Yemisi Izuora
The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Engr. Bashir Bayo Ojulari, has called for stronger collaboration across Nigeria’s energy industry to unlock Africa’s vast energy potential, saying partnerships remain the key to driving investment, industrialisation and sustainable growth.
Ojulari made the call in his keynote address at the opening ceremony of the 25th NOG Energy Week at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre, Abuja.
At the event, Ojulari, also highlighted significant operational, commercial and financial milestones achieved over the past year, under his stewardship.
He disclosed that NNPC Ltd recorded an average 98 per cent recovery across its five crude oil export terminals between April 2025 and May 2026, compared with operational lows of about one per cent at the Bonny Oil and Gas Terminal in June 2022.
Ojulari also announced that Nigeria’s crude oil production has risen to 1.71 million barrels per daythe highest level in five yearswhile NNPC Exploration and Production Limited (NEPL) achieved a record production of 365,000 barrels per day.
He added that gas production reached 7.5 billion standard cubic feet per day, driven by the successful completion of the River Niger crossing on the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) Gas Pipeline and the commissioning of the ANOH Gas Processing Plant.
According to him, NNPC Ltd maintained 100 per cent compliance with all Joint Venture cash call obligations throughout 2025 and up to June 2026, while sustaining its drive toward achieving crude oil production of two million barrels per day.
Since the last NOG Energy Week, he said, the Company has signed landmark Gas Sale and Purchase Agreements (GSPAs) covering 1.29 billion standard cubic feet per day for long-term LNG feed gas and 750 million standard cubic feet per day for domestic industrial gas supply to DFL FZE and Dangote Refinery.
“These agreements represent more than US$20 billion in associated investments, with seven additional commercial transactions in the pipeline,” Ojulari said.
The GCEO further revealed that NNPC Ltd resumed full monthly remittances to the Federation Account in July 2025, reinstated monthly business performance reporting and hosted its first-ever earnings call in November 2025, reinforcing the Company’s commitment to transparency, accountability and investor confidence.
He urged stakeholders to move beyond transactional relationships to strategic partnerships, from isolated projects to integrated value chains, and from exporting raw resources to building competitive industrial economies.
“At NNPC Limited, we see ourselves not just as an energy producer but as an ecosystem builderconnecting capital, technology, policy, talent and markets to create lasting value for Nigeria and Africa,” he said.
Describing the energy sector as one of the world’s most interconnected industries, Ojulari said no single organisation could unlock Africa’s energy potential alone.
Ojulari identified fragmented collaboration as one of the biggest barriers to Africa’s energy transformation, noting that weak linkages between resource owners and operators, investors and projects, innovation and execution, and policy and capital continue to constrain growth.
Despite holding about 17 per cent of global natural gas reserves alongside vast oil and renewable energy resources, he observed that Africa still attracts only a small share of global energy investment.
He urged governments, national oil companies, investors, regulators, financiers, academia and service providers to work together to position Africa as a global hub for energy investment, technology and value creation.