Bala Wunti has been appointed the inaugural Chief Executive Officer of the World Energy Council (WEC) Nigeria.
His appointment by the Board of WEC Nigeria marks the establishment of a dedicated executive leadership structure for the organisation in Nigeria, which joined the World Energy Council in 1960.
Wunti has more than three decades of experience across Nigeria’s upstream, midstream and downstream petroleum sectors, including senior roles at the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd).
As Chief Upstream Investment Officer of NNPC Upstream Investment Services (NUIMS), he was involved in managing the company’s joint venture and Production Sharing Contract (PSC) portfolios and participated in negotiations with international and indigenous energy companies.
He was also involved in the renegotiation of Nigeria’s Deep Offshore PSCs, which addressed longstanding commercial issues between the country and its contractors.
During his tenure in the petroleum sector, Wunti also led cost-optimisation initiatives that reduced production costs to below $10 per barrel in some operations.
Earlier, as head of the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), he was associated with Operation White, a petroleum products monitoring initiative designed to improve transparency, tracking and accountability in the distribution of petroleum products.
Wunti subsequently served as Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer at NNPC, where he was involved in corporate strategy, investment planning and sustainability initiatives during the company’s transition to a commercially focused national energy company.
He has also participated in commercial negotiations involving gas projects, including liquefied natural gas initiatives and gas sales agreements, and has advocated greater domestic
