ABSTRACT
African petroleum Plc, a Marketer of
petroleum products and chemicals, knows that public support and goodwill as
well as good corporate image are very important for business success. Tends to
be influenced by their publics which includes, its staff, shareholders,
customers and of course members of the press.
The company is actually very much
interested to know its public problem areas and opportunities with the aim to
improving the organization’s overall performance to enable them know what their
public thinks about African petroleum public Relations programmes and quality
of services of the organization to its publics.
The
researcher therefore decided to embark on this study with the objectives.
The objectives of the study are:
To
determine the extent of AP’S public Relations messages accessibility to their
publics and also find out whether AP’s public relations practices influence the
opinion of their publics.
Relevant
data based on the scope of the study were collected through primary and
secondary data with structured questionnaire as the main instrument
administered to two hundred and fifty (250) respondents comprising forty
African petroleum staff, sixty share holders, one hundred and twenty customers
and thirty members of the press.
The
questionnaire was highly structured and open – ended where necessary. The
questions and the response were very standard to facilitate comparison of
responses and to secure good control of the questions, chi-square (x2)
was used to analyse the hypotheses formulated.
Among
the findings were that the African Petroleum Public Relations Media Message and
quality of their overall services are satisfactory through their mobilization
programmes and enlightment campaign but needs more efforts. AP’s Public
Relation’s Practice influences their publics to favour her products through
persuasive and convincing communication. The following recommendation were
made; AP should always engage in a constant evaluation of their public
relations practice and its effectiveness to identify any short comings. Media
combination should be reviewed to always embrace appreciable coverage.
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Title Page i
Approval Page ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgement iv
Abstract v
Table of Content vii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the study 1
1.2
Statement of problem 4
1.3
Objective of the study 6
1.4
Formulation of Hypothesis 6
1.5
Scope of the study 7
1.6
Significance of the study 8
1.7
Definition of terms 9
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE
REVIEW
2.1 What is public relation 11
2.2 Role of public
relations executives in
commercial
out fit 26
2.3
Strategy and scope of public relations
programmes 28
2.4
Frame work of public relations
programme 37
2.5
Importance of public relations in all
oil industry. 39
CHAPTER
THREE: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
3.1 Sources of data 45
3.1.1 Primary data 45
3.1.2 Secondary data 46
3.2
Area of study 46
3.3
Research instrument 46
3.4.1
Questionnaire design/ interview questions 47
3.4.2 Dichotomous questions 48
3.4.3 Multiple choice questions 48
3.4.4 Open-ended questions 48
3.5 Sampling method used 48
3.5.1
Sample size and sampling techniques 49
3.5.2
Sample procedure 52
3.6 Pilot survey 50
3.7 Validity of the instrument 51
3.8 Method of investigation 52
3.9 Validation of instrument 53
3.10 Method of data analysis 54
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
4.1 Part A. a table of responses to sex 56
4.2
Indication of free access to AP’s
public
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary 72
5.2 Summary of findings 74
5.3 Conclusions 75
5.4 Recommendations 76
5.5 Limitations of the study 77
Bibliography 78
Appendix
1 83
Appendix
11 84
CHAPTER
ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
The history of African petroleum Plc
date back to 1954 when the then British petroleum BP company Limited, brought
up the assets of Atlantic refining company on the West African coast Ten years
later (1964) that company was incorporated in Nigeria as British Petroleum of
Nigeria Limited which of course is a subsidiary of the world wide British
petroleum Group that marketed petroleum product throughout the Federal Republic
of Nigeria. In 1978, the company changed from a private company to a public
company, when forty percent (40%) of the shares were sold to Nigerian citizens
in compliance with provisions of the Nigeria Enterprises promotions degree of
1977. On the 31st July 1979, the Federal Government acquired the
sixty percent (60%) share in British petroleum (BP) Limited, just to make the
company wholly
affair. As a result, the name of the company had to change to African Petroleum
(AP) Limited which was in November 1979.
Accordingly, 20% of the Federal
Governments 60% shares in African petroleum were offered to the public in March
1989 in fulfillment of its privatization policy. The share were seven times
over subscribed during the exercise, thus increasing the number of share
holders from about fifty thousand to one hundred and sixty thousand share
holders. The company’s current paid up share capital of N 86.4M which of course
is the largest in the country.
As a marketer of refined petroleum in
Nigeria, African Petroleum (AP) procures and distributes petroleum products
like petrol (PMS), Diesel oil (AGO),
Household kerosene or Domestic petroleum kerosene (HHK/DPK), Low poor fuel oil
(LPFO), Liquefied petroleum Gas (LPG), fuel oil, Jet-A-1 (Aviation furbric
kerosene) etc the company also manufacture and market a wide range of lubricants,
insecticide and chemicals. This company’s marketing operation areas are
Port – Harcourt, Warri.
African petroleum plc has its head
office in
The main source of its products is the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
(NNPC) through its strategic network depots and refineries. As contained in its
Diary (1998) African petroleum is a world class integrated petroleum company
where outstanding and dedicated people supported by superior technology deliver
exceptional benefits to its shareholders”. Their mission is to be an innovative
and customer oriented, provider of quality petroleum and related products and
services”.
Businesses are open systems, and most of
what they do generates direct benefits and costs for their societies. Today
society demands that businesses join in the urgent task of solving societies,
problems. Corporations are more than economic institutions and have a
responsibility to devote some of their resources problems mainly of which
corporations helped to create.
However, small or large our enterprise,
we cannot isolate our business from the society around us. Nor can we function
without its goodwill. The researcher therefore tried to x-ray the public
relations practice in African petroleum plc to assess its effectiveness in
building desired goodwill imperative to healthy business survivability.
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEMS:
African petroleum plc (formerly British
petroleum) that has been in existence since 1954 is now one of the major
marketers of petroleum products in
operates few major marketing areas in
depots at (Apapa)
of Petroleum Company (NNPC). Presently the company entered into the marketing
of chemical, real estate development and manufacturing of insecticides.
Coming to the ever-increasing number of
competition and continued fuel scarcity in the country, the company does not
fold its arms watching rather she continues to diversify and expand on its
activities. The reason being that should the company fail to satisfy her
numerous publics by constant supply of product as at when
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