With the approval of President Bola Tinubu, the board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has been reconstituted, with Chief Pius Akinyelure as its chairman and Mallam Mele Kyari as its group chief executive officer.
Tinubu dismissed all other board members who were appointed alongside Akinyelure and Kyari in November 2023, according to a statement released early on Wednesday by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President (Information & Strategy).
Engineer Bashir Ojulari is the Group CEO and Ahmadu Kida is the Non-Executive Chairman of the newly formed 11-member board.
President Tinubu has chosen Adedapo Segun to the new board. Segun was the chief financial officer who succeeded Umaru Ajiya last November. The six non-executive directors on the board are representatives of the nation’s geopolitical zones.
North Central is represented by Babs Omotowa, a former managing director of the Nigerian Liquified Natural Gas (NLNG); North West is Bello Rabiu; and North East is Yusuf Usman. Austin Avuru, David Ige, and Henry Obih were selected by President Tinubu as non-executive directors: one from the South-South, one from the South-West, and one from the South East, respectively. The Federal Ministry of Finance will be represented on the new board by Mrs. Lydia Shehu Jafiya, permanent secretary.
On the other hand, Aminu Ahmed will speak on behalf of the Petroleum Resources Ministry.
Every appointment is in force as of April 2.
Restructuring the board is essential for improving operational efficiency, regaining investor confidence, increasing local content, stimulating economic growth, and advancing gas commercialization and diversification, President Tinubu emphasized, using the authority granted by Section 59, subsection 2 of the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021.
In order to make sure that the NNPC-operated and joint venture assets are in line with the goals of value maximization, President Tinubu also provided the new board with an immediate action plan to perform a strategic portfolio assessment.
The Tinubu administration has been reforming the oil sector since 2023 in an effort to draw new investment.
According to NNPC, the sector saw $17 billion in fresh investments last year.
By 2027 and 2030, the administration now plans to increase the investment to $30 billion and $60 billion, respectively.
By 2027, the Tinubu administration wants to increase oil production to two million barrels per day, and by 2030, it wants to reach three million.
The government also wants gas production increased to 10 billion cubic feet per day by 2030 and 8 billion cubic feet per day by 2027.
Additionally, by 2027 and 2030, respectively, President Tinubu anticipates that the new board would increase NNPC’s proportion of crude oil refining output to 200,000 and 500,000 barrels.
Borno State is home to Kida, the newly appointed board chairman. After graduating from Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria in 1984 with a degree in civil engineering, he is now a graduate.
Additionally, he graduated with a postgraduate doctorate in petroleum engineering from Paris’s Institut Francaise du Petrol (IFP).
In 1985, he began working as a trainee engineer at Total Exploration and Production after beginning his career in the oil sector at Elf Petroleum Nigeria.
In 2015, Kida took over as Deep Water Services’ Deputy Managing Director for Total Nigeria. He joined the Pan Ocean-Newcross Group last year as an Independent Non-Executive Director.
In addition to his work in the oil sector, Kida is the president of the Nigerian Basketball Federation (NBBF) and a former basketball player.
The new CEO of NNPC Limited Group, Ojulari, is from Kwara State.
He served as the Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of Renaissance Africa Energy Company prior to his recent appointment.
Recently, a group of local energy companies led by Renaissance made history by acquiring the full $2.4 billion ownership stake in the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC).
Ojulari, like Kida, is a graduate of Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria. He earned a degree in mechanical engineering upon graduation.
He started a successful career in the oil industry as the first Nigerian process engineer, working for Elf Aquitaine.
He left Elf to work as an associate production technician for Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd. in 1991.
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He has held several positions as a petroleum process and production engineer, strategic planner, field developer, and asset manager in Europe and the Middle East in addition to his work in Nigeria.
He joined Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO) in 2015 as managing director. Throughout his career, he served as a fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers and head of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE Nigerian Council) board of trustees.
The former board members were recognized by President Tinubu for their devoted service to NNPC Limited, especially for their work in restoring the aging refineries in Port Harcourt and Warri, which allowed them to start producing petroleum products again after extended shutdowns.
He hoped their future endeavors would be fruitful.
