Lagos — Nigeria's oil mogul, Femi Otedola, has for the first time joined the world's rich club of billionaires, as published on Wednesday in the 2009 edition of Forbes Magazine.

Otedola has a net asset of $1.2 billion, and is rated 601st among the 793 richest moneybags who dot the globe.

He joins Aliko Dangote, who made his debut last year, and is now rated 261st, with a net asset of $2.5 billion.

The global economic meltdown has seen a lot of billionaires who made the list last year exit it this year, including former AIG Chief Executive, Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, former Citigroup CEO, Sandy Weill, and Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg.

Dangote last year emerged for the first time the richest black person in the world, then with a net asset of $3.3 billion; which has now shrunken to $2.5 billion, even though his rank rose from 334th to 261st.

Bill Gates edged out Warren Buffet to become world's number one billionaire with a net asset of $40 billion.

Buffet now occupies second place with a net worth of $37 billion. Roman Abramovich, who owns Chelsea Football Club in England, occupies 51st position with $8.5 billion.

Otedola and Dangote are among the only four black people to make the list.

Oprah Winfrey tops the black pack, but is the 234th richest in the world, worth $2.7 billion; beating Dangote to the second position among blacks.

Patrick Motsepe is the third richest black person in the world.

Otedola is ranked the fourth richest black person globally; the third richest African.

He is the biggest supplier of diesel in Nigeria, and holds majority stake in African Petroleum (AP), as well as substantial shares in ChevronTexaco and Mobil.

He owns Seaforce Shipping, F.O Properties, and F.O Transport.

"I am humbled by the rating. You see, all this money means nothing to me. I want to be able to touch lives in a positive way," Odetola said.

He also owns Zenon Petroleum and Gas, the dominant supplier of diesel to the power generators of most of the giant Nigerian industries, among them the Dangote Group, Cadbury, Coca Cola, Nigerian Breweries, MTN, Unilever, Nestle, and Guinness.

Otedola, son of former Lagos State Governor, Michael Agbolade Otedola, equally owns one of Nigeria's largest oil storage facilities worth N2.8 billion.

He bought 100 brand new trucks for N1.3 billion to strengthen the distributive arm of his business and acquired a flat bottom bunker vessel with storage for 16,000 metric tonnes of diesel for $6.8 million.

Zenon owns four cargo ships, as well as Atlas Shipping Agency, Swift Insurance, F.O Properties Limited and F.O Transport.

Otedola started Zenon a few years ago, and former Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Group Managing Director, Funso Kupoloku, acknowledged that Zenon is now the company to beat in the oil downstream sector.

Zenon is rated among the top five companies in Nigeria.

Otedola attributes the success to "hard-work and staying focused on what you want and going all out to get it. We are investing our money here, to create job opportunities for people. Nobody is going to take the money outside the country."

His company appeared to have prepared for the deregulation of the petroleum sector, evidenced in its purchase of three cargo ships in quick succession to bring its total number to four.

The vessels are named after his parents and wife: MT Sir Michael (his father), MT Lady Doja (his mother), MT Nana (his wife). The latest is named Zenon Conquest.

Apart from being the biggest diesel and kerosene marketer in Nigeria, he is said to be the biggest ship owner.

Otedola was in 2007 appointed to the board of Nigeria Investment and Promotion Council (NIPC), and is the President of Nigeria Chamber of Shipping.

He recently won the African CEO of the Year award, in the maiden edition of the African Leadership Awards organised by Leadership R.