THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PUBLIC RELATION PRACTICE IN THE OIL SECTOR

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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 programmes28

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

3.10Method 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 Nigeria 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