For the second consecutive time, Dumo Lulu-Briggs turned his speech into a form of Christian sermon.
He did it in December 2017. He repeated it in December 2018.
The chairman of the board of directors of Platform Petroleum, a Nigerian independent, preached about the goodness of the Lord at the Company’s end of year party, held in a swank venue on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean on Victoria Island, the hub of Nigerian commerce.
Choosing two examples of creation of masterpieces of the arts, he explained that evil and good derive from the same sources. Two images of the same person were used to create the Jesus and the Judas in Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, Mr. Lulu-Briggs told his attentive audience, most of whom were staff, contractors, and employees of affiliates of the company. Likewise, he pointed out, the critically acclaimed praise song: Amazing Grace, was created by the captain of a slave ship, while transporting hordes of the human cargo.
Asked why Mr Lulu-Briggs, a second generation upstream oil and gas entrepreneur, was always delving into Christianity in what was meant to be the Chairman’s address, Austin Avuru, who is deputy chairman of the company’s board of directors, replies: “We are a faith based company”. He explains that Platform Petroleum started production of hydrocarbons from a geologically challenged marginal field, Egbaoma, close to 12 years ago and was currently averaging 3,500 barrels of oil per day (BOPD). “We’ve built a midstream company operating a profitable pipeline out of this resource; we have commissioned a gas plant even if there are issues, our CSR is robust, and we have paid dividends timeously. We have always wondered how we’ve weathered the storms and the point is: if it’s not God, what is?”
The end of year party was itself prefaced by a Thanksgiving Service at a Catholic Church.
In his address, Osa Owieadolor, a career Petroleum Engineer who is Managing Director of the company, spoke enthusiastically of the Mid-Weekly Prayer Session, held at the headquarters every Wednesday.
A high point of the parley was the enthusiastic response of the audience to saxophone performance by BJ Sax, a widely travelled, award winning musician, who belts out popular Christian Pentecostal praise songs on his alto saxophone. Everyone danced, of course.
