By Danlami Nasir Isah
Sir Billy Okey Okoye is an experienced commercial professional, with consummate achievements of working in the oil and gas industry. He is strong in corporate leadership, petroleum products marketing, distribution and retailing, LNG sales and marketing, gas supply and shipping, petrochemical sales and marketing, refineries and petrochemical supply chain management, and procurement.
Okoye, who before his elevation to current position, was marketing crude oil, began his marketing career in the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in 1991 at the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC). Thereafter, he had a stint at the Eleme Petrochemical Company (EPCL), before going on secondment to Brass LNG in 2004.
In 2012, he was appointed the Manager, Marketing and Commercial Development Department where he coordinated the negotiations of all the Sales and Purchase Agreements (SPAs).
In 2015, the Board of Directors of Brass LNG appointed him the General Manager Commercial (GMC), overseeing the Departments of Gas Supply, Shipping, Marketing and Commercial Development.
Following his hard work and valuable contributions in Brass LNG, the NNPC, in 2016, appointed him the Executive Director Commercial (EDC) of the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC).
Under his directorate as the ED Commercial, and working in conjunction with the new management of the PPMC, the company moved from a serial loss-making company to a profit-making company, with an impressive net profit of N9.8 billion in 2018.
Based on his good pedigree, Okoye was promoted and appointed the Managing Director of NNPC Retail Ltd in July, 2019. The following year, he was redeployed to the Crude Oil Marketing Division (COMD), as Group General Manager and in August 2021, he was promoted to the Group Executive Director, Ventures & Business Development.
Professionally, Sir Okoye as he is fondly called, is a Fellow of the National Institute of Management, and a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Marketing of Nigeria (NIMN).
Okoye, who hails from Awkuzu in Anambra State, attended the Methodist College Uzuakoli in Abia State, and bagged his first and second degrees from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and the Enugu State University, respectively. He also studied Law at the University of Jos, Plateau State.
He is currently doing his Doctorate degree in Business Administration, with a specialty in oil and gas. Sir Billy Okey Okoye, is happily married, with children.