By Femi Salako
Publisher Triangle News Media
[email protected]

The best thing to have ever happened to the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NPC) and the Nigerian oil industry was the appointment of Mr. Mele Kyari as the company’s Group Managing Director on July 7, 2019.

Monumental strides of Kyari informed his reappointment as the Chief Executive Officer of the new Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) after the Petroleum Industry Bill was passed into law by the National Assembly and also assented to by former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2021.

Mele Kyari inherited a demoralized NNPC where corruption was the order of the day. The trained Geologist quickly turned around the misfortune of the defunct NNPC, in which mindless oil pipeline vandalism and oil theft were done on full scale with reckless abandon. These unpatriotic activities of criminals negatively affected the daily crude oil production quota of Nigeria; which also had an attendant negative effect on the nation’s oil-dependent economy.

Mele Kyari also promptly went ahead to unveil his TAPE agenda for NNPC, which represents Transparency, Accountability, and Performance Excellence. He also went ahead to launch the “Crude Theft Monitoring Application. The portal has application options for reporting incidences, with prompt follow-up and responses, and another one for crude sales document validation.

In a determined quest to curtail oil theft and vandalization of pipelines in Nigeria, Kyari in March 2022
accompanied the then minister of state for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, on an assessment tour of the creeks in the Niger Delta to determine the extent of the criminal activities. Other top state actors that joined the tour included
the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Gbenga Komolafe; the then Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, and security operatives.

The tour assessment led to the announced discovery of a four-kilometre illegal oil connection line from Forcados Terminal into the sea which had been in operation for nine years. To a large extent today, the efforts of Kyari to curtail oil theft and pipeline vandalism have yielded significant results as Nigerian daily oil output has since increased to 1.6 million barrels per day. This has also shot Nigeria to the number-one spot as the largest crude oil producer in Africa, ahead of Algeria and Angola.

Another remarkable achievement of Mele Kyari is the completed rehabilitation and remodeling of the Port Harcourt refinery as well as the ongoing repair of the Kaduna and Warri refineries. This is undoubtedly a watershed accomplishment after these oil refining facilities have remained moribund for more than one decade.

Another landmark achievement of Mele Kyari as the CEO of NNPCL was his ingenious ability to make the company post its second consecutive year of ‘profit in 2022, NNPCL announced
N674.1 billion in the 2021 financial period having grown the profit from N287 billion in 2020.

In addition to posting a significant profit for the NNPCL, Mele Kyari also did well by resolving age-long disputes with the company’s trading partners, which are notably the International Oil Companies (IOCs) This effort significantly increased the production of crude oil by Nigeria and had also unlocked investments in the Deepwater space, after the passage of Petroleum Industry Act.

Similarly, NNPCL under the leadership of Mele Kyari had since paid the $5.1 Joint Venture Cash Call that Nigeria owed the International Oil Companies. He achieved this feat with his introduction of the Alternative Funding Approach (AFA), which replaced the erstwhile cash-call payment model. This model has since reduced the reliance of Nigeria on external borrowing and increased the flow of investment into the industry. Commendably, many oil-producing African countries have since adopted this model.

In addition, NNPCL under the leadership of Mele Kyari had since signed different Memoranda of Association (MoU) with some African countries, which include the national oil companies of Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, and Sierra Leone towards the accomplishment of the planned Nigeria-Morocco Gas pipeline project.

The Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline (NMGP) is an initiative of the federal government of Nigeria and the Kingdom of Morocco. It is 5,600 kilometres gas pipeline project that will traverse 13 African countries namely: Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Gambia, Senegal and Mauritania to Morocco. This project upon completion is expected to supply about 3 billion standard cubic feet of gas per day (3bscf/d) from Nigeria to the Kingdom of Morocco and subsequently to Europe.

Mele Kyari had likewise inspired NNPCL in 2022 to acquire OVH Energy Marketing (OVHEM), owner and operator of the defunct OANDO downstream assets. As a result of this acquisition, NNPCL Retail Limited has since been building on the existing success of OVH and thereby operating model service outlets. All the former OANDO outlets have since become NNPCL branded and now leveraging on the extensive asset base and commercial capabilities of the acquired OVH.

Impressively, Kyari in November 2022 flagged off the Kolmani Integrated Development Project in Bauchi State. The project marked the commencement of efforts to commercially exploit oil in the Northern part of Nigeria. The Kolmani Oil Field is estimated to have a reserve of about one billion barrels of crude oil, OPL 809 and 810, and lies in the Gongola Basin of the Upper Benue trough, straddling Bauchi and Gombe States. The oil blocks are owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) as a concessionaire with New Nigeria Development Company Ltd, Africa Oilfield Movers Ltd, and SEEPCO as partners.

Above all, Mele Kyari has since sanitized, reorganized and repositioned NNPCL for enhanced transparency and efficiency. He had likewise since rolled out lasting legacy programmes and policies in NNPCL and it’s subsidiaries.

In view of the sterling accomplishments of Mele Kyari as the CEO of the NNPCL, he is truly deserving of the 2023 Triangle Face of Africa Chief Executive Officer of the Year.