The new management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has fired the managing directors of the three refineries under the purview of NNPCL.

The refineries include the Port Harcourt Refining Company, Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company, and the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company.

Some other senior officials of the national oil firm were also asked to leave, among them is Bala Wunti, a former chief of the National Petroleum Investment Management Services, a subsidiary of NNPCL.

The new management also asked many officials with one year to their various retirement dates to leave.

Although the company’s spokesperson, Olufemi Soneye, did not respond to enquiries on the matter when contacted, multiple impeccable sources at the firm familiar with development confirmed the shakeup by the new management team.

Recall that President Bola Tinubu, in a sudden move on April 2, 2025, sacked the former NNPCL Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, and other board members of the national oil company, as part of a broader overhaul to boost Nigeria’s crude and gas output. Kyari had been at the helm of the national oil company since 2019.

Sources at the Presidency had told The PUNCH that the sack of Kyari and those affected at the time stemmed from mounting concern over performance and a failure to meet key production targets.

They said the shake-up was a performance-based reshuffle, arguing that those previously in charge “were going in circles” and some of them had “become part of the problem, rather than the solution.”

One official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the matter officially, told our correspondent, “The President did this because of their performance, because we needed to do things differently. The former people were taking us in circles, and then some of them became part of the problem.

“There needs to be a new direction. You need new people to bring new energy into the system. Look at them. Every one of them is capable. They are core industry professionals, real industry experts who know the industry inside and out. They are not politicians. This is the first time we have an entire cast of technocrats.”

Another official said, “It is not about (Kyari’s) age. The NNPCL is a limited liability company and is not governed by civil service rules. So, it’s not about his age. There is always a need to get new brains that can deliver in new directions. The President has his mandate, which is clearly stated in the statement. He gave them his performance metrics, such as the amount of crude we produce. He asked them to review all blocks because we want to know which ones are producing and which are not.

“We have to optimise those that are not producing. He wants them to review all our assets within a certain period and give us good production. By 2030, they must be producing 3,000,000 barrels per day, and between now and 2027, we must stabilise at 2,000,000 per day. Then, gas, we must produce 10 billion cubic meters between now and 2030. These are performance metrics, and that is how it should be done.

“But the former system was not giving us that. They have been around the same spot for years. Our OPEC quota has not improved much since 1973. We have not been able to meet them. That is why reforms are important.”

In the statement issued at midnight by the presidency, Tinubu also appointed the new 11-man board with Bayo Ojulari as the Group CEO and Musa Ahmadu-Kida as non-executive chairman.

Ojulari, the new NNPC Limited Group CEO, hails from Kwara State. Until his new appointment, he was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Renaissance Africa Energy Company. His Renaissance recently led a consortium of indigenous energy firms in the landmark acquisition of the entire equity holding in the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, worth $2.4bn.

Speaking on the latest shakeup that swept the managers of the three refineries under NNPCL management, a source at the company, who spoke to one of our correspondents in confidence due to a lack of authorisation to speak on the matter, said, “The three MDs have been asked to leave.

“They include the MDs of Port Harcourt Refining Company, Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company, and the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company. Some other senior managers were asked to leave as well.”

Another official at the company confirmed this, stating that “Bala Wunti was also affected. Several of them who have a year to retirement were asked to go. Maryam Idrisu was appointed Managing Director of NNPC Trading.” NNPC Trading is the subsidiary responsible for all crude oil transactions.

Soneye still didn’t respond to inquiries or give official confirmation on the issue, as questions sent to his WhatsApp line were not answered. However, it was gathered that the continued poor performance of the refineries contributed to the exit of the managing directors.

On Tuesday, The PUNCH exclusively reported that the NNPCL came under fire as the $897m Warri refinery revamp flopped. The report also stated that the Port Harcourt refinery had been struggling at under 40 per cent. production capacity

Industry operators and experts questioned the operational integrity of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, particularly regarding transparency, efficiency, and overall management of Nigeria’s refineries under its purview.

This was after the revelation that the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company has remained shut since January 25, 2025, due to safety issues in its Crude Distillation Unit Main Heater.

An April 2025 document on the Midstream and Downstream sector obtained from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority revealed that the refinery, which consumed $897.6m in maintenance costs, failed to produce Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) and was shut down barely a month after former NNPCL boss, Kyari, declared it operational.

Industry operators and experts described this as disheartening, while further findings showed that the Port Harcourt Refining Company, which resumed operations in November 2024, had been operating below 40 per cent capacity.