Tinubu Appoints New NUPRC, NMDPRA CEOs As Komolafe, Ahmed Resign

President Bola Tinubu has nominated new chief executive officers for the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).

According to presidential spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, the nominations followed the resignations of Gbenga Komolafe as the Commission Chief Executive of the NUPRC and Engineer Farouk Ahmed as NMDPRA’s chief executive.

Both officials were appointed in 2021 by former President Muhammadu Buhari to head the regulatory agencies established under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).

The president has since written to the Senate requesting the confirmation of Oritsemeyiwa Amanorisewo Eyesan as the new head of NUPRC and Engineer Saidu Aliyu Mohammed as the new CEO of the NMDPRA.

The new NUPRC boss, Eyesan, has 33 years of experience in the oil and gas sector. A graduate of Economics from the University of Benin, she spent her entire career with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its subsidiaries.

She most recently served as Executive Vice President, Upstream, from 2023 to 2024. Prior to that, she held the position of Group General Manager for Corporate Planning and Strategy at NNPC between 2019 and 2023.

On his part, the new NMDPRA boss, Mohammed, was born in 1957 in Gombe and graduated from Ahmadu Bello University in 1981 with a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering. He was announced today as an independent non-executive director at Seplat Energy.

His career includes serving as Managing Director of Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company and Nigerian Gas Company. He also chaired the boards of West African Gas Pipeline Company, Nigeria LNG subsidiaries, and NNPC Retail.

As Group Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of the Gas & Power Directorate, Mohammed provided strategic leadership for major gas projects and contributed to policy frameworks including the Gas Masterplan, Gas Network Code, and the Petroleum Industry Act.

According to Onanuga, Mohammed played a key role in delivering critical infrastructure projects such as the Escravos–Lagos Pipeline Expansion, the Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano (AKK) Gas Pipeline, and Nigeria LNG Train.

The Senate will screen both nominees before confirmation.