President Tinubu has appointed Bashir Ojulari as the new Group Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) effective April 2, 2025.
Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, revealed the development in a statement he signed in the early hours of Wednesday titled, ‘President Tinubu reconstitutes NNPC limited board, appoints new Chairman, Group CEO.’
The statement read thus:
“President Tinubu removed all other board members appointed with Akinyelure and Kyari in November 2023.
“The new 11-man board has Engineer Bashir Bayo Ojulari as the Group CEO and Ahmadu Musa Kida as non-executive chairman”
Six board members, non-executive directors, represent the country’s geopolitical zones.
They are Bello Rabiu representing the North West, Yusuf Usman representing the North East, and Babs Omotowa, a former managing director of the Nigerian Liquified Natural Gas, who represents North Central.
Austin Avuru as a non-executive director from the South-South, David Ige as a Non-executive director from the South West, and Henry Obih as a non-executive director from the South East.
“Mrs Lydia Shehu Jafiya, permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, will represent the ministry on the new board, while Aminu Ahmed will represent the Ministry of Petroleum Resources”
Bashir Ojulari was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Renaissance Africa Energy Company. His Renaissance recently led a consortium of indigenous energy firms in the landmark acquisition of the entire equity holding in the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), worth $2.4 billion.
He began his career as the first Nigerian process engineer at Elf Aquitaine before joining Shell Petroleum Development Company in 1991.
Ojulari served as the Managing Director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo) from 2015 to 2021.
An alumnus of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, (Mechanical Engineering 1985 – 1989) .
A fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, he was a member of the board of trustees of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE Nigeria Council) from 1998 to 1999.
Throughout his career, he has held managerial roles in Europe and the Middle East, specializing in petroleum engineering, process engineering, production engineering, and health and safety.
In November 2015, Ojulari was appointed Managing Director of SNEPCo and General Manager, Deepwater.
He also served on the board of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), overseeing onshore and offshore petroleum engineering, technical integration of development, well engineering, and project engineering.