Adegbite Falade, Chief Executive Officer, Aradel Holdings Plc

Mr. Adegbite Falade bagged his Bachelor’s Degree at the University of Ibadan where he graduated with a First Class in Electrical and Electronics Engineering. He also holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Warwick Business School at Coventry in the United Kingdom.

In the past 15 years, Falade has served in various senior executive positions in the oil and gas industry, as well as in the power and services sectors, with responsibilities for engineering, operations, project execution, commercial services, client and stakeholder management, strategy, systems/process design and delivery, and enterprise development.

Some of the previous positions held by him include Managing Director (MD) and Group Chief Operating Officer (GCOO) at Oilserv Group of Companies based in Port Harcourt; General Manager (GM), Portfolio Development, and Chief Operating Officer, all at Oando Energy Resources; as well as Executive Director, Oando Gas & Power.

Falade was also the Petroleum Economics Discipline and Portfolio Lead for Shell Exploration and Production (EP), Africa. In the year 2021, he was appointed to the Board of Aradel Holdings, formerly Niger Delta Exploration and Production.

In addition to his enormous and rich experience, Falade is a business-focused leader and result-driven energy professional, with significant footprint across the industry value chain in multiple regions extending across Africa, Europe, and North America. He is particularly experienced in leading functional and multi-disciplinary teams, while managing projects and transactions that are geared towards improving company business and financial performance. The respected boardroom game-changer is now principally focused on driving a functional and profitable business conglomerate that will be responsible, corporately, to its shareholders, environment, and other stakeholders.

While Aradel was still known as Niger Delta Exploration & Production (NDEP), the company, under Falade’s leadership in 2022, was recognized by the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Rivers State Chapter, and presented with “Excellent Public Relations Award” for its investment in corporate social responsibility (CSR) through Host Community Development Trusts.

The company pioneered the Community Development Trust in 2002 as a vehicle for community development through funding from its operations and has since invested over N2.2 billion on various CSR initiatives in its host communities.

Falade has led Aradel’s ongoing four-well drilling campaign at the Ogbele Marginal Field in Rivers State, which is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2023, following the commissioning front-end studies towards further development of the Field. He has also championed the commencement of the implementation of Aradel’s Alternative Crude Evacuation (ACE) project to create value realization avenues beyond the traditional Trans Niger Pipeline (TNP) and the refinery business. The maiden voyage for crude oil delivery from the facility to the Bonny Terminal, through a mother vessel, was completed in December 2022, a year that the company closed without any significant safety-related issues, recording a total of 16.14 million manhours with zero time lost due to incident (LTI).

In terms of output, Falade’s leadership helped the company to achieve total production of 1.44 million barrels (mmbbls) of oil and 6.51 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas, while its refinery business was the focal point for realizing value in 2022, with refined delivery volumes rising by 105.0 per cent to 152.84 million litres relative to 74.53 million litres in 2021.

Driven by debottlenecking the refinery production from upstream oil production and actively pursuing its monetization strategies, capacity utilization improved to 24.0 per cent from 13.45 per cent in 2021. In June 2022, the Aradel Boss formally commenced the company’s digital transformation journey through the implementation SAP S/4 Hana and the integration of other digital tools across its entire operations.

To ensure adequate capital for the 2022-2023 drilling campaign, he obtained a $120 million Field Development Facility (FDF) for the company in March 2022 to supplement its available cash to fund the Ogbele Field Development campaign.

Adegbite Falade, who carries the responsibility of shaping the future of Aradel Holdings Plc, is seen as a highly talented executive with great potential to influence the Nigerian energy sector. He is focused on nurturing local talent that will contribute significantly to the advancement of the energy industry in Nigeria. Additionally, he is a devoted family man, blessed with a spouse and children.