The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) has removed the Managing Directors of its three state-owned refineries and directed management staff with less than a year to retirement to proceed on exit.

In what appears to be a major shake-up, the company has also promoted some personnel to replace the outgoing staff as part of efforts to reposition the organisation under a new leadership structure.

The Guardian learnt that the development was communicated to affected employees via individual emails, although the total number of those impacted remains unclear.

Sources confirmed that the Managing Director of the Port Harcourt Refining Company Limited (PHRC), Ibrahim Onoja; the Managing Director of Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC), Dr Mustafa Sugungun; and the Managing Director of Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited (WRPC), Efifia Chu, have all been removed. Replacements for their roles have yet to be officially announced.

President Bola Tinubu had earlier sacked the former Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC, Mele Kyari, along with the company’s board, and appointed former Shell Nigeria boss, Bayo Ojulari, as the new head of the national oil company.

The Guardian also gathered that Bala Wunti, the former Chief Upstream Investment Officer at the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), who was recently reassigned to head the HSC office in Abuja, is no longer with the company.

A senior insider, speaking off the record, confirmed the removals but dismissed suggestions that the changes were about removing loyalists of the former GCEO.

The insider further noted that some senior staff had already been promoted. The Guardian gathered that reshuffle displaced heads of crude of trading, Human Resources and Relationship and Stakeholder Management.

The source said the positions have been replaced internally, adding that the changes has triggered upward movement within the system.