The Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), Malam Mele Kyari, is the immediate past Group Managing Director (GMD) of the corporation.
The change of status of the oil industry expert took effect on July 19, 2022, on the heels of the transformation of the NNPCL to a dynamic global energy company, with Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) as its new nomenclature.
Recall that Kyari, the Borno-born graduate of Geology from the University of Maiduguri was the 19th GMD of the corporation. But with his current lofty position, he becomes the first GCEO of the oil firm.
While unveiling the NNPCL in Abuja on July 22, President Muhammadu Buhari had declared that it would deliver energy to consumers “and conduct itself under the best international business practice in transparency, governance and commercial viability.”
With the transformation, the NNPCL becomes Africa’s largest oil company with some crucial tasks to live up to expectations that occasioned the transformation.
One of the crucial missions is to expand the company’s retail outlets to 1,500 within the next six months.
As the company is poised to live up to its new name, Malam Kyari has swung into action and has been living up to expectations to justify his elevation which is, no doubt, is against the backdrop of his past records of laudable achievements when he held sway as the GMD of the corporation.
When he was the GMD, he demonstrated capacity to bequeath to Nigerians a corporation that would not only serve the purpose for which it was founded, but one that would also align with international best practices.
Following his compelling giant strides in taking the NNPCL to higher heights of success since he came on board, one is compelled as a patriotic Nigerian to chronicle his achievements, hence this special publication with a view to encouraging him to do more in the interest of the nation.
Few days after he came on board, the oil and gas technocrat unfolded a Transparency, Accountability and Performance Excellence (TAPE) agenda, a five-step strategic roadmap for NNPC to attain efficiency and global excellence.
In fact, the TAPE focused mainly on diversifying the operations of the corporation and its subsidiaries with great results.
During his inauguration, he asserted that TAPE was the most potential and strategic instrument to revolutionise the corporation and make it competitive in the global oil firmament.
Truly, he remained committed to his targets and made remarkable marks accordingly.
While in the saddle as the GMD, he took some giant strides and made a lot of achievements for the corporation.
In the wake of the deadly COVID – 19 which crippled global economy, Kyari applied some measures to strengthen the corporation’s revenue base and repositioned it to provide sufficient benefits for the country and for the good of the Nigerian people.
One of the thorny issues the NNPC grappled with under Kyari was its ability to collaborate with the Federal government in achieving removal of fuel subsidy. With the development, the federal government was able to save over $400 million in 2020.
Other achievements include:
Execution of the AKK pipeline project with absolute commitment to see that it is completed on schedule in 2023.
Passage of Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) by President Muhammadu Buhari on August 16, 2021 as well as the incorporation of NNPC Limited.
The ongoing rehabilitation of refineries in Port Harcourt, Kaduna and Warri is also another laudable achievement by the oil guru.
Kyari also ensured that the NNPC built a strategic reserve of over two billion litres of PMS the country could fall back on till it was able to import more petroleum products.
Another remarkable feat by Mallam Kyari is digital automation of oil rigs to monitor production of crude oil on bpd basis for prudent accountability and management to achieve core organizational mandate.
Apparently, Kyari is an erudite figure in the nation’s oil sector and a serial success story in the corporation. So, he is on a familiar terrain where it is certain that he will reenact the remarkable feats he has been performing in the country’s oil conglomerate.
In all the challenges that have been plaguing the corporation, it is crystal-clear that Kyari has been able to weather the storm by steering its wheels until it got to the present level as Africa’s oil giant.
With his usual poise to pilot the affairs of the corporation with a view to clinching its target achievements, NNPCL is, no doubt, on the threshold of history as the best oil firm that Nigeria and African sub-region would be proud of, God willing.
During the unveiling of the NNPCL, Kyari had remarked that it was a new beginning that would engender excellence and the expected laudable results that Nigeria and the Africa sub-region had been yearning for.
Recently, he got to the roots of oil theft, which had remained one of the major nagging and crippling crises in the oil sector. He unraveled the theft which was going on secretly through pipelines connected to individuals’ homes, churches and mosques.
Under his watch, the company has also uncovered an illegal four-kilometer pipeline from Forcados in Delta State to the sea and a loading port that was part of an elaborate crude theft operation for the last nine years.
To curb oil theft, Malam Kyari’s administration has introduced Saudi Aramco’s model,
using video surveillance to monitor pipelines carrying crude oil from wells to flow stations in the Niger Delta.
Determined to win the oil theft war, the oil marketing strategist also ensured a multi-million dollar pipeline surveillance contract to competent Nigerian companies that have the capability to monitor oil theft in the Niger Delta
Still walking the talk as a go-getter, Kyari’s administrative acumen has ensured NNPCL’s ability to declare a profit after tax of N674 billion for the financial year ended Dec. 31, 2021. He announced this at a news conference in Abuja on Tuesday, October 4, 2022.
This came after the second year that the company had declared a profit in its operations since inception 45 years ago.
The profit represented a growth of 134.84 per cent when compared with the N287 billion profit in 2020 recorded under the old Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
With all these giant strides and many more that can not be mentioned here, Malam Kyari has all it takes to take us to the promised land in the nation’s oil sector.
Ride on sir.
Muhammad Saleh Hassan
Chairman, Skymark Energy and Power Ltd.
