THE 21st century has been remarkable in many aspects. It witnessed the rise of a global economy and increase in power of private enterprise that gives individuals power to create wealth.
It is a century where visionary men dared and built businesses from scratch to conglomerates. These are men that succeeded where others feared to try. These few men that controlled the economic power of this age had their roots in technology, energy, banking and even sports.
Benedict Peters, billionaire businessman and Founder/ Executive Vice Chairman Aiteo Group, is one of such men. With over 30 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, where he has held a number of executive and senior management positions, Peters has grown Aiteo Group to one of Africa’s fastest-rising energy leaders.
As of November 2014, Peters had an estimated net worth of $2.7 billion. He is ranked by Ventures Africa as the 17th richest person in Africa and the seventh richest person in Nigeria. The fast-rising oil and gas conglomerate under Peters is delivering Africa’s energy future and fast-tracking its self-sufficiency plan.
In 2014, Aiteo acquired a controlling stake in Oil Mining Lease (OML) 29 and the Nembe Creek Trunk Line (NCTL) in the Eastern Niger Delta from Royal Dutch Shell Plc. The OML 29 is a large block located in the southeastern Niger Delta. It contains 11 oil and gas fields. The 983-square-kilometre OML 29, onshore in the Niger Delta region, is the site of Nigeria’s first-ever commercial discovery in 1956 at the Oloibiri Oilfield.
Peters, who is keen on cleaner energy sources, is also rapidly diversifying with his founding of Aiteo Power, where he is the chairman. He leads the Aiteo Consortium and EMA Consortium which has won separate bids to acquire three power generating companies and will be building a 100,000 barrel refinery in Warri, Delta State.
At inception, Aiteo had centered its operation in the downstream sector of the Nigerian oil and gas industry. It later diversified into a formidable conglomerate that spread its tentacles across the entire value chain. “I pushed my group to start thinking outside the box and told them that it was time to develop more capacity across the entire value chain and that it was time to now play in the Exploration and Production (E&P) sector and not just be leaders in the downstream sector,” Peters said during an interview.
In 2015, his oil and gas subsidiary, Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Company Limited (AEEPCo), won the bid for the largest onshore block in sub-Saharan Africa (OML 29) at US$2.85 billion from Oil Major, Shell following divestment of some of its onshore assets. Aiteo got the operatorship of a major crude evacuation pipeline.
Subsequently, Peters utilised the firm’s local content capacity to raise production from 23,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 70,000bpd. In 2018, the company hit a peak production of 100,000 bpd as the largest indigenous producer. The billionaire oil magnate plans to inject US$4.3 billion into the acquisition of additional offshore assets. He also wants to increase oil production capacity to 250,000 bpd in the short term.
The Aiteo Group boss has since expanded his businesses, extending transformational operations to various countries across Africa and beyond. This includes existing and prospective business operations in Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and offices in Geneva, London and Paris.
With the aim to provide African industries with the raw materials to advance cleaner energy sources, technology and innovation, he is involved in copper and cobalt production in some parts of Africa.
He has also invested heavily in floating solar energy power projects within the sub-Saharan region. Aiteo’s downstream business, which is the pioneer subsidiary in the group, is also still very active. Its services across borders include bulk petroleum products storage and trading, marketing and distribution of refined products.
Through another of his companies, he is exploring the gas-to-power technology to develop a pipeline of power generation projects, leveraging on the available gas resources from his upstream business. He has made some progress, emerging as the preferred bidder for some power generation plants.
In 1990, Peters co-founded Ocean and Oil, which was the largest privately-owned energy company in Nigeria. It was later renamed Oando. In 1994, Peters went on to serve as Managing Director at MRS Oil and Gas, a Nigerian petroleum company that owns Chevron/Texaco gas stations in West Africa.
After leaving MRS in 1999 to start his own business, Peters in 2000 founded Sigmund Cummenicci – a company that would focus on downstream oil and gas activities, beginning with tank farms.
Sigmund Cummenicci’s initial success was followed by a shake-up in the economic markets, leading Peters to restructure the business. He formed the Aiteo Group in 2008, a decade ago. The company has grown rapidly, and not only employs thousands of workers but is also strengthening Nigeria’s capacity to manage its natural resources.
This billionaire-businessman’s target is to improve Nigeria’s infrastructure and economy by offering multifaceted power solutions that include mining, extraction, production, processing, manufacturing and marketing.
His vision for the Aiteo Group is built on an integrated business approach that combines many aspects of the energy industry to provide an extensive solution and add value to the resources sector. Under Peters’ leadership, Aiteo Group has created more than 11,000 job opportunities and continues to grow and expand into new fields.
Beyond the business world, Peters’ support for African football has been massive. He has carved a