President Bola Tinubu has approved a major restructuring of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited board, removing its chairman Pius Akinyelure and the group chief executive officer Mele Kyari.
A statement signed by presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga on Tuesday announced that Tinubu also dismissed all other board members who were appointed alongside Akinyelure and Kyari in November 2023.
Mele Kyari was appointed NNPC CEO in 2019 by former President Muhammadu Buhari after the retirement of the late Maikanti Baru who died from COVID-19 in 2020.
The newly constituted 11-man board is now led by Engineer Bashir Ojulari as the Group CEO and Ahmadu Kida as the non-executive chairman.
Adedapo Segun, who took over from Umaru Isa Ajiya as chief financial officer last November, has been appointed to the new board.
The reconstituted board features six non-executive directors representing Nigeria’s geopolitical zones. They include Bello Rabiu (North West), Yusuf Usman (North East) and Babs Omotowa, a former managing director of the Nigerian LNG (NLNG), representing North Central. Austin Avuru (South-South), David Ige (South West) and Henry Obih (South East) complete the zonal representation.
Additionally, Lydia Jafiya, permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, will represent the ministry, while Aminu Said Ahmed will represent the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
All appointments take effect from April 2.
According to Onanuga’s statement, President Tinubu exercised his authority under Section 59, subsection 2 of the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021, to restructure the board, citing the need to enhance operational efficiency, restore investor confidence, boost local content, drive economic growth and advance gas commercialisation and diversification.
The president also tasked the new board with conducting a strategic portfolio review of NNPC-operated and joint venture assets to ensure they align with value maximisation objectives.
Since assuming office in 2023, the Tinubu administration has pursued oil sector reforms aimed at attracting investment. Last year, NNPC announced securing $17 billion in new investments within the sector, with projections to increase this to $30 billion by 2027 and $60 billion by 2030.
The administration is targeting an increase in oil production to two million barrels daily by 2027 and three million daily by 2030. Additionally, gas production is projected to rise to eight billion cubic feet per day by 2027 and 10 billion cubic feet by 2030. The new board has also been tasked with increasing NNPC’s share of crude oil refining output to 200,000 barrels per day by 2027 and 500,000 by 2030.
The newly appointed chairman, Kida, is from Borno State and holds a civil engineering degree from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He also obtained a postgraduate diploma in petroleum engineering from the Institut Francaise du Petrol (IFP) in Paris. Kida has had a distinguished career in the oil industry, working with Elf Petroleum Nigeria and Total Exploration and Production, where he served as deputy managing director of deep-water services in 2015. He was most recently an independent non-executive director at Pan Ocean-Newcross Group.
Ojulari, the new NNPC CEO, hails from Kwara State and was formerly the executive vice president and chief operating officer of Renaissance Africa Energy Company. His firm recently led a consortium of indigenous energy companies in the landmark $2.4 billion acquisition of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC).
An alumnus of Ahmadu Bello University, Ojulari began his career at Elf Aquitaine before joining Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd in 1991 as an associate production technologist. His extensive international experience includes roles in Europe and the Middle East as a petroleum process and production engineer, strategic planner, field developer, and asset manager. In 2015, he was appointed managing director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO).
Ojulari has also served as chairman and member of the board of trustees of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE Nigerian Council) and is a fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers.
President Tinubu expressed his gratitude to the outgoing board members for their service, particularly their efforts in rehabilitating the old Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, which enabled them to resume petroleum product production after prolonged shutdowns. He wished them success in their future endeavours.
