•NUPRC CEO, others win big at THISDAY Award

Peter Uzoho

The Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Mr. Gbenga Komolafe has posited that the ‘Drill Baby Drill’ policy of the United States’ President Donald Trump would help to free a substantial amount of external funding to help Nigeria develop its huge oil and gas reserves left in the ground.

The policy has elicited a horde of excitement amongst oil-rich nations like Nigeria that support increased oil and gas exploration and production as against promoters of renewable energy who are calling for the defunding of fossil fuels operations over emission concerns.

Komolafe, who spoke to journalists in Lagos, on the sidelines of the 30th THISDAY anniversary award held Monday, where he received the newspaper’s CEO of the Year award for the Public Sector, for 2024, expressed excitement with the US leader’s agenda which he said was favourable to Nigeria.

With the policy, he said the challenge of funding for the development of hydrocarbon resources would relax, pointing out that one of the major challenges facing optimisation of hydrocarbon reserve was the lack of funding driven by the growing momentum and investment in renewables.

“At NUPRC as a regulator, it is our opinion that the Baby drill programme of President Trump would have a positive effect and outlook for us as a nation with a large hydrocarbon reserve.  What that will mean is that the challenge of funding for the development of hydrocarbon will relax.

“If you remember, one of the major challenges facing optimisation of hydrocarbon reserve is funding because with the momentum in renewables and investment in renewables that was already having negative impact on funding of hydrocarbon.

“But given that position of President Trump, that means that funding for fossil fuel will be increased and that will have favorable impact on development of hydrocarbon in Nigeria”, Komolafe stated.

He, however, restated NUPRC’s plans to aggressively ramp up oil and gas production and conduct a new licensing round in 2025, saying those were embedded in the four-point Regulatory Action Plan rolled out by the commission in January 2024.

Based on the implementation of that action plan, he noted that positive turnaround was being witnessed in the area of gradual production growth.

According to him, “We’ve recorded some level of growth at the moment, moving from about 1.4 million barrels per day to about 1.75 bpd as we speak.”

Aside that, he said under the regulatory action plan, the commission equally promised to conclude the licencing started in 2023 as well as that of 2024, adding that by December, the agency succeeded in completing the licensing rounds.

Komolafe equally said the commission was defining strategic approach to achieve and surpass the N15 trillion revenue target given to it for 2025, adding that it surpassed its 2024 revenue generation target by about 163 percent.

The NUPRC boss stated, “For 2025, we have key objectives as we listed in our four-point agenda for the year 2025. So, first among it is for us to continue on the path of sustainable growth in our oil and gas production. And we all know the importance of that ramping up in the federation’s revenue.

“Last year 2024, you remember that the Commission achieved and surpassed its revenue generation by about 163 percent.  This year, our target has been increased to about N15 trillion.

“That is for 2025, so the Commission recognising that target have equally devised a strategy. Of course, the N15 trillion revenue target is so large, but then we are not daunted, we are not intimidated. So rather, we are defining strategic approach to achieve that target.”

Nevertheless, he said the Project 1 Million Barrels launched by the commission in October last year was one of the major programmes to be pursued by his organisation for 2025.

He explained that the idea behind the programme was to create a one-stop-shop by which players within the ecosystem in the upstream could add value by pulling the strength of all players along the value chain to increase oil production.

Aside from that, Komolafe said the NUPRC was equally committed to sustaining transparency in hydrocarbon accounting and is pushing that through digitalisation of the industry.

He cited the Advanced Cargo Declaration Programme and the metering programme being championed by the commission, all aimed at blocking leakages and optimising transparency in the industry.

“So, that becomes another key programme that we are pursuing, believing that we can deliver on the programme that will be able to complement our effort on the project one-million-barrel additional production.

“Again, don’t forget that I said that for this year, we -are focused on four-point agenda. So, the fourth programme we are equally looking at is to sustain our effort on decarbonisation.

“Decarbonising the upstream activities which is in line with the energy transition footprint globally”, he added.

However, in his acceptance speech after receiving the THISDAY CEO of the Year for the public sector category, Komolafe thanked and commended THISDAY and ARISE Group for their culture of excellence and for sustaining excellence in the last three decades.

He added, “And also, let me say that for us at the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, we will work very assiduously to create investor’s confidence and attract predictability in the Nigerian upstream petroleum sector.

“I want to dedicate this award to my team, and we also thank our dear President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the support he has been given to the commission. To the ARISE and THISDAY, we want to once again commend you for your culture of excellence and for sustaining excellence.”

Apart from Komolafe, other oil and gas chief executives that shined at the ceremony with their respective awards included Managing Director of FIRST E& P, Mr. Ademola Adeyemi-Bero who won the Titan of the year; Chairman of Seplat Energy Plc, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma and the Executive Chairman of South Atlantic Petroleum Limited (SAPETRO), Mrs Daisy Danjuma who both won the Lifetime Achievement award.

Moreover, Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals emerged winner of the THISDAY Company of the Year, while Shell beat TotalEnergies and Indorama to win the Investor of the year.