The Group Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Bayo Ojulari, has expressed support for Executive Order 9, describing it as a step toward improving financial openness across Nigeria’s energy industry.
Ojulari spoke during an interview on the sidelines of the CERAWeek by S&P Global in Houston, United States, where he noted that the objective of the directive goes beyond NNPC and is aimed at enhancing accountability across the entire sector.
According to him, the company is not opposing the directive but is instead working closely with the implementation team to ensure the policy achieves its intended goals without operational setbacks. He stressed that NNPC is providing technical input to guide how the order will be applied in practice.
President Bola Tinubu signed Executive Order 9 last month to tighten revenue management in the oil and gas industry, reduce waste, and address structural overlaps within the system. The directive draws authority from Section 44(3) of the Constitution, which vests control of the nation’s mineral resources in the federal government, including those found in territorial waters and the Exclusive Economic Zone.
One of the key aims of the order is to restore revenue allocations to federal, state, and local governments that were altered following the implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act.
Under the current framework of the law, NNPC retains 30 percent of the federation’s oil earnings as a management fee tied to Profit Oil and Profit Gas from various contract models, including production sharing and risk service arrangements.
However, the directive has drawn criticism from the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria. Its president, Festus Osifo, argued that the executive action undermines key sections of the Petroleum Industry Act.
Osifo warned that setting aside provisions of an existing law through an executive order could create uncertainty for investors and send the wrong message about regulatory stability in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.
