NAPENews Magazine June 2022 Edition

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FELLOWS’ INTERVIEW: Mr. Marcel Ogbonna Amu, FNAPE You are the current Managing Director of IDSL with over 32 years of industry experience. What would you consider your career highlights? I started my career at IDSL in 1989 at a very junior level. I was what we now call third party or contract staff. One of the things I would consider as my career highlight was that in spite of the level I joined the firm, I worked so hard that my efforts did not go unrecognised. Five y e a r s l a t e r , p r e c i s e l y o n 2 4 t h N o v e m b e r , 1 9 9 4 , I b e c a m e a permanent staff . I served in various c a p a c i t i e s a s C h i e f O b s e r v e r , I n s t r u m e n t s M a n a g e r , a n d Seismologist. Around 2002 I returned to the crew as a seismologist. I worked in several crews and became Chief Seismologist for an Agip project called TOFMAN. TOFMAN was just the acronym, not that it was because it was tough, Although it became tough at some point in time. I was also the NAPE Benin Chapter Coordinator for about three years. I moved to Planning at the time as a pioneer Deputy Manager, Planning and Field Monitoring, after which I was redeployed to NAPIMS to serve as Deputy Manager Geophysics. What actually excited me when I got to NAPIMS, was that I noticed that exploration activities were at the lowest at the time. I knew immediately that as Deputy Manager Geophysics, I needed to encourage exploration activities. So for every sub-committe meeting I attended, I insisted that there must be increased exploration activities. Whenever we went for annual performance reviews, the facility engineering, petroleum engineering, and supply chain always outperformed other functions, but exploration always underperformed. That meant we were hardly using our budget. I attended a management program, called Chief of Sales Management Development Program, where I wrote a paper on exploration activities and national reserves addition, the star project. I was privileged to win several awards. I was the best performing staff in that group. I also won the NNPC GMD's award. It was a massive highlight for me to have won the GMD's award. I was the best in project writing and best in class work. Those accolades set the pace for greater accomplishments in my career. There was a need for seismic data acquisition in Shell, and we were to go for tendering .Upon further reflection, I thought there was no need to do that since our sister company IDSL can do it very well. By that singular action I took as Deputy Manager, Geophysics, we saved the industry about 5,000,000 U.S. dollars. Another job that excited me was the Oform Monitor 2 in Total, which IDSL handled. I insisted that IDSL should handle the project since they performed well during the technical review; by doing so we saved SPDC $5 million, and SPDC commended IDSL and wrote a commendation letter to my team in NAPIMS. Very important too is one of the largest seismic data acquisition volumes that was acquired in the country. It was the largest in Africa and the second largest in the world then, about 3814 square kilometres. We called it shallow water OBS seismic data acquisition for SPDC. IDSL was also part of it, and that job was completed ahead of schedule. So I am happy that I was a part of it. Another job that excited me was about 1100 square kilometres for First E&P. First E&P being very new, as a J.V. company, was not interested. Most of them in that category, like Elton, Belema, and others, wanted to do everything humanly possible to get the first oil, but telling a new company to do seismic data acquisition was difficult, but we convinced them. We studied their block and discovered they have other potentials. The seismic data acquisition project was completed ahead of schedule by IDSL too, and their partner helped First E&P generate other prospects in that block (OML 85 & 86). After that, I became General Manager, Planning and Strategy on the 6th of March 2020, that was actually at the beginning of COVID-19 and a tall order c a m e f r o m N N P C C o r p o r a t e headquarters that we should reduce the budget by 40%. The crude oil produced was not being sold, vessels were everywhere in the High Sea, and how were all these companies expected to reduce their price? Because as we normally say in our local parable, "it is easy to give a Monkey Cup to drink water, but we cannot collect that cup very easily". Being in planning, because I already had experience when I was planning in IDSL, I assembled my team, tackled the issue headlong, and we achieved a substantial reduction in the budget at about 80%, which saved the Federal Government of Nigeria a lot of money. So we've really come a long way, and last year on my birthday, the 9th of August, I