The Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) has lauded the acquisition of OVH Energy Marketing Ltd. by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd. (NNPCL).

Mr Olumide Adeosun, Chairman, MOMAN, in a statement on Sunday in Lagos, congratulated NNPC Retail Ltd. and OVH Energy Marketing Ltd. on the successful acquisition.

“Both companies are active MOMAN members who are committed to our core values of health, safety, protection of the environment, quality, customer service, innovation, technology and compliance with international corporate governance codes.

“MOMAN welcomes and encourages the ongoing market consolidation, which will bring stability, cost and logistics optimisation, enhanced competition and best practice sharing as we progress to a deregulated market,” Adeosun said.

NNPCL had on Saturday announced the acquisition, which it said was to strengthen its downstream business portfolio to enhance profitability and guarantee national energy security.

It said the assets included a reception jetty (ASPM) with 240,000MT monthly capacity,  eight Liquefied Petroleum Gas plants, three lubes blending plants, three aviation depots and 12 warehouses.

“The acquisition, which is under our Accelerated Network Expansion (ANEX) Initiative, will bring over 380 additional filling stations under the NNPC Retail brand in Nigeria and Togo, on our journey to attaining 1,500 stations.

“With this development, we are poised to becoming the largest petroleum products Retail network on the African continent,” said the statement.