Page 8 - DMEA Week 39 2021

DMEA POLICY & SECURITY DMEA

Buhari nominates members of

govt’s new industry agencies

AFRICA NIGERIAN President Muhammadu Buhari has sector; he currently serves as chairman of United
asked members of the Senate, the upper chamber Securities Ltd and also sits on the board of Cor-
of the National Assembly, to confirm his nomi- onation Merchant Bank and Marina Securities
nees for the boards of the Nigerian Midstream Ltd. Ukoha is an oil and gas lawyer who heads
and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Author- U&A Attorneys, an Abuja-based law firm. No
ity (NMDPRA) and the Upstream Regulatory information was available as of press time on
Commission (URC), the two new state agencies Adeniji’s background.
that will oversee the country’s oil and gas sector. Meanwhile, Buhari’s URC nominees were Isa
In a letter delivered to the Senate last week, Modibo, Gbenga Komolafe, Hassan Gambo and
Buhari named his nominees to the NMDPRA Rose Ndong.
board as Idaere Ogan, Sarki Auwalu, Abiodun The president said he was naming Mod-
Adeniji and Ogbugo Ukoha. ibo as the board’s chairman, Komolafe as chief
He said he was nominating Ogan to serve executive, Gambo as executive commissioner
as the board’s chairman, Auwalu as chief exec- for finance and accounts and Ndong as execu-
utive, Adeniji as executive director for finance tive commissioner for exploration and acreage
and accounts and Ukoha as executive direc- management.
tor for distributions systems, storage and retail Komolafe is the group general manager of
infrastructure. NNPC’s crude oil marketing division and has
Earlier this week, Buhari revised his request, also held high-ranking positions within PPMC
removing Auwalu from the list of nominees to and government agencies, including the Petro-
the NMDPRA board and putting Farouk Ahmed leum Equalisation Fund (PEF) and the Petro-
forward as a replacement. leum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency
Ahmed has held a number of high-ranking (PPPRA).
positions within Nigerian National Petroleum Ndong is affiliated with the Nigerian Geo-
Corp. (NNPC), including special advisor to Mele logical Survey Agency (NGSA), a division of the
Kyari, the state-owned company’s group manag- Ministry of Mines and Steel Development. No
ing director, and has served as head of Petroleum information was available as of press time on the
Products Marketing Co. (PPMC), a subsidiary background of Modibo or Gambo. Both NMD-
of NNPC. PRA and URC are being established within the
For his part, Ogan is a former diplomat with framework of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA),
extensive experience in the financial services Nigeria’s new oil and gas law.™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 39 30•September•2021