was appointed Managing Director of IDSL. And I saw that as coming back home because I spent 18 years of my youthfulness in IDSL. I met IDSL in a very precarious situation, the cash flow situation wasn't the best expected of a company of its type. Other people doing similar business with us were smiling to the bank, and I looked at them, I looked at their programs, I could understand what they went through during the COVID. Some of their projects were dropped, and some were cancelled, and with the experience and goodwill I had when I was in NAPIMS, and especially when I was general manager, planning and strategy, I tried to revive some of those projects, I started talking to the clients because I already knew them. Currently, we are working for Sahara Energy. Quite a bit of the proposal was done when I was general manager, planning and strategy in NAPIMS, and without following all the different layers of bureaucracy to get approval, NAPIMS was able to work with Sahara Energy to give us that job. We have started shooting already, the survey has advanced up to 6%, and we are already earning revenue from that. I'm happy to say that at the end of the first quarter of this year, 2022, we are going to be positive. You can imagine you met a company that is negative, and within a space of seven months, it is going to be positive. I'm also working in the Keana Basin in Nasarawa state, we're working for our sister company FPS, we have also mobilised for 500 linear kilometres in the Chad basin. We are entering the Chad Basin, a very difficult area due to security, but we're starting from the areas with less security issues, so it has been a long journey to this place. I would like to thank the management of NNPC, especially the group Managing Director, for deeming it fit, to put a round peg in a round hole. And by the middle of the year, I believe we're going to do even better because we will have more projects. The cost of seismic data a c q u i s i t i o n i s e s c a l a t i n g , a n d companies are looking for other easy ways of acquiring seismic. We are adopting every technology that exists, some non-conventional technology, like Themo-vision tomography, microbial exploration technology, enhanced full tensor gravinometry, So many of them we're adopting because we don't want to be left behind, we don't want to play catch up at any time when seismic data acquisition, which is very expensive, becomes obsolete, then we have a fallback with all these new technologies. In our reservoir engineering, too, we are also going into some well services, these are areas that we would never dare to do before I arrived here. We have good partners and one key thing in our partnership is capacity development because we don't want to partner forever, we partner for a period, then we need to exit the partnership, and we stand on our own. Because continuous partnership impacts our revenue. This is just a summary of what I've done and what I am still doing now to make sure that IDSL is on the right footing. How has NAPE impacted your career growth and advancement? I joined NAPE around 1994, it afforded me the opportunity to know what is happening in the industry, it actually exposed me to the oil and gas industry more. Before then I only knew about NMGS. When I became a Permanent Staff in NNPC, NAPE afforded me the opportunity of knowing more people in the industry that actually influenced my career. When I went into PENGASSAN, one senior NAPE Fellow told me it was better t o p a r t i c i p a t e i n p r o f e s s i o n a l associations like NAPE, NMGS than going into politics. PENGASSAN is always antagonistic to management, so that was actually what encouraged me, and I became very active in NAPE. I became the Coordinator of NAPE Benin Chapter for about three years. So, my membership of NAPE has actually enhanced my career in terms of my interaction during conferences. Also, it has allowed me to meet some people that i n f l u e n c e d m y c a r e e r . H a v i n g participated as Co-chairs in some of the presentations has also increased my knowledge because there are some of the papers you may not understand very well, but when an idea stretches your mind, It can never return to its original shape. There must be something you get, so it really encouraged me, has made me known in the industry, and has also exposed me to the industry a lot. Now that you're a Fellow, what are we looking forward to? What are the next level of contributions we should be expecting? I know where we are going in terms of our sponsorship of some of NAPE programs. I happen to be the first geoscientist Managing Director of IDSL, so if you don't have it going well with you during my time it will be difficult for another time , we'll sponsor some of the programs of NAPE within the limit of the resources we have, but really, it's going to be well between us, I won't tell you what we intend to do, but we're not going to ignore any of your requests in all, no matter how small, we will do something. NAPENEWS JUNE 2022 58
