Barkindo Named New NNPC Group MD

Major oil industry changes were announced today as President Umar Musa Yar’dua picked the Coordinator of Special Duties at the NNPC to replace Abubakar Yaradua as Group Managing Director.
Mohammed Barkindo was at the Presidential Villa in Abuja this afternoon to receive briefings regarding his new appointment.
His position as the Coordinator, Special Duties, at the NNPC was equivalent to a Group Executive Director.
The NNPC management structure comprises of a group managing director and six group executive directors, heading Exploration & Production, Refineries & Petrochemicals, Finance & Accounts, and Corporate Services. The others are Commercial & Investment, and Engineering & Technology.
Mr. Barkindo, a political scientist, was a former Head of the London office of the NNPC: A former Deputy Managing Director at the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas who also acted as the Secretary General of OPEC. He was a former Managing Director of Hyson and Carlson, a joint venture between Vitol and the NNPC, which lifts more than a quarter million barrels per day of Nigeria’s crude oil.
In what looks like a re-organization in Nigeria’s Oil and Gas sector, Mr. Barkindo’s elevation coincides with the retirement of Abubakar Yaradua, the hitherto Group Managing Director and Sena Anthony, Group Legal Adviser.
NNPC insiders believe this is the beginning of the much anticipated shake-up in the industry as the Mr. Yar’dua moves to implement the programme to unbundle the oil giant.
The core of the reform is expected to be the creation of independent, profit-driven state oil and gas institutes made up of a national oil company, and divide into a National Petroleum Asset Management Agency, a Nigerian Petroleum Directorate and a Nigerian Petroleum Inspectorate.
Mohammed Sanusi Barkindo hails from Yola in Adamawa State.