Tinubu Seeks Senate Approval for New Petroleum Regulators After Exit of Agency Chiefs
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has nominated new chief executives for Nigeria’s petroleum regulatory agencies and transmitted their names to the Senate for confirmation, following the resignation of the heads of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).
In a letter to the Senate, the President nominated Oritsemeyiwa Amanorisewo Eyesan as Chief Executive Officer of the NUPRC and Engineer Saidu Aliyu Mohammed as Chief Executive Officer of the NMDPRA.
The nominations follow the departure of Engineer Farouk Ahmed, former head of the NMDPRA, and Gbenga Komolafe, who previously served as Chief Executive Officer of the NUPRC. Both officials were appointed in 2021 by former President Muhammadu Buhari after the creation of the regulatory bodies under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
According to the Presidency, the nominees were selected based on their professional competence, industry experience and capacity to strengthen regulatory oversight in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.
Eyesan, an Economics graduate of the University of Benin, spent nearly 33 years with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) and its subsidiaries. She retired in 2024 as Executive Vice President, Upstream, and had earlier served as Group General Manager, Corporate Planning and Strategy, between 2019 and 2023.
Engineer Mohammed, a Chemical Engineering graduate of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, was born in 1957 in Gombe State. He recently served as an independent non-executive director at Seplat Energy and previously held several strategic positions, including Managing Director of Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company and the Nigerian Gas Company. He also chaired the boards of the West African Gas Pipeline Company, Nigeria LNG subsidiaries and NNPC Retail.
In addition, Mohammed served as Group Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer, Gas and Power Directorate, where he provided leadership for major gas infrastructure projects and policy initiatives, including the Gas Masterplan, the Gas Network Code and key contributions to the Petroleum Industry Act.
He is credited with involvement in landmark projects such as the Escravos–Lagos Pipeline Expansion, the Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano (AKK) Gas Pipeline and Nigeria LNG Train expansion programmes.
President Tinubu urged the Senate to consider and confirm the nominations promptly, stressing the need to ensure continuity, stability and effective regulation within Nigeria’s petroleum industry.
