Orient Energy Review Vol 9 no 6

rientEnergy Review www.orientenergyreview.com

COVERING LOCAL CONTENT IN THE ENERGY SECTOR

10yr Roadmap: NCDMB completes 20 short terms initiatives

Kosmos Energy and the future of agriculture in Ghana

VOL.9 No.06

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Moving To A Cementless Future For Completions

Quest for diversity and inclusiveness in the energy industry TECON OIL SPECIAL PROJECT

Tecon Oil commissions new snubbing rigs

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CONTENTS

rientEnergy Review ...driving local content development

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FG to ban consumer ownership of gas cylinders - Official

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Tecon Oil commissions new snubbing rigs

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Dangote Refinery Acquires World Largest Crude Distillation Equipment

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10yr Roadmap: NCDMB completes 20 short terms initiatives

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Local Content, Key To Lower Crude Production Cost – Sylva

Imbibe core values, in-country capacities to grow local content – Wabote AfCFTA Agreement: Is Nigeria prepared for the economic protocols?

Kosmos Energy and the future of agriculture in Ghana

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Dangote Refinery Acquires World Largest Crude Distillation Equipment

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Power to Power Summit’ recommends a robust energy mix for Nigeria African energy chamber launches campaign for Africa’s Freedom To Use Its Resources Senate Probes Hydroelectric Power Commission

The reality of snakebites: Time is tissue 26 ORIENT ENERGY REVIEW Vol.9 No. 06

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EDITOR’S NOTE

Publisher/ Editor-in-Chief Nneka Ezeemo

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ear Esteemed Readers,

Compliment of the season! It is with great joy and gratitude to God that we welcome you to the very last month of the year, 2019. As part of our promise and commitment to keep you in the loop on the activities of the energy sector in Nigeria, Africa and around the world, here is our last edition for the year 2019.

This edition is loaded with news, features, analysis, special project, advertisement, among others that will keep you aptly informed on the industry’s events and activities. Leading news pages is the campaign by the African Energy Chamber for Africa to exploit her hydrocarbon resources without being seen as an enemy of the environment.

The Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber, NJ Ayuk argued that demonising energy companies is not a constructive way forward and ignoring the structural role that carbon-based fuels have in today’s society distorts the public debate. Ayuk advised that bringing energy companies, governments and civil society groups together to find functional solutions will achieve much more.

He insisted that “African nations must and will take advantage of their hydrocarbon resources for economic development. Environmental sustainability is a part of it, not an impediment.”

Our Local Content Watch captured a few of the striking achievements by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB as well as some indigenous companies such as the commissioning of Tecon Snubbing Rigs and many more. We are confident that this will spur more indigenous service companies to strategically project and position themselves for the available opportunities in the industry.

We took cognizance of the need for continuous flow of quality industry reports as most businesses close their books in view of the Christmas and New Year holidays. This edition chronicles the past, present and the future of the industry. The call for a diverse and inclusive workforce is a burning issue in the energy sector. Our cover story, “Quest for Diversity and Inclusiveness in the Energy Sector” gives credence to the push for corporations to embrace gender diversity and make diversity an asset rather than a liability.

In response to the D&I issue, the NCDMB organised a one-day workshop for women in the oil and gas industry with a theme, “Mainstreaming women in the oil and gas industry”.

The workshop provided a platform where issues relating to access for women into the oil and gas sector, career advancement, challenges and prospects for entrepreneurship, as well as the ascendency of women to top management cadre in the sector was discussed.

On the global scene, the organisers of Diversity and Inclusive Summit has also hinted that its 2020 summit would focus on “Finding solutions to the D&I workplace challenge”.

Our presence in the Ghana oil industry is reflected in this edition’s robust report with a spotlight on Cosmos Energy as it revolutionizes agriculture through its Cosmos Innovation Centre where it trains and empowers Ghanaian youths with the seed capital for investment in agriculture value chain.

Our Energy Woman is Lame Verre, Halliburton’s Senior Regional Manager Treasure for Europe, Eurasia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. The petroleum economist urged stakeholders to pursue diversity and inclusion with some considerable sincerity of purpose.

On Tech Zone, we are glad to announce the latest innovative technology breakthrough by Weltec in zonal isolation and well integrity – Cementless Technology with its effectiveness proven by Total for their Moho North field in Congo.

The Special Report contains a number of captivating articles by experts in medical, petroleum engineering, among others.

Please, we wish to inform you that the cover price of your favourite OER will be reviewed upward by January 2020.

December is another promise kept. Please, do use our various channels to send us your feedback.

Happy Christmas and Prosperous New Year in Advance.

Peace Obi

Mobile line: +234 8036979049 peace.obi@orientenergyreview.com

rientEnergy Review

Editorial Advisory Engr.Andy Olotu Victor Eromosele Stanley Egbochuku Editor Peace Obi Correspondents Chibisi Ohaka(Associate Editor) Vivian Israel ( Head South-South Bureau, PortHaracourt) Gilbert Boyefio (Ghana Correspondent) Godspower Ike (PortHarcourt) Kenechukwu Obiajuru (Bayelsa) Dirisu Yakubu (Abuja) Business Development Manager Mike Omeife Business Development Executive Catherine Saunt ( UK ) Designs Kelechi Okoro Admin/Finance Chiamaka Okeke Circulation Manager Ajayi Kayode UK Office 15 Goss Avenue, Waddesdon, Aylesbury, Bucks, HP18 0LY +447974199137 Ghana Office Second Church Lane, Okpoi Gonno, Speintex Road.

Tel: 0243915206.

Email: gilbert@orientenergyreview.com orientenergyreviewgh@gmail.com

...driving local content development

Orient Energy Review has emerged to be the platform and voice for the growing local content policy across the world. It is a bi-monthly publication of Orient Magazine, Newspaper and Communications Limited, 5, Dipo Dina Drive, Abule Oshun, Badagry Expressway, Lagos. www.orientenergyreview.com email: info@orientenergyreview.com ©2019 allrights reserved ISSN: 2315 908 -1

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ORIENT ENERGY REVIEW Vol.9 No. 06

INDUSTRY NEWS

African energy chamber launches campaign for Africa’s Freedom To Use Its Resources

By Chibisi Ohakah

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he African Energy Chamber said it has launched a petition against the idea that the continent should not explore its full hydrocarbon potential in the wake of the climate change debate.

Professionals and Africa’s oil and stakeholders who gathered at the Africa Investment Conference averred that against the backdrop of the climate change debate, Africa finds itself in an unfortunate position where it is required by the global energy industry to slow down its progress and not explore its hydrocarbons potential to its fullest. “This is not right,” The African Energy Chamber said in a statement in late November “At the African Energy Chamber we do not deny the impacts and severity of climate change. We recognize the role and significance of the Paris Agreement which over 30 African countries have signed.

However, we believe the energy transition should be gradual and considerate of the power gap that exists in Africa,” the chamber headed by NJ Ayuk stated On the continent, the Chamber said that its foremost obligation as industry leaders is to ensure that Africa’s people have access to energy, adding that it is determined to address the everyday issues that the continent is faced with.

The Chamber posits that ‘energy poverty’ is Africa’s most critical concern, stressing that for the Chamber, it is a life and death situation. In Africa, over 600 million people still do not have access to power.

And, Africa remains a net importer of energy yet we boast of 125 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, accounting for 7.3%

NJ Ayuk executive chairman of the African Energy Chamber of global oil reserves and, 509 tcf of gas – accounting for 7.2% of global reserves.

Africa’s natural resources are important for its development. Africans cannot ignore what the continent needs, in the interest of supporting global trends when the economies remain underdeveloped. Our hydrocarbon potential is vast and Africa is home to a number of emerging economies who are steadfast on taking their rightful place in the global energy sector, our time

to industrialize is now, the Chamber said It applauded developed economies in the west such as Norway and Germany for having used their oil and gas resources to develop their countries and build thriving economies, stressing rather thoughtfully that Africa deserves the same opportunity to build world-class economies.

“At the African Energy Chamber, we understand that issues of climate change are important but, this new drive for environmental colonization bullies African countries to leave their resources and depend on the sun,” said NJ Ayuk executive chairman of the African Energy Chamber and author of Amazon best-seller, Billions at Play: The Future of African Energy and Doing Deals.

In the past, Africa has been far too reliant on foreign aid and while in some ways it has been extremely helpful and beneficial, it has also taken away our independence, he observed, adding that in several instances, Africa has always taken the passenger seat when it comes to deciding its future but, “It must end now. Our continent needs to be left alone to decide its own fate,” Ayuk said The African Energy Chamber strongly stands against the idea that Africa should ignore its potential and ability to leverage its resources as a means to drive growth, create opportunities for investment and development. As the voice of the African energy industry, we are proud to announce our counter-campaign on the insistence that the continent should pursue a less carbon-intensive energy future as a way to support global interests which Africa has not yet benefited from, he said

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INDUSTRY NEWS

Senate probes hydroelectric power commission ……Project in limbo 9yrs after establishment law …..N6bn budget allocations unaccounted for

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he Nigerian Senate has commenced a probe to ascertain reasons for the delay in takeoff of the Hydro Electric Power Producing Areas Development Commission (HYPADEC) after nine years of its passage into law.

The Red Chamber is also probing the utilization of the sum of N612, 177, 269 said to have been appropriated so far to the Commission. A panel of the Senate Committee on Legislative Compliance has directed to the panel report back to the Senate by the end of December 2019.

Sequel to the consideration of a motion calling for the probe, the Nigerian Senate

also urged the Nigerian government to, as a matter of urgency, to constitute the Commission and make funds available for it in the 2020 budget.

The Senate noted that the Act that established HYPADEC equally charged the Commission with the responsibility of managing ecological menace due to operation of dams and other hydroelectric power activities.

The senator who sponsored the motion calling for the probe, Senator Muhammad Enagi Bima, lamented that the inability of the Commission to takeoff has exposed communities within the area of operation of hydroelectric dams in Nigeria to serious eco-

logical challenges like flooding, loss of lives, health hazards and loss of farmlands.

Bima recalled that the sums of N354,570,637; N247,500,000 and N10,106,632 were appropriated in 2011, 2014 and 2015 budgets, respectively, for the Commission. According to him, however, nothing was allocated in the 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017 and 2018 budgets, a situation which has “brought enormous hardship on the people of the area.”

The Act establishing the Commission was passed by the 7th National Assembly in 2010 and signed into law by former President Goodluck Jonathan.

The Red Chamber is also probing the utilization of the sum of N612, 177, 269 said to have been appropriated so far to the Commission. A panel of the Senate Committee on Legislative Compliance has directed to the panel report back to the Senate by the end of December 2019.

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ORIENT ENERGY REVIEW Vol.9 No. 05

INDUSTRY NEWS

Shell flaunts deluge of awards

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hell Companies in Nigeria have won the most sought-after Best Exhibitor award at the National Association of Petroleum Exploration (NAPE) annual international conference and exhibition held in Lagos recently.

A release from the energy giant said Shell General Manager Development, Chibogwu Sam Ezugworie, was also honoured with the Fellowship of NAPE in a ceremony that had industry top-notchers in attendance. At the NAPE Conference, a team of Shell staff, (Ovwigho Irifeta, Bart Tichelaar, Pratap Nair, David Obiga, Sunday Awe, Kunle Bakare, Magnus Kanu and Celestine Ugwu) also won the Award for Best Paper in the Technical Awards category, for “An Integrated Approach To Managing Narrow Drilling Margins of High Pressure (HP) Prospects, Central Swamp Depobelt, Niger Delta.”

Earlier in the year, Shell companies in Nigeria emerged the ‘International Oil

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Company With The Most Impactful Local Content Initiatives’ in the “Upstream Category” at the 2019 edition of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Opportunity Fair organised by the country’s local content regulator, Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board.

The Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN) named Shell as the winner of its “Local Content Operator of the Year” award at 2019 Annual Oil Industry Achievement Awards organised by the Association. The Association is the umbrella body of indigenous technical oilfield service companies in the upstream and downstream sectors of the Nigerian oil and gas industry.

-Managing Director, the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), Osagie Okunbor, was also honoured at the PETAN event with the Aret Adams Award for Excellence for leading a formidable team in Shell to

ORIENT ENERGY REVIEW Vol.9 No. 06

deliver value to its partners, stakeholders and particularly the country.

The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), Mr. Osagie Okunbor, said “It is encouraging to us at Shell to know that our drive for consistent excellence and diligence, as displayed by the hardworking staff of Shell in Nigeria at this conference is appreciated by stakeholders and those who visited our booth.”

Osagie noted that the NAPE came just a day after Nigerians again voted Shell as “The Best Company To Work For” in the Jobberman Top 100 Companies To Work For in Nigeria.

“This makes us recognise that, being an industry leader puts on us enormous responsibility and we have to continue to rethink and reshape our strategies in a manner that brings optimal value to Nigeria, our partners and the local service industry,” he said.

INDUSTRY NEWS

FG to ban consumer ownership of gas cylinders - Official Peace Obi with agency report

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s part of the efforts to enhance safety and deepen the penetration of cooking gas in the country, the Federal Government has disclosed its plan to ban consumer ownership of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders.

The Programme Manager, National LPG Expansion and Implementation Plan, Mr Dayo Adeshina who spoke at the Nigeria LPG Summit 2019 on Tuesday in Lagos.

Adeshina said that the government would also continue to support the LPG industry with fiscal policies and incentives to enable the actualisation of its target of five million metric tonnes of LPG consumption by Nigerians in 2023.

The LPG Programme Manager, who represented Vice President Yemi Osinbajo but spoke in his personal capacity, said standardisation of LPG cylinders and safe use in Nigerian homes could only be achieved when ownership rests strictly with dealers and distributors.

He explained that cooking cylinders ought to be recertified periodically, adding that the average life span of a cylinder was 15 years.

Adeshina said two investors with the support of the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) had indicated interest to establish recertification plants in the country.

“That is why we need to retrieve some of these cylinders still in circulation because we need to recertify them to ensure that they are safe for usage.

