Nigerian Energy giants,
Aiteo, bagged
three awards at the
Guardian Oil and Gas Roundtable, which took place on June 23 at the Eko Hotels and Suites.
The event, organized by the Guardian Newspapers, saw Aiteo honoured with awards in recognition of what its conveners say is the company’s
outstanding performance in the oil and gas industry.
big win
Aiteo was a big winner amongst the 15 individuals and organizations which received awards at the event. The categories in which it bagged the honours:
- Oil and Gas Company of the Year (upstream/indigenous);
- Oil and Gas CSR/Sustainability Company of the Year (upstream);
- Oil and Gas CEO of the year (upstream/indigenous), which recognized Aiteo’s Chief Executive, Benedict Peters, for the pivotal role he has played in the company’s rise to prominence over the past few years.
Responding to the awards taken by his organization, Victor Okoronkwo, Aiteo’s Senior Vice President, said they bore out the company’s active efforts at raising standards in the Energy Sector, as well as its campaigns to spread value over key sectors of the economy beyond the oil and gas sphere.
“In recent years, our value footprints have become more glaring on the Nigerian energy scene. These include strong commitment to local content, host community engagement, and Corporate Social Responsibility. We have also been a major partner of the Nigerian Super Eagles.”
— Okoronkwo
impact
The partnership to which Mr. Okoronkwo refered is an ongoing one, and an extension of a wider involvement in the
Nigerian football scene. Aiteo’s widely
publicized agreement with the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) – worth N2.5 billion – set things in motion for its now dominant role in financing national football in the country. It currently sponsors the Federation Cup (now renamed
Aiteo Cup), the country’s oldest football cup competition. It also sponsored the Confederation of African Football (CAF),
African Football Awards which held in January this year.
Aiteo’s success on the CSR front is one aspect of its decade-long growth. Since its founding in 2008, it has strengthened to become one of Nigeria’s biggest oil producing companies, with a reported peak capacity of 90,000 bpd. It is the operating partner of the 115 km long Nembe Creek Trunk Line (NCTL), an oil delivery pipeline which plugs through over a hundred communities in the South South region. It also an operating partner of the Oil Mining Lease (OML) 29, a large complex of oil blocks in the Niger Delta which could hold as much as 2.2 billion barrels of oil.
The awards won by Aiteo come as the company continues to grow in prominence beyond its own industrial circle. This growing public awareness of the Aiteo brand has been spurred on by its conspicuous investment in local football. They will be hoping that this publicity translates to greater gains for the sectors they are supporting, as well as for their business concerns.
