President Bola Tinubu has set Nigeria’s oil industry a clear national ambition: three million barrels of crude per day by 2030. When Bashir Ojulari assumed office as Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Limited in April 2025, he placed his mandate firmly behind that target, calling for “courage, professionalism, and a relentless drive for excellence” to deliver it.
I have spent more than 25 years in Nigeria’s oil and gas service sector, and if those years have taught me one enduring lesson, that lesson is this: the distance between a bold target and a delivered outcome is rarely about intention.
Almost always, the difference lies in preparation.
I have seen what happens when ambition runs ahead of structure, and I have seen what becomes possible when the two move together.
Nigeria’s 2030 target will be decided by which of those two stories we choose to write.
