{
  "id": 1414668,
  "title": "Insiders: Ojulari Never Awarded Oil Blocks, Has No Statutory Role in Licensing",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/17/insiders-ojulari-never-awarded-oil-blocks-has-no-statutory-role-in",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-08-17T03:43:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "This Day",
    "slug": "this-day",
    "url": "https://www.thisdaylive.com/2026/08/17/insiders-ojulari-never-awarded-oil-blocks-has-no-statutory-role-in-licensing/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) CEO Bayo Ojulari has been falsely accused of awarding oil blocks and possessing a statutory role in the licensing process, according to industry insiders. The allegations, described as 'deliberately false, malicious and legally unsustainable,' come from sources who state that Ojulari and NNPC have no authority to allocate oil blocks or issue petroleum licences. Under the Petroleum Industry Act, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission and the Minister of Petroleum Resources are responsible for these tasks. The sources suggest that powerful interests threatened by the NNPC leadership's reform programme are behind the campaign to discredit Ojulari, with a group called the Oil and Gas Professionals Forum (OGPF) allegedly spreading the false narrative.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}