Baru Sets Agenda For NNPC New GMD, Management Team

L-R: Immediate past NNPC GMD, Dr. Maikanti Baru; new NNPC GMD, Mallam Mele Kyari; and pioneer NNPC GMD, Chief Festus Marinho, at the valedictory and hand-over session at the NNPC Towers – Monday.

By CLEMENT NWOJI, Abuja

The out going Group Managing Director (GMD) of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Maikanti Baru has charged the New GMD, Mele Kyari and his management team to set high targets and actualize them for the nation’s interest.

He spoke during a valedictory and handover ceremony organised for him on Monday at the Corporate headquarters of the Corporation in Abuja.

He expressed confidence that as he is leaving the Corporation, he is entrusting the operations into the hands of capable and competent successor and management team.

He said: “The task ahead is enormous, but I have no doubt that the New Management Team will deliver the Next Level agenda of moving the Corporation to even greater heights. Your success in turning around the fortunes of NNPC is success for all of us.

“Over these eventful 1,099 days, I have done my very best to put the Corporation in the path of recovery, then to sustainable growth. As always, there is a time when it is proper to leave the scene for fresh blood to continue the journey of leading the Corporation. For me, this time is now! My joy is, I am leaving behind competent, vibrant and good hands that I can entrust the leadership of the Organisation to.

“I look back with so much pride of what we have achieved together as a family towards moving this great Corporation forward with the Twelve Business Focus Areas. I will like to thank you all for your support especially to all my Chief Operating Officers (COOs) and the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) who are also retiring with me.”

He acknowledged the roles played by each of the six Chief Operating Officers and Chief Financial Officer who made up his top management team in the success of his management and wished the best in their future endeavours.

He urged the new GMD and his management team to focus on staff development, enhance transparency, improve on delivery of energy security to Nigerians, and do everything to step up crude oil and gas production.

Dr. Baru who was visibly elated at the honour of being the only GMD since the inception of the corporation in 1977 to leave office upon attainment of the statutory retirement age and for whom a valedictory session was held, expressed appreciation to staff of the corporation for their cooperation, even as he urged them to extend same to the new management.

He said: “My belief is, if you continue on the same trajectory, we shall surely reach our dream of building a Company that meets the expectations of our founding fathers. That is a world class Energy Company playing its part in the global energy business and meeting the expectations of its Shareholders, the citizens of our great Country- Nigeria.

“On this note, I will like to charge the New Management Team to particularly focus on the following areas: On Staff Development: Emphasis should be on staff development, efficiency and productivity focusing on:
Pursuance of a Lean Corporate Organization by redeploying staff to SBUs for better contribution to productivity and performance. Implementation of the Dual Career Path and Sectoral Salary Structure. Sustaining the Recruitment drive to ensure normal staff demographics rather than the inverted pyramid or “kwashiorkor” that we have. Implementation of the Talent Management Strategy.

“On Transparency: Transparency of operations should be the watch word, focusing on: Continuation of the publishing of monthly operations and financial reports.Resolution of the liquidity challenges and full migration to the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS). Resolution of the under recovery issues through appropriate recommendation for the provision of subsidy in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and the Federation’s Budget Appropriation.

“On Energy: NNPC should continue to lead the way in provision of energy security as a supplier of last resort for petroleum products to Nigerians, power and other energy mix for the Country. Key areas of focus include: Completion of the rehabilitation programme for the Refineries to ensure maximum local production of refined products.

“Completion of the rehabilitation of the Downstream Assets (depots and pipelines) and the development of new ones to ensure better, cheaper and efficient distribution of petroleum products through innovative arrangements including tariffing, BOT, Contractor Financing, etc. Expansion of the retail business and using of PPMC and NNPC Retail as swing suppliers of petroleum products at periods of need especially in a deregulated environment.

“Ensure unrestricted supply of petroleum products across the Country through the DSDP and Make-up volumes. Development of appropriate cost recovery models for the recovery of expenses incurred in discharging the responsibility of being the supplier of last resort. Pursue vigorously the 7-critical gas development projects for gas to power.

“Ensure that the gas supply to NLNG Trains 1 to 6 and Train 7 are firmed up timely to meet the contractual obligations that NLNG must meet. Pursue FID of Train 7 before end of 2019.

“Implement the AKK and other gas infrastructure projects. Complete Okpai Phase 2 power plants, AKK power plants in Abuja, Kaduna and Kano.Pursue Solar power, Wind power and TCN’s National Grid Transmission debottlenecking.

“On Production: Rigorously focus on the growth of oil and gas production and reserve through aggressive exploration campaign in the traditional basins and frontier basins, opening up of deep offshore through negotiation of fiscal terms.

“You should focus on: Passionately continuing empathic community and Stakeholder engagement in the Niger Delta and other areas of operations. Continuing cost reduction initiatives and contracting cycle reduction. Completion of negotiations of the new PSC Terms and Renew licenses early, if necessary thereafter. Implementation of the PSC Dispute Settlement Agreements and emplace the Gas Terms.

“Focus on Exploration to grow reserves in the Niger Delta, Frontier Basins and Deep Offshore. Completion of the cash call repayment and cash call exit program. Completion of the migration to IJV in all our unincorporated JVs.

“Completion of the financing arrangements for NPDC assets (OMLs 65, 111, 119, 66 and 64). Rapidly re-enter and develop OMLs 13 and 11 discretionarily awarded to NPDC.NPDC to target growth to 500kbopd within existing assets while looking for new opportunities to surpass the target.

“It is important that the mission statement of the Corporation is changed to reflect the vision of transforming the Corporation into an Energy Company, in line with the current trend in the Industry and our forays into Renewables and Power.”