FELLOWS’ INTERVIEW: Dr. Anthony Enebeke Ofoma, FNAPE 1. What are the highlights of your career so far? Or What are your m o s t s i g n i f i c a n t c a r e e r achievements? M y m o s t s i g n i f i c a n t c a r e e r achievements are quite numerous; however, I will narrow it down to recent happenings. On completion of my higher education, I had the opportunity of being employed by Halliburton Energy Services Limited. Although, I have worked in other outfits but local companies before joining Halliburton such as the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute, (NBRRI) Lagos as a Research officer, UptonVille Oil & Gas Port Harcourt, Getamme Geochem Port Harcourt, Multinational Geosurveys Port H a r c o u r t , S h e l l P e t r o l e u m D e v e l o p m e n t C o m p a n y a s a Research intern and the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) Chair, University of Nigeria Nsukka as a research officer. At Halliburton I started off as a Consultant Geologist and was in-charge of the Geographix tool used for Exploration studies/interpretations. Although the company does not own or use the tool anymore. I sold and mentored industry professionals on this tool. Notable among them are the National Petroleum Corporation (NAMCOR) Namibia, SONATRACH Algeria, OANDO PLC Nigeria, Petroleum Exploration & Production Department ( P E P D ) U g a n d a , P e t r o l e u m Resources Unit (PRU) Sierra Leone, Acrep Exploration & Production Angola and staff & students of the University of Science and Technology Massuku, Gabon. I was later moved to the Business Development/Sales Management unit of the same company and since then I have been generating and surpassing my revenue target year-on-year (YoY). This feat earned me many awards such as Landmark-Halliburton “Best Deal Maker for ESSA Region 2014 Sales”, “Winners Circle 2014 Sales”, “100% Revenue Performer 2014 Sales”, “Best Deal Maker for EESSA Region 2019 Sales'' and “Global Winners Circle 2020 Sales”. I must confess this segment of my career has been so rewarding that it has exposed me to so many industry players that I might not have known or met. This latter part of my career has b a l a n c e d m y t e c h n i c a l a n d commercial knowledge and above all has provided me the opportunity to add to the bottom-line of the company I work for. In addition to all these accomplishments, I have reviewed m a n u s c r i p t s f o r j o u r n a l s a n d presented/ published over twenty (20) technical papers in both local and international journals. One of my presentations earned me the first position prize in the 2005/2006 NMGS/TOTAL ELF Award which took me to France on an all-expense paid trip by TOTAL ELF. I was also among the top four winners in the NAPE Mini conference held at ABU Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria in 2006 and I had the privilege to be invited for direct interview in Shell at that time. I must admit that I have not reached my peak yet but will continue to contribute my quota to the enhancement of the set goals and objectives of my employers and advancement of my career as well as our professional body, NAPE. 2. How has NAPE impacted your career growth? NAPE has and continues to play an integral role in my career growth. Joining NAPE over twenty years ago as a junior member and later converted to active member over fifteen years ago is one of the best things that ever happened to me. The rich technical meetings, conferences, networking and lots of activities carried out by NAPE propelled me to where I am today. These activities directly or indirectly exposed me to the many industry players that I know today. Our colleagues and senior players in the industry that I know today are from my association with NAPE. That I have and continue to excel in my place of work is as a result of the many members that I met over the years and continue to meet in NAPE. 3. Now that you are a NAPE fellow a n d V i c e P r e s i d e n t , w h a t contributions should we expect from you, and what yardstick should be used to measure your impact? A Fellow and Vice President of the Association is a call for more purposeful service to the Association. Being a Fellow did not come overnight, it was hard work to the service of NAPE. I have been a one-time Publicity Secretary 2015-2016, General Secretary (2017 – 2018), Financial Secretary (2019 – 2020) and now the Vice President. I have served NAPE in many capacities. In fact, during my time in some of these offices we initiated certain programs some are on-going or have been completed. While in office I amplified the Secretariat's staff appetite for