President Bola Tinubu on Thursday inaugurated the newly appointed board and executive management team of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

The inauguration ceremony took place shortly before the President attended the All Progressives Congress (APC) stakeholders summit at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa.

During the ceremony, President Tinubu outlined ambitious targets for the new leadership, charging them with significantly boosting Nigeria's oil and gas production capacity over the next several years.

The President directed the board to increase the country's oil production to two million barrels daily by 2027, with a further target of three million barrels daily by 2030. These targets represent a substantial increase from current production levels.

In addition to oil production goals, Tinubu mandated an increase in gas production to 8 billion cubic feet daily by 2027 and 10 billion cubic feet by 2030. The President also tasked the new leadership with elevating NNPC's share of crude oil refining output to 200,000 barrels by 2027 and 500,000 barrels by 2030.

The inauguration comes approximately seven weeks after Tinubu appointed Bayo Ojulari as Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL and Ahmadu Musa Kida as non-executive chairman of the state-owned oil firm.

These appointments and the ambitious targets set by the President underscore the administration's focus on revitalizing Nigeria's oil and gas sector, which remains the country's primary source of foreign exchange earnings despite ongoing diversification efforts.

The new NNPCL leadership faces significant challenges, including addressing issues of oil theft, pipeline vandalism, and declining investment in the sector, which have contributed to Nigeria's struggle to meet its OPEC production quotas in recent years.

Industry experts will be watching closely to see what strategies the new board implements to achieve these ambitious production and refining targets in the coming years.