How Mele Kyari Rescued Nigeria, Increased Oil Production By 60,000 Barrels Per Day

*First E&P narrates how NNPC saved company

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

Despite the harsh criticisms of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), the national oil company under Mele Kyari as Group CEO, has in recent times worked very hard to improve Nigeria’s daily crude production by as much as 60,000 barrels per day, it was learnt yesterday.

Slowly and steadily, the Group Chief Executive, Mele Kyari, of the NNPCL is returning Nigeria to the heyday of producing crude oil sufficient to satisfy its Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) quota.

Indeed, from a low of 900,000 barrels monthly oil production in the last quarter of 2022, under the Kyari-led NNPCL, Nigeria in July 2024 hit 1.53 million barrels per day, including condensates, according to data from the upstream regulator.
So, it’s not just gloom and doom and missed deadlines for delivering on refinery overhauls and construction of grid length gas pipelines, a source told THISDAY.
Aside the breakup of a decades-long inability to release yearly Annual Financial Statements (AFS), several industry operators also acknowledge the role played by Kyari in saving their operations.

Founder and Chief Executive Officer of First E&P, Ademola Adeyemi-Bero, recently said that the NNPCL rescued his company from financial abyss, to deliver the 60,000 bod Madu-Anyala fields.
“When we finally put the development plan in place, we were looking for about $725 million to develop Anyala and Madu fields,” Adeyemi-Bero told Africa Oil+Gas Report.

The two fields are a pair of undeveloped discoveries in oil mining leases (OMLs) 83 & 85, which First E&P purchased from Chevron in 2015. OMLs 83 & 85 are located in shallow water, offshore central Niger Delta.

“At that time, you may have heard that we were talking to a multinational oilfield services company which was supposed to help with financials. We closed that deal but a few months after, the company stepped back and said they could not do it. Not because the project was not viable, but there was a change of policy at their head office. The company was supposed to finance the joint venture, our 40 per  share, and NNPC’s 60 per cent share.

“They looked at our plan, they liked the fact that we have done it up to the finance and when the multinational oilfield services company stepped back, we didn’t have the money and to raise money in financing was challenging at that time.
“So NNPC said ‘First E&P, we’ve looked at this plan, we believe in this; how much do you need to bring the first field on stream?’ We told them. And they said go ahead, we would fund it 100 per cent; they had never done that before,” he added.

He said the NNPC support came, not only from funding, but also by giving the company freedom on contracting.
“Even in terms of our deal with the multinational oilfield services company, they said ‘don’t take the contracting away; leave it with them because they can do the work for you’, he stressed.

Joshua Oke, an oil and gas enthusiast believes Kyari has been a beacon of transparency and accountability.
“His scorecard is impressive, and his efforts have not gone unnoticed. However, with great success comes great envy, and Kyari is now facing opposition from forces of evil who seek to tarnish his reputation.

“When Kyari took over as GMD in 2019, he inherited a company plagued by questions about its business practices. But he has since turned things around with his Transparency, Accountability, and Performance Excellence (TAPE) initiative.
“He has published audited financial statements, made monthly financial and operations reports available to the public, and has been instrumental in the rehabilitation of refineries.

“Despite these achievements, some individuals are bent on destroying Kyari’s reputation. It is clear that these forces of evil are motivated by jealousy and a desire to bring Kyari down. But their efforts will not succeed. Kyari’s achievements speak for themselves, and he has the support of the government and the people,” he said.

When Kyari assumed duty as the head of NNPC on July 7, 2019, it was at a critical period not only in the life of the corporation but for the entire Nigerian oil and gas sector as well as the national economy.
It was a turbulent period characterised by low production, burgeoning vandalism of oil pipelines, oil theft on a grand scale, and demoralised staff of the corporation.

His assignment was clearly cut out. A lot was riding on his appointment as time seemed to be running out. It clearly wasn’t a task for the faint-hearted. But Kyari was no spring chicken. An insider, he understood well, the working of the NNPC system. He was going to give it his best shot certainly, NNPCL spokesman, Olufemi Soneye, recently said.

He noted that like every determined achiever and visionary, Kyari hit the ground running. Within days of his appointment, he unveiled his “Roadmap to Global Excellence” anchored on the TAPE Agenda. In the roadmap, TAPE represents Transparency, Accountability, and Performance Excellence. Throughout his time as NNPC GMD remained the guiding rubric of his administration at the corporation.

He said that in a subsequent operation that followed, Kyari announced the discovery of a four-kilometre illegal oil connection line from Forcados Terminal into the sea which had been in operation for nine years.
“Certainly, efforts at checkmating crude oil theft and illegal refineries are yielding positive results as there has been a significant spike of daily oil production to 1.6 million barrels per day.

In addition, Nigeria has regained its position as the largest crude oil producer in Africa, ahead of Algeria, Angola, he added.
In 2022, the company posted its second consecutive year of ‘profit’ announcing N674.1 billion in the 2021 financial period and growing it from N287 billion in 2020. The figure represented an increase of N387 billion or 134.8 per cent when compared to the previous N287 billion recorded in 2020.
In 2023,  the NNPCL announced that it made a profit of N2.5 trillion for the 16 months from December 2022.