Kyari’s Key Achievements After One Year In Office

Today makes it one year since the Group Managing  Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari, assumed office as the helmsman of the national oil firm.

Buhari appointed Kyari to take over from Maikanti Baru as NNPC GMD after the latter clocked the statutory 60 years retirement age on July 7, 2019. 

Since Kyari took over the helm at the NNPC, the corporation and the oil and gas industry at large have witnessed a number of reforms as the GMD worked with stakeholders to reposition the corporation for better efficiency. 

 In the past one year, the NNPC boss has taken tremendous steps and made efforts to ensure an environment  conducive to teamwork, efficient communication and collaboration within and outside the sector in several ways.

TAPE

When the 54-year-old came on board, he made it top of his priorities to ensure corruption, bribery and racketeering were eliminated and no longer associated with the NNPC. He was focused on turning the corporation into an oil giant reputed for Transparency, Accountability, Performance and Excellence (TAPE).

In June, for the first time in 43 years, the Kyari-led NNPC released the 2018 Audited Financial Statements to the public for scrutiny, earning the corporation accolades from members of the public. 

Following the publication, industry players and stakeholders like The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency International (NEITI) applauded Kyari for responding  to their request  for transparency after  four decades.

Kyari also assured that the TAPE would l help  to stimulate the corporation’s staff to raise crude oil production to 3 million barrels per day and reserves to 40 billion barrels by 2023.

Return Of Peace To Rivers Community  By Uniting Shell and Belema Oil

Within one year,  the NNPC under Kyari and in partnership with the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, amicably ended a long-standing dispute which had prevented crude oil production in Akuku Toru community of Rivers State for over two years. 

This singular action ensured the smooth operation of Oil Mining Lease (OML) 25 flow station and the return of about 35,000 barrels of oil production per day.

FID For Train 7 and AKK PROJECT

Kyari and the NNPC management worked effortlessly to realize the Final Investment Decision (FID) on the Train 7 of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG)  in November 2019. 

The project, according to the  NLNG, will  generate over $20 billion revenue and over 50,000 direct and indirect jobs in the country. 

Also, under his supervision, the construction of the  Ajaokuta-Abuja-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline project,  which had suffered delays, was officially flagged off on June 30.
The  AKK pipeline project is expected to be delivered in 2022. The  financing for the project was raised   through Nigeria’s contribution of  15%  of the total  cost while a Chinese bank would provide    the remaining 85%.

Digitization of NNPC Operations

Under Kyari’s watch, technology and innovation have rapidly improved the day-to-day running of the corporation. The downstream arm of NNPC operations  such as  the buying and selling of petroleum products has  been digitized in order to reduce the operational risks caused by humans.

Recently the corporation launched a software that allows marketers to  see inventories across 22 depots and make appropriate decisions based on real-time data. 

Recruitment Process

Candidates who participated in the recruitment test of the NNPC applauded  Kyari for organizing a transparent and fair exercise across the country.

After the recruitment exams on 1st June 2019, the NNPC employed 1,050 people out of 600,000 graduate trainees who applied.

This however set a standard as it was the  first time the national oil company concluded a publicly advertised recruitment exercise since 2012.

COVID-19 intervention

The current NNPC management rallied the support of stakeholders in the oil and gas sector to intervene in the outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country. 

The corporation partnered with international oil companies and raised funds  to mitigate the impact  of the virus on the people. 

Contributions to the Petroleum Industry Intervention Fund have  reached  
 N21 billion, and  the money is being  used to fund medical interventions across the country’s six geo-political zones in the country.