Adeleye Falade has officially assumed office as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG), taking over from Philip Mshelbila, who was recently appointed Secretary-General of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF).

Falade resumed duties on Wednesday at the company’s Corporate Head Office in Port Harcourt, stepping into the leadership role at a critical period for the company and Nigeria’s gas sector.

He brings close to three decades of experience in the global oil and gas industry, having built a career across the liquefied natural gas and petroleum value chain within the Shell Group. His experience spans operations in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Russia and Africa.

Over the years, Falade has developed expertise in gas and petroleum operations, production optimisation, engineering, operational excellence, business improvement and change management. He has also held several senior technical and leadership positions across Shell and its affiliated companies, managing complex operations, joint venture structures and multicultural teams.

Before his appointment, Falade served as Managing Director of Brunei LNG Sendirian Berhad, a role he assumed in April 2024, where he oversaw strategic operational delivery at one of the world’s long-established LNG producers.

Earlier in 2023, he was named Country Chair for Shell Namibia, where he led the company’s strategic direction and stakeholder engagement in the Southern African country.

Falade is no stranger to NLNG, having previously held key leadership roles within the company. From May 2019 to September 2023, he served as General Manager, Production, where he was responsible for production reliability, plant performance and operational safety across NLNG’s facilities on Bonny Island.

He had earlier worked as Operations Manager at NLNG between July 2015 and May 2018, overseeing plant operations and performance. He later moved to the Netherlands, where he served as Regional Asset Management System Implementation Manager at Shell in The Hague from May 2018 to April 2019, leading efforts to improve efficiency and reliability across Shell’s global assets.

Falade holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the University of Ibadan and a Master of Business Administration from Henley Business School, University of Reading, United Kingdom.

He is also a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers and a registered member of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria. In addition, he belongs to the Society of Petroleum Engineers.

His appointment comes at a significant time for NLNG as the company pushes to strengthen gas supply and expand production capacity. Recently, the firm secured long-term Gas Supply Agreements with six third-party suppliers to improve feedgas delivery to its Bonny Island facilities.

This development comes as the Train 7 expansion project edges closer to completion, a milestone expected to raise NLNG’s output and further position Nigeria in the global LNG market.

Falade’s emergence also reinforces NLNG’s drive to deepen indigenous leadership, as he joins an all-Nigerian management team at the company