By Agada Abuh Theophilus
When President Bola Ahmed Tinubu appointed Engr. Bashir Bayo Ojulari as Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) on April 2, 2025, few could have predicted the scale of change that would unfold in just 365 days.
A mechanical engineer with nearly 35 years of hands-on experience across the global oil and gas value chain, Ojulari brought a rare blend of operational expertise, commercial acumen, and unapologetic pragmatism to Nigeria’s most strategic state enterprise.
His tenure has not only delivered unprecedented financial turnaround and operational efficiency but has also restored investor confidence, institutionalised transparency, and repositioned NNPCL as a profit-driven catalyst for national energy security.
Ojulari’s sterling background proved instrumental in driving this change. He began his career in 1989 at Elf Petroleum Nigeria as a process engineer, the first Nigerian in that role before joining Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) in 1991.
Over more than two decades at Shell, he rose through the ranks in petroleum engineering, asset development, production management, strategy, and deepwater operations across Nigeria, the Netherlands, and Oman. He later served as Managing Director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo) from 2015 to 2021. This IOC-honed pedigree equipped him with the discipline to diagnose systemic inefficiencies quickly, demand accountability, and make commercially sound decisions without political interference, qualities that have defined his first year at NNPCL.
One of Ojulari’s earliest and most transformative moves was to embed transparency as a core operating principle. Under his leadership, NNPCL began consistently publishing comprehensive monthly operational and financial reports, a practice that quickly became “the new normal.”
The company hosted its first-ever Group Earnings Call to announce the audited 2024 financial results, openly disclosing revenue, profits, and operational metrics to stakeholders and the public. Civil society organisations (CSOs) have hailed this as a new era of accountability, especially as Ojulari’s team promptly responded to long-standing audit queries running into trillions of naira.
By supporting Executive Order 9 on financial transparency and committing to deeper disclosure despite internal resistance, Ojulari has dismantled the opacity that once defined the old NNPC. Nigerians now have access to verifiable data on production, revenue, and expenditure, building trust and attracting serious investors who once viewed the company with scepticism.
Ojulari inherited a company haemorrhaging value in several segments, particularly downstream. Yet within months, NNPCL posted historic results. The 2024 audited financials showed a profit after tax (PAT) of ₦5.4 trillion on revenue of ₦45.1 trillion, an 88% jump in revenue and 64% growth in PAT from the prior year. The 2025 unaudited results project an even stronger performance at approximately ₦5.76 trillion PAT. Ojulari captured the significance perfectly: “These results are more than numbers; they are a validation of our strategic direction and the dedication of every member of the NNPC team. This performance strengthens our foundation to fuel Nigeria’s economic growth and energy security, and it reaffirms our commitment to delivering sustained value for all our stakeholders.”
This turnaround stems from ruthless cost discipline, portfolio optimisation, higher upstream output from NNPCL-operated assets, and favourable foreign exchange impacts. NEPL (NNPC Exploration and Production Limited) production surged from 200,000–250,000 barrels per day pre-Ojulari to 330,000 bpd by August 2025 and a record 355,000 bpd by year-end, the highest level since 1989.
Infrastructure milestones, including the ANOH-OB3 pipeline commissioning, AKK River Niger crossing, Madu First Oil, Soku pipeline optimisation, Akpo West start-up, and Gbaran nodal compression, have boosted efficiency and revenue flows. These gains, combined with strengthened joint-venture partnerships with IOCs like Shell, Chevron, and TotalEnergies, have shifted NNPCL from a loss-making behemoth to a commercially viable national asset.
Perhaps Ojulari’s most courageous decision was the temporary shutdown of the Warri, Port Harcourt, and Kaduna refineries, which had collectively consumed billions of dollars in maintenance and rehabilitation with little to show. At the Nigerian International Energy Summit (NIES) in February 2026, he revealed the unflinching rationale behind the move:
“Upon his appointment, his leadership team aimed to understand ‘what was happening in the refinery’. The first thing that became clear is that we were running at a monumental loss to Nigeria. We were just wasting money. I can say that confidently now,” Ojulari said.
“So the first decision that I had to make was to stop the rot by ensuring that we stop and first of all, calibrate quickly, rebase, to see what we do. You wonder how we were losing money.”
He disclosed that political pressure had long existed to keep the plants running as the “supplier of last resort,” but the internal review exposed utilisation rates stuck at 50–55%, escalating contractor costs, value destruction through poor product quality, and no credible path to profitability.
The shutdown in May 2025 was not abandonment but a strategic pause to halt further leakage. NNPCL now seeks experienced private-sector operators rather than mere contractors to rebuild and modernise the facilities under partnership models aligned with the Petroleum Industry Act. This decision has freed up capital and focus for higher-impact areas while underscoring Ojulari’s commitment to fiscal responsibility over political expediency.
Ojulari’s vision extends beyond NNPCL’s balance sheet. He has actively galvanised private investment and stabilised the broader oil and gas ecosystem. His global networks and credibility helped secure Shell’s renewed commitment to the Bonga Southwest-Aparo deepwater field, promising 200,000 barrels of oil per day and 140 MMScf of gas daily, plus thousands of jobs, with presidential approval for Final Investment Decision.
Fast-tracking of Bonga North and Preowei projects is expected to add another 200,000 bpd, positioning Nigeria to exceed 2 million barrels per day by 2027. NNPC Retail has expanded into West Africa with its Oleum lubricants brand, while gas infrastructure projects advance commercialisation and domestic supply.
Crucially, Ojulari has thrown full institutional weight behind the Dangote Refinery. With NNPCL holding 7.25% equity (and exploring an increase to 20%), the company has forged a strategic alliance on crude supply, product off-take, and distribution. Ojulari has repeatedly praised the refinery as “the front line of world-class technology” and a critical stabiliser of national fuel supply, stating publicly, “Thank God for Dangote refinery.” This partnership has already delivered measurable stability in product availability, reducing import dependence and supporting economic resilience. By collaborating rather than competing, Ojulari has demonstrated mature leadership that prioritises national interest over parochial control.
In just one year, Engr. Bayo Ojulari has rewritten NNPCL’s narrative, from a historically opaque, loss-prone entity to a transparent, profitable, and forward-looking national champion. His IOC-forged expertise enabled swift diagnosis of structural rot, bold corrective action on refineries, and aggressive pursuit of growth in upstream and midstream. Through performance-based systems, labour harmony, and investor-focused reforms, he has instilled a culture of excellence, integrity, and patriotism.
As Nigeria charts its energy future amid global transitions, Ojulari’s stewardship offers compelling proof that visionary, merit-based leadership can unlock the full potential of our hydrocarbon resources. The numbers, the pipelines, the partnerships, and the public disclosures all tell one story: under Engineer Bayo Ojulari, NNPCL is no longer managing decline, it is engineering prosperity. The next chapters promise even greater impact, but the foundation laid in this remarkable first year stands as a testament to what focused, courageous leadership can achieve for Nigeria.
Agada Abuh Theophilus is a Public Affairs Analyst/Media Consultant
