Accomplished Oil and Gas Technocrat, Mr Bala Wunti, Now Holds Sway At NAPIMS As GGM

…As PPMC boss, he eliminated intractable petrol scarcity across the country

After a 30-year stint in the nation’s petroleum industry, Mr Bala Wunti, has been appointed the Group General Manager, National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Wunti, the outgoing Managing Director of the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), will be overseeing the corporation’s joint upstream  investments with the major oil producing companies in Nigeria.

As the PPMC MD, he ensured that petrol scarcity was eliminated across the country by promoting transparency in fuel distribution.

The new GGM was the initiator of ‘Operation White,’ a system put in place to promote transparency and accountability in the distribution of petroleum products across the country.

An accomplished oil and gas technocrat, Wunti is a graduate of Chemistry from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and also holds Masters in Business Administration (MBA) in Marketing from the Tafawa  Balewa University (TBU) in Bauchi and a Postgraduate  Diploma in Management from TBU.

Wunti had served as the Group General Manager, Corporate Planning and Strategy of the NNPC. As the Chief Strategist and Commercial Superintendent for the Corporation, he was saddled with the task of driving commercial focus, business planning and budgeting process.

Between 2016 and 2017, he was the General Manager/Technical Adviser Downstream  to the GMD/CEO of NNPC where he developed and ensured the implementation of a Petroleum Product Supply and Distribution Model.

Wunti played key role in the transformation and restructuring of the hitherto beleaguered NNPC Downstream entities.

Also , he was the pioneer General Manager, NNPC Efficiency Unit from 2015 to 2016 where he set the tone for ‘turning NNPC’s curve’ to a highly efficient and performing organisation through the development of a strategic plan focused on revenue improvement and cost curtailment.

In earlier roles, Mr Wunti’s excellence, remarkable capability and depth in leadership was proven beyond any reasonable doubt as Technical Advisor and Later Senior Technical Advisor to the GMD (2010 -2015) , where he managed a dynamic team of over forty personnel rendering Technical and Business Advisory as well as stakeholders management services to the GMD.

Before his foray into these roles, he was the Head of Market Research at Brass LNG (2004 -2010), Assistant Chief Market Research Officer, Eleme Petrochemicals (1998 -2004) and Manager Chemicals, Import & Export, Doma Chemicals Lagos (1990 -1991), among others.

Boasting of almost three decades experience in the oil and gas industry, Wunti has led projects as follows: High impact commercial negotiations and dispute resolution in the Nigerian deep-water PSCs; corporate and business unit strategy development; business modelling and transformation journey navigation; profit improvement/cost optimization programmes.

Others are Contracts /Sales Agreements Negotiation;  Oil, LNG, LPG & NGL Markets Trend & Analysis and Change management/ Culture architecting and embedding.

Wunti is a member of key oil industry associations including the Nigerian Gas Association, National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria, Polymer Institute of Nigeria and Chemical Society Of Nigeria.

On the international scene, he has a proven track record in energy diplomacy, international coordination and relationship management as  Nigeria’s representative in the Gas Exporting Countries’ Forum.