By Baron Ike
President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Mele Kyari as the new group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Kyari replaces Maikanti Baru who mwill be bowing out on July 7 when Kyari, the current group general manager, crude marketing division, will assume office as NNPC GMD.
He was Nigeria’s Representative at the OPEC before his appointment as NNPC CMS.
A graduate of Geology, Kyari has more than 27 years Kyari that saw him traverse the entire value chain of the petroleum industry posting resounding performance in all his assignments and duty posts.
Kyari led a team that proposed and managed the Direct Sales and Direct Purchase (DSDP) arrangement of Petroleum products from 2016 to date, a process that saved the nation $1 million in 2016 when compared with the previous crude SWAP arrangement with products.
Kyari as head of Crude Oil Marketing Division of the NNPC has ensured optimum determination and secured government’s equities and entitlements of crude oil, Natural Gas Liquids, NGL, Liquefied Petroleum Gas, LPG production from various fiscal arrangements.
He was born in January 8, 1965 and attended Government Community Secondary School Biu in Borno State between 1977 to 1982.
Buhari has also approved the appointment of seven new Chief Operating Officers with effect from July7, 2019.
They are:
1. Mr. Roland Onoriode Ewubare (South-South) – Chief Operating Officer, Upstream;
2. Engineer Mustapha Yinusa Yakubu (North-Central) – Chief Operating Officer, Refining and Petrochemicals;
3. Engineer Yusuf Usman (North-East) – Chief Operating Officer, Gas and Power;
4. Ms. Lawrencia Nwadiabuwa Ndupu (South-East) – Chief Operating Officer, Ventures;
5. Mr. Umar Isa Ajiya (North-West) – Chief Financial Officer;
6. Engineer Adeyemi Adetunji (South-West) – Chief Operating Officer, Downstream; and
7. Mr. Farouk Garba Said (North-West) – Chief Operating Officer, Corporate Services (with effect from 28th June, 2019);
The new appointees are expected to work with the current occupants of the various positions between now and July 7, 2019 towards a smooth transition on July 8, 2019.