All articles in the Petroleum People Section:

A new chairman has been appointed for the board of Maurel et Prom, the Indonesian owned, French headquartered independent.

Wisnu Santoso, currently Senior Vice President of Business Development at Pertamina, succeeds Jaffee Suardin for the remainder of his term.

Suardin had only been chairman for one year. He was CEO of Pertamina Internasional EP when he took over the Chairmanship. His predecessor, John Anis, was in the position for three and half years: between January 2021 and July 2024.

Mr. Santoso, has over 20 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. His recognized expertise in finance and leading large-scale growth operations will be key assets in supporting the Group’s development

M&P’s Chairman has been an employee of Pertamina since the latter’s takeover of the former.

The last two chairmen before Santoso: Anis and Sauardin, were CEOs of of Pertamina Internasional EP, the international subsidiary of Indonesian state hydrocarbon company, Pertamina Group. The new chairman, Santoso, has a lower position in the parent company than his predecessors.

Pertamina acquired M&P in February 2017, after taking a controlling stake, when its subsidiary, PT Pertamina International EP (PIEP), held a significant percentage of M&P’s shares and voting rights after a successful tender offer. Pertamina’s board had approved the takeover in December 2016, and by February 2017, the acquisition was finalized, making M&P an international development platform for Pertamina

Santoso graduated from the Bandung Institute of Technology, and he holds a dual master’s degree from the Colorado School of Mines in the United States and IFP Paris in France, and INSEAD executive management program in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

He began his career at Bank Mandiri before joining the Pertamina Group in 2009 as Vice President of Corporate Business and Initiatives Management at PT Pertamina (Persero). In 2020, he was appointed Director of Business Planning at Pertamina International Shipping, successfully transforming the company into a regional leader in maritime logistics.

Since 2024, he has held the position of Senior Vice President of Business Development at Pertamina, where he notably leads numerous initiatives in the field of renewable energy.

NNPC Ltd has appointed a seasoned communications specialist, acknowledged industry wide, as its new Chief Corporate Communications Officer.

Andy Odeh retired in 2024, as General Manager of External Relations and Sustainable Development at the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Ltd.

He had spent 26 years at the gas company, where he was Manager, Community Relations & Development; Manager, Corporate Business & Logistics Services; Manager, Information Management & Technology; Manager, Corporate Communications & Public Affairs and Manager, Government Relations & Regulatory Compliance, before he took charge of the leadership of the company’s communications.

“He is recognised for his work on major public relations and advertising campaigns for top brands. At NLNG, he successfully managed the company’s rebranding and implemented one of Nigeria’s best-run micro-credit schemes for host communities”, the NNPC says in a release. “Mr. Odeh was also instrumental in instituting the NLNG Prize for Energy Reporting. He is an alumnus of the University of Jos, the University of Lagos, INSEAD Business School, and the Nigeria Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), among others”.

SLB has announced the appointment of Elsie Kambala as its new Country Manager in Namibia.

She succeeds Joao David Tiago, who spent three years on the job.

Kambala brings extensive experience from Namibia’s financial services industry, including executive roles at Old Mutual Investment Group Namibia and the Bank of Namibia.

She also holds a Master of Science in Investment Analysis (Distinction) from the University of Stirling and is currently pursuing an MSc in Oil & Gas with Energy Management, alongside doctoral research focused on sustainable oil and gas policy in Namibia.

Namibia is the hottest exploration spot on the African continent. All the six, western oil majors (ExxonMobil, TOTAL Chevron, Shell bp and ENI) have positions in acreages in the country’s deepwater, where TOTAL, Shell, and Gap Energia have confirmed discoveries of over 3Billion barrels of oil and gas equivalent in place since the current phase of drilling began in 2022.

SLB, the world’s top oil service contractor, is certainly intrested.

“As Country Manager/Director, I serve as the primary representative of SLB within the Country, leading cross-functional coordination and driving common business initiatives”, Kambala wrote in a LinkedIn post. “A critical part of my role is building and nurturing high-level relationships with customers, government entities, and key industry stakeholders, positioning SLB as a partner of choice in Namibia”

The Energy Nexus, a Namibian oil and gas publication, describes Kambala’s appointment as signalling “SLB’s commitment to inclusive, locally grounded leadership as Namibia prepares for first oil and continues building out its energy ecosystem”.

Kambala, who was a part-time-Associate MBA Finance Lecturer at the University of Namibia while she worked at the Bank of Namibia and at Old Mutual, says that the SLB roe confers on her the responsibility for defining and implementing the support structure needed to deliver shared services effectively while ensuring continuous improvement to reduce costs and enhance operational performance.”My responsibilities also include financial oversight at the regional level, where I monitor key performance indicators such as revenue, market share, and income before tax (IBT). I supervise core financial functions including invoicing, field cash control, and the preparation of accounts, while also assessing the cost implications of local structures and localization programs. Maintaining competitive intelligence is essential to inform strategy and identify regional growth opportunities, which enables more accurate market forecasting and resource planning”.

