of the event, Energy Information Services Nigeria Limited, Adenuga was inducted into the prestigious Hall of Fame for his courage in venturing into the oil exploration and production business at a period the sector was the exclusive preserve of multinationals companies because of its high-risk nature and those Nigerians, who were privileged to secure oil licences, were merely contented in trading them off.

Adenuga not only ventured into the petroleum exploration business when his company, Consolidated Oil (now Conoil Producing Ltd.) secured oil block OPL 113 in 1990, and within a record nine months, drilled oil wells abandoned by oil majors and produced the first oil from the now historic Bella well. The field also bagged the Landmark Award at the occasion.

Adenuga was acknowledged to have succeeded in putting together a team completely made up of young Nigerian petroleum experts.

Following this major breakthrough recorded by Adenuga, Conoil had since gone ahead to acquire other oil concessions, namely OMLs 103 and 59, OPLs 458 and 257 as well as a joint participating interest in the Nigeria/Sao Tome Joint Development Zone in the deep offshore region of the Gulf of Guinea.

Adenuga was also credited to have reshaped the dwindling fortunes of the former National Oil and Chemical Marketing Company, now Conoil Plc, to a more profitable company that is a toast of investors.

From a company that was unable to pay dividends to shareholders, Conoil Plc has since 2000 ensured a consistent buoyant dividend payout to its numerous shareholders, from N68.8 million paid in 2000 to N1.908 billion in 2007. The company’s profit has also been on the upward trend since then, from N741.4 million in 2002 to N3.759 billion in 2007.