President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Dr Thomas Maurice Asuquo John chairman of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporations (NNPC).

The new appointment takes effect immediately.

He will also serve as alternate chairman of the governing board of NNPC pending the appointment of a minister of petroleum resources according to statement released on the official Twitter page of NNPC.

Dr. Thomas John serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Hydropec Engineering Services Limited. Dr. John was the first Manager of the Kaduna Refining & Petrochemical Company and the pioneering Managing Director of Eleme Petrochemicals Company, Port Harcourt before rising to become the Group Managing Director of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). He serves as Non-Executive Director at South Atlantic Petroleum Limited. After retiring from NNPC, he served on the Board of the United Bank for Africa (UBA) as a Non-Executive Director. Dr. John holds an MSc in Chemical Engineering from the Prague Institute of Chemical Technology, Czech Republic, a PhD in Reaction Kinetics from Queens University, Ontario, Canada and is a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Chemical Engineers (FNCHE).