Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan has formally taken office as chief executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), pledging to advance the country’s upstream oil and gas sector in line with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021.
She made the remarks during her first town hall meeting with management and staff on Tuesday, 23 December 2025, where she outlined plans to position the Commission as a business enabler and reignite investment in the upstream sector.
Eyesan, a retired oil executive, was nominated by President Bola Tinubu to replace Gbenga Komolafe, who was removed alongside downstream regulator Farouk Ahmed. Both had been appointed under former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Setting out her priorities, Eyesan emphasised production growth and increased gas output. “The goal is that we must enable the industry, we are regulators. We must enable the industry from our interactions with the stakeholders, from our interactions with everybody,” she said in a press statement.
“My main objective is to ensure that we make a difference. I believe the NUPRC is at the centre of the industry.”
With more than three decades of experience in oil and gas, Eyesan promised to entrench digitisation, transparency and efficiency in operations. Between 2019 and 2023, she served as NNPC’s group general manager for Corporate Planning and Strategy, playing a key role in the fiscal, commercial and regulatory work that led to the enactment of the PIA and the transformation of NNPC into a commercial entity.
She told staff the Commission would become “the gold-standard regulator in Africa” with a focus on capacity development, technical depth and sustained engagement with stakeholders, unions and professional teams.
On her leadership style, Eyesan pledged an open-door policy and frequent staff engagement. “If we work together we can unleash opportunities, I don’t see impediments only opportunities,” she added.
Earlier this month, Nigeria launched its most significant oil licensing round since the PIA, offering 50 blocks and targeting $10bn in investment. Komolafe had said the 2025 round could add up to 2 billion barrels of oil output over the next decade, with an estimated 400,000 barrels per day once the blocks are fully operational.