“The government’s focus is to create awareness through sensitisation campaigns and cylinder injection programme,” he said.

Adeshina said the government would

continue to act as an enabler for the LPG industry to thrive and create a market viable for all the players in its value chain.

According to him, Nigeria has made a giant stride in the LPG market with about 70,000 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) in 2007 to 624, 000 MPTA as at September 2019.

He said this was made possible through the removal of five per cent Value Added Tax on LPG and 25 per cent to 30 per cent Import Duty waiver on LPG equipment and appliances.

Also, Mrs Neasa Hapiak, Director, LPG Summit, said many industry stakeholders were paying attention to the Nigeria LPG market, noting that there should be concrete steps to sustain the business in the country.

Hapiak said this could be achieved with the collaboration of government and LPG

industry stakeholders as well as entrenching a culture of safety and training of personnel in the industry.

Earlier in his address of welcome, Mr Nuhu Yakubu, President, NLPGA, said the theme of the summit, ” LPG: Harmonising Development and Growth in Nigeria and Africa,” was very apt.

“There is no better time to discuss the industry imperatives as it relates the federal government agenda to deepen the safe use of LPG in Nigeria.

“This can be deduced from facts and figures that speak to the ever dynamic and geometric growth which we have witnessed in the last decade,” he said.

The summit was jointly organised by the Nigeria Liquefied Petroleum Gas Association (NLPGA) and Liquefied Petroleum Gas Summit, based in Singapore.

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LOCAL LOCALCONTENT CONTENTWATCH WATCH

Tecon Oil commissions new snubbing rigs Amaechi Okonkwo

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econ Oil Services has commissioned three Hydraulic work-over/snubbing rigs at its operations headquarters at the Trans Amadi Industrial area in Port Harcourt.

The company is also developing a Waterfront Fabrication Yard for the Fabrication of subsea structure and complex systems, which include Manifolds, FLETs, Subsea Arches, Top and Bottom Assemblies, Slippers for Flowline support etc.

The snubbing workover units recently rechristened during the event are; 300k Jack Hardy, 460k Resurgence and 340k The King Jaja and they are expected to help the oil industry to easily have access to about 3000 barrels per day oil production lock-in currently recorded in the industry.

Speaking at the event, the Chief Executive Officer and President, Tecon Group, Mr Casimir Maduafokwa called for the protection of the funding structure of rigs and a higher level of exploration activities, noting that though there has been some level of improvement in funding, nevertheless, a lot more is required to be done.

“The problem with oil rigs is that whenever oil price is low, the rigs are immediately affected because it has the most variable cost. So, they normally cut them down. But a lot of jobs are tied to it. Any rig supports a lot of other operations, from completion to mud engineering, to the rentals. So, a lot has to be done to protect the rigs. Otherwise, the market is very volatile because once there is no rig, there is nothing to do”, Maduafokwa added.

He called for more long term jobs to local companies of at least five years duration rather than that of one or two years that

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currently obtains in the industry adding that it was imperative to boost the local content drive. Maduafokwa also called on the Nigeria Content Development Monitoring Board (NCDMB) to extend the local content drive to other areas of fabrication, construction and infrastructure to build critical mass.

Speaking at the event, the Executive Secretary, of the NCDMB, Engr. Simbi Wabote described the acquisition of the ISS 300k and ISS 460k hydraulic workover units by the company as commendable considering the cost and the skills needed to operate them safely.

“I understand that Tecon has six of such snubbing rigs, which represents a considerable demonstration of capacity to provide hydraulic workover services to the industry

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as at today.

“It is estimated that about 3000 bp/d of oil production are locked in, which requires well-intervention techniques such as snubbing to unlock. The Board is therefore pleased that this area of need is getting the investment and attention of local companies such as Tecon so that we can access some of our locked-in production,” Wabote stated.

He added that asset ownership represented one of the key yardsticks used by the NCDMB to define a Nigerian company as contained in the provision of Nigeria Content Act. He said the Act ensures that portfolio companies are eliminated. “When you read it, the act itself states that Nigerians must own 50% of the equipment,” the NCDMB boss said.

INDUSTRY NEWS

Dangote refinery acquires world largest crude distillation equipment

By Chibisi Ohakah

D

angote Refinery has announced the acquisition of world’s largest crude distillation column equipment designed for crude oil processing. The equipment is the largest in terms of distilling capacity which is 650 thousand barrels per stream day.

The refinery equipment which was manufactured by Sinopec in China is the primary unit processor of crude oil into fuels.

It weighs 2250MT; length, 112.5m; width, 14.036m; and height, 13.752m; Capt Rajen Sachar, head, maritime and ports infrastructure of Dangote Group told the newsmen during the arrival of the facility in Lagos that the equipment is the biggest single-train facility used for refining crude Sachar said crude column from Dangote Refinery will enhance the economy of Nigeria and all neighbouring countries in Africa by making available refined pe-

troleum products meeting world standards emission norms of Euro 5 and Euro 6. According to him, the strategic location of Nigeria in West Africa continent will help in reducing the transportation costs of these fuels to other countries in the African subcontinent.

“This Refinery with a capacity of 650 kbpsd is higher than the total demand of Nigeria, thus catapulting Nigeria position from net importer of petroleum products to a net exporter of petroleum products.

Thereby redefining Nigeria’s position in the global petroleum product market,” he said He said that the technology is significant to Nigeria and Dangote refinery, because “this is the largest crude oil processor in the world”. According to him, Dangote Refinery will bring multiplier effect positive to the company and Nigeria through supply to huge market. Sachar said that the project is also expected to generate over 9,500 direct

and 25,000 indirect jobs.

He said that crude oil processor took 14 months in construction by Sinopec company in China and eight weeks to bring it down to Nigeria.

He said that the President of the company, Alhaji Aliko Dangote is passionate about technology transfer to Nigerians, adding that he has given standing instruction to train seven Nigerians be a ship Captain The Captain informed that Dangote Oil Refinery company is currently training about 150 young Nigerian engineers in refinery operations in India in preparation for the take-off of its Lagos refinery and petrochemical plant. The training programme was a continuum as more engineers would be trained to work effectively in the fertilizer plant and refinery being built by the company.

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LOCAL CONTENT WATCH

10yr Roadmap: NCDMB completes 20 short terms initiatives … Signs deal for 2 Gas Plants, Base Oil Facility

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igerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has completed the implementation of 20 short term initiatives as part of its 10-Year Strategic Roadmap.

Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Engr.

Simbi Kesiye Wabote stated this at the opening of the 9th edition of the Practical Nigerian Content Workshop held in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, with the theme, “Leveraging Local Expertise for Market Growth and Expansion”.

He confirmed that 25 initiatives were planned for the first two years of the roadmap and the duration of five items would be extended, adding that the percentage of Nigerian content implementation had moved from 26% to 30% in the last two years of the 10-year Plan.

He stated that NCDMB will mark its 10th year anniversary in 2020 and would organize a strategy review session and “evaluate the remaining eight years of the roadmap to put in place necessary measures to meet the 70% Nigerian Content target by the year 2027.” The Executive Secretary had signed agreements for NCDMB’s partnerships in the establishment of two gas plants and a base oil facility.

The first agreement was with Dr. Mason Oghenejobo of Bunorr Integrated Energy Ltd for the establishment of 48,000liters/day Base Oil Production Facility, to be located at Greater Port Harcourt Area, Rivers State. The second agreement was with Mr. Lanre Runsewe of Rungas Limited for the establishment of 400,000 per day Type-3 LPG Cylinders manufacturing plant, to be developed at Polaku, Bayelsa State, in partnership with NCDMB. The third deal was executed with Engr.

Chibuike Achigbu of Chimons Gas Ltd for the establishment of 168,000MT per annum LPG Loading and Receiving Terminal, to be located at Koko, Delta State.

Wabote expressed hope that the partnerships would help to reverse capital flight currently associated with these products, with the estimated turnover put at $360million per year.

He thanked the governing council of NCDMB under the chairmanship of the minister of state for petroleum resources, Chief Timipre Sylva for giving approvals for the

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partnerships.

Giving detailed reports of the Board’s achievements, Wabote said that NCDMB had secured approvals for the award of nine contracts from the federal executive council to progress work on the development of oil and gas parks in Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, and Cross River states, to domicile and domesticate manufacturing in-country.

He mentioned that the Board took up equity in the 12,000 barrels per day AZIKEL Hydroskimming Modular in Bayelsa State after the first partnership with Waltersmith Modular Refinery in Imo State. He also stated that 20 marine cadets sponsored by the NCDMB are currently overseas to acquire sea-time experience in international waters in Singapore, Australia, USA, Malaysia, and China.

He added that “we have set up additional 6 ICT labs in various secondary schools in the last one year, bringing the total to 24. We have trained over 1,000 teachers as part of the Board’s intervention in STEM education.”

Going forward in 2020, the Executive Secretary said there will be roll-out of supplier development programs using our industrial

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parks as a platform, including synergies with NCEC applicants.

According to him, the Board will also take up 40 marine cadets for seatime training; upgrade two vocational education institutions and set-up five ICT laboratories in secondary schools. NCDMB will also train another batch of 1,000 teachers in STEM education. Other plans include the planned commissioning of 5,000 barrels per day Waltersmith Modular Refinery initiative, completion of the NCDF Remittance Forensic Audit visitations and wrap up of the tripartite reconciliation sessions by 31st December 2019.

Speaking further, Wabote confirmed that NCDMB intends to roll-out a Local content implementation recognition program in 2020 and implement the harmonized framework for marine vessel categorization.

He also reported that NCDMB had finalized power supply arrangement for its new headquarters building and the oil and gas park at Emeyal-1, Bayelsa state and a power provider for the park in Calabar has also been identified.

With regards to the sectorial and region-

LOCAL CONTENT WATCH al market linkages, he stated “the Board has been co-opted by the federal government into the local content working committee of the 3,050MW Mambilla Hydro Electric Power Plant to link the capacities and capabilities built in the oil and gas sector into the delivery of the multi-billion dollar project.

“In the coming year, we intend to extend our collaboration with sister agencies and other MDA’s to enhance enduring partnerships that support the patronage of local investors.”

Delivering his ministerial address, Chief Timipre Sylva, charged local vendors to deliver premium services and support the federal

government’s strategy of using local content to drive down the cost of crude oil production, increase the contribution of the oil sector to the gross domestic product (GDP) and guarantee the security of oil production.

He said operators “must not allow local content to become an excuse for cost over runs, slippages in project delivery schedule or shoddy jobs. We must therefore take practical steps to ensure that we curtail the various elements that contribute to the high cost of production”.

He averred that the entire country was looking up to the sector for increased revenue earnings to fund annual budgets and develop

critical infrastructure.

He thanked President Muhammadu Buhari and the federal executive council for granting timely approvals which helped to speed up the completion of the project.

According to him, the building serves as a strong attestation of Mr. President’s love and commitment to the development of the Niger Delta Region. Sylva further charged multinational oil companies and their indigenous counterparts to take a cue from NCDMB and engage more local contractors in various projects in the oil and gas industry.

Local Content, key to lower crude production cost – Sylva Peace Obi

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ederal government has reiterated its resolve to deepen the implementation of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act, being an effective strategy for lowering Nigeria’s high crude oil production cost.

Minister of state for petroleum resources, Chief Timpre Sylva said this during his first working visit to Nigerian Content Development Board’s (NCDMB) head office in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, its new 17 storey headquarters building and other project sites.

Sylva noted that government’s primary target is to significantly reduce the unit cost of producing per barrel of crude oil. He explained that local contractors tend to be cheaper than expatriates and international contractors, and that is why using them for local content should be encouraged. By extension, he said, Nigeria will have achieved reduction in the cost of doing business in the oil and gas industry.

“Local content is part of cost reduction strategy. That’s why I came here to encourage more local participation in the activities of the industry.” The minister also lauded the NCDMB for epitomizing its mandate by using an indigenous contractor to develop its new headquarters. He described the edifice as world class and a clear demonstration of the capacity of Nigerians contractors.

According to him, such superlative performance on projects would pave way for the engagement of other local contractors in the oil

and gas and construction sectors. ”When you have seen one contractor perform this good, you are encouraged to patronize more local contractors.”

He expressed confidence that the new NCDMB structure will attract a flurry of oil industry activities to Bayelsa State. “The problem we have had over the years was that the region where oil production takes place did not have proper structures to promote lots of events. That is why you see oil and gas events going to Abuja and Lagos. But when you have a befitting facility here, going forward, there will be a lot of oil and gas related activity in the Niger Delta,” he said Speaking further, the minister commended the NCDMB for the numerous achievements it had recorded in the implementation of the NOGICD Act. He said, “I am quite impressed

with what they have done in a very short time of existence. The new headquarters building is a testament to that impressive performance and of course, you have the 10 mega watts independent power plant. It is a modular plant that can be increased up to 25 megawatts.”

In his remarks, the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Engr. Simbi Kesiye Wabote confirmed that local content implementation lowers the cost of crude oil production, particularly in the long run. He noted some other key elements that contribute to high crude oil production cost in Nigeria to include security and infrastructural challenges as well as protracted contracting cycle.

Continuing, the Executive Secretary affirmed that several Nigerian oil service companies had executed several projects at costs much lower than their international counterparts. He also clarified that countries like Brazil, Malaysia and Norway that had practiced Local Content in their oil sector for decades had long enjoyed significant cost reduction in their per barrel cost.

Wabote also explained that local content serves as an opportunity cost for the federal government to empower its citizens and get them involved in the activities of the oil and gas industry. He added that local content guarantees security of supply in the industry, recalling that local service companies and skilled Nigerians personnel ensured that operations of the oil and gas industry continued apace during the height of restiveness in the Niger Delta region a few years ago, when most foreign companies and their staff had pulled out.

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LOCAL CONTENT WATCH

Imbibe core values, incountry capacities to grow local content – Wabote Peace Obi

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igerian content managers working for oil and gas operating and service companies have been charged to imbibe the core values of the Board, which includes passion, integrity, professionalism, creativity, patriotism, and team spirit.

Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, (NCDMB) Engr. Simbi Kesiye Wabote gave the charge at a retreat organised by the Board at Uyo, Akwa Ibom state recently for Nigerian content managers, focal persons and personnel and other critical stakeholders of the oil and gas industry.

Wabote noted that the adoption of the values would grow indigenous participation in the oil and gas value chain and enhance job creation, value creation and development of in-country capacities. According to him, “nobody can succeed as a local content practitioner if the person does not love his or her job. You must first believe and have passion for the local content concept before you can practice it effectively.”

The Executive Secretary explained that the Board organised the retreat so that Nigerian content managers can reconnect and pay attention to their own capacity development as against their regular roles of building the capacities of other industry

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Wabote players. Speaking on Integrity, Wabote remarked that the word does not necessarily connote corruption but on how an individual organises his or her daily life. “If you can keep to your time, to your word, people will know you as a man or woman of integrity”, he stated.

Continuing, he urged Nigerian content managers to have integrity as part of their corporate culture considering the volume of transactions they handle and never to al-

ORIENT ENERGY REVIEW Vol.9 No. 06

low pecuniary gains or personnel interests to becloud their sense of judgment.

Dwelling on professionalism, the Executive Secretary advised the focal persons to be adept with the provisions of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act, which he described as the number one reference book for any Nigerian content practitioner. He insisted that the NOGICD Act is not meant for lawyers alone and urged the practitioners to read, or refresh their understanding of the Act before the 10th anniversary which comes up in April 2020.

“As professionals, you need to be familiar with the rule books, the guidelines, and the processes of your trade. You must be knowledgeable about the state of the industry, the in-country capabilities and the existing gaps,” he added. He stated further that part of the reason the Board organises facility visits to service companies and manufacturing facilities is to enable Nigerian content managers to see for themselves the capabilities that exist in-country and what is doable.

The workshop attracted a huge attendance and participants bared their minds on the challenges and grey areas concerning aspects of the Board’s operations covering compliance monitoring, Nigerian Content Intervention (NCI) Fund product types and aspects of the NOGICD Act.

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ORIENT ENERGY REVIEW Vol.9 No. 05 *( %HQWO\ 1HYDGD

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Oil &Gas

Managing produced water for more oil

By Engr. Kelechi Isaac Ojukwu

L

ike flare gas, the produced water challenge is one that will continue to worsen with time unless holistically managed in a more commercially savvy manner to encourage operators to embrace the idea that it is worthwhile to spend money tackling produced water challenges.

On the other hand, increasing tariffs is not the ultimate solution, as it does not cure the ill but can only ramp up the unit production cost. Treating water as mere waste is unsustainable since operators view treatment and disposal costs as unnecessary financial burden.

Nigeria is African largest oil producer, yet with the 10th highest unit cost in the world. This has worsened over the last 20 years due to incessant community and security challenges that plagued the nation’s oil industry. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has announced its intention to grow Nigeria’s crude reserves from 37 to 40 billion barrels by 2025.

This target will remain a tall dream unless the draining high cost of production (currently $27/bbl) is addressed as investors continue to shy away from Nigeria. To achieve this target, in 2014 the government decided to reduce cost of oil production by addressing security issues and developing midstream and gas-power sectors. The minister of petroleum recently announced an achievement of $23 cost per barrel hoping to achieve an ultimate target of $15 per barrel by 2020.

Whist the imposition of high tariff may be necessary to influence a paradigm shift; significant tariff or treatment costs can both be counter-productive to these objectives.

“Integrated Produced Water Management (iPWM) is still a developing science

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in Petroleum Engineering that aims at securing ultimate recovery by unlocking additional barrels of oil as well as dispose the water in a way, that is environmentally safe and cost effective”. Focusing only on safe disposal is not enough, without addressing the oil bypass issues in the reservoir. Therefore, long term, ignoring iPWM is not an option. For the industry to embrace iPWM initiatives, just like Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialization Program and the Flare Gas regulation as gazetted by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2018, a new regulatory framework should be developed for achieving the produced water sustainable goals beyond the environment, but more importantly as oil enabler contributing to the reduction of overall unit cost.

Currently the only publically available regulatory framework in Nigeria that addresses the issue of water production is Environmental Guidelines and Standards for the Petroleum Industry in Nigeria (EGASPIN) drafted by QHSE division of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), a division whose expertise and responsibility is to tackle surface environmental issues of the Exploration and Production industry.

No wonder there is lack of a holistic approach from the regulatory angle addressing this crisis. The current EGASPIN2018 provides the guidelines for controlling and minimizing harmful discharge on safety andenvironment grounds but only it does not address the opportunities available to manage produced water for more oil.

Water produced in E&P business can either be “Good” (Wanted) and “Bad” (Unwanted) water. iPWM involves a proactive subsurface and surface approach aimed at reducing unwater and thereby improving oil production. Unless this problem is holistically addressed with the

ORIENT ENERGY REVIEW Vol.9 No. 06

right technologies, enforcing strict and expensive compliance to treat water would only jack-up the average unit cost across the industry and suppress oil recovery and production objectives long term.

That will be working against our national interest. A good Field Development Plan (FDP) should, for example, propose smart wells initiatives, proactive water shut-offs, and facility debottlenecking by insitu-dehydration and above-all, induced fracturing reinjection technology, amongst others.

For now, an operator in Nigeria should do everything it can to increase oil production by leveraging emerging technologies to reduce unwanted water production, whilst managing good water in a holistic iPWM scheme that should underpin the FDP. The FDP must therefore showcase the operator’s iPWM strategy and innovative technologies to address the project specific sustainability issues such as incremental oil, unit cost and environment.

Engr. Kelechi Isaac Ojukwu is a chartered ex-Shell and ex-Schlumberger petroleum engineer and entrepreneur, with BEng mechanical engineering @UNN, MENG petroleum engineering @Heriot-Watt and concluding his PhD in Petroleum economics, management & policy @ UNIPORT. He is the CEO of PetroSMART, founded in 2000 and renowned for smart oil well technologies, integrated produced water management (iPWM), upstream consulting and asset management.

Kelechi spent 10 years working for Schlumberger wireline & testing as field engineer during which he took 14 international assignments logging & testing over 115 oil wells.

POWER

Power to Power Summit’ recommends a robust energy mix for Nigeria Amaechi Okonkwo

T

he 2nd edition of the Power to Power Summit rose in Port Harcourt, Nigeria last week with a recommendation for a robust energy mix that would lead to the power supply to homes and industry in the country. Participants agreed that Nigeria is richly endowed with a wide range of resources like coal, gas, hydro, solar, wind and biomass, enough to support adequate energy for the country.

Organised by the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), in conjunction with an indigenous electrical and instrumentation engineering company, Doris Desmond Nigeria (DDN) Limited, the summit acknowledged the need for Nigeria to join other countries in transiting from the predominant fossil fuels source of energy.

It also stressed the need for the provision of adequate power to home and industries in the country.

Emphasising on the difference between energy per capita and income per capita, and while highlighting that Nigeria is an

energy poverty affected nation, the Summit stated that with 140kw/h energy per capita Nigeria is one of the poorest countries in terms of energy consumption.

The two-day summit, with the theme “The Future of Energy Transformation and Utilisation: Status, Prospects as Challenges,” recommended immediate policy reforms that would allow private investors get involved in the transmission of energy, currently the exclusive preserve of the federal government.

This Summit argued it would help to free and make available for use the over 5000MW of energy locked down with the generation companies due to lack of transmission capacity across the country.

Chairman of Society for Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Section 103, Port Harcourt, Engr. George P. S. Iwo said partnership between SPE, the largest individual-member organisation of serving managers, engineers, scientists and other professionals worldwide in the upstream segment of the oil and gas industry - which are the

primary producers of Energy, and DDN an electrical and instrumentation engineering company – is aimed at creating a platform where challenges from the energy sector can be adequately expressed and addressed while bridging the knowledge gap regarding links between energy service providers, regulatory authorities and the energy users.

He also said the 2019 Summit was unique because it served as a sustainable energy platform for education, dialogue and exchange of ideas on energy efficiency, innovation and technology, renewable energy and other issues facing energy companies and end-users.

“By the amalgamation of efforts between SPE Port Harcourt Section 103 and Doris Desmond Nigeria Limited to co-organise the Power to Power Summit 2019, heralds a rare opportunity for symbiotic engagements between the petroleum and energy industries to discuss the future of energy utilisation, with a focus on solutions and technologies that will aid the transition to renewable-based clean energy systems with

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POWER zero carbon emissions.

“These discussions will give the best-encapsulated view of what will be dominating these industries in the coming years”, he said. He added that the choice of the theme was to buttress deeper issues concerning the sustainability of over 90% dependence on oil and gas for power visa-vis the neglected alternative means of providing sustainable power.

He called for high priority to actual development and utilisation of renewable energy, especially in the light of increased awareness of the adverse environmental impacts of fossil-based generation.

Iwo pointed out further that whereas Nigeria is blessed with a large amount of natural renewable sources - when fully developed and utilised - will lead to poverty reduction and sustainable development, the time to act is now. Unlike nuclear and fossil fuels plants, which belong to big companies, governments or state-owned enterprises, renewable energy can be set up in small units and is therefore sustainable for community management and ownership.

“The vital role energy plays in the economic growth, progress and development, as well as poverty eradication and security of any nation is unquestionable. Hence, uninterrupted energy supply is a very vital issue for our country. Let’s not forget that the standard of living of a given country is directly related to per capita energy consumption. The per capita energy consumption is a measure of the per capita income, which is a measure of the prosperity of a nation”, he stressed.

The SPE Section 103 chairman added that the engineers’ group is aware that Nigeria’s energy need is on the increase, and her increasing population is not adequately considered in the energy transformation agenda. “Thus, the present urban-centred energy policy is deplorable, as cases of rural and sub-rural energy demand and supply do not reach the centre stage of the country’s energy development policy,” he said According to him, the energy mix must be diversified through installing an appropriate infrastructure and creating full awareness to promote and develop abundant renewable energy resources present

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in the country as well as to enhance the security of its supply.

The time to carry out a holistic reform of the energy sector in Nigeria, he said, is now. “This reform shall review and reform subsidies, establish credible regulatory frameworks, develop a more friendly environment and create market-based approaches and attractive investment opportunities”.

In his remarks, CEO/MD Doris Desmond Nigeria Limited, Kingston Sylvanus, said that the topics of power and energy are unifying subject matter that affects all cadres of people within the society, whether high or low income, rural or urban, male or female, young or old.

“We are all negatively impacted by the debacle of energy insufficiency; hence we have all gathered today because we understand that the prosperity of our society

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depends on a functioning energy supply system”, he said. Sylvanus also agreed with the assertion that the availability of power and energy sources is the golden thread that links poverty eradication and equitable economic growth together.

According to him the Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7) provides the framework for energy development that balances the needs of the people, planet and prosperity adding that goal is centred on universal access, increased efficiency and fast transition to renewable energy.

“These global targets tell us what our energy systems need to look like in the future - low carbon, renewable-based and high efficiency with universal access to all. Yet how we can navigate a path to this future is not clear”, he asserted.

Underscoring the importance of the Summit, Sylvanus stated; “For African

POWER economies to navigate the waters of energy transition, symposiums such as the Power to Power Summit must provide a platform for sharing facts, empirical research, facilitate cooperation and enable stakeholders to deliberate on the diverse challenges facing the energy system of our emerging consumption patterns, supply dynamics, technological innovations and policy changes. We need to be ready to swim with the tides.”

In his presentation at one of the many panel discussions at the Summit, chairman, Society of Petroleum Engineers, Nigeria Council, and partner, Zera Advisory and Consulting, Joseph Nwakwue, declared that Nigeria is energy poor and that the people and industries need power.

He said the discussion on energy should not just be about transition, but first on the provision of adequate power for domestic and industrial use to set the country on the path of economic growth and development.

“Transition is good; I have no problem with it. But let us look at the grid, and this is an economic issue, not an emotional issue. So we need to start asking how much each of these sources of power cost and we need to have it in mind that as a nation, we are broke as at today,” he said.

According to Nwakwue, poor People should not be thinking about whether it is clean or dirty energy. “If you are hungry, and there is no food in the house, you will be stupid to be saying ‘I need protein’.

What you need is food. So we need to give Nigerians power. Our economic development will not happen if we don’t get power to homes, to small businesses. They will not be competitive. Availability of power is a significant component of the ease of doing business.

“What goes on in Nigeria is that the consumer pays a tariff that is below the cost of producing power. For every N100 put into that system, you get only about N60 back. This forces the government to do this power support thing every year and for this year, N600 billion. That is not an efficient way to do things because you keep feeding the waste. We need to find a better way to make this work,” he said He recommended the adoption of a robust energy mix that is dynamic enough to ensure supply and ensure security, that is dependent on a thought that is very highly successful in geopolitics because “we need

What goes on in Nigeria is that the consumer pays a tariff that is below the cost of producing power. For every N100 put into that system, you get only about N60 back. This forces the government to do this power support thing every year and for this year, N600 billion. to be able to talk about the sustainability of supply, so our mix has to be dynamic enough,” Nwakwue said.

He also called for the opening up of the energy sector to more private sector participation by removing the bottlenecks and efficient and cost-effective use of energy driven by market forces saying, “we need to start thinking seriously about putting power on the residual list”.

President, Total Support Energy Group, Ubani Nkaginieme, while speaking on the “Challenges of Energy Transformation and Utilisation,” lamented that Nigeria was lagging seriously behind in the energy generation and utilisation matrix with many wrong steps in the areas of policy formulation and implementation.

He pointed out that Nigeria’s installed capacity of 12,000MW power generation was grossly inadequate and lamented that even at that, there was still a massive loss of about 5,000MW due to lack of adequate transmission capacity. According to him, there is a need for Nigerians to be ready to pay commercial rates for power, saying that even though the government can do a lot, it is not a solution provider.

