Profiles of New Oil Sector Regulatory Chiefs

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

Saidu Aliyu Mohammed (NMDPRA)

Born on  July 17, 1957 in Gombe, Mohammed attended the North-East College of Arts and Science (NECAS) in Maiduguri and Government Secondary School in Gombe. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Chemical Engineering from the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria.

His career at the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPC), then a corporation, included several strategic leadership roles, such as Managing Director of the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) and the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC).

In 2016, he was appointed Group Executive Director/Chief Operating Officer of the Gas & Power Directorate, a position he held until his retirement in 2019. He’s a professional with over 37 years of service in the oil and Gas industry.

He was pivotal to the formulation of the Nigerian Gas Master Plan and the establishment of the West African Gas Pipeline Authority (WAGPA) and implementation of the Escravos – Lagos Pipeline System (ELPS) Expansion and the Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano (AKK) Gas Pipeline project.

Mohammed served as Nigeria’s representative on the Executive Board of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) and was Chairman of the Board of Directors for the West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCo) and N-Gas (Bermuda), and as a board member for Nigeria LNG Limited. He was also the Chairman/CEO of GasXperts Nigeria Limited and served as an Independent Director on the Board of Asharami Energy Limited.

Mohammed is a COREN registered engineer, a Fellow of both the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) and Fellow and was a past President of the Nigerian Society of Chemical Engineers (NSChE) as well as the Nigeria Gas Association (NGA). He is a member of the Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM) and the Institute of Directors (IoD).

Oritsemeyiwa Amanor

itsewo Eyesan (NUPRC)

Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan is a senior Nigerian petroleum sector professional with more than 30 years of experience spanning upstream investment management, corporate strategy, fiscal negotiations and energy-sector reform. Her last key public office before now was as the Executive Vice President, Upstream, of the NNPC.

Prior to that, Eyesan was Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer at NNPC Limited. In that role, she functioned as the corporation’s principal strategist, leading major commercial negotiations and providing oversight for joint entitlement models governing renewed deepwater Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs)

She also supported strategic initiatives aimed at unlocking significant value for NNPC Limited while advancing ESG and sustainability frameworks.

Earlier, Eyesan served as Group General Manager, Corporate Planning and Strategy at NNPC, where she coordinated long-term corporate strategy, budgeting, capital allocation and performance monitoring across the group. She was closely involved in government-facing strategic and commercial engagements that supported the enactment of the Petroleum Industry Act and the transition of NNPC into a fully commercial entity.

Her career foundation was built at the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), where she rose through several senior roles, including General Manager, Planning. At NAPIMS, she led planning and budgeting for joint ventures and production sharing contracts and was a key negotiator in the settlement of long-standing cash-call arrears with international oil companies, saving Nigeria over one billion dollars and restoring investor confidence.

Eyesan holds a Bachelor of Education degree in Economics from the University of Benin and attended Federal Government College, Warri. She has completed executive training at the Wharton School and other international energy and management programmes.