Tinubu appoints Bayo Ojulari, Shell ex-MD, as NNPC GCEO

President Bola Tinubu has appointed Engr. Bashir Bayo Ojulari as the Group CEO of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.

Ojulari is a former managing director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO).

His appointment follows a sweeping reconstitution of the board, removing the chairman, Chief Pius Akinyelure and the group chief executive officer, Mallam Mele Kolo Kyari.

The appointment takes effect today, April 2.

All other board members appointed with Akinyelure and Kyari in November 2023 have been removed.

Ahmadu Musa Kida has also been appointed as non-executive chairman of the NNPC Board.

Tinubu sacks Mele Kyari as NNPC CEO, dissolves board, names replacements

Until his new appointment, he was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Renaissance Africa Energy Company. His Renaissance recently led a consortium of indigenous energy firms in the landmark acquisition of the entire equity holding in the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), worth $2.4 billion.

Ojulari is an alumnus of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He worked for Elf Aquitaine as the first Nigerian process engineer to begin a stellar career in the oil sector. From Elf, he joined Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd in 1991 as an associate production technologist.

Apart from working in Nigeria, he worked in Europe and the Middle East in different capacities as a petroleum process and production engineer, strategic planner, field developer, and asset manager.

In 2015, he became the managing director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO).

During his career, he was chairman and member of the board of trustees of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE Nigerian Council) and a fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers.

Ojulari, the new NNPC Limited Group CEO, hails from Kwara State.

Presidential spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, in a statement on Wednesday, April 2, 2024, stated that President Tinubu, invoking the powers granted under Section 59, subsection 2 of the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021, emphasised that the board’s restructuring is crucial for enhancing operational efficiency, restoring investor confidence, boosting local content, driving economic growth, and advancing gas commercialisation and diversification.

The Star