In consonance with Section 53(1) of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021, which requires the Minister of Petroleum Resources to cause for the incorporation of the NNPC Limited within six months of the enactment of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) in consultation with the Minister of Finance on the nominal shares of the Company, President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the incorporation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
The president also approved appointment of a Board of Directors and Management for the NNPC Limited and directed the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Malam Mele Kyari, to take necessary steps to ensure the incorporation of the NNPC Limited in consonance with the provisions of the PIA 2021.
He named the Chairman of the Board of NNPC as Sen. Ifeanyi Ararume, while Kyari and Umar Ajiya were appointed as the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer respectively.
Other Board Members appointed by the President are Dr Tajudeen Umar (North East), Mrs Lami O. Ahmed (North Central), Malam Mohammed Lawal (North West), Sen. Margaret Chuba Okadigbo (South East), Barrister Constance Harry Marshal (South South), and Chief Pius Akinyelure (South West).
Araraume was in the Senate for two terms between 1999 and 2007 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He was born on Dec. 16, 1958, and attended St. Eugene’s Primary School, Eziukwu Aba in present-day Abia State and St. Christopher Primary school, Umuluwe, Osuachara in Isiala Mbano Local Government Area, Imo State.
He bagged a first Degree in Business Administration from Liberty University, Lynchburg, Virginia, United States of America.
He also has a Master’s Degree in International Relations from the University of Benin.
Kyari was born on Jan. 8, 1965, in Maiduguri, Borno State.
He attended Government Community Secondary School, Biu, between 1977 and 1982.
Kyari graduated from the University of Maiduguri in 1987 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology.
He had his mandatory National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) programme with the Directorate of Foods, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI) between 1987 and 1988 as a well site geologist.
Between 1988 and 1991, he worked with the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency before joining the NNPC subsidiary, Integrated Data Services Limited (IDSL), where he worked as a Seismic Data Processing Geophysicist in the Data Processing Department.
In 1998, he was deployed to National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS) and worked as an exploration geophysicist.
In 1998, appointed the Exploration Geophysicist, Production Sharing Contract (PSC) at NAPIMS until 2004 when he became the Abuja Operations Manager of NAPIMS.
In 2006, was Supervisor PSC, Crude Oil Marketing Division (COMD) of the NNPC, rising to the position of Head, and later Manager of Production Contracts Management of the COMD between 2007 and 2014.
He was appointed General Manager Oil Stock Management, COMD, where he worked till 2015 before being appointed Group General Manager, COMD and later in 2019 as the Group Managing Director of NNPC.
Ajiya holds a B.Sc in Accounting from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in 1987 and MBA from the Lagos State University, Nigeria in 1998.
He has over 30 -year of experience in the oil and gas sector and started his career with Elf Petroleum (now Total) and joined the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) in 1991.
Ajiya contributed significantly in raising finance for the NLNG Trains as well as the marketing of LNG.
He rose to occupy several positions including the Head of Treasury, Finance and Marketing & Business Development.
In 2012, he joined NNPC as the GM, Commercial in the LNG Division where he established LNG marketing JVs. Before his elevation to Chief Financial Officer of NNPC in 2019, he was the Head of Corporate Planning & Strategy of the NNPC Group.
He was also the Managing Director of the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) where he championed the transformation of PPMC from a loss making entity into a profitable company for the first time in 2017.
He sits on the Board of several organisations including the Federal Inland Revenue Services.
Akinyelure on his part was former national vice chairman of the All Progressives Congress, South-west zone (2014-2018).
He is also a certified accountant and oil industry technocrat.
Following a 35-year career inExxonMobil that spanned both the Upstream and Downstream Sectors, he retired as Executive Director, Finance & External Relations.
He has continued to maintain interests across business, industry and politics.
He was first appointed a member of the NNPC Board in 2016 and reappointed to the Board in June 2020.
Also, Umar was the former chairman of the Nigeria-Sao Tome and Principe Joint Development Authority (JDA), a bilateral organization established by the Governments of Nigeria and Sao Tome and Principe to manage the exclusive economic zone overlapping Nigeria’s maritime boundaries with Sao Tome and Principe.
He is a Petroleum Geologist with over 30 -year experience in the oil and gas industry and has held several positions in the public and private sectors ranging from purely technical to management and executive.
He also doubled as Executive Director, Monitoring and Inspections, of the same organisation while serving as Chairman.
He was first appointed a member of the NNPC Board in 2016 and reappointed to the Board in June 2020.
Mrs Ahmed has over 30 years working experience covering the entire value chain of the oil and gas industry.
