Ex-Shell chief now heads Nigeria’s NNPC

President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday sacked the board of the state-oil firm, NNPC, including its Group Chief Executive Officer (GCED), Mele Kyari and board chairperson Pius Akinyelure.

The president also approved Bayo Bashir Ojulari as the new GCEO of the NNPC.

Mr Ojulari is an energy expert who describes himself as “a business leader with a proven track record in the global energy sector.”

According to his LinkedIn profile, he worked full-time at global oil giant, Shell, for over 24 years, rising to become the Managing Director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo) in November 2015, a position he held until July 2021.

His LinkedIn profile shows that he first joined Shell in November 1991 as an Associate Production Technologist at Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), after he left Elf Petroleum Nigeria as a Fields and Process Engineer. He worked at Elf as a fresh graduate from September 1989 to October 1991.

Mr Ojulari joined Elf after graduating from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where he studied Mechanical Engineering between 1985 and 1989.

After joining Shell in 1991, he rose to become a member of the Integrated Studies Team at Shell headquarters in the Netherlands in June 1994, a position he held till October 1995.

Between April 1997 and November 1999, he was the Head Planning Economics and Budgeting at SPDC Nigeria, from where he rose to become the Asset Leader and Head Production Technologist at Shell in Oman from December 1999 to September 2003.

He became the Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Planner at Shell headquarters in October 2003 and held the position till December 2004.

From January 2005 to October 2008, he was the Manager, Corporate Planning and Strategy at SPDC Nigeria during which time he also briefly held the position of Asset Production Technologist from November 2006 to March 2007.

At Shell, he remained in Nigeria from then on, becoming the Manager, Asset Development (Onshore and Shallow Water) SPDC Nigeria from October 2008 to October 2010.

From January 2010 to October 2015, he was the Development Director at SPDC Nigeria, after which he rose to become the Managing Director of SNEPCo from November 2015 to July 2021 when he left the company.

He established the BAT Advisory and Energy Company Nigeria Ltd in September 2021 and served as its board chairman. One of the main tasks of the company was to provide consultancy services to firms in the oil and gas/energy sector.

He was appointed the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Renaissance Africa Energy Company in January 2024, a position he held until his new appointment as NNPC chief. He only announced his appointment at Renaissance Africa on LinkedIn about a week ago, saying, “It’s been a while since I started my role at Renaissance Africa Energy Company as a Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Office, but I wanted to share this update with everyone.”

He joined Renaissance at a time when the company was concluding its purchase of a Shell asset in Nigeria.

“Renaissance now controls SPDC’s 30% stake in the SPDC JV, an unincorporated joint venture with the government-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (55%), Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Ltd (10%) and Agip Energy and Natural Resources (Nigeria) Limited (5%),” Shell announced.

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Mr Ojulari will now head the NNPC, Nigeria’s main oil and gas firm, which has been dogged with allegations of corruption and inefficiency for decades. He also joins the NNPC at a time when his former firm, Shell, announced its divestment from some of its Nigerian operations, especially onshore operations in the oil-rich Niger Delta.

The oil and gas expert will now be expected to bring his experience into running the NNPC.

“President Tinubu also handed out an immediate action plan to the new board: to conduct a strategic portfolio review of NNPC-operated and Joint Venture Assets to ensure alignment with value maximisation objectives,” presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga wrote in a Wednesday statement announcing the new appointments.