NLNG Bids Farewell to Mshelbila as Falade Appointed New Managing Director
Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) has held a symbolic sendoff ceremony in Abuja to mark the end of the tenure of its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr Philip Mshelbila, who is exiting the Company after more than four years of transformative leadership.
Following the approval of the NLNG Board of Directors, Engr. Adeleye Falade has been appointed as the new Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer and will assume office in April 2026. Falade joins NLNG from Brunei LNG, where he currently serves as Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer.
Mshelbila will formally leave NLNG on December 31, 2025, to assume office as Secretary-General of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) in Doha, Qatar.
The sendoff ceremony in Abuja attracted NLNG Directors, executives from shareholder companies, dignitaries from Nigeria’s public sector and energy industry, members of NLNG management, and representatives of various staff groups.
Speaking at the event, NLNG’s Deputy Managing Director, Mr Olakunle Osobu, described Mshelbila as a man of distinction and an accomplished professional whose expertise cuts across medicine, environmental health, strategic business leadership and global gas diplomacy.
Osobu said Mshelbila’s leadership was defined by a clear focus on business sustainability, operational diversification, emissions control and safety. He noted that the outgoing Managing Director took the helm at a particularly challenging period marked by the aftermath of COVID-19, severe flooding that disrupted gas pipelines, widespread vandalism, and force majeure declarations by gas suppliers. He added that the global energy disruptions following the Russia–Ukraine war further compounded these challenges.
Despite the headwinds, Osobu said NLNG remained firmly on its sustainability path under Mshelbila’s leadership, driven by courage, innovation and strategic foresight.
According to him, recognising the need for supply diversification, Mshelbila championed a bold expansion of NLNG’s feed-gas base beyond the traditional shareholder joint-venture structure. This culminated in the negotiation and signing of long-term Gas Supply Agreements (GSAs) with six third-party gas suppliers in August 2025. The agreements are expected to deliver an estimated 1,290 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscf/d) of feed-gas to NLNG, representing a historic milestone and a major shift in the Company’s gas supply strategy.
Osobu further noted that Mshelbila promoted innovation with a forward-looking mindset, inspiring employees to deepen their commitment to emissions reduction and environmental stewardship. He added that the outgoing MD also redefined NLNG’s business model through a comprehensive transformation programme that laid a strong foundation for long-term sustainability and value creation.
In her remarks, NLNG’s General Manager, External Relations and Sustainable Development, Ms Sophia Horsfall, paid glowing tribute to Mshelbila’s leadership and personal qualities.
“Thank you for your selflessness, for the steadiness of your leadership, for the clarity of your vision, and for the values that guided your every step,” Horsfall said. “You led with humility, yet you inspired greatness. You carried the weight of challenges with calm resolve, and you charted a path toward sustainability long before it became fashionable.”
Responding, Mshelbila expressed deep appreciation to NLNG’s shareholders, Board of Directors, staff and industry partners for their unwavering support throughout his tenure. He commended the Company’s enduring culture of innovation and excellence and said he would carry these values into his new role at the GECF.
As Secretary-General of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, Mshelbila said he would work to strengthen dialogue between gas-producing and gas-consuming nations, while promoting natural gas as a sustainable, reliable and critical energy source for global development.
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