• CERAWEEK
  • March 10 - 14, 2025

Bala Wunti

NNPC Ltd.

Chief Upstream Investment Officer

Bala Wunti is a thoroughbred oil and gas industry professional with 30 years’ experience covering Technical, Commercial, Managerial and Executive roles across the oil and gas value chain. He is a graduate of Chemistry from Ahmadu Bello University and has a Master’s degree in Business Administration. Since joining NNPC, Mr. Wunti has held a several key positions in NNPC. He is currently the Group Managing Director, National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS) and previously served as Managing Director, Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), Group General Manager Corporate Planning & Strategy, Senior Technical Adviser to five different Group Managing Directors of NNPC amongst others. Bala has led some critical National Assignments including the review and amendment of the 1993 Deep Offshore Act to improve Government Take from Production Sharing Contracts, renegotiation of Production Sharing Contracts after over 2 decades of stalemate, and commercial negotiations for ~30 different LNG related agreements. He has championed several initiatives such as the “Nigasification Strategy” for powering the Nigerian economy with natural gas and condensate, the “P-PIE Initiative” for eliminating the importation of petroleum products, and more recently optimization of upstream operating costs to sub $10/bbl. Mr. Wunti also has a proven track record in energy diplomacy and international coordination as Nigeria’s National Representative in the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) and Technical Member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Economic Board.

Sessions With Bala Wunti

Tuesday, 10 March

  • 11:30am - 12:30pm (CST) / -

    Global LNG: Where are we in the cycle?

    Upstream Oil & Gas

    Global LNG has historically been a cyclical business. In that context, 2019 was an interesting year characterized by both the prevalence of low global gas prices and the record level of liquefaction projects that were sanctioned. With Qatari mega-projects expected to soon be sanctioned, the looming wave of capacity expansion is set to be the biggest ever. How will this wave affect global gas markets—and returns on project investments—in the years ahead?