A new Group Managing Director for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has been announced. He is Mele Kolo Kyari.
Mr Kyari succeeds the incumbent GMD, Maikanti Baru, who is due for retirement from the NNPC next month.
Mele Kolo Kyari is from Borno State and was born in January 1965.
He comes to the job as the 19th GMD of the NNPC with a rich profile of professional and service credentials.
Until his new appointment, Mr Kyari, who is a geologist, was Group General Manager, Crude Oil Marketing Division of the NNPC.
Since May 13th 2018, he also doubled as Nigeria’s National Representative to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC.
He holds a B.Sc degree in Geology and Earth Science from the University of Maiduguri.
He worked with the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency between 1988 and 1991, before joining the NNPC and has gathered over 32 years of experience in the oil and gas industry.
Within the last 27 years Kyari has traversed the entire value chain of the petroleum industry posting resounding performance in all his assignments and duty posts.
In 2007 Kyari won the GMD Prize for the Overall Best Performance for NNPC Management Development Program. Also ni the same year, he was awarded GED CS Award for best Performance in Leadership
Kyari led a team that proposed and managed the Direct Sales and Direct Purchase (DSDP) arrangement of Petroleum products from 2016 to date, a process that saved the nation $1 million in 2016 when compared with the previous crude SWAP arrangement with products.
He has participated in various deep water projects across the globe.
Kyari as head of Crude Oil Marketing Division of the NNPC has ensured optimum determination and secured government’s equities and entitlements of crude oil, Natural Gas Liquids, NGL, Liquefied Petroleum Gas, LPG production from various fiscal arrangements.
Kyari is also a unionist, and many have cited his activism as a trade unionist as likely reason why he is an advocate for transparency. He is fondly called by other unionists as “grand chairman.”
His tour of duty traverses the entire value chain of the petroleum industry. Kyari is succeeding Maikanti Baru, who is leaving the position after attaining the mandatory retirement age.
