The just-appointed president of the African Oil Refiners (ARA), Anthony Uchechuku Ogbuigwe, has vowed to work with the African Union (AU) and regional groups such as ECOWAS, SADEC and COMESA to ensure that the AFRI 1 to 5 specifications are adopted and enforced in Africa to protect the health and wellbeing of the continent, its people and environment.
Appointed at the annual meeting of the ARA in Cape Town on Tuesday, he is the fourth president of the association, which has been in existence for seven years. Other top members of the executive committee voted in for the ensuing period are Pierre Reteno Ndiaye (Gabon), vice president; Joel Dervain, executive secretary, and John Mruttu (Kenya), treasurer.
Ogbuigwe said that the objective of his term of office was to grow ARA as a strong association for sharing of best practices in health, security and environment (HSE), reliability centered maintenance, competence and technological development.
He is currently the group executive director, refining and petrochemicals of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). He is an alumnus of the University of Lagos having graduated from there in 1976 as one of the pioneer graduates from the Department of Chemical Engineering.