Her quest for educational pursuit and continuous personal development has seen her bag three masters’ degrees in Physiology, Business Administration and Social Works.
Ahmed is a successful businesswoman and philanthropist who is involved in several charity endeavours and humanitarian services across the country.
She was first appointed to the Board of the NNPC in June, 2020.
Lawal is an Engineering Procurement Specialist with over 35 years’ experience covering Design and Maintenance Engineering, Engineering Procurement (Supply Chain Management), Public Policy Administration and Politics.
Mohammed, who was reappointed to the NNPC Board in May, 2020 has been a board member of NNPC since 2016.
Lady Margaret Okadigbo is the wife of late former Senate President, Chuba Okadigbo.
She hails from Anambra state and a successful business woman and politician.
Also Marshall is a seasoned lawyer and is from the Harry Marshall family in Rivers State.
Harry Marshal was President Buhari’s political ally from the South-South.
He was murdered in his bedroom on March 6, 2003, in Abuja.
Barrister Constance Marshal was a former Coordinator in Rivers State for the Project 4+4 Rivers State Chapter.
In the week under review, NNPC on its Monthly Financial and Operation Report (MFOR) said it recorded a total crude oil and gas export sales of 219.75million dollars in May, representing 180.29 per cent increase on sales from the previous month of April
According to the report, crude oil export sales contributed 181.19million dollar (82.45%) of the dollar transactions compared with 4.22 million dollars contribution in the previous month, while the export gas sales component stood at 38.56million dollars in May.
The report also showed that between May 2020 and May 2021, the Corporation exported crude oil and gas worth 1.64billion dollars.
In the gas sector, the report showed that natural gas production in the month under review increased by 6.19per cemt at 222.23billion cubic feet (bcf) compared with output in the previous month, translating to an average production of 7,177.53million standard cubic feet (mmscf) of gas per day.
For the period May 2020 to May 2021, a total of 2,898.34bcf of gas was produced representing an average daily production of 7,322.94mmscf during the period.
Period-to-date production from Joint Ventures (JVs), Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) and Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) contributed about 60.94per cent, 20.04per cent and 18.99 per cent respectively.
Out of the 216.29bcf of gas produced in May, a total of 133.56bcf was commercialised, consisting of 44.02bcf and 89.54bcf for the domestic and export markets respectively.
This, it said translated to a total supply of 1,419.83mmscfd of gas to the domestic market and 2,893.66mmscfd to the export market for the month.
It also implied that 61.75 per cent of the average daily gas produced was commercialised while the balance of 38.25 per cent was either re-injected, used as upstream fuel or flared.
In the Downstream sector, the report indicates that the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), a downstream subsidiary of the NNPC, posted ₦295.72billion from the sales of petroleum products in the month under review compared with ₦220.13billion sales in April.
Furthermore, total revenues generated from the sales of petrochemicals  products for the period of May 2020 to May 2021 stood at ₦2.345trillion where Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also known as petrol contributed about 99.61 per cent of the total sales with a value of ₦2.336trillion.
In terms of volume, the figure translates to a total of 2.241billion litres of white products sold and distributed by PPMC in the month of May 2021 compared with 1.673billion litres in the month of April 2021.
Total sales of petroleum products for the period May 2020 to May 2021 stood at 18.651billion litres and PMS accounted for 99.69 per cent of total volume.
In May, 64 pipeline points were vandalized representing 39.13 per cent  increase from the 46 points recorded in April.
The Port Harcourt area accounted for 65 per cent and Mosimi and Kaduna Areas accounted for 30per cent and 5per cent per respectively of the vandalized points.
NNPC in collaboration with the local communities and other stakeholders continuously strive to reduce and eventually eliminate this menace.
On security, the Group Security Department of the corporation reiterated the need for all hands to be on deck to provide effective security for the Corporation’s assets and personnel.
The Group Executive Director, Corporate Services, Mrs Aisha Katagum, stated this at the 3rd Quarter Security Stakeholders’ meeting which held at the NNPC Towers, Abuja.
She stated that though security was an important aspect of life that should be everybody’s business, there was need to always engage with security agents whose primary duty it is to secure the men and materials with a view to understanding their challenges and help them to be more effective in their duties.
On his part, the General Manager, Group Security Department, Mr Abba Kaka Mohammed, said the quarterly security stakeholders meeting was a platform reviewing and evaluating strategies to provide end-to-end security for the Corporation and its facilities across the country.
The stakeholders’ meeting had in attendance representatives of security agencies like the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), the Nigeria Army (NA), National Drug Law and Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Department of State Security Services (DSS), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), amongst others.
(NAN)
