Repositioning a national oil company is never just about building pipelines, drilling wells, or overhauling refineries. It’s about building trust, securing buy-in, and creating a governance structure that convinces investors the organisation can deliver returns. For Bashir Bayo Ojulari, Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), that’s the starting point.
Since taking the helm in April 2025, Ojulari has pursued a twin-track strategy: engage stakeholders at every level and implement deep institutional reforms that will set the foundation for NNPCL’s transformation into an integrated oil conglomerate.
Nigeria’s NNPCL is at an inflection point. Transitioning from a state-run national oil company into a commercially driven conglomerate means competing for capital and credibility in the global energy marketplace.
Ojulari’s vision is for NNPCL to operate more like an international holding company overseeing multiple profitable subsidiaries across upstream, midstream, downstream, and petrochemical businesses. That shift requires changes in corporate culture, financial governance, and operational transparency.
“Investors need to see not only potential but also professionalism,” he said at an industry forum earlier this year. “We can’t just talk about transformation we must institutionalise it.”
One of Ojulari’s first moves was to prioritise direct engagement with NNPCL’s many stakeholders — from employees and unions to private-sector partners and foreign investors.
Inside the company, he has held a series of town halls across NNPCL’s operational hubs. These sessions, often streamed live to remote facilities, are meant to communicate the transformation agenda directly to staff, address concerns, and ensure alignment with new performance expectations.
Externally, Ojulari has been a regular presence at industry conferences, investor roundtables, and meetings with indigenous oil operators. His messaging is consistent: NNPCL’s future lies in collaboration — with the private sector, international oil companies, and local entrepreneurs.
“We must move from being gatekeepers of resources to being partners in value creation,” he told a Lagos business audience. “That’s how we scale NNPCL and Nigeria’s energy sector.”
While engagement builds goodwill, Ojulari knows it must be backed by institutional change. He has outlined reforms in three key areas:
Commercial Governance: Strengthening the decision-making process to reflect commercial best practices rather than bureaucratic approvals. This includes clarifying accountability for business units and giving subsidiary managers more operational autonomy while holding them to measurable results.
Performance Metrics: Introducing clearer performance scorecards tied to profitability, efficiency, and delivery timelines. These metrics are not only for internal evaluation but also to build a track record investors can assess.
Local Content Partnerships: Structuring joint ventures that are both commercially viable and supportive of Nigeria’s local content policy. This involves creating bankable deals where local operators share risk and reward with NNPCL.
According to analysts, these measures aim to shift NNPCL’s reputation from a bureaucratic entity into a credible commercial partner. “Governance reform is the first filter investors look for,” said an energy sector analyst based in Abuja. “Without it, no amount of project announcements will bring in sustained capital.”
Ojulari’s credibility in pushing reforms comes from his background. Before joining NNPCL, he held senior positions at Shell, overseeing complex deepwater projects. Later, he led private-sector consortium acquisitions, requiring high-level negotiations on farm-ins, asset sales, and equity partnerships.
These skills are exactly what NNPCL will need as it expands beyond crude production into refining, midstream infrastructure, and petrochemical ventures.
“Ojulari understands the importance of structuring deals that work for both sides,” said a former colleague. “In oil and gas, credibility is currency, and he has it.”
For Ojulari, the “oil conglomerate” model means NNPCL will act less like a single monolithic operator and more like a diversified group holding strategic investments across the energy value chain.
Upstream: Focused on optimising production and monetising assets through joint ventures with international and local partners.
Midstream: Expanding pipeline networks, gas processing plants, and storage facilities to support domestic industries and exports.
Downstream: Modernising fuel distribution networks and exploring partnerships in refining and petrochemicals.
New Energy: Positioning NNPCL to participate in cleaner fuels and renewable integration where commercially viable.
To make this happen, governance reforms must ensure each business unit operates efficiently, reports transparently, and can attract its own project-level investment.
A major pillar of Ojulari’s reforms is transparent procurement. This has been a sensitive area for NNPCL in the past, with allegations of opaque contracting processes undermining investor confidence.
Ojulari has signalled a move towards open, competitive bidding for major contracts, with clearer criteria and digital tracking to monitor compliance. The goal is not only to eliminate corruption risk but also to ensure that procurement timelines don’t stall project delivery.
Winning Over Investors
Institutional reform and stakeholder engagement are not abstract goals they are designed to make NNPCL a magnet for investment. The company has set ambitious targets to attract billions of dollars in capital over the next five years.
By demonstrating governance improvements and delivering early joint venture successes, Ojulari hopes to convince both domestic and international financiers that NNPCL can provide competitive returns in a challenging but resource-rich environment.
Investor confidence will be especially critical in funding large-scale projects such as gas monetisation, refinery modernisation, and petrochemical expansion.
Despite the progress in strategy and outreach, the road ahead is not without obstacles. Internal resistance to change, political oversight, and the sheer complexity of Nigeria’s oil and gas regulatory environment could slow implementation.
There is also the challenge of managing public expectations. Nigerians want quick wins lower fuel prices, more reliable supply, and visible benefits from the country’s oil wealth. These outcomes may take years to materialise, creating a potential gap between reform rhetoric and public perception.
For Ojulari, scaling NNPCL is about playing the long game. It’s about putting in place structures and partnerships that will last beyond his tenure, positioning the company and by extension, Nigeria’s energy sector for sustainable growth.
“Transformation is not an event; it’s a process,” he said in a recent address. “But every process must start with trust and that’s why stakeholder engagement is at the heart of what we’re doing.”
If successful, his playbook could become a case study in how a national oil company evolves into a competitive energy conglomerate in the era of global energy transition.
Bashir Bayo Ojulari’s NNPCL strategy hinges on a simple but demanding formula: win trust, reform governance, and deliver results. If he can keep all three in balance, Nigeria’s state oil giant may finally earn its place among the world’s most competitive energy companies.