He also advocated a combination of efforts to develop the power sector while pursuing the ultimate aim of power transition, saying that part of steps to reduce gas flaring and its attendant pollution could be building more gas power stations and deploying natural gas to running vehicles.

“If we line them up very well, we can kill up to 4-5 birds with one bullet”, Nkaginieme stated.

Justice Derefaka, technical adviser, gas business and policy implementation to the minister of state petroleum, in his presentation on “The Journey So Far & Next Critical Steps,” showed that there had been so much progress made on the issue of energy transformation in the country.

He called for a holistic approach to the energy mix demand, saying that the country must “think globally and act locally”.

According to him, through the Nigeria Gas Flare Commercialization Programme (NGFCP) the country has demonstrated willingness to tackle the issue of gas flare out headlong adding that the immediate target was for the country to be relegated from its current 7th position in the league of gas flare countries globally. He also called for legislative backing and implementation of the legislation that would enhance the NGFCP goals.

Deputy Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Power, Francis EjiroOgene Waive, on behalf of the committee promised necessary legislative support to the myriads of issues raised by the summit. “We will look at the Power Reform Act and see how some changes could be affected. For the committee, the problem of the country is not technical or spiritual, they are human, and I believe that gatherings like this will help proffer solutions to some of these challenges,” he said.

He encouraged organisers and experts at the Summit not to relent but always avail their time and technical knowhow in trying to solve the problems of the country.

“Don’t hide this knowledge; bring it out, write articles in newspapers, let’s change this country. This country belongs to all of us, and we must have a sense of ownership.

That’s what drove me into politics. I have realised that this country belongs to me as it belongs to everyone else, and nobody can take it away from me,” the lawmaker stated

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INTERVIEW

Kosmos Energy and the future of agriculture in Ghana Gilbert Borketey Boyefio

Kosmos Innovation Center (KIC) is an award-winning program that focuses on empowering young men and women to drive innovation in agriculture the largest employer of labour in Ghana. The Centre offers training, mentoring and financial reward to outstanding and innovative entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector.

In 2018, the KIC program won the P3 Impact Award organised by the US State Department, the University of Virginia, Darden School of Business alongside the UN General Assembly in New York. The P3 Impact Award looks

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at programs and partnerships that have the potential and prospect of improving the economies of developing countries. Last year, over 60 programs from around the world applied, however, only five were shortlisted and the KIC emerged winner.

Orient Energy Review in this exclusive interview with the Director, Corporate Affairs, Kosmos Energy Ghana, George Sarpong who is also the Director of the Kosmos Innovation Center talks about the Kosmos Innovation Center.

INTERVIEW

So, creating that environment and ecosystem for them to leverage their enthusiasm in addition to the capacity building support we provide them, allows them to create the next generation of companies that will bring productivity and efficiency in the agricultural value chain.

Can you tell us more about the KIC and the motivation behind it?

The Kosmos Innovation Center (KIC) started in 2016, primarily to leverage on Kosmosâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; entrepreneurial skills to empower Ghanaian youths with agricultural entrepreneurship skills.

Currently, there is a growing rate of youth unemployment in the country.

Many of these unemployed youth are

educated and we want to help them turn their energy into something productive, and Kosmos chose the agricultural value chain.

Agriculture is one sector in Ghana that touches on many lives. However, it is devoid of innovation and technology. These youth are very excited by technology and innovation. So, creating that environment and ecosystem for them to leverage their

enthusiasm in addition to the capacity building support we provide them, allows them to create the next generation of companies that will bring productivity and efficiency in the agricultural value chain.

Simply, we inspire, invest and transform Ghanaian youths to become productive citizens. And the success we have recorded up to date is very encouraging. For example, to date, I can say that we have trained over 400 entrepreneurs and have actually catalysed the creation of 14 start-ups till date. We also made seed funding investments in some of these companies and we have funded six start-up companies that are making traction in the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s agricultural value chain.

In a few years to come, we can confidently say that KIC companies are contributing X amount to Ghanaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s economy and making X impact in the entire agricultural value chain. I think we are on

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INTERVIEW How is the KIC program structured?

There are three stages in the program, namely: the AgriTech Challenge, Pitching and Incubation with the first two stages happening within a 10-month period.

The AgriTech Challenge is a 10-month program where successful applicants group themselves into teams, trained, nurtured and progress monitored.

Last year, about 600 applications were received but only 120 were selected.

This number was grouped into 24 teams and within the duration of 10 months, participants are taken through capacity support, capacity building in every facet of entrepreneurship to help them build their minimum viable products, refine their concept, marketing, and financials.

Participants are also trained in leadership, ethics and governance â&#x20AC;&#x201C; those soft skills that allow entrepreneurs to be real leaders and to have- the willingness to give back to society.

That is critical and very important to us.

that path right now

How much seed capital are we looking at?

We give seed money of approximately US$50,000 dollars each to two companies every year. Therefore, over the course of three years, we have given out US$300,000 to six companies that have benefitted from the seed monies. The growing attractiveness is that we are also able to encourage outside investors to come in and invest in some of these start-up companies, which varies from US$10,000 to US$20,000. These investments are different and independent from the support Kosmos offers. It is important to note that Kosmos funds the entire KIC program from the time successful applicants enter the program to the time they complete.

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ORIENT ENERGY REVIEW Vol.9 No. 06

I have no doubt the companies we have helped catalyse are going to grow to become some of the fortune 100 companies in the world. Yes! They have what it takes.

The second stage of the program is the pitching. During the 10-month phase, there are three pitches that allow KIC to narrow the number of participants.

For example, we had about 24 teams that participated and after pitch 1, it was narrowed down to 16 teams. This number is further narrowed to 11 after pitch 2 where the teams go and further develop their minimum viable products, and validate it. The third and final pitch will see two teams selected to receive the US$50,000 seed investment each.

The beauty about the program is that, almost all the teams, by the time they get to the final pitch have good product worthy of investment. The products, the pricing, and the promotion should all be ready for market. This is the reason why we push hard for them to have their minimum viable products ready and validated in the marketplace.

The last stage of the program is incubation, which is for 12 months. This is to allow the teams a physical place to hone the products and continue to build on their skills that will make them better

INTERVIEW entrepreneurs.

At the incubation stage, most of the teams are at the point of revenue generation because some of them already have started fully. But we allow them to be there for 12 months, to ensure that we are monitoring their activities, their progress, and ensuring that they are actually achieving the KPIs to be real entrepreneurs.

The Kosmos Innovation Program is very comprehensive. Because when you look at the success rate of start-ups globally it’s very low. We want to ensure that, we get better success rates out of the KIC. So, even after the incubation phase, when you are actually out there, we have you enter into our Fellowship, which allows you to be part of a family of KIC participants where you will have exposure to mentors and networks to help continue to build your business.

There is the third component of the program – the KIC Booster Program; which helps beneficiary companies validate and refine their business model, prepare their company for growth and access the capital needed to build successful businesses. We do boot camps for them and expose them to external investors.

Another discovery we have made is that even those that participated in the program but did not get the initial investment, don not quit. We have examples of some of the companies that did not get investments but have continued to pursue their passion for entrepreneurship and some of them are making a real success out there.

We have learned that not everybody necessarily is cut out to be an entrepreneur. So as much as you may desire to want to be an entrepreneur, you are just not cut out for it.

However, by the time you are through with the KIC program, we have built your skills to the point that you will become better and more skilled employee. We are seeing evidence of that because some of them have secured employment, the employers are saying very good things about them. Equally important, they are becoming what I call the pipeline for the KIC companies that need employees to be pulling from their own because of the network that we have built.

How long does Kosmos want to run with this program?

The intent is to continue in perpetuity.

The Kosmos Innovation Program is unique and gaining a lot of traction from other

companies that are willing to collaborate.

Considering the success we have recorded here in Ghana, Kosmos Energy is considering opening KIC programs in other countries of operation. We have scratched on something that is working; something that perhaps has eluded Africa for a long time, where donor agencies are trying to create that winning program that will address the problem of growing unemployed youths or mitigating the numerous challenges that we have in Africa. I think what we have created over here is a tip of it. It allows others to see it. We are the pioneers to de-risk the environment, to find that magic wand that allows Africans to make and affect others.

We need to be able to equip the African youth with something more productive that allows them to take their destiny in their own hands.

Personally, I see a vision where when that African youth or let me perhaps focus on Ghana now, is getting out of college and he is not thinking about looking for work but they are first and foremost thinking of what they can do. I think that is when we would have that multiplier effect and cause a paradigm shift in the way the youth think.

When I heard about the KIC, I was a bit intrigued because oftentimes, oil companies invest in something that is related to their operations, but what informed this shift from your area of operation to a different sector?

Actually, I do not think we have moved away from what we do, we are just leveraging on what we do best. We are transferring the entrepreneurial skills that enabled us to succeed in the oil and gas sector to this program.

Why another sector? Because we always see ourselves as partners to countries where we operate. So, Ghana is our partner, we are part of the community and I think a good corporate citizen always want to do something that will help uplift the community. We saw the growing youth unemployment as a challenge. We saw the agriculture landscape as a real opportunity.

Therefore, we are leveraging the skills to improve that sector. That is the reason why we are doing this.

Are there any plans in the future to handover the KIC to a third party to run so that you can focus on your core business?

The KIC is not actually taking away our

focus from our core business. The reason is that it has become part of who we are.

Kosmos employees enjoy working on the program because they have discovered something that allows them to give. Therefore, it has become part of our business; it is not really doing something different.

I always call it “fire in the belly”. We have kindled the fire in these young people’s bellies, this fire is burning, and we just need to harness it.

We are very passionate about this program. Whenever I have the chance to talk about KIC, my eyes just get bigger and I cannot help but share the joy. The KIC is helping shift the direction of our country, we are making an impact on our youths – a young person whose life may be changed forever. I have no doubt the companies we have helped catalyse are going to grow to become some of the fortune 100 companies in the world. Yes! They have what it takes.

How does your program complement or serve as a plugin for existing government programs such as the “Planting for Food and Job”?

I think what we are doing perfectly complements what the government is also doing. Our companies are undertaking projects ranging from food storage, soil fertility, farm transportation, how a farmer can determine the quality of fertilizer or the chemical product and so many innovative things. All these innovations are to support and improve agriculture in Ghana.

So, what we are doing is actually complementing the various government programs in the agricultural sector to ensure maximum success.

Are there any plans to collaborate with the various tertiary institutions in Ghana on this program?

Yes, we do. In fact, we are in the midst of sorting our collaboration with the various universities. Beyond that, we have universities from the US that have actually come here to be part of the program. They have seconded some of their MBA final year students to be consultants to the companies in the program. The University of Indiana has been with us for the past three years. Georgetown University MBA School just joined last year and a lot more want to be part of this program.

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MARITIME

AfCFTA Agreement: Is Nigeria prepared for the economic protocols?

By Oko Ebuka

P

resident Muhammadu Buhari, on July 7, 2019 finally penned down his signature to the economic treaty which established the African Continental Free Trade Area, otherwise known as AfCFTA Agreement, thereby making Nigeria the 53rd member country out of 55 countries in Africa to legally agree on the established economic pact.

Economists and industry insiders have adjudged this new African Union (AU) economic order as the biggest economic

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policy after the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement. The AfCFTA aims at stimulating free movement of goods, services and investments within the shores of African continent with emphasis on reducing and possibly eliminating Customs excise duties and non-tariff barriers on goods.

It is also seen as a driving force to economically integrate the African countries of over 1.2 billion people with economic ties, as well as promoting socio-cultural

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tendencies, agricultural development, ensuring food security, and transformation of the African economy through industrial revolution. It has also automatically, shaded the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme (ETLS), as it portrays more economic opportunities beyond the West African region. Prognoses However, despite the inbuilt economic gains and prospects in this agreement, there is need for countries like Nigeria with high consumption pattern and

Oil &Gas relatively low economic output in terms of production to take a closer look in order to avoid the reoccurrence of the past failed economic treaties.

In truism, scholars have argued that on the periphery, there are no issues with the theory of trade liberalization but often times, so many things are wrong in the implementation of a free trade agreement.

The comparative advantage school of thought equally argued that, “free trade between nations would bring gains to both parties to an exchange, even when one was the more efficient producer of every good they traded. This was because trade encouraged even an unproductive national economy to devote resources to those branches of production in which they would be least inefficiently employed”.

In addition, the African Development Bank (AfDB), in its report, asserted that AfCFTA would stimulate intra-African trade by up to $35 billion per year, creating a 52 percent increase in trade by 2022; and a vital $10 billion decrease in imports from outside Africa. This however, is a robust opportunity for Nigeria to tap into this emerging African market with wide range of goods, products and services but the question still lingers - How can it be achieved?

Crawling non-oil sector Despite trailing behind South Africa as the highest exporting country in the continent in 2018, with a total of $52.9 billion, driven mainly by oil exports, Nigeria still, lag behind in the non-oil production and manufacturing sector. This lull in economic activity should be stimulated through the private sector, especially by promoting the small, medium scale enterprises (SMEs).

Although the Federal Government, through the Trader Moni Scheme, strove to promote the output value of SMEs in select parts of the country, this is not sufficient to scale up output especially as the value of capital and the provision of other basic amenities that will boost the non-oil sector have remained a pipe dream.

The consumption pattern reflects Nigeria as a country that consumes mostly imported finished goods while relying on the export of raw materials and crude oil exports for its foreign exchange earnings.

In truism, scholars have argued that on the periphery, there are no issues with the theory of trade liberalization but often times, so many things are wrong in the implementation of a free trade agreement.

These has continued to influence and affect negatively the quality of agricultural produce, infrastructural decay affecting manufacturing industries, poor energy supply, unemployment and insecurity.

These deficits in the economic production processes will definitely impair and blur Nigeria’s forecasted gains in the free trade treaty.