By the Editorial Board of Africa Oil+Gas Report

Bayo Ojulari’s critics loudly accuse him of unutterable display of profligacy in less than six months in office.

His supporters point to the transformative streak in his performance of the job.

While the two board members of the NNPC interviewed by Africa Oil+Gas Report laud his boldness in bringing certain issues for discussion and action by the board, several critics are simply fixated on a man who has shown he could easily be corrupted.

A middle opinion has now wormed itself into the argument, wondering why the former CEO of SNEPCO, the deepwater Nigerian subsidiary of the UK major Shell, didn’t pay enough attention to the fact that, as GCEO of state owned NNPC, he was first and last a political appointee and politics would weigh  more on the perception of his delivery than the merits of technical performance.

The central accusation is that he has been a subject of money laundering investigations following the alleged transfer of millions of dollars to the account of AA&R Investment Group, a company with interests in energy, agribusiness, logistics, and information communication technology.

The actual turn of events or something like it was always a risk that came with filling the NNPC top job with an outsider to the institution. Recruiting a CEO from outside has its pros and cons. Elevating an insider to the top role has its pro and cons.

But while Ojulari’s relationship with AA&R’s founder Abdullahi Bashir-Haske, goes back the last five years, during which time he was employed by Haske, the middle opinion says he could have been minded to distance himself from a man who is married to the daughter of former vice-president Atiku Abubakar, who is President Tinubu’s arch political rival.

Among his many sins?

Ojulari’s single minded  focus on enabling seven workstreams to deliver on Asset Audits and Benchmarking the entire NNPC portfolio, has distracted him from responding to tonnes of phone calls from people who feel responsible for getting him the job and now feel entitled to having him appoint their candidates into several positions in NNPC.

And while he allegedly ignores these people, he has unforgivably retained, in sensitive positions in upper and middle management, elements who feel personally embittered about the ousting of the ancien regime.

The linkage to Atiku has led to comparison between Ojulari and Babajide Sanwoolu, the Lagos state governor, in Tinubu’s orbit

It’s been reportedly hard, in the past few weeks, for any Ojulari supporter to put in a word for him to the President about how good he is on the job.

So, what’s to happen now?

Ojulari has enabled a distrust of President Tinubu with this linkage with Haske; he has not dispensed quickly enough with potential fifth columnists at the NNPC Towers and has not watered the gardens sufficiently of what could have easily have been his own base: those who put in the word for him to be appointed.

His tenure as GCEO of NNPC stands at a critical juncture, marked by bold reforms overshadowed by political controversies. The allegations of profligacy and questionable associations demand transparent investigations, but they should not erase his efforts to modernize NNPC’s operations. His failure to fully navigate Nigeria’s complex political landscape highlights the challenges of leading a national institution where technical merit often contends with patronage expectations. If he prevails, Ojulari’s legacy will depend on his ability to balance these dynamics while restoring public trust and delivering measurable progress.

For NNPC and Nigeria, the path ahead requires leadership that can withstand scrutiny and unite stakeholders in a shared vision of energy security and economic growth.

Adegbite Falade, Group Chief Executive Officer of Aradel Holdings, has been appointed as the next Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Governance Council of the Independent Petroleum Producers Group (IPPG).

He takes over the role in September 2025, during the commemoration of the Group’s 10th Year Anniversary.

The IPPG is an increasingly influential association of indigenous Nigerian E&P operators as well as non-operating upstream acreage licence holders.

With a combined operated production of over 700,000Barrels of Oil Per Day (Seplat alone operates ~240,000BOPD), the group’s members determine, in their day to day work programmes, the Nigerian daily crude oil output.

Mr. Falade will be taking the reins of the body after two consequential chairmen: Ademola Adeyemi-Bero, Chief Executive of First E&P and Abdulrazaq Isa, Group Executive Chairman of Waltersmith Petroman.

While he will be the third Chair of the association, he will be the first non co-founder of the E&P firm that he runs.

“Mr. Falade will no doubt build on our legacy and lead IPPG to greater heights,” Mr. Isa had declared, in a sort of valedictory speech, at the Nigerian Oil & Gas (NOG) Conference in Abuja, in late June 2025.

In the four and half years he has taken the CEO role at Aradel, Falade has notched up a number of accomplishments, the most notable of which was his taking the company to listing on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

‘Gbite Falade is a First Class (B.S.c) graduate (1995) of Electrical & Electronics Engineering from the University of Ibadan, he also holds an MBA from Warwick Business School, Coventry, in the United Kingdom. Mr. Falade has in the past 15 years served in various Senior Executive positions in the Oil & Gas, Power and Services sectors, with responsibilities for Engineering, Operations, Project Execution, Commercial, Client & Stakeholder Management, Strategy and Enterprise Development.

He was previously the Managing Director and Group Chief Operating Officer at Oilserv Group of Companies based in Port Harcourt. Prior to that, he had served variously as General Manager, Portfolio Development and Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Oando Energy Resources as well as Executive Director, Oando Gas & Power. He was also the Petroleum Economics Discipline & Portfolio Lead for Shell EP, Africa.