Ogunleye is new NLNG deputy MD as Mai-Bornu returns to NNPC

By: Maduabuchi Efegadi

The board of directors of Nigeria’s gas liquefaction company, NLNG Limited, has approved the appointment of Olalekan Olufemi Ogunleye as new deputy managing director, succeeding Sadeeq Mai-Bornu, who served out his appointment at the NLNG.

Mai-Bornu who was appointed in April 2016, will return to his parent company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC).

Ogunleye, who is concluding his tenure as managing director and chief executive officer of Gas Aggregation Company Nigeria Limited (GACN), will assume office on 14 April.

According to the NLNG, Sadeeq had contributed significantly to repositioning the gas company as a globally competitive LNG company, and oversaw vital projects, including the Train 7 project, remarketing of volumes for Trains 1-3, and the expansion of the company’s domestic LPG market initiative. He also oversaw the implementation of the ongoing Bodo-Bonny Road project, one of NLNG’s biggest CSR initiatives, and the NLNG Realigning to Win (RtW) project, an organisational improvement initiative that has positioned it as a more effective company.

Ogunleye, a lawyer, comes to NLNG with rich gas industry experience. At GACN, he oversees adequate gas supply to the domestic market and manages the interface between gas buyers and sellers. He was strategic to the federal government’s gas programmes, the decade of gas and autogas initiatives.

Before his appointment at GACN, Ogunleye served as the general manager and chief executive officer of N-Gas Limited (N-Gas), a joint venture company between 2018 and 2019; and company secretary and legal adviser at Nigerian Gas Marketing Company (NGMC) Limited (2017-2019) and Nigerian Gas Company Limited (2014–2018), both subsidiaries of the NNPC.

NLNG, a multi-billion-dollar gas liquefaction company, is an incorporated joint venture owned by four shareholders, the Nigerian federal government, represented by the NNPC with 49% equity, Shell Gas B.V. (25.6%), TotalEnergies Gaz & Electricite Holdings (15%), and Eni International N.A. N. V. S.àr.l (10.4%).