President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the composition of the Board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), as provided for under Section 1(2) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Act of 1997, as amended.
Mr. Buhari also removed Ibe Kachikwu as group managing director of the corporation, a statement by presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina, showed.
He however allowed him to remain as minister of state for petroleum and will serve as chairman of the new NNPC board.
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The new NNPC GMD is Maikanti Kacalla Baru, according to the presidency.
The new board is composed of the following:
A. Chairman-Dr Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, Honourable Minister of State for Petroleum;
B. Group Managing Director- Dr Maikanti Kacalla Baru;
C. The Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance; and
D. The following six persons:
1. Mallam Abba Kyari
2. Dr Thomas M.A John
3. Dr Pius O. Akinyelure
4. Dr Tajuddeen Umar
5. Mallam Mohammed Lawal, and
6. Mallam Yusuf Lawal.
Dr. M. K. Baru attended Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in Kaduna State of Nigeria; where he obtained Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical) with a first class honors. He also holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical engineering.
Before his Recent appointment Dr. Baru had worked in various capacities in both the Upstream and Downstream Sectors of NNPC. These includes Group General Manager of Greenfield Refinery Projects, Managing Director of Hyson, Executive Director of Nigerian Gas Company (NGC), General Manager – Gas Division of NAPIMS, Manager – Operations, Procurement Management Services and Manager – Engineering for National Engineering and Technical Company Limited (NETCO).
During his initial stint with NAPIMS which spanned from July 1993 to July 1999, Dr. Baruexecuted several Gas projects which are utilizing billions of standard cubic feet of gas per day.
Several other ongoing projects were also conceptualized under his care. He planned the projects that would ensure flare-out by 2008 and made huge savings while overseeing the Joint Venture Gas Projects.
He was also the NNPC’s Chief Technical Negotiator on the West African Gas Pipeline project from July 1999 to April 2004.
Dr. Baru has been the Chairman of NNPC Anti – Corruption Committee since September 2004 till date; and has relentlessly sensitized staff on obligations and laws that govern corruption and corrupt practices.
Dr. Baru is a fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers(FNSE) and a recipient of the Presidential Merit Award of theNigerian Society of Chemical Engineers. He is married with children.
The change in structure he informed was aimed at reducing the turn around time in contract processing. He stated the efforts of NAPIMS in realizing the Federal Government’s aspiration of increased reserves. He further explained that with the various projects such as Usan,Akpo, Bonga Northwest, Ofon 2 that were on stream, the PSC oil which currently stands at 650,000bopd is expected to increase to 1.2mbopd by the year 2011.
The Agbami field started production in July 2008 and is currently on a daily production of 150,000bopd while the Usanand Bonga South west will commence in 2012 and 2016 respectively. He further disclosed that NAPIMS has successfully bridged the contracting cycle time for bids to 6 months and aspires to further reduce it to between 3 – 4 months against the hitherto 18 – 24 months.