revenue drive for NAPE. In conjunction with the NAPE President at the time (Dr. Andrew E j a y e r i e s e ) w e p e r f e c t e d t h e registration of NAPE with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) after 23 years of dormancy. Saved NAPE about N10million as Chairman of Venues and Entertainment Subcommittee of the 2017 Conference when compared to 2016 Conference. Saw to the renewal and purchase of a new bus and generating set for NAPE Secretariat at minimal cost. Chaired the Secretariat staff job functions, organogram, salary regularization and condition of service (CoS) committees respectively, I also supervised the E- Filing and E-library project for NAPE. I was a member of the NAPE HMO Committee that crafted and birthed the HMO program for NAPE. I coordinated the NAPE industry mentor (Basin Evaluation Competition) for both FUTO and UNIZIK for 2013 and 2014 respectively. Both Universities won the competition for those years. I have in the past years (2011 – date) facilitated the nomination of resource persons from Halliburton to anchor the “Well Log Course” at the Short Courses Sessions of our conferences. I have also nominated resource persons from Halliburton to handle technical business meetings for NAPE Chapters. Represented NAPE at the Oil & Gas week in Cape Town, South Africa sponsored by my company (Halliburton). A member of the NAPE Constitution review committee for 2016, I was part of the Executive team that nominated and inaugurated the NAPE Board of Trustees (BOT) which was moribund for some time, Among the executive that visited and inaugurated the biennial University Mini-Conference for Tertiary Institutions co-hosted by Federal University of Petroleum R e s o u r c e s ( F U P R E ) a n d t h e Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) Warri. As General Secretary of NAPE at the time I ensured that proper d o c u m e n t a t i o n o f E x e c u t i v e Committee decisions/ minutes/ activities as well as other decisions were archived in the Secretariat. We discovered at that time that most records of the Association were nonexistent, such as minutes of previous m e e t i n g s , s o m e r e c e i p t s f o r purchases made, record/numbering of NAPE properties in the Secretariat, etc. I doubled as the General Secretary of NAPE and the BoT as enshrined in the Constitution, I ensured that payments in NAPE were properly streamlined to avoid waste and duplications in the system, I instituted strict competitive bidding to avoid favoritism during contracting processes as the financial secretary. I represented the President of NAPE at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka in 2020 on a courtesy call to the Vice Chancellor (Prof. Charles Esimone) for the planned 2020 NAPE-NMGS Students Mini Conference, which did not hold due to the out-break of Covid- 19 Pandemic and many other achievements that I brought to NAPE while in the Executive Committee. I will sustain the good aspects of my predecessor's achievements/legacy by ensuring that all activities under the Vice President's portfolio that were hitherto not completed are finalized and those activities requiring sustenance are upheld, such as the NAPE mentorship program, etc. Liaise with the NAPE BoT to see that NAPE Secretariat moves to the business district of Lagos rather than operating from a residential area. Assets/facilities needing disposal are removed, so that NAPE can face the main business that it was established to carry out. Ensure that NAPE disposes all lingering litigations on landed properties, so NAPE can face its core vision/mission which is “To be the preferred professional petroleum geosciences association with a global reach” and “To promote the study and practice of petroleum geosciences for the benefit of members and other stakeholders” respectively. Sustain, strengthen, and find new partnerships w i t h c o m p a n i e s / i n d u s t r i e s / organizations for the purposes of sponsorship of the Association's activities. Propose cost saving m e a s u r e s t o t h e A s s o c i a t i o n especially at this time we are experiencing fluctuation in oil price and coupled with the Covid-19 Pandemic which has negatively impacted operational activities in the oil & gas sector. NAPENEWS JUNE 2022 59
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JUNE 2022 EDITION Energy Transition
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EDITOR’S NOTE If there was a time
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NAPE EXECUTIVE 17 20 22 23 41 43 47
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Page 9 and 10: NEW MEMBERSHIP LIST NOVEMBER 2021 -
Page 11 and 12: Application of Quantitative Interpr
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NAPENews Magazine June 2022 Edition

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