Nigeria's Timipre Sylva has resigned as minister of state for petroleum to run for re-election as governor of the southern Niger Delta state of Bayelsa, ministry and presidential sources told Reuters on Thursday.
Sylva's resignation comes at a time of political transition in Nigeria, with President Muhammadu Buhari serving his final weeks in power before handing over to President-elect Bola Tinubu on 29 May.
Sylva submitted his resignation letter last week to Buhari and stopped coming to the office, said two sources who did not want to be identified.
They said he would seek the ticket of the ruling All Progressives Congress to run for governor of Bayelsa in the party's primary scheduled for 14 April.
Sylva was governor of Bayelsa for a full term between 2008 and 2012. At that time he was a member of the People's Democratic Party, which was then in power at the federal level but is now in opposition.
Appointed deputy oil minister in August 2019, Sylva oversaw major reforms in the oil sector, including the adoption of legislation that revised the sector's fiscal regime in a bid to boost investment.
During his tenure as minister, Nigeria's oil production fell to its lowest level in decades due to crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism. Angola overtook Nigeria as Africa's top oil producer and exporter for a few months last year.