President Muhammadu Buhari has replaced the nomination of Engr. Sarki Auwalu as the Chief Executive Officer on the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NPRA) board, with Engr. Farouk Ahmed.
Buhari’s request was contained in a letter dated September 28, 2021, and read by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, during plenary on Wednesday.
The president, in a previous letter dated September 16, 2021, had requested the upper chamber to confirm Auwalu alongside three others as board members of the NPRA.
He explained that the replacement request was in accordance with the provision of Section 34(3) of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021.
Since 2019, Auwalu has been the Director/CEO of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), the petroleum sector regulator. In a series of reforms, he closed the 57 marginal oil field bid round successfully 18 years after and created N235 billion revenue; established safety and other centres for the oil and gas industry, revoked licenses of dormant oil facilities; DPR also retired 11 deputy directors for some infractions. However, all these have generated some reactions by interested parties lately.
There were also some concerns since last week according to sources privy to the initial nominations, as they worried over the arbitrary placements. Gbenga Komolafe, who had headed the Nigerian Petroleum Storage Company of NNC and other positions was appointed to head the Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (UPRC), a new agency that would replace DPR which Auwalu currently heads. However, Auwalu was earlier nominated to head the downstream agency which is where Komalafe thrives at the moment.
According to a profile search on Eterna Plc, an oil firm where Mr Farouk Ahmed is stated to be a non-Executive Director. A Bachelor of Science degree holder in Engineering Technology of Southern Illinois University Carbondale, USA, Ahmed worked with NNPC and spent 32 years in various sections including Manager, Crude Oil Marketing Division, and was once a Special Adviser (Downstream) to the GMD-NNPC
The committee is expected to screen the nominee and report to the upper chamber in two weeks.
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