In a sweeping decision that took many stakeholders by surprise last Monday, President Bola Tinubu removed the Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) Mele Kyari. The president also dissolved the NNPCL board chaired by Pius Akinyelure. While Bashir Bayo Ojulari was appointed the new Group CEO, Ahmadu Musa Kida becomes non-executive chairman in the reconstituted board to which the president has handed out an immediate action plan. He charged the board to conduct a strategic portfolio review of all operations and Joint Venture assets to ensure alignment with the objectives of value maximisation.

Since coming to power in May 2023, the Tinubu administration has implemented reforms to attract investment into the oil and gas sector. Last year, NNPCL reported $17 billion in new investments within the sector. The administration now envisions increasing the portfolio to $30 billion by 2027 and $60 billion by 2030. The administration also targets raising oil production to two million barrels daily by 2027 and three million barrels daily by 2030. Concurrently, the government wants gas production to be raised to eight billion cubic feet daily by 2027 and 10 billion cubic feet by 2030. Furthermore, President Tinubu expects the new board to elevate NNPCL?s share of crude oil refined in Nigeria to 200,000 barrels by 2027 and 500,000 barrels by 2030. These projections may be quite ambitious, but they are not unattainable.

We congratulate the new appointees, hoping they will bring their well-acknowledged experience to deliver on their mandate. Ojulari is former Managing Director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (SNEPCo) while Kida was Deputy Managing Director of TotalEnergies. Other members of the new board include Babs Omotowa, a former Managing Director of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) and Austin Avuru, Executive Chairman of AA Holdings Limited and founding Chief Executive Officer of Seplat Energy Plc. Four former Group Executive Directors (GEDs) at NNPC are also on the new board: Bello Rabiu (Upstream); Yusuf Usman (Gas & Power); Henry Obih (Downstream), and David Ige (Gas & Power).

However, beyond the professional soundness of these individuals, the real challenge has always been about institutional integrity. Most Nigerians have known the NNPCL for almost as long as they have known the country. Its reputation for corruption and incompetence has persisted despite the high turnover of some of the best professionals in the oil and gas sector. For decades, the standards of behaviour in the state-owned oil company have been quite troubling while no government has been able to summon the courage in a sustained way to address impunity and arbitrariness or close the loopholes that breed most of the unwholesome practices. Yet, since NNPCL holds assets on behalf of the country and the people, it cannot continue to carry on as if it has no duty to be accountable to the citizens.

Therefore, while it is reassuring that the new appointees come with good track records, they are taking over the company at a period Nigeria must make hard choices in both the upstream and downstream sectors of the petroleum industry. In the latter, there are four refineries, with a total installed capacity of 445,000 barrels per day. These refineries are a major source of leakage through endless turnaround maintenance contracts. There is also the issue of repositioning NNPCL as an efficient and effective commercial entity as envisioned by the Petroleum Industry Act. That has not happened. Rather, NNPCL had in recent period sank deeper into the dark arts of obscure forward sales, questionable loans and financial statements that raise more questions than answers.

Meanwhile, Nigerians are desirous of a world-class national oil company that can give an indication of the potential to stand on the same footing and in the same image with ARAMCO of Saudi Arabia, Equinor (former Statoil) of Norway, and Petronas of Malaysia. Without any doubt, Ojulari, Kida and other members of the new board come well recommended for their assignment. Now, they must make NNPCL work for the greater good of our people. (THISDAY Editorial)

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