The management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Monday approved the appointment of new managing directors for the Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) and Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC).

The new managing directors are Mr Ian Udoh for PHRC and Mr Paul Obelley for WRPC.

This is contained in a statement by the acting Group General Manager, Public Affairs Division of the NNPC, Mr Fidel Pepple.

He said that a number of other management staff members were also promoted while others were re-deployed.

He named those promoted to include Mr Farouk Ahmed, formerly Executive Director, Commercial, PPMC, now Managing Director NIDAS; Mr Samuel Babatunde, formerly Executive Director Operations of the Warri Refinery, now Project Director Olokola Liquefied Natural Gas Project;

Also promoted are Mr Abdullahi Dandume, formerly Executive Director Operations, Nigerian Engineering and Technical Company (NETCO), now Managing Director NETCO and Aliyu Sambo, who was General Manager, M&P, now Group General Manager, Accounts.

Aholu Beks was also promoted as Group General Manager Information Technology Division from his previous position as head of Information Services Department.

Dr Edwin Bako, Medical; Mr Sylvester Idemudia, Greenfield Refineries and Okhes Jonathan, Power, were also promoted as Group General Managers.

Others are Benjamin Obaigbena, Research and Development and Dan Efebo, Human Resources.

Those re-deployed include Gabidon Meheux, former Senior Technical Assistant to the Minister of Petroleum Resources, now Managing Director, NNPC Services and Chris Osarrunwese, former Group General Manager, Human Resources, now Group General Manager, Downstream Business Development.

Mr Bayo Ibirogba, former Group General Manager, Greenfield Refineries, now takes charge of engineering in the same capacity.

The NNPC spokesman said all the appointments took immediate effect.