PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has sacked the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, along with Board Chairman Pius Akinyelure and other board members.
The president appointed Bashir Ojulari as the new Group CEO and Ahmadu Musa Kida as the non-executive chairman.
The president, in a statement by Bayo Onanuga, on Wednesday, April 2, announced a complete overhaul of the 11-man board, replacing all members appointed alongside Kyari and Akinyrlure in November 2023.
He named Adedapo Segun as the Chief Financial Officer and appointed six non-executive directors to represent Nigeria’s geopolitical zones.
They are Bello Rabiu (North West), Yusuf Usman (North East), Babs Omotowa (North Central), Austin Avuru (South-South), David Ige (South West), and Henry Obih (South East).
According to the statement, Lydia Shehu Jafiya, the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, and Aminu Said Ahmed from the Ministry of Petroleum Resources have also been appointed to the board.
Tinubu, invoking Section 59(2) of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, said the decision was necessary to enhance operational efficiency, restore investor confidence, boost local content, and advance gas commercialisation and diversification.
He directed the new board to conduct a strategic portfolio review of NNPCL-operated and joint venture assets to align them with value maximisation objectives.
“Since 2023, the Tinubu administration has implemented oil sector reforms to attract investment. Last year, NNPC reported $17 billion in new investments within the sector. The administration now envisions increasing the investment to $30 billion by 2027 and $60 billion by 2030.
“The Tinubu administration targets raising oil production to two million barrels daily by 2027 and three million daily by 2030. Concurrently, the government wants gas production jacked to 8 billion cubic feet daily by 2027 and 10 billion cubic feet by 2030.
“Furthermore, President Tinubu expects the new board to elevate NNPC’s share of crude oil refining output to 200,000 barrels by 2027 and reach 500,000 by 2030,” the statement added.
Things to know about Kida
The newly appointed chairman Kida, is from Borno State and holds a civil engineering degree from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
He also earned a postgraduate diploma in petroleum engineering from the InstitutFrancaise du Petrol (IFP) in Paris.
According to the statement, his career in the oil industry began at Elf Petroleum Nigeria before moving to Total Exploration and Production, where he rose to become the Deputy Managing Director of Deep Water Services in 2015.
He served as an Independent Non-Executive Director at Pan Ocean-Newcross Group in 2024.
Things to know about Ojulari
In the same development, Ojulari, the new NNPCL Group CEO, hails from Kwara State and previously served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Renaissance Africa Energy Company.
An alumnus of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, he started his career as a process engineer at Elf Aquitaine before joining Shell Petroleum Development Company in 1991.
In 2015, he was appointed Managing Director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO).
President Tinubu thanked the outgoing board members for their contributions, particularly their role in rehabilitating the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, which resumed petroleum production after years of inactivity.
Mustapha Usman is an investigative journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: musman@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M