Tinubu Meets Shell’s Global Upstream Director, NNPC GCEO Inside Presidential Villa

President Bola Tinubu on Monday met with the Shell Global Upstream Director Ms Zoë Yujnovich and the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mallam Mele Kyari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The meeting is Tinubu’s first official engagement after the Sallah festivities and his foreign trips to France on June 20 and London on June 24.

The President had previously met with the Exxon Mobil Executives, Mr. Liam Mallon, Mr. Richard Laing and Mrs. Adesua Dozie – at the State House.

He also met other key figures from the oil-rich Niger Delta region, including former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NNDC) Timi Alaibe and former Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Dr Dakuku Peterside.

Yujnovich, who assumed office as Upstream Director on July 1, has been a member of the Shell Executive Committee since 2021.

She arrived at the Aso Rock Villa with three other Shell officials around 11:45 am and was ushered into the President’s office complex for the meeting scheduled for 12:00 noon.

The meeting, it was gathered, was part of ongoing consultations with leaders from the oil and gas sector since his administration got on board.

It forms part of ongoing consultations with leaders from the oil and gas sector since his administration discontinued petroleum subsidy on May 29.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Policy Advisory Council has advised the President to end insecurity in oil-producing states, particularly in Imo, Delta, Ondo, Rivers, Bayelsa and Akwa-Ibom by engaging key political and community stakeholders.

To improve financing in the oil and gas sector, the council called for a debt repayment framework and a transition to market prices for gas.

It stressed the need for Tinubu’s government to put robust policies in place in order to unlock Nigeria’s energy potential to fuel economic growth and diversification while improving energy security sustainably.

It proposed that the government should work to raise Nigeria’s oil and gas production to 1.8 million barrels per day (mbpd) and 3.5 billion cubic feet (bcf) in the next 18 months ending December 2024.

ENDS