The Centre for Reforms and Good Governance has credited reforms at the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited under its Group Chief Executive Officer, Bashir Bayo Ojulari, with improving Nigerians’ confidence in the administration of President Bola Tinubu.
The Centre, in a statement by its Executive Director, Maxwell Onazi, said Ojulari’s leadership since his appointment on April 2, 2025, had strengthened the commercialisation, transparency and operational efficiency of the national oil company.
According to the group, the reforms had produced gains in crude oil production, financial performance, infrastructure development and investor confidence.
It said the developments were consistent with the Federal Government’s Renewed Hope Agenda and demonstrated the importance of appointing professionals to key public institutions.
“Engr. Bayo Ojulari has shown that with disciplined leadership, commercial focus and commitment to transparency, NNPCL can be transformed from a historically loss-making entity into a profitable, investor-ready national asset,” Onazi said.
The Centre cited NNPCL’s reported financial performance in the first half of 2026 as evidence of the changes, saying the company recorded N19.04tn in revenue and N2.28tn in profit after tax between January and June.
It also said statutory remittances to the Federation Account stood at N6.286tn during the period and rose to N7.913tn by the end of July, including N1.627tn remitted in July alone.
Onazi said the figures represented a departure from what the group described as previous patterns of irregular remittances and limited financial disclosure.
“The 2026 half-year numbers speak louder than any rhetoric. Revenue of N19.04tn, profit after tax of N2.28tn and nearly N8tn remitted to the Federation Account in seven months show that NNPCL is now operating as a true commercial entity that delivers value to the Nigerian people,” he said.
The Centre also attributed increased crude oil production to the reforms, saying national output had remained above 1.7 million barrels per day for much of 2026, with production peaking at about 1.73 million barrels per day.
It added that NNPC Exploration and Production Limited had increased its output to about 365,000 barrels per day, following earlier production levels of 355,000 barrels per day recorded in late 2025.
The group further said gas production rose to 7,841 million standard cubic feet per day in June 2026, describing the development as supportive of the Federal Government’s gas-based industrialisation programme.
On infrastructure, the Centre said the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano and Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben gas pipelines had reached 94 per cent and 98 per cent completion respectively.
It also cited progress on the Bonga Southwest-Aparo project and said NNPCL had achieved $3.4bn in savings through contract reviews and optimisation.
“These are not isolated successes. Higher production, stronger gas output, near-completion of critical pipelines and multi-billion-dollar cost savings form a coherent picture of a national oil company that is finally being run with commercial rigour,” Onazi said.
The Centre described Ojulari’s first year in office as a significant period in the ongoing transformation of NNPCL and urged stakeholders to support the reforms.
It said sustaining the changes would be necessary to consolidate and expand the gains recorded in the oil and gas sector.