President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday, appointed Engineer Bashir Ojulari as the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.
As announced by the Special Adviser to the President (Information & Strategy), Bayo Onanuga, the president had invoked Section 59, subsection 2 of the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021, which 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.
Tinubu sacked the Chairman of the company, Pius Akinyelure and the Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari.
He also removed all other board members appointed with the Chairman, Pius Akinyelure and the Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari in November 2023.
The new 11-man board now has Ojulari as the Group CEO and Ahmadu Kida as the Non-Executive Chairman.
Ojulari, the new NNPC Limited Group CEO, hails from Kwara State.
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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 also 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.
