From all indication, Mallam Mele Kolo Kyari, the Group Managing Director of the then Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and now the Group Chief Executive Officer of The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) is undeniably a game changer.
He is a hard working gentle man with a perfect magical touch, full of versatile knowledge, ideas and experience, which he has used to transform the NNPC from what it was to an exceptional power house in Africa and the world over.
Immediately he assumed office as the 19th GMD of the then NNPC, this focused and visionary leader rolled out what he called TAPE (Transparency, Accountability and Performance Excellence) a blue print to ensure the continuous success of the NNPC both at home and over seas.
Just few years into his stewardship, Kyari has made significant increase to the national crude oil reserves to achieve the 40,000 billion barrel target through focus and commitment. The NNPC GCEO has pushed up exploration work in some basins and drilling of certain oil wells. The drilling of Kolmano River II & III wells, Seismic data collection in the Bida and Sokoto Basins are a few examples.
With the national crude oil reserves on the high side, the nation’s oil production was pursued with one sole aim, which was to boost it’s production to a target of three million barrels daily, through peaceful negotiations. Similarly, production shortages revolving around oil blocks were dealt with, while sabotage that were decreasing the country’s oil production were accurately managed.
With respect to the country’s oil production, Kyari led NNPC LTD to a future investment worth N10bn for the development of the Bonga South-East Field after reaching a peaceful conclusion and agreement of a deep offshore block, OML 118.
The GCEO has led the NNPC LTD to secure a number of alternative funding facilities for the NPDC and some of the Joint Ventures projects to facilitate further development of assets. These include the N875.75m NPDC OML 65 Alternative Funding and Technical Services package with CMES-OMS Petroleum Development Company and the $3.15bn Alternative Financing Package with Sterling Exploration and Energy Production Company Limited (SEEPCO) and other partners for the development of NPDC’s OML 13.
To reduce the burden of petrol importation, Kyari made sure the NNPC LTD keyed into the decade of gas initiative, led by Timipre Sylva, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, to launch the autogas initiative.
Kyari’s foresight led him to investing heavily in the gas sector with a bid to effectively changing the nation’s trajectory to a gas driven economy. This was done with the signing of NLNG Train 7 project, a future promising project, with the hope of delivering over $20bn in revenue to the government and creation of 50,000 direct and indirectly jobs. With the Russia-Ukraine crisis, Nigeria is now on the verge of being one of the world’s largest gas exporting country all over Africa and Europe.
It is also on record that the Kyari led NNPC LTD saw the successful commencement of the construction of the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline project with a saving of $300m from the initial amount. The AKK project has the capacity of making available around 2.2 billion cubic feet of gas per day with expansion of the pipeline systems to double delivery capacity from 1.5BCF/D to over 3.5BCF/D.
In order to fully cater for the demands of gas domestically, the GCEO also commissioned the Oredo Integrated Gas Handling Facility (IGHF) and the Liquefied Petroleum Gas Storage and Dispensing Unit, with the ability to deliver over 200 million standard cubic feet of dry gas per day and 330 metric tonnes of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (cooking gas) which is equivalent of 16 units of 20 tonnes LPG trucks per day into the domestic market.
Similarly, Kyari saw to the Final Investment Decision (FID) of the Brass Fertiliser and Petrochemical Company for the $3.6bn Brass Methanol Plant in Odioma, Bayelsa State. He also spearhead another investment with the signing of a $260m financing agreement for the Assa-North Ohaji South (ANOH) Gas Project with Seplat, promising about 300 million standard cubic feet of gas per day and 1,200 megawatts of electricity to the domestic market. The NNPC Boss also facilitated the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) Grant which will assist in the upgrade of 1350MW Abuja Independent Power Project to World Bank Standard for bankability.
Mohammed Salihu Danlami is the Speaker Arewa Youth Assembly and writes from Kaduna
mohammedsalihu3@gmail.com
