The recent appointment of the new Chairman of the Ministerial Steering Committee (SteerCo) of the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme (NGFCP), Engr. Rabiu Suleiman has shown the seriousness of the Federal Government in driving the gas flare commercialisation programme with the deserved attention.
Before now, the country loses a lot of fortunes from endless gas flaring even in face of mounting anger of both local residents and even the economy that is importing the same product it is flaring.
Suleiman is coming from a deep rooted wealth of professional experience in the Oil and Gas industry traversing Refinery Operations, Projects Management, Health, Safety, Environment & Quality (HSEQ) Management, LNG Plants Operations, Engineering and Technology Management, Frontier Exploration and Renewable Energy Initiatives running for over three decades.
A statement issued by the Program Manager, NGFCP, Mr Justice Derefaka, said “The aim of the Federal Government in creating the NGFCP is to serve as a one stop department in charge of driving the much needed Commercialisation of gas flares sites for the purpose of harnessing the hitherto wasted gas in oil field”.
There are about 178 gas flare sites across the Nigerian oil communities scattered around the five core oil states and adjoining other four marginal oil producing states.
Currently the Head of engine room of the Petroleum Minister’s Offices as a Group Executive Director and Senior Technical Advisor appointed by The President and seconded from the NNPC Group.
From January, 2008 to July 2009, Suleiman was the Manager, Health, Safety, Environment and Quality Assurance (HSEQ&A) of Nigeria LNG Bonny where he initiated and executed several value adding projects that changed the face of safety in the company and introduced new positive developments in safety performance / compliance, waste management and community relations.
Under his leadership as the pioneer GM, HSE of NNPC from July 2009 – Aug 2015, Dr. Suleiman laid the foundational building blocks to align HSE practices to world class standards in the NNPC group including development and deployment of the first ever Group HSE policy and subordinate policy statements; HSE Management System and HSE Data / Incident Management e-solution to mention a few. He championed the change of name of the erstwhile “Environment and Safety Department” to the globally recognized nomenclature – “Group Health, Safety and Environment Department” and upgrade of reporting line from Division to the Directorate for HSE to become a functional responsibility of the Corporation’s CEO.
It was to his credit as GM, GHSE that NNPC was awarded “Africa Most Outstanding HSE Compliant Corporation” at a grand event in Accra, 2012. The project for “Disposal of residual Tetraethyl lead (TEL), facilities decontamination, decommissioning and remediation at NNPC refineries” was successfully executed without any recordable incidence and in line with strict UNEP regulatory and duty of care requirements under his watch as Project Engineer thereby launching Nigeria as a unleaded gasoline Manufacturing Nation.
As part of NNPC restructuring efforts, Dr. Suleiman was deployed as GGM, Frontier Exploration Services and Renewable Energy Division (FESRED) from March 2016 – July 2016. A non-geoscientist, Dr. Suleiman provided visionary, all inclusive, passionate, selfless and capable leadership to the FES team, giving them hope for a vibrant FES Division due to his personal commitment to technical issues on the development of new frontiers and general staff welfare.
Redeployed as GGM, Renewable Energy Division (RED) from July 2016 to January 2017, Dr. Suleiman, during the short time succeeded to reinvigorate activities of the ‘moribund’ Division which, since inception in 2005 by Presidential directives, had not made appreciable progress on implementation of the National Biofuels program. Through his interventions, RED came alive with activities, clear direction and a great sense of purpose; activities were fast tracked culminating in signed MOUs with core investors for implementation of the pioneer Sugarcane to Fuel ethanol project in Benue State and other projects; the development of other renewable energy sources e.g. solar PV solutions and energy efficiency projects progressed significantly with engagements of core Investors for technical and financial partnerships; and the coordination of Oil and Gas Sector inputs on implementation of Nigeria’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) as pledged by Mr. President in Paris in December 2015 received the desired attention and moved to the next level by establishing gas flares and emissions data collation and monitoring desks in the IOCs.
In November, 2015 Dr. Suleiman was appointed Group Executive Director, Corporate Services of NNPC before being deployed on secondment to Hon. Minister’s office to head the Technical Advisory Team as Senior Technical Adviser on Refinery, Downstream and Infrastructure. He is currently the Team Lead to drive the 7BigWins Initiative of the Honorable Minister with focus on Refineries, Gas, Power and Infrastructure Improvement Initiatives. The 7 Big Wins initiative was launched by His Excellency, Mr. President in October 2016 to grow the Nigeria’s Oil and gas industry.
Appointed by the President, Dr. Rabiu Suleiman also currently champions and leads the Team that develops the concept of evacuation the recently discovered but stranded proven crude oil reserves of the Niger Republic (Agadem) by pipeline to a new private sector led Refinery at Katsina to address growing petroleum products markets in Northern Nigeria and neighboring countries. Under his leadership significant progress is being recorded on the Implementation Roadmap leading to possible maturity of the projects
Dr. Suleiman is an active member of Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationist (NAPE), Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Chemical Engineers (FNSChE), Fellow of Institute of Safety Professionals of Nigeria (FISPoN), and recipient of several distinguished awards both locally and internationally including Honorary Doctorate Degree from the Pacific Western University of Colorado, USA (May, 2014) and Guardian Angel Award by Nigeria Safety Awards for Excellence (9JA Safe Hall of Fame) – September 2016. Dr. Suleiman serves on several presidential and inter-ministerial committees on clean-up of Niger Delta oil spills, dispute resolutions, emergency repair and cleanup of blast points on crude oil pipelines in Niger Delta.
