By Onome Oghenetega
President Bola Tinubu has been commended for the choice of Engineer Bashir Bayo Ojulari as the Group Chief Executive Officer and Mr. Austin Avuru, Non-Executive Director, on the new board of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited.
The former Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, who made the commendation, congratulated Mr. Avuru on his appointment and tasked him to work with other management team to actualise President Tinubu’s mandate in the oil and gas industry.
Omo-Agege also congratulated Engineer Bashir Bayo Ojulari who was appointed the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) as well as Ahmadu Musa Kida who emerged the non-executive chairman.
In his congratulatory message signed by his media adviser, Sir Sunny Areh, Senator Omo-Agege charged them to be inspired by President Tinubu’s bold ambition to make NNPC Limited a global player in the oil and gas sector.
To Avuru, from Delta State and representing the South South region in the new management, Omo-Agege recalled that as an accomplished entrepreneur in the industry, his appointment comes with high expectations.
“Given President Tinubu’s vision of increasing investment in the oil industry to $30 billion by 2027 and $60 billion by 2030, your appointment is a deliberate one to leverage on your sterling antecedents and expertise. You are excellently equipped to impact on Mr. President’s achievable plan and I am confident that your passion for the industry will be brought to bear in the task ahead,” Omo-Agege stated.
He said on the new board rests the responsibility of driving President Tinubu’s plan of boosting NNPC’s share of crude oil refining output to 200,000 barrels by 2027 and 500,000 by 2030.
A geologist by training, Avuru has spent over 40 years in the Nigerian oil and gas sector and was Managing Director of Platform Petroleum Limited and in 2010 became the pioneer CEO of Seplat Ltd, a company he co-founded.
Under his leadership, Seplat was dually listed on the London Stock Exchange and Nigeria Stock Exchange.
Avuru is a fellow and past President of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE), a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) and a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).
He is the author of “Politics, Economics & the Nigerian Petroleum Industry” and co-author of “Nigerian Petroleum Business, A Handbook”. He won the 2013 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the Master Class Category for Nigeria and the West African Sub-region.
