As part of its reorganisation, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) will today name a new Group Chief Operating Officer (GCOO), General Counsel/Company Secretary and two new Executive Vice Presidents (EVP) alongside a few other appointments expected to be announced before the close of business Friday, according to a report by THEWILL newspaper.
The newspaper quoted authoritative sources familiar with the development, to have said that the NNPC Ltd would retain the current Executive Vice President, Upstream and the EVP, Gas and New Energy.
The EVP, Downstream and EVP, Business Services, according to the sources, would be replaced.
The new board appointed by President Bola Tinubu Wednesday is scheduled to hold its inaugural meeting today, Friday, April 4, 2025, where the new appointments would be formalised, according to the sources.
President Tinubu in a sweeping shake-up hailed by industry stakeholders, the public and investment analysts, fired Mele Kyari as Group Chief Executive Officer and dissolved the NNPCL board chaired by Chief Pius Akinyelure.
In their place, he appointed an 11-member board with Bashir Bayo Ojulari, a former Shell top executive and Executive Vice President and COO of Renaissance Africa Energy Company, which recently led a $2.4 billion acquisition of Shell Petroleum Development Company, as the new Group CEO and Ahmadu Musa Kida, a former Total Nigeria top executive as Non-Executive Chairman in a move “aimed at enhancing efficiency, restoring investor confidence, and driving economic growth through gas commercialization and diversification”, according to a presidency statement which announced the development.
The statement by Bayo Onanuga, the President’s spokesperson listed the newly appointed board members as Adedapo Segun as Chief Financial Officer, Bello Rabiu as Non-Executive Director representing the North West, Yusuf Usman for the North East, and Babs Omotowa, a former managing director of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, for the North Central.
Others include Austin Avuru as Non-Executive Director from the South-South, David Ige for the South West, and Henry Obih for the South East. Lydia Shehu Jafiya will represent the Federal Ministry of Finance, while Aminu Said Ahmed will represent the Ministry of Petroleum Resources. All appointments take effect immediately.
The Tinubu administration has set ambitious targets for the new leadership, including raising oil production to two million barrels per day by 2027 and three million barrels per day by 2030. Additionally, gas production is expected to hit eight billion cubic feet daily by 2027 and 10 billion cubic feet by 2030.
In the refining sector, the government expects NNPC to increase its share of crude oil refining output to 200,000 barrels daily by 2027 and 500,000 barrels daily by 2030. Tinubu tasked the board with conducting a strategic portfolio review of NNPC’s operated and joint venture assets to ensure value maximization. [THEWILL]