Furthermore, the fast pace of other African countries in production of quality goods and services cannot be neglected in this competitive market. For a clear comparative illustration, Morocco, according to the World Top Export Index (2018), exported high quality products such as electrical machinery equipment, vehicles, fertilizer, clothing, accessories (not knit or crochet), inorganic chemicals, fish, vegetables, fruits, nuts, salt, sulphur, stone, etc, to various countries across the globe, generating a total of US$29.3 billion on non-oil products. While Nigeria, in the corresponding year, yielded US$52.9 billion in export, with oil products accounting for US$49.8 billion, while non-oil products account for just US$3.1 billion.

Sadly, most of these African countries bound by this treaty are not interested in the purchase of Nigerian oil. This shows how important it is to develop the non-oil

sector to enable the giant of Africa not to drown in the ocean of economic competition and dependency lurking in the proposed Free Trade Act. Obviously, this has precipitated concerns, which includes; the exposure of the already struggling local manufacturing sector to unfair competition. Moreover, as the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), rightly stated: “the agreement if not properly reviewed, will eventually lead to job losses and increase on the unemployment rate.”

Striking the economic symmetry For a country with about 180 million people to predominantly depend on the importation of all kinds of goods, as little as toothpick; there is a need to review their economic activities, replenish their industries with international best practices to avoid being swallowed economically in the continental free trade deal.

According to Dr Eugene Nweke, free trade agreements should be made in such a way that it should mutually benefit all the agreeing parties.

“If free trade agreements are not adequately structured and monitored to meet local peculiarities, it opens a window for the further flooding of the markets with substandard, counterfeit and fake products produced offshores. These products compromises quality standards, production process and labour best practices - resultantly, it leads to disastrous price fall, making the locals unfit and unable to compete with such offshore products.”

The Federal Government must fasten the economic seatbelt by implementing those local content economic policies that will enhance the production of quality goods and services, which will be of high value within the country, and also worthy of being shipped to other African markets, to avert this looming economic drawback.

Therefore, industrial hubs like Aba, Onitsha, Nnewi, Lagos, Ota, Kaduna, Kano, among others, must get necessary amenities for quality Made in Nigerian goods to be produced, as same as their counterparts in the common African market or else, the country will still be used as the dumping ground for fake products by other African nations.

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SPECIAL REPORT

The reality of snakebites:

Time is tissue

With at least 600,000 people worldwide killed or permanently disabled each year, snakebites are the biggest public health crisis that no one has heard of. For projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America, the oil & gas industry needs to consider the risks of workers being bitten and its corporate social responsibility to support local communities with this silent killer. Remote Medical International, working alongside the Asclepius Snakebite Foundation, have developed proven management and response strategies specific to the threat of snakebites.

D

ealing with snakebites effectively cannot just be about limiting the impact on working hours but must also be about saving lives. The safety threat presented by snakes is very real as is the impact on workforce morale and efficiency. Alongside a robust safety system and education that helps

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workers avoid snakebites, a strategy to efficiently and effectively deal with a snake-bite is also needed. Even in offshore environments, sea snakes are a threat. Whatever the location, if dangerous snakes are present, a definitive treatment program will help save lives, prevent permanent disability and give workers peace of mind to get on with their

jobs in an efficient manner.

Ultimately, as with a heart attack or a stroke, â&#x20AC;&#x153;time is tissueâ&#x20AC;? with a snakebite and earlier antivenom administration is strongly associated with reduced mortality, morbidity, and lost time. The first minutes and hours after envenomation are critical to saving the life and limb of the patient. Whether

SPECIAL REPORT neurotoxic, cytotoxic, or hemotoxic, fast response is critical. In all cases, the solution is the right dose of the right antivenom.

When patients are treated quickly with the appropriate antivenoms and supportive care, the progression of an envenomation can often be arrested before serious injury has occurred.The problem in remote locations is that, even if the right antivenom is available, medical personnel often lack the training to administer it.

Oil companies, should be asking if the risk of snakebites at the project stage is a concern and, if so, what should be done?

Although Medevacs may appear to be a good option, there are many downsides to this approach. First, a Medevac is costly and places stress on the evacuating patient.

Second, and more critically, time really is of the essence when it comes to treating a snakebite. Delaying treatment means increased damage to surrounding tissue, resulting in greater risk of permanent disability or even a fatal outcome.The progression of necrosis can be prevented or stopped by antivenom administration, but once the damage has been done it cannot be reversed.Another question when considering the Medevac option is that, once evacuated, does the medical centre the patient is transferred to have the correct antivenom and expertise to deal with the envenomation? There is still the need for a complete care strategy.

Although Medevac may still ultimately be required, the ability to assess and treat the wound locally offers numerous benefits.

First, the bite can be treated more quickly without a delay in the time to transfer the patient. This is proven to produce much better patient outcomes. The knowledge that this service is at hand also presents the workforce with greater peace of mind and can improve morale. In addition,the oil company is also opening an opportunity to provide supplementary support to remote, local communities where, previously, the chances of a good outcome following envenomation were low. This enhances corporate social responsibility (CSR) and generates good will in the local community.

In Kenya, snakebite envenoming claims thousands of lives every year and, like diseases such as malaria, is a part of everyday life. For the oil industry, the threat of snakebites in this area is probably one of the top

The response strategy from Remote Medical International includes evaluation of the local threat, identification of species of concern, assessment of the relative risk to workers, and a clear risk reduction strategy.

three risks to workers.

To support its local strategy in dealing with snakebites, INTERNATIONAL oil company Tullow Oil has worked alongside Remote Medical International with the support of the Asclepius Snakebite Foundation to put a robust response strategy in place for its sites in Kenya.

This includes donations of medicines, and training of staff in local hospitals to systematically assess, diagnose, and treatpatients with snake envenomation.The definitive treatment capability that has been developed produces better patient outcomes for anyone who is bitten in the area, and reports are already indicating a reduction in snakebite deaths and disabilities and an increase in patients seeking treatment in the area since the program began.

The response strategy from Remote Medical International includes evaluation of the local threat, identification of species of concern, assessment of the relative risk to workers, and a clear risk reduction strategy. The clinical implementation comprises assessment of which antivenom is most effective against the local venomous snakes of medical significance and the creation of advanced field treatment protocols, along with continual advisement and 24/7 consultation with medical and subject matter experts (SME) in the event of envenomation.

Andy Kimmell, Operations Director, Global Coordination & Security at Remote Medical Internationalsaid: â&#x20AC;&#x153;A medical response team for an envenomation needs to be trained specifically for such an event but the overall management of snakes in the area requires cooperation

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SPECIAL REPORT through a multidisciplinary team. We work with experts in snakebites and antivenom and a senior SME is always available to oversee incidents. It is through a well thought out, robust and cohesive strategy, put together by experts in this area, that we are able to save lives and limbs.

Prevention of snakebites is the first goal.

The team works proactively with snake handlers, safety and security teams to try to remove the threat of snakebites from camps and work areas. Inevitably, however, this cannot be 100% assured and snakebites do occur. When this happens the circumstances are reviewed, and safeguarding procedures updated if appropriate.

Safe and sound asleep?

“At a remote oil and gas camp in Kenya, a man sleeping in an eight-man dormitory awoke with breathing difficulties and a pain in his hand. The on-site medics quickly identified it as a cobra envenomation and acted” recalled Kimmell.

He added, “Of course, a top priority was to administer the correct antivenom and treat the patient. The neurotoxic bite was attacking the respiratory system and quick action was needed to save the man’s life. The other priority was to get the other seven men out of the tent and to safety until the snake had been found. Snake handlers and security teams worked quickly to find the snake, humanely capture it and release it in accordance with procedures outside of the camp.

The other underlying issue for this attack, however, was that the snake entered a place that workers considered a place of rest and safety..The onsite snakebite team, including handlers, security and medical staff, worked to restore confidence among the workers and carry out due diligence to ensure there was not a bigger, unseen issue on site such as nest of cobra eggs nearby that had gone unnoticed.”

Jordan Benjamin, founder & executive director of The Asclepius Snakebite Foundationsaid: “This example shows the complexity of dealing with snakebites in an austere environment. Every snakebite is a unique toxicological emergencythat must be dealt with quickly and precisely in order to ensure the best possible outcome for the patient.

Every minute wasted after a bite occurs allows more time for the various venom

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components to attack their targets in the victim’s body, an..d there is a marked increase in mortality for every hour that passes until the right dose of the right antivenom is administered.

Companies that rely on Medevacs as their primary response to a snake bite fail to realize that they are making the situation worse.

It is far more effective, both in cost and in outcomes, to invest in a robust snakebite management plan with onsite antivenom treatment capabilities. Snakebite is an occupational hazard, and the psychological effect on others in the work area can also be significant. Robust systems need to be in place to both react to the immediate threat to life from the envenomation and deal with how and why the bite occurred, taking any actionsnecessary to reduce risk in the future.”

Developments in antivenoms have helped to reduce mortality rates from snakebites in remote areas. Treatments were previously based on using antibodies from horse serum and required constant refrigeration.

This posed several problems: Antibodies from horse serum are known to produce high rates of anaphylaxis and can provoke life-threatening anaphylactic reactions to the antivenom. Its administration required at least two advanced medics on site to deal with any reaction. Since 95% of bites occur in rural areas of the developing world, the need for refrigeration also severely limited where the antivenom could be stored, often leading to a delay in getting the antivenom to the patient.

Modern antivenoms are much more stable and use highly purified antibody fragments that have undergone additional processing to remove the immunogenic component of the molecule responsible for severe allergic reactions. This means they can be transported without cold chain refrigeration, stored on a shelf at ambient tropical temperatures for years, and administered safely by direct intravenous push, helping reduce the time to treatment in remote locations.

“The advances made in antivenoms have helped enormously with the threat to life of snakebites in remote areas. Freeze dried serums that do not require refrigeration and have longer shelf life make treatment more accessible and more affordable, as well as providing improved safety with lower risks of an allergic reaction. With these antiven-

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oms available, more work now needs to be done in terms of outreach and education to help remote communities deal with this threat.” added Benjamin.

Snakebites claim hundreds of thousands of lives and limbs every year worldwide. A robust strategy to deal with an envenomation is needed to reduce mortality rates and the chances of permanent disability in the oil industry.

By working with subject matter experts and producing a complete plan to reduce the risk of snake encounters and procedures to swiftly and effectively treat snakebites at the point of injury when they occur, Remote Medical International has helped the oil industry better handle this threat.

Medevacs, although sometimes necessary, should not be the primary approach to care of snakebites. Through education and outreach, the industry can also deliver vital support to local communities and workers to help make lives safer and better in regions where they are operating.

Remote Medical International Africa Oil Week 2019

DR. BRYNN KARCH, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER Dr. Brynn Karch is the chief medical officer for Remote Medical International.

Dr.Karch’s passion for health care delivery in developing economies helps with topside support and medical consultation and direction for Remote Medical International’s medical support operations and telemedicine contracted customers. Dr.Karch won the Press-Ganey Summit Award for emergency department satisfaction for years 2009-2011.

TECON OIL SPECIAL PROJECT

PHOTOGALLERY

NCDMB ES Engr. Simbi Wabote, inspecting the proposed Fabrication yard with PETAN Chairman, Mr Bank Anthony Okoroafor and other delegates.

Proposed Fabrication yard blueprint

CEO, Tecon Oil Services, Mr Casimir Maduafokwa delivering his welcome address.

ES of NCDMB, Engr. Wabote delivering his keynote speech

Cross-section of guests at the commissioning ceremony

Actual Christening ceremony conducted by Rev. Joe Ben Onyia ORIENT ENERGY REVIEW Vol.9 No. 06

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TECON OIL SPECIAL PROJECT

PHOTOGALLERY

Presentation of gift to Tecon Oil Services President by officials from CNOOC

CEO of Tecon Oil Services, Casimir Maduafokwa, ED Tecon Oil, Dr. Blossom Maduafokwa and Dr. Tony Eze

Traditional Father of the day, Crown Prince CY Udorji

Cutting of ribbon by Engr. Wabote

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31

COVER

Quest for diversity and inclusiveness in the energy industry

By Nneka Ezeemo and Godspower Ike

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he participation of women in the extractive industry, especially in Africa, has remained very low.

Over the years, women have continued to be underrepresented across almost all positions with very thin or negligible presence at the managerial levels.

This has continued to impair their active

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contribution in driving the growth and development of the energy sector globally.

A Global Energy Talent Index Report disclosed that globally, there is a chronic shortage of women in the oil and gas industry. Precisely, the report estimated that women occupy about 50% of non-technical positions at entry-level compared to only

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15% of technical and field role positions.

It added that gender diversity decreases with seniority, with only a tiny proportion of women in executive positions. Research had shown that women are highly under-represented in most extractive industries, with the United States Department of Labor defining a male-dominated

During the 1980s’ oil burst, reports noted that corporations shuttered their doors and laidoff workers. Consequently, the low job vacancy rates in the industry deterred much of an entire generation of workers from entering the oil and gas industry until 2000.

sector as one where women constitute less than one-fourth of the total workforce. Catalyst, a non-profit organisation that focuses on gender diversity in the workplace, stated that women represented only 7.9% of board positions in the top 500 mining companies in 2016; of those among the top 100 companies, 94% of women represented were in non-executive positions.

In Australia, the report noted that women made up only 13.3% of the oil, gas and mining workforces in 2009, but by 2015, the number had increased slightly to 14.3%, while in 2015, women comprised 19.4% of the Canadian mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction labour force.

In Nigeria, it is acknowledged that women participation in the petroleum industry is minimal, as women only comprise an insignificant portion of the oil and gas workforce. This trend becomes worrisome when viewed against the fact that women give are believed to be giving back 90% of what they earn into their community whereas their male counterparts give back on average 30 – 40% of their income to the community, making it essential to empower women to do more for their society.

The Advocates for Human Rights disclosed that despite this stark reality of women participation in the industry, there is enormous potential to draw

upon the increasing number of women with the requisite qualifications as more women are studying and graduating in engineering and other relevant technical disciplines.

