The redeployment of top management staff of the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) is to reposition the company to meet its production and national reserve targets, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said on Tuesday.

The agency also said the redeployed managers failed to provide efficient leadership for some of the assets needed to reposition the company.

The Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mele Kyari, earlier on Tuesday told PREMIUM TIMES that reforms in the NNPC had commenced with the redeployment of about 12 top management and other middle cadre officials of the upstream exploration and production subsidiary.

Also, the NNPC Chief Operating Officer (Upstream), Rowland Ewubare, said the reorganisation became imperative following the urgent need of the current management “to grow the NPDC into a big time exploration and production player in the country.”

Mr Ewubare said for the NPDC to measure up to its peers, it needed a team of professionals that were fit-for-purpose and could deliver on project timelines and budgets.

READ ALSO: Tribunal dismisses PDP’s petition against Uba Sani’s election

“The shake-up in the NPDC was a routine exercise that was ongoing. Other staff not suitable for the posts they are currently occupying would be redeployed for national interest,” Mr Ewubare said.

“The redeployment exercise is a signal to all members of staff that it is no longer business as usual. We are determined, as a management, to meet the four cardinal points of transparency, accountability with performance excellence (TAPE).

“Therefore, the redeployment has nothing to do with ethnicity, religion, or any sectional interest. The current NNPC management reflects all the six geo-political zones,” Mr Ewubare said.

The official said it was appropriate to have a team of professionals who understood the urgency of the mission and vision of the present administration in the oil and gas industry.

He said NPDC as the E & P arm of the corporation was strategic to the achievement of the target to grow the nation’s reserves and production to 40 billion and 3 million barrels per day respectively by 2023.

He said with the president’s clear mandate, “the Kyari-led management was prepared to rejig personnel to meet the target”.

He said upon assumption of office, an evaluation of personnel was carried out which indicated incompetence and compromise on the part of some staff which necessitated the shake-up.

“They (redeployed managers) failed to provide efficient leadership for some of the assets needed to reposition the company.

“I must put on record that the changes would continue until we get the right optimal managerial talents for the management of those critical assets,” Mr Ewubare said.