Industry insiders have rejected allegations that NNPCL Group Chief Executive Officer Bayo Ojulari was involved in awarding an oil block or marginal field to a company allegedly linked to his wife. They said neither Ojulari nor the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has the legal power to allocate oil blocks or issue petroleum licences in Nigeria.
Quick facts
- Upstream licensing is handled by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission under the Petroleum Industry Act.
- The Minister of Petroleum Resources grants Petroleum Prospecting Licences.
- Industry sources say Ojulari did not run the bid process, assess applicants, choose beneficiaries or approve any award.
- The Oil and Gas Professionals Forum has alleged that a company connected to Ojulari’s wife benefited from a marginal-field award.
- No corporate, ownership or licensing documents have been produced to substantiate the alleged connection or influence.
The insiders said the claims were unsupported and incompatible with Nigeria’s petroleum licensing framework. Under the Petroleum Industry Act, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, or NUPRC, administers upstream licensing, while the Petroleum Resources Minister holds the authority to issue a Petroleum Prospecting Licence.
On that basis, they said Ojulari had no role in conducting the relevant tender, reviewing applications, identifying successful bidders or approving an oil-block award. One senior industry official described the allegation as unable to withstand even basic scrutiny, saying those promoting it were knowingly presenting the public with a misleading account of the process.
The sources also said opponents of reforms at NNPCL were driving a coordinated effort against the chief executive. They alleged that people and companies whose commercial positions had been weakened by changes under the current management were backing an organisation known as the Oil and Gas Professionals Forum, or OGPF.
OGPF recently claimed that a company associated with Ojulari’s wife had gained from the allocation of a marginal oil field. The insiders said, however, that the group had presented no company filings, beneficial-ownership information, licence records or other independently verifiable material proving either the relationship or any intervention by Ojulari.
They characterised the claims as an effort to damage the CEO’s standing, erode trust in his management and create a basis for demands that he be removed. One source said the issue was not a simple misunderstanding of licensing rules, but an attempt to assign responsibility to Ojulari for a process over which he had no statutory, regulatory or decision-making authority.
The allegations have grown more intense as NNPCL advances initiatives focused on greater transparency in commercial dealings, tighter financial controls, lower operating expenses and a review of arrangements viewed as wasteful or contrary to the company’s commercial goals. The sources said parties that had benefited from opaque transactions and weak controls were resisting the changes because their interests were being affected.
They said the campaign sought to depict Ojulari as ethically compromised, weaken his influence and shift attention away from the institutional overhaul at NNPCL. The sources did not, however, provide documents naming the individuals or organisations they alleged were financing or coordinating the effort.
Since taking office, Ojulari has worked to reposition NNPCL as a commercially focused, efficient and internationally competitive energy company. His priorities have included cutting costs, raising production, improving corporate governance, strengthening financial accountability and increasing openness in the company’s commercial activities.
He has also pressed for stricter discipline in contracting and investment decisions, alongside efforts to eliminate waste, reinforce internal controls and ensure that commercial agreements generate measurable returns for NNPCL and Nigeria. Industry stakeholders said these policies could disrupt established interests, especially where earlier deals operated under limited oversight or inadequate institutional safeguards.
A senior NNPCL official, speaking anonymously because he was not authorised to comment publicly, called the allegations against Ojulari unfounded and politically driven. The official said the CEO had met applicable asset-declaration obligations and requirements under the Code of Conduct.
The official said the claim involving Ojulari’s family could be checked against official company and licensing records. He stressed that NNPCL’s chief executive does not allocate oil blocks, that NNPCL did not run the licensing exercise in question, and that Ojulari neither selected a beneficiary nor authorised an award.
He urged the accusers to submit verifiable material to the relevant investigative bodies instead of spreading what he called unsubstantiated claims through anonymous groups and social-media channels. NNPCL insiders said the company would continue its reform programme, aimed at improving transparency and operational performance while building a more disciplined and commercially successful national energy company.