For example, the group noted that women earned only two per cent of undergraduate engineering degrees conferred in the United States in 1995, adding that today women hold around 18% of these degrees. It said that as the sector becomes more mechanised and less reliant on heavy manual labour, traditional arguments for a male-dominated industry that relied on stereotypical reasoning are becoming obsolete.

According to the report, shifting the status quo requires identifying the parties responsible for bringing about change and how they can do it. The first step to ensuring that women have equal opportunities in extractive industries is to ensure that discriminatory laws and sex-based protective legislation are repealed.

“Governments are not meeting their international legal obligations, nor are they utilising their full workforce when they ban women from certain jobs and activities. Under international law, governments are also responsible for shifting traditional gender norms and for eradicating harmful cultural practices that interfere with a woman’s right to work.

“Companies in extractive industries are also subject to international norms that

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COVER

Research has shown that greater female inclusion provides a larger pool to meet the high demand for labourers, higher retention of key talent, increased profitability, better performance, improved safety records, higher standards of government behaviour, and benefits to women and the broader community.

address equal opportunity and workforce diversity. Companies are not complying with the international standards for multi-national corporations nor are they getting the best and most diverse workforce they need when they fail to remove barriers that do not support, retain and advance women,” the report stated Research has shown that greater female inclusion provides a larger pool to meet the high demand for labourers, higher retention of key talent, increased profitability, better performance, improved safety records, higher standards of government behaviour, and benefits to women and the broader community.

During the 1980s’ oil burst, reports noted that corporations shuttered their doors and laid-off workers. Consequently, the low job vacancy rates in the industry deterred much of an entire generation of workers from entering the oil and gas industry until 2000. Today, it is evident that the existing labour force is nearing retirement, setting up the industry for another labour shortage. Another disturbing trend bedeviling the industry is the fact that the sector now ranks the least attractive for young graduates across 18 industries included in a separate research.

Meanwhile, another estimate shows that from 2015 to 2035, up to 585,097 job

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opportunities will be open due to replacement needs in the oil, gas, and petrochemical sectors, this breaks down to the hiring of approximately 30,000 new employees every year over 20 years to fill positions left vacant by retiring staff.

Standards and Poor’s, in a report published in September, stated that as the benefits of gender-diverse leadership grow more apparent, the oil and gas sector continues to struggle to boost the number of women it has in leadership positions.

The global rating agency noted that the share of women on boards of oil and gas companies reached 14% in 2019, double the level in 2009. It added that with fewer than one female board member out of every five, the oil and gas sector is ill-positioned to reap the gains that diversity can bring.

S&P disclosed that companies with women in the boardroom tend to perform better than those that have less gender-diverse boards, and companies with more gender-diverse boards tend to have higher credit ratings. It quoted the International Energy Agency (IEA) as saying, “The energy sector remains one of the least gender-diverse sectors in the economy, despite recent efforts to promote and encourage women’s participation.

“This is especially important given the role that women can often play as key driv-

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ers of innovative and inclusive solutions.

With that backdrop, changes from female to male leadership in the industry take on greater meaning.”

Furthermore, Ernst and Young (EY), stated that despite making up half the population, women continue to be poorly represented in the boardroom, adding that as a result, we are finding that organisations and their boards are overlooking a strategic opportunity to drive value.

It said, “Whether anyone believes that diversity leads to better decision-making or not, we have reached a point in time where the importance of gender balance at the board level cannot be overstated.

Spotlight Uganda Speaking to Orient Energy Review on the sidelines of ADIPEC 2019, chief executive officer, Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC), Proscovia Nabbanja lamented the fact that tradition and cultural norms in Uganda similar to what is common in the African region, does not necessarily put females in the driving seat. She gave further insight about the affirmative actions the Uganda government have put in place for schools to see that girls are getting the necessary educational exposure, which will equip them to gain access into the Energy industry.

COVER Nabbanja also emphasised the steps the government has taken to ensure that gender equality is embedded in the corporate culture across all the sectors, implemented by the Equal Opportunities Commission established in 2007. She stated that the Commission issue gender certificate to organisations and score their performances on female recruitment, as well as the disabled and the minority group.

The good thing about this practice is that the outcome of this scoring system has a tie in with planning and budgeting to ensure that there is a high level of compliance.

its strategy on the Nigerian Content Intervention Fund (NCI Fund), adding that access to finance was crucial and the Board would look at its policy to see how it can support women who are determined to do business.

According to him, already two companies managed by women have benefitted from the NCI Fund because NCDMB took deliberate positive action. He assured that

Spotlight Nigeria Aware of the challenges of diversity and inclusion, executive secretary of the Nigerian Content Development Management Board (NCDMB), Engr, Simbi Wabote, disclosed that women operators in the Nigerian oil and gas industry would soon benefit from gender-friendly policies on access to funding, the award of contracts and support for research and development.

Wabote stated that since the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act was instituted as a deliberate agenda to get more Nigerians to participate in the oil and gas industry, there should also be special initiatives to encourage women participation in the sector. He said the NCDMB would review

Proscovia Nabbanja

chief executive officer, Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC)

Simbi Wabote the Board would work with project promoters in the oil and gas industry to ensure the award of some contracts to companies owned by women, including the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company (NLNG), which is set to start the execution of the Train 7 project.

Wabote added that the NCDMB would also encourage the study of sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by young girls in secondary schools and drive the collation of data on women who participate in various sectors of the oil and gas industry so that they can receive the necessary support.

The ES confirmed that out of the total number of people trained by the Board, women constitute about 20 per cent of the trainees and it hoped to increase the number of women qualified to meet up the industry skilled labour demand.

In her contribution, Mrs Roselyn Wilkie, assistant director, services/acting head, corporate services, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), stated that women

must speak out and not be shy in whatever they are doing. She advised women, especially in the oil and gas sector to position themselves for a leadership position by getting proper education, skills and exposure required in the job.

Way forward Senior region CFS manager Europe/ Sub Saharan Africa & Eurasia Regions for Halliburton, also an international speaker and advocate for diversity and inclusion, LamĂŠ Verre, highlighted the key takeaways the industry must achieve to see the shift required as we move into 2020 and beyond.

According to her, four critical things need to happen.

First is prioritising diversity and inclusion in the Energy industry. Secondly, D&I becoming embedded in the strategy and culture of organisations the same way health, safety and environment are embedded in most organisations today. Her third suggestion was a recommendation for male colleagues who currently represent the majority of decision-makers in the industry to join the discussion.

In conclusion, she stated that Inclusion allows diversity to thrive, and called on organisations to have strategies and policies in place to attract, retain and promote diversity.

It is obvious that when these are done and encrusted in the employment culture of the extractive industry, the monumental pool of talents, skills and expertise of women will go a long way in supporting the rapid and stable growth of the industry.

Lame Verre Petroleum Economist

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DIGITALISATION ZONE

Managing legacy data in era of digital transformation.

Engr. Emmanuel Udofia

M

anaging data could be described as the standard process of data acquisition, processing through archiving and execution into the workflow domain.

The common objective for such implementation is for improved efficiency within an organization.

The place of data in our business model cannot be undermined because data is a corporate asset, just like you have the physical asset. Almost every decision the domain experts make depends squarely on the data-set, so it is very important we treat our data with the required importance.

It is a critical asset for any organization that wants to be relevant in the nearest future. Data has systematically become the driving force for technology innovation in virtually every sector of our business.

The oil and gas industry is not left out especially taking into consideration that, the industry churns out large volume of data from high level of activities from several oil fields around the world. Hence, the need for an efficient data management as key to unlocking the real value of technical and analytical application of the data as obtained from different sources. It is the cornerstone in which the oil and gas industry is building the future.

Following the advent of digital transformation (which is simply the application of technology in an organizational business process), the concept of data management has been transformed. The objective here is to highlight the impact of such transformation in an organization through the proper management of legacy data. Most producing assets in sub Saharan Africa have been acquiring data for over 60 years but such data are dispersed.

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Following the advent of digital transformation (which is simply the application of technology in an organizational business process), the concept of data management has been transformed.

DIGITALISATION ZONE Figure 1: Value Loop Concept Legacy data remains ‘unstructured’ in the form of documents, drawings or texts, hence managing these data in electronic or digitized form is a challenge. Following the advent of digital transformation agenda for the last two decades in the oil and gas industry (through the operations of IOCs and NOCs), data are more useful if they are transformed into a ‘chewable’ form. The emergence of digital technology like; Opti-

Figure 2: Electronic Data Creation Using Artificial Intelligence

Figure 1: Value Loop Concept

cal Character Recognition (OCR), Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Computer Vision makes it easier to transform legacy data into the modern digitized form as against the manual option of actually re-drawing or re-writing of these data set or drawings.

Data pattern recognition in the form of machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been used extensively in this journey of transforming legacy data into a ‘workable’ mode.

A trained algorithm is used in this process in recognizing symbols, texts or line character after several iterative process.

Usually, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are widely used for predicting or forecasting trends based on data input since

they are normally data-driven. Data is in the center of customer experience, so proper management of the data set is key.

There are several advantages of digitizing your organizational data, which includes; Improve efficiency in your work processes. This enable seamless data interface with other applications or work processes. Supports speed in data processing or event execution. Digitized data are easier to archive which eventually results in safer and better way of managing the ‘Big Data’.

There is reduction in cost and time in performing the same task. Meanwhile, there are limitations of existing technology in the image recognition technology technique space, which mainly works well for imaging Process & Instrumentation Diagram (P & ID) and Process Flow Diagram (PDF) documents. However, it is difficult to extract needed information from complex drawings (like the electrical & structural drawings) because of some overlapping graphics among other factors. Equally, scanning very old documents might be challenging because of poor pixel density per inch (dpi), which creates difficulty in

identifying text and lines. It is expected that with advances in technology most of these challenges could be overcome with time.

In this era of digital transformation, organizations need to be deliberate in adapting to the smart way of working as it satisfies business needs to convert our existing manual documents or data to executable friendly mode or digital form with all the above highlighted business benefits.

With advances in digital technology it is expected that the cost of carrying out such project or digitizing our data will significantly reduce while the mentioned challenges will be better managed while we upscale the defined business benefits.

Engr. Emmanuel Udofia is an Award-Winning Industry Advisor and Petroleum Engineering expert with great focus in digital transformation. He holds BEng, MEng, MBA & PhD (in-view) and is CEO of Suneses Energy Limited www. suneses-energy.com (Email: E.Udofia@ Suneses-Energy.com)

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TECHNOLOGY

Moving to a cementless future for completions By utilising an innovative cementless technology Total have been able to reduce risk and increase operational efficiency for their Moho North field in the Congo.

T

he cementing process that isolates the various down hole formation zones as well as firmly fixing the casing in place has been core to the completion process since it was first used over a century ago.

Despite its maturation as a completing technology is still presents a myriad of challenges to operators which have led them to seek new and better ways for zonal isolations.

During the drilling process, you will have to do several tests to make sure that you have correct pressure and a nonleaking well. Cementing is central to the discussion of zonal isolation and well integrity because cement typically provides at least one barrier in a well and is a component of the barrier envelope or barrier system during well construction and the operational phases of the well.

Three cementing challenges in deepwater Part of the process of preparing a well for further drilling, production or abandonment, cementing a well is the procedure of developing and pumping cement into place in a wellbore. Most commonly, cementing is used to permanently shut off water penetration into the well. Part of the completion process of a prospective production well, cementing can be used to seal the annulus after a casing string has been run in a wellbore.

Additionally, cementing is used to seal a lost circulation zone, or an area where there is a reduction or absence of flow within the well. In directional drilling,

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cementing is used to plug an existing well, in order to run a directional well from that point. Also, cementing is used to plug a well to abandon it. Deepwater is one of the most challenging cementing locations where operators face a triumvirate of challenges including low temperatures, low fracture gradient and shallow flow hazards.

A new way That all changed last year when it was announced that Total had successfully utilised an innovative cementless completion technology in the Moho North

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Albian field that they had developed in partnership with Welltec. The technology was Welltec Annular Isolation (WAI).

Moho Nord is a deep offshore oil project situated 75 kilometres off the Congolese coast. It came on stream in March 2017 and is the largest oil project ever undertaken in the Republic of the Congo. The field will produce untapped reserves in the Moho-Bilondo license block, which covers an area of 320 kilometres and four reservoirs situated at water depths of 750 to 1,200 metres.

Given the challenges that cementing presents to operators, experts have long been searching for an alternative comple-

TECHNOLOGY tion method that both reduces risk and saves operation expense. By using an innovative cementless technology it is possible for an operator to save up to $75 to $100 million over a 15 to 20 wells deepwater field development plan can be achieved.

This solution is equally as viable for onshore and shallow offshore markets. Approaching it from a larger scale makes the value proposition more obvious. “We like to think that we work on solutions that are best for the well and the overall project,” Gbenga Onadeko, Senior Vice President, Welltec Africa, said “In most cases, our industry is integral to the economies of the oil and gas producing countries. We therefore believe

that we are having a positive impact on the overall wealth of the nations we operate in. Total initially selected a cemented and perforated liner solution, the liner length was short and deep, implying the volume of cement was relatively small, which increases the operational risk of cementing the reservoir section.

“Because of the potential of cement contamination and also to increase the success rate of placing it behind the liner, the volume of cement pumped was increased by enlarging the hole (under-reaming) and drilling deeper i.e. a longer rat hole section, which placed the toe of the well within less preferential sections of the

formation increasing the drilling and production risks.

“With the liner deployed and cement in place, the WAB is expanded quickly under full surface control sealing against the formation rock, displacing the cement, providing high integrity pressure isolation between zones. This in turn ensures that even if channels or micro-annulus are present in the cemented interval, effective isolation is still achieved within the annulus,” he said

we had already deployed the WABs. But then towards the end of 2017 amidst the height of the industry downturn when the sector was really feeling the low cost per barrel, Total realised that this project was costing far too much. It had been sanctioned when the price of oil was much higher, and they urgently needed to cut costs, which provided us an opportunity to utilise this technology with its associated cost saving.

