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Buhari shakes up NNPC leadership
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NIGERIAN President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed a new head of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC), Mele Kolo Kyari. He replaces Maikanti Baru, who has reached the statutory age of retirement, at 60.
A statement from NNPC on June 20 noted Kyari had previously served as the head of NNPC’s crude oil marketing division and Nige- ria’s representative to OPEC. He will take up his position on July 7.
A number of new chief operating officers (COOs) have also been appointed. Heading the upstream is Roland Onoriode Ewubare, re n- ing and petrochemicals is Mustapha Yinusa Yakubu, gas and power is Yusuf Usman, ventures is Lawrencia Nwadiabuwa Ndupu, downstream is Adeyemi Adetunji and corporate services is Farouk Garba Said. A new CFO has also been appointed, Umar Isa Ajiya.
Baru, speaking at the University of Lagos, noted he had helped maintain production at more than 2 million barrels per day, boosting output by NNPC’s Nigerian Petroleum Develop- ment Co. (NPDC) unit and gas, while also sav- ing money though the move to direct sale-direct purchase (DSDP) for importing products. He also said his management had reduced the cost of production in the country, to US$22 per barrel from US$27.
e NNPC head went on to say he would be “willing to do more if called upon to serve the country” a er his retirement.
Not everyone will be sad to see Baru leave. e NNPC head had a well-publicised falling out with Nigerian Minister of State for Petro- leum Ibe Kachikwu in 2017. e minister had complained, in a letter to Buhari, that NNPC under Baru had approved contracts wrongly and had failed to follow due process. NNPC denied Kachikwu’s allegations.
the Nigeria Extractive Industries trans- parency Initiative (NEItI) welcomed Kyari’s appointment. e NGO’s executive secretary, Waziri Adio, said the new NNPC head was a “well-known transparency champion and one whoenthusiasticallysharestheprincipleswhich underline the work of NEItI and the global EItI on good governance of the oil and gas industry”.
Kyari described the NEItI statement as “the most profound” he had received on his appoint- ment, saying that he was “deeply challenged to domoreontransparencyandaccountability”.
NEItI has said Nigeria loses US$15-18 bil- lion per year to illicit financial flows. Of this amount, 60% was attributed to the actions of multinationals, while oil bunkering accounted for around 35%.
NNPC has a number of problems. the
country’s re neries, for instance, were operating at 5.6% of capacity in January – the most recent report available – and lost money every month of 2018, bar April.
north-south
e change of leadership comes as the company has reasserted its determination to restart explo- ration in the Chad Basin – pending security clearance. A statement from the company on June 19 quoted Baru as noting the prospectiv- ity of the area, comparing the 23 wells drilled in Nigeria with the more than 600 drilled in Niger.
the NNPC official was holding talks with Bauchi Governor Bala Mohammed, in Abuja. Work by NNPC in the Chad Basin was sus- pended following an attack – that involved a number of sta being killed or abducted – in July 2017. e assault was claimed by Boko Haram, the local Islamist insurgents.
Baru also pledged NNPC’s support for a pro- posed Institute of Petroleum Studies at Bauchi State University.
“We are happy that we have some hydrocar- bon not only in Bauchi but also in Gombe both in the Gongola Basin, and we are totally commit- ted to the exploration activities of the NNPC in thearea,”thegovernorsaid.
e drive to explore for oil in Nigeria’s north is also a political one. Currently, production is dominated by the states in the Niger Delta, with Lagos State making some progress in the last few years. A persistent complaint from the Niger Deltaallegesthatownersofcompaniesextract- ing resources in the area are from the north.
Balancing the various elements of Nigeria’s fractious states is a demanding task. In demon- stration of the political sensitivities of the job, the NNPC statement listed where each of the new o cials came from.™
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 25 25•June•2019