Sopuruchi Onwuka

The Board of Directors of Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited has appointed Engr. Adeleye Falade as the company’s next Managing Director, effective April 2026.

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The appointment was announced in a statement by NLNG’s spokesperson, Mrs Ann-Marie Palmer-Ikuku, who said Falade will succeed the current Managing Director, Dr Phillip Mshelbila.

She disclosed that a symbolic send-off ceremony was recently held in Abuja to mark the end of Mshelbila’s tenure, describing it as the close of “more than four years of transformative leadership.”

According to the statement, Falade will join NLNG from Brunei LNG, where he currently serves as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, following approval by the NLNG Board.

Mshelbila is scheduled to exit NLNG on 31 December 2025 to assume office as Secretary-General of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) in Doha, Qatar.

Speaking at the ceremony, NLNG’s Deputy Managing Director, Olakunle Osobu, described Mshelbila as a distinguished professional whose career spans medicine, environmental health, strategic business leadership, and global gas diplomacy.

Osobu said Mshelbila’s leadership focused on business sustainability, operational diversification, and emissions control, with safety as a priority. He noted that the outgoing Managing Director took office during an exceptionally challenging period marked by the COVID-19 aftermath, severe flooding that disrupted gas pipelines, vandalism, and force majeure declarations by gas suppliers.

He added that global energy market disruptions triggered by the Russia–Ukraine war further compounded the challenges.

Despite these setbacks, Osobu said NLNG made significant progress under Mshelbila’s leadership, particularly in strengthening supply security.

“Recognising the need for multiple feed-gas sources, Mshelbila championed a strategic shift to expand NLNG’s supply base beyond the shareholder joint-venture framework,” Osobu said. “In August 2025, NLNG signed long-term Gas Supply Agreements with six third-party suppliers, committing about 1,290 million standard cubic feet per day of feed-gas. This represents a historic and seismic shift for the company.”

Osobu added that Mshelbila fostered innovation and reinforced NLNG’s commitment to emissions control and environmental stewardship, while also redefining the company’s business model through a transformation programme aimed at long-term sustainability and value creation.

Also paying tribute, NLNG’s General Manager, External Relations and Sustainable Development, Sophia Horsfall, praised Mshelbila’s leadership style and values.

“You led with humility and inspired greatness,” she said. “You carried the weight of challenges with calm resolve and charted a path toward sustainability long before it became fashionable.”

In his response, Mshelbila expressed gratitude to NLNG’s shareholders, Board, staff, and industry partners for their support throughout his tenure. He said he would carry the company’s culture of innovation and excellence into his new role at the GECF.

As Secretary-General, he said, his focus would be on promoting natural gas as a reliable and sustainable energy source while strengthening dialogue between gas-producing and gas-consuming nations to support stability in the global gas market.