“In December 17 they invited all the service companies that had a contract with them on this project, to come and discuss The long road to adoption how they could slash the well drilling costs Even under the long-term depressed state of the price of oil that has necessitat- by half,” he added He informed that another reason that ed a drive to greatly improve operational efficiency the oil and gas sector is still risk Total had confidence to proceed with the cementless WAI solution came about by averse when it comes to adopting innovative techniques. The deployment of this chance. “On one of the WAB operations they put it in a long zone and accidentally project started four years ago when the Total team arrived in the Congo to prepare put it into a well section thereby shutting off the hydrocarbon instead of water,” for the deployment.

Onadeko explains.

“Initially the Total team was not ready “Then they had to shoot some explofor a full cementless solution, so they used sives into that hole to perforate it and the one of our products, which is called the WAB, in the wells in addition to the tradi- WAB was robust enough to withstand the shock; it did not impair their production. tional cement,” Onadeko says. According So that was another reason why they could to him, normally, the WABs can be used go ahead and use the cementless solution, without cement to isolate several sections knowing now that they can perforate of the well, but in this case, because they through and get a diversion. had some technical issues, they decided “We develop cutting edge technologies to go with the WABs for their isolation and work extremely hard to convince our propertiesin addition to cement. clients to deploy the value adding solu“For most of the wells on this project, tions. One of values we add to the industry is to assist our clients in overcoming their initial reluctance. We want to ensure that these technologies are included in their field development plans to avoid paying premiums later due to rush mobilizations.

Including the technologies in their initial plans reduces the risk of budget variation,” the Senior Vice President, said

The WAB and the WAI The WAI provides long length open hole zonal isolation, significantly reducing the free annulus space between the casingand the open hole. The removal of this annular space can be beneficial in highly layered reservoirs of varying permeability, where selective production, stimulation or water shut off is required. Its metal expandable sleeve is hydraulically expanded, under full surface control using the rig pumps.

Sealing on the open hole is achieved using a series of compliant, elastomeric seals, ORIENT ENERGY REVIEW Vol.9 No. 06

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TECHNOLOGY

backed up by full circumferential metal to rock contact fins that prevent seal extrusion under high differential pressure.

While the WAI is suited to zonal isolation, the WAB for well completions can be utilised to provide solutions to many requirements throughout the completion phase of a well. Its leak rate capability, when set in cased hole, makes it ideal as a high-pressure production packer for both high pressure gas and oil well applications. In addition to this it can rotate and reciprocate during installation and cementing operations, and then expand and seal, on demand.

In horizontal applications this allows the WAB to be incorporated as a Rapid Set Liner Hanger, reducing both risk and complexity in these often-challenging applications.

“The WAB gives us a zone of isolation. What we mean by that is you have a seal between a liner and reservoir and then you have a distance between that packer and the well. So, you have like an open anulus between these two packers for zonal isolation purposes. What the WAB gives you is seal integrity between the liner and the rock. Once you have established your seal then you are able to simulate, inject or produce into a certain zone.”

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When cementing fails The main competition to this technology has been cement, where liners are cemented in a well. The challenges are where the trajectories and the geometry of the wells become more difficult. In these instances, it becomes very challenging to assure the seal when using cement, despite that the bulk of wells today are completed with cement. But because cement doesnot always deliver the optimum seal between the liner and the anulus it makes it very difficult to compartmentalise your well.

“What the WAI gives you is cement replacement. Instead of leaving either cement between the packers or an open anulus, then the WAI fills the anulus with confined compartments; each WAI will be a compartment that’s isolated from the next compartment. We have no open anulus, we have no cement, but the whole of the anulus is now compartmentalised.

“With that achieved, you can then decide if you want to leave that compartment isolated, or whether you want to perforate it, stimulate it or produce it or inject into it. The WAI breaks down your reservoir into two metre compartments. And then you’ve got control over each two metre compartments.

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And each department has high integrity in relation to sealing,” Onadeko said There are several things to consider when removing cement from the completion process. Cement has three functions that it is trying to achieve for the well. The first as we have already discussed is to provide sealing which is not always possible as the well geometry becomes more challenging. For the Moho project Total had a tremendous challenge in ensuring the cement was going to seal. The second function of cement is to provide an anchor between the liner and the rock. Finally cement also supports the rock formations. If the formation is unconsolidated it provides a support to the rock to make sure it does not cave onto the liner.

“When we remove the cement, we need to be sure that we’ve addressed all three, the sealing, the anchoring and support of the rock. The WAB delivers two of those; it gives you the anchoring or sealing, but across the open anulus you are dependent on the rock having some sufficient mechanical properties that it won’t start to fall in onto the liner. Where the WAI will give you the sealing and the anchoring, it also gives you this mechanical support to the rock. So, WAI is really cement replacement in its full entirety, without the risk of the challenges presented by the geometry,” said the Welltec chief

REGIONAL REPORT

E/Guinea launches CSR book in oil and gas

By Chibisi Ohakah

E

quatorial Guinea has launched a first ever corporate social responsibility book. The book, which was distributed during the 2nd Gas Exporting Countries Forum International Gas seminar, highlights key achievements in corporate social responsibility projects within Equatorial Guinea’s oil and gas sector.

Notable projects include the Bioko Island Malaria Elimination Project, Bioko Biodiversity Protection Program and former Program for Education Development of Equatorial Guinea.

A release from APO group said the publication financed by Kosmos Energy, will be further distributed throughout the 2020 Year of Investment international events and roadshows.

Equatorial Guinea’s Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons has launched its first official publication documenting the country’s key corporate social responsibility projects, spearheaded by public-private partnerships.

Equatorial Guinea: ‘Achievements in Corporate Social Responsibility in Oil & Gas’ highlights the impact of investment in social projects on malaria reduction, healthcare, access to clean water and infant mortality rates. Notable projects include the Bioko Island Malaria Elimination Project – which recently received the P3 Impact Award at the 2019 Concordia Summit for its high impact and degree of success; the Bioko Biodiversity Protection Program; the Baney District Hospital Project; the Ver Bien project; Tuberculosis Control Project and the construction of water wells throughout the country.

“On behalf of the Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons, the Department of Local Content is honored to create a publication that demonstrates the contributions of the oil and gas sector to the people of Equato-

Bioko Island Malaria Elimination Project,

rial Guinea, who continue to remain our highest priority. Furthermore, what we have done in the past 25 years, in terms of the elimination and prevention of malaria on Bioko Island, teacher training and access to education, the Program for Education Development of Equatorial Guinea, distribution of clean water to rural communities, the construction of schools and parks throughout the country, and more – speaks to what we can and will accomplish in the next 25 years,” the release quoted Jacinto

Owono, director of local content for the ministry of mines and hydrocarbons.

The book also focuses on efforts in education and sustainability activities, including training and giving scholarships to students in and outside of the country, as well as the construction of an education infrastructure.

Key projects include the former Program for Education Development of Equatorial Guinea; the construction of the National Technological Institute of Hydrocarbons of Equatorial Guinea; the construction of primary schools throughout the country and the Books for Bioko project.

Under the official endorsement of the ministry of mines and hydrocarbons, the book includes commentary from H.E. President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, Minister of Mines and Hydrocarbons H.E. Gabriel Mbaga Obiang Lima and Jacinto Owono, director of local content for the ministry of mines and hydrocarbons.

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REGIONAL REPORT

TRAC enters Ghana’s oil and gas industry Gilbert Borketey Boyefio

T

RAC Oil and Gas Limited, a leading global provider of Rope Access Inspection, Repair and Maintenance services for the oil and gas and related industries recently joined the league of International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in Ghana’s emergent hydrocarbon industry.

Ghana’s emergent oil and gas industry has continued to attract investors from different parts of the world with TRAC Oil and Gas Limited as one of the latest IOC to enter the country’s oil and gas industry.

TRAC provides a comprehensive range of Engineering Support Services to enhance and support the Asset Lifecycle Programme from initial construction, ongoing Asset Integrity and Reliability through to decommissioning, with specific expertise and experience in working at height and difficult access locations.

The Compliance Manager, TRAC Oil and Gas Services Ghana Limited, Ian Somers in an exclusive interview with Orient Energy Review magazine, said, “TRAC Oil and Gas Ltd is a family-owned company based in Aberdeen, Scotland. The company was incorporated in 1999 and received its licence to operate in Ghana November this year.”

According to Somers TRAC has its operational base in Brazil, Australia, an office and warehouse facility Ghana. He said, “We have been growing sturdily for 20 years now. We are a member of the Industrial Rope Access Trade Association International and a full member of numerous certification bodies such as ISOs 9001, 41001, and 45001 certified”.

“Our company is based on integrity and compliance; that is what we deliver to our clients. Since inception, we have operated as a small family business but we have con-

tinued to deliver competent and cost-effective services to our clients.

“The difference between us and our competitors is our concentration on compliance and competency. Our other offices and the people who work with us have built a career with the company and they stay with us because we invest in them as individuals. We give them the training and other great packages to build a career in order to deliver their best to our clients.

Though not new to the Ghanaian terrain, TRAC has been operating in the mining sector for almost three years and presently looks forward to undertaking training for Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) and rope access. This, it said will be carried out from the company’s warehouse facility in Accra.

According to Somers, the company decided to play in the Ghanaian oil and gas space because of the huge potential and future of the industry. “There are a lot of opportunities waiting to be tapped into

and brought to the fore. There is a strong existing client based here and there are also some very good operators waiting to join in.”

Speaking further, the Compliance Manager said that TRAC will not only contribute to Ghana’s economy but will also provide employment for Ghanaians. Stressing that the company’s Operations Manager is a Ghanaian, Somers said the TRAC is in the process of employing more Ghanaians.

“We have got a pool of curriculum vitae that we are going to select from and hold an interview next week to enable us to set up our warehouse staff. There is also another set of CVs we hope to start the process for selection and training hopefully in February or March next year.”

TRAC, though a new entrant in the Ghana oil and gas terrain, said it is a force to reckon in the oil and gas industry as it delivers to clients value for their money.

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GHANAREPORT

Ghana reviews local content and local participation regulation Gilbert Borketey Boyefio

I

n an effort to ensure that Ghana benefits immensely from its oil and gas resources, and avoid becoming another enclave for resource exploitation dominated by foreign interests, the Government of Ghana is undertaking a review of I ts Local Content and Local Participation regulations to bring it up to speed with the current demands of the industry.

According to the Petroleum Commission, â&#x20AC;&#x153;five years of implementation of the Local Content regulation requires stock-taking to know where we have excelled, areas we need to improve and those we need to change altogether. We have completed the review of the Petroleum (Local Content and Local Participation) Regulations, LI 2204 and the Joint Venture Guidelines to make them more pragmatic, market-oriented and reflective of industry trendsâ&#x20AC;?.

Local Content promotion has become

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an integral part of the oil and gas industry worldwide. However, since this is not a one-side-fit-all strategy, it requires countries to develop their own regulatory framework to support it.

Development of new guidelines

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Based on the numerous challenges encountered with the law, during the compliance, monitoring audits in relation to aspects of the local content law, the Petroleum Commission was compelled to develop a number of guidelines to provide directions to companies operating in the sector. These guidelines include technol-

GHANAREPORT ogy transfer policy guidelines; research and development guidelines; electronic and bidding guidelines; financial service guidelines; insurance, protocol, and bid evaluation guidelines and reservation of goods and services guidelines.

Common qualification system The Commission has established the Common Qualification System (CQS) in fulfilment of Regulation 37 of LI 2204. “It seeks to address the current challenges we have, which is, the use of different qualification systems and standards by IOCs in prequalifying sub-contractors. The system seeks to create a single-window system for prequalifying all companies that intend to engage in petroleum activities.

In a similar vein, work on the Electronic Portal has been completed. The E-Portal as the name suggests is to enhance commu-

nication between the Petroleum Commission on one hand and our stakeholders on the other. The platform would also allow companies to announce their procurement plans, issue tender notifications and receive alerts on specific issues online, thereby reducing the information asymmetry,” Mr Prince Benjamin Aboagye, Acting Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Petroleum Commission, said.

Ghana, over the years have taken the position that petroleum resources exploitation should last beyond the direct benefits of fiscal receipts by the government but have a transformative impact on the nation’s economy and citizens welfare. Government is therefore, focused on deepening Ghanaian participation through the development of related industries as well as establishing forward and backward linkages between the oil and gas sector and other productive

sectors of the economy.

“Having implemented the existing local content regulations for about five (5) years, we have identified some major challenges that if not addressed could impede the realization of some of the policy objectives.

The government through the Commission has for the past three years been working to deepen local content and local participation as well as put in place measures to address the challenges identified.

These initiatives include: capacity building and certification for local companies, training and capacity development for Ghanaians, establishing of common qualification system and E-Portal to streamline procurement and contract administration processes, and development of new guidelines to aid compliance to the local content law.”

K Kosmos gives US300,000 to budding entrepreneurs Gilbert Borketey Boyefio

osmos Energy Ghana has brightened Ghana’s agricultural horizon as up-and-coming entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector received a total of $300,000 grant for outstanding innovations.

AI Scarecrow and ProSect Feed each received $50,000 grant for their respective revolutionary creations of birds scaring machine and high protein feeds. Four entrepreneurs received $50,000 grant each in the last two years. The two young companies will also enjoy one-year business nurture at the recently inaugurated Kosmos Incubator Centre.

This is coming from the company’s AgriTech Challenge platform, which is Kosmos Energy’s flagship corporate social responsibility investment program supporting young entrepreneurs to become business leaders, able to fuel Ghana’s growth and create jobs in the agricultural sector. This year marks the fourth time the program has run, delivering on Kosmos Energy’s mission to invest in Ghana’s future.

With farmers in Ghana losing up to 20% of their potential yield to bird pests, AI Scarecrow invented a technology to use natural predatory signals to scare birds away from

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GHANAREPORT

Our youth-led businesses are spread across the entire agricultural value chain – from increasing yields for farmers to getting products on to our dinner tables.

crops ProSect Feed, on the other hand, developed an innovative chicken feed made entirely from dried insects.

The KIC AgriTech Challenge places young people with drive and ambition on an intensive 10-month capacity building process. It equips them with the skills and contacts needed to start and grow a business. Contents of the training module include among others: market research tours, expert knowledge exchanges, training in specific business skills and three pitches.

Through the KIC, Kosmos is nurturing the next generation of entrepreneurs and encouraging innovation in sectors beyond oil and gas, with the goal of contributing to a healthier and more diverse economy.

The phases of the competition allow only the best innovative teams to move to the next stage while the next best nine other business teams who reached the final stage of the competition receives only a one-year business support package at the Incubator. The businesses will all benefit from ongoing coaching, mentoring and training to ensure they are able to grow and scale-up.

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Joe Mensah, Senior Vice President and Head of Ghana Unit at Kosmos Energy According to Joe Mensah, Senior Vice President and Head of Ghana Unit at Kosmos Energy, “Our youth-led businesses are spread across the entire agricultural value chain – from increasing yields for farmers to getting products on to our dinner tables.

Today we are adding 11 more businesses to the KIC Incubator, helping

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them go on to tackle some of the most critical challenges in the sector, create jobs and achieve food sustainability for Ghana.

As a company that knows what it is like to be a start-up, follow a dream and build a business, we are humbled by the opportunity to leverage our skills to support and develop our host countries.”

WOMEN in Energy

Pursue diversity, inclusiveness with considerable sincerity of purpose - LAME VERRE Lame Verre, a petroleum economist with 20 years of experience working across the oil and gas industry value chain has worked in several geographical locations, currently she works with Halliburton as the Senior Regional Manager Treasury for Europe, Eurasia, and Sub-Saharan Africa (EESSA). In this interview with the Publisher, Orient Energy Review magazine, Nneka Ezeemo

on the sidelines of the Diversity and Inclusion Summit in London recently said that organizations and stakeholders in the industry should show commitment to the call for diversity and inclusiveness by designing strategic plans and policies that will address already identified pain points, barriers and challenges while new ones should be fixed as they emerge. Excerpts

Could you give a peep into your person and career journey?

I’m a petroleum economist by background, and I currently run the Treasury function for credit and collections at Halliburton, I look after Europe, Eurasia and Sub-Saharan Africa region.

I manage all of our customer financial relationships, with my team of eight spread across the region. We are responsible for managing account receivables and DSO; we make sure that the cash gets through the door.

My 20 years in the industry has been predominantly upstream. I spent 15 years in upstream space with companies like ENI where I started my career in Milan and Lagos before moving to the UK and working for Sterling Energy and E.on before transitioning into upstream consulting with Baker Hughes (Gaffney, Cline & Associates) a service company. I then spent two years running my business post my MBA and a tour of Houston as you do when working in oil and gas. I have now spent the last two and a half years

in Halliburton running this function.

You have a vast wealth of experience in the corporate setting, which is an excellent asset for private practice, so are you still running your business?

My business came out of necessity.

After over a decade years of being a petroleum economist, I got to that point where I had enough of doing the same thing even though I was growing in my capacity, scope of responsibilities and leading high functioning teams, it didn’t feel fulfilling enough, so I decided to go and do my MBA while also moving into consulting with Baker Hughes.

I came out of my MBA programme right in the middle of the downturn.

I was in Houston at the time. So, with the 2015 downturn walloping companies, all the expatriate’s contracts were cancelled. With the contract nullified in Houston, the UK role ceased to exist, and so I had to make a choice.

At that time, my second son was on the way, so we waited and then we moved back to the UK after he was

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WOMEN in Energy born and that was when I decided to monetise my skills and set up my consulting firm where I did contract work as a petroleum economist. And in the meantime, I also joined forces with a friend to set up a pipeline company where we were looking to sell High-density Polyethylene (HDPE) plastic pipelines into the oil and gas industry.

It was a great concept, and companies liked the project, but because of the downturn, we were swimming against the tide, no one had a budget for any pilot project. I did that for two and a half years, and it was quite a refreshing experience because I was doing all sorts of activities ranging from Finance, business development, to putting together contracts, client development, IT, HR and everything in between. So, it was quite intense and at the same time, a great experience. The only difficulty there as a start-up was the irregularity of income as we were still building up the company and also working round the clock When baby number three was on the way, I had to make another call; I needed something more stable and structured.

I then chose to go back to the corporate sector in the summer of 2017. I was actually 8 months pregnant when I got offered the role, so I started the role 5th of June and had the baby a month later.

That is how I started my own business, it was fun, and I enjoyed the flexibility that came with that. I owned my time, I could do school runs, go to games, do anything with the kids, and it was good. But then, when you have three kids living in London, you need to have another conversation.

Things were changing and elicited the need to make those choices on how to manage time, income, family and all the things in-between.

ple coming behind me don’t have to go through the same hoops. So, if I can give someone a shortcut on how to navigate this industry, then, I will be delighted to share that experience.

I think given my personal experiences and the lack of support thereof, it has also made me a different type of leader because my experience shows me what not to do. If something happened at work, the negative effect it might have had on me tells me that probably that’s not the right or the best practice and so, I do the exact opposite. If I have an absentee leader, I know that the feeling of abandonment is not something I want to live with and so I make sure that I’m there for my team.

I show up and always give them my time because that helps them to be the best version of themselves. People can’t come in as human beings and be expected to become just a human resource. Organisations need to understand

With your years of experience in the oil and gas industry, could you share an experience that resonates with you that you hope to address?

It is important to me that I make a difference to my team because coming into the industry without visible role models, sponsors or anything similar, it is important that peo-

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that, and

as individuals, we need to know what our strength and weaknesses are, and we should try to play more to our strength because if we spend so much time trying to fix the weaknesses, we lose valuable time we can use to do something meaningful with a impact.n I like your concept about developing people, so do you, coach? How do you give back to society?

No, I don’t coach because I’m not trained to be a coach, but I’m very generous with my time. There is a young lady here; she is a student who I met her through work. I’ve given her a lot of my time and try to steer her in the right direction, offering some guidance. When I heard that there’s an offer for students to attend this event for free, I invited her to come out here to see if she can meet people here that may help her as she has just finished her MSc. I encouraged her to make those connections, make those friendships because it can turn out to be something. And so yes, I do try to give back.

I speak at the Society of Petroleum Engineers SPE, where I do a one-day seminar on the intro to E&P. I take the economic and commercial session even though I’ve not worked as an economist for a while. But it has been a big part of my career, that is where my passion lies, and I share that with those coming up the ranks, making sure that the knowledge does not get put in the box and underused.

I have realised that I have got a very unusual background in the oil and gas space, which makes me unique. I am not a STEM person as a petroleum economist, but my role is a very technical and integral part of the value creation and interdisciplinary workflow, I did that for 15 years, and I have enjoyed passing that knowledge on. I do the SPE training once a year, and I have done it for the past four years enjoying every minute of it.

I also try to give back through other speaking engagements like this conference and act as a mentor to several individuals.

What is your take on today’s conversation about diversity and inclusiveness?

This conversation is good, and I’m proud that the industry is focusing on it but like I said in the panel session, it has to be discussed at the right level in the various organisations with a considerable sincerity of purpose. The industry and the organisations involved need to make that conscious decision that this is something they want to do because it’s the right thing to do and because

WOMEN in Energy the world has changed. Therefore, we also have to adapt and make sure that everyone is included in the organisation. People’s needs, pain points or challenges will be diverse and so whatever policies that are designed should address these pain points.

Indeed, we cannot fix them all today, but the pain points that we know today should have strategic plans designed to meet them, and as new ones come, we adapt.

I overheard you say that the Key Performance Index (KPIs) are in the wrong place, what does that mean in this Diversity context?

It means that a lot of organisations measure their diversity hire targets. They have set a diversity target of say 20%, 22%, 25% or whatever that number is but it’s only on the hiring side of things. What companies are not looking at is this, in that same time frame, if I made my 20% of diversity hires, how many diversity candidates did I lose? The attrition of diversity and in this case, gender diversity specifically, how many women did I engage in a time frame and how many women did I lose in the same time frame? There is no point hiring 80 women, but you lose 79 across the organisation, that to me is a clear case of having the metric in the wrong place.

In my personal opinion, I think the KPIs need to be across the whole spectrum of hiring and retention; measuring recruitment without measuring retention does not count.

I see it as paying lip service at the door while neglecting what happens in the room. Whatever that is considered to be important in this regard must be measured.

Where should the priority be in determining the diversity KPIs? Across the pipeline, both at the entry point, retention and promotion. The question is, what policies do we have in place, and how do we frame those policies? We have heard about organisations taking away maternity policies and putting parental policies in its place. So, it doesn’t matter whether you are a biological mother, you have adopted, you are LGTBQI, you have the option to take time off because you want to be a parent.

So, having gender-neutral policies is more relevant as we now know that men are more inclined to take parental leave than paternity leave. It comes down to how it is framed. It’s about thinking of creative ways to make the industry friendlier to diverse people, and it’s not just about gender. Disability, ethnicity, religious and cultural norms should be taken into consideration as well. We must remove the barriers and hurdles that people have to

I have realised that I have got a very unusual background in the oil and gas space, which makes me unique. I am not a STEM person as a petroleum economist, but my role is a very technical and integral part of the value creation and interdisciplinary workflow

face in an already difficult industry and a complicated world!

Can diversity help the transition in the energy industry and do you see it playing such a significant role?

It is difficult for me to ascertain if it will help or maybe accelerate the transition because the energy transition is a big topic with a unique challenge specific to it. To go from carbonised to lower-carbon energy takes a lot of investment and who makes that investment is yet to be ascertained and while companies and countries are saying, they want to do more to have less carbon in our energy mix. If we are not investing in it, then it’s a struggle, and it’s the same thing about diversity. There will be some investment to be made to ensure that your diversity hires can stay within the organisations. You have to give them specific training, and you have to provide them with the tool kits that will help them to understand themselves, the industry, how they fit and how they can navigate their way through.

Staying on the issue of money, let’s consider an area like the pay gap. Negotiating salaries as you know don’t come naturally to women, but it’s a known fact that if a woman did not consult her salary, she would probably get a lesser pay than her male counterparts. Yet, many women still don’t negotiate their salaries; we take it; we are grateful for the opportunity to even have a job. So, for diversity to be an accelerator, we should see a situation where the pay structures are transparent for every role. It doesn’t matter if you are male or female; as long as you are competent enough for the job, you will have the pay for it, and this will smoothen out the barriers for those who are not comfortable negotiating salaries.

What impact would you like to see attributed to this Diversity and Inclusion Summit?

I think the summit was excellent and a successful one in the sense that the topics are at the forefront of every conversation within the industry. We have shared a lot of ideas, and I hope everyone takes them back to their organisations or take it upon themselves to make a change no matter how small and we have to keep the conversation going.

Sooner or later, it will bubble to the top, and if we can’t drive it from the top, we steer it from the bottom, or somewhere in the middle, for the change to happen. This change is inevitable because we cannot continue in a world where we are not making it easy for women to participate. It’s a case of chicken and egg, which comes first. In the absence of a silver bullet, we have to keep the conversations going.

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PHOTOGALLERY

Panelists at the Inclusion and Diversity Session at ADIPEC 2019

Eucharia Ezeani, NLNG, Eithne Treanor, Conference & Event moderator and Nneka Ezeemo, Orient Energy Review.

Panelists at the Diversity Session at ADIPEC

Gregory Ibizugbe, Group General Manager of Petro-Base Group at ADIPEC 2019

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Mohammed Sanusi Barkindo, Secretary General of OPEC

PHOTOGALLERY

Tecon Oil Services team at ADIPEC 2019 led by CEO Casimir Maduafokwa

NIPEX officials at ADIPEC 2019 meet with Orient Energy Review

NIPEX officials: Christopher Obi, Eric Efurhievwe and Sokey Gaibo

Deep Blue Energy Services team exhibiting at ADIPEC 2019 led by the founder Mrs Anita Omoile

Orient Energy Review exhibiting at ADIPEC 2019

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PHOTOGALLERY

Hon Eng. Irene Muloni, Minister for Energy and Minerals, Uganda with Nneka Ezeemo, Publisher, Orient Energy Review, Magazine.

Minister Gwede Mantashe of South Africa at Baker Hughes Booth with Eugene Toukam the Commercial Director SSA

Panelists at Ghanaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s National Roadshows, led by Mr Egbert Fabille Jnr, CEO Petroleum Commission Inbox

Remote Medical International team led by Dr Brynn Karch with Mrs Carol Egejuru from OGTAN

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Thomas Manu, Carol Egejuru, Ndeye Diallo and Nneka Ezeemo at AOW Farewell Party by the Waterfront

PHOTOGALLERY

Hon. Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, Deputy Minister for Petroleum, Ghana

Participants in the AOWomen Breakfast moderated by Ola Sorunke-Williams, Head of Energy, West Africa, Department for International Trade

Former President of Nigeria, HE Olusegun Obasanjo, OGTAN President, Dr Mayowa Afe to his right and other OGTAN members

IHRDC Directors, Andrew Burr and Nnamdi Akwiwu at their AOW exhibition stand ORIENT ENERGY REVIEW Vol.9 No. 06

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PHOTOGALLERY

Oï¬&#x20AC;shore

Europe

Ikechukwu Chinyere, Douglas Zomelo of UPSPAG Ghana, Dominic Okafor the MD of JOCARO, Godwin Ezeemo Bernard Oghenekevwe with Charles Okoro, MD Wellfluid PH the Chairman of Orient Publications, Nneka Ezeemo at PETAN Booth Offshore Europe 2019 the Publisher of Orient Energy Review and Henry Okolie-Aboh the MD of Westfield Energy Resources

UPSPAG Delegates from Ghana led by Dr Douglas Zormelo

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