Petroleum Players Crown Okwuosa Leader

 Petroleum Players Crown Okwuosa Leader

Sopuruchi Onwuka

It is an unusual event for the different spectrums of the Nigerian petroleum industry to pool together and confer awards to highly distinguished professionals that stand out with tall achievements. It becomes even more remarkable for one man to stand out with an award so highly coveted and regarded as a mark of exceptional accomplishments.

The 2015 Award Dinner hosted on the platform of Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria  (PETAN) on the 3rd of December, provided the forum for all industry groups including the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE), Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society (NMGS), Nigerian Gas Association (NGA) and Nigerian Association of Indigenous Petroleum Companies (NAIPEC) to jointly applaud the rising industry profile of the Executive Chairman of Oilserv Limited Group, Engr. Chukwuemeka Obiora Okwuosa.

It was the first time, pan industry groups in the petroleum sector supported the hands of PETAN in such a grand manner, in applauding the sacrifices and contributions of indigenous veterans, players and institutions that have advanced growth and development technology, best practices, expertise and excellence.

In the various categories, medals and several accolades, were bestowed on the top shelf of the Nigerian petroleum industry stalwarts that have left footprints of gold behind them. Eminent personalities that underscore the stature of those celebrated include Late Dr. Rilwanu Lukman who received a post humous award; former Presidential Adviser on Petroleum Resources, Dr Emmanuel Egbogah; former Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Gaius Obaseki; fromer Group Executive Director of NNPC, Alhaji Sanni Bello; former Country Chair of Shell Companies in Nigeria, Mr. Mutiu Sunmonu; and Mrs Callista Azogu.

Other notable awardees included oil industry business icons Shawley Coker, Pedro Egbe, Steven Aribeana, Sam Adegboyega, Dr Diran Fawibe, Charles Ngoka and Ugo Ralph Ekezie.

Also, institutions whose contributions were appreciated with respect and gratitude of the industry include Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Neconde Limited and First bank PLC. They were honored for their significant advancement of the development of the Nigerian oil industry in 2015.

For a number of obvious reasons, the Lifetime Achievement Award established Mr. Emeka Okwuosa, eminent industry engineer, multiple investor and business leader as the primus inter peres who tests the waters, pushes back frontiers and provides growth models for peers and competitors. He leads innovation among indigenous firms in the industry; he justifies patronage for his groups through demonstration of robust capacity to deliver on toughest industry mandates; and wrestles jobs from where angels fear thread!

The citation of Mr. Okwuosa is a short history of long achievements which were delivered in quick succession, amplifying the business acumen and professional dexterity with which he built a cluster of companies that form the Oilserv Group.

With over 33 years of engineering experience in full industry service loop, teaching, project management, business administration, Mr. Okwuosa has also traversed the global petroleum plays and accumulated variegated experiences in different challenging terrains of the world’s continents.

He flew Nigeria’s flag with professional competence while in the services of Schlumberger where he functioned in different positions: from Field Engineer to Technical Manager the company’s operations in Europe, Asia and Africa.

It is with the rich wealth of experience, blend of global technologies and innate passion for excellence that Mr. Okwuosa established and developed the Oilserv Limited to localise and domesticate global industry technology and expertise for in-country execution of petroleum industry jobs in Nigeria.

Oilserv Limited Group comes with wide range of technical services that include engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) and maintenance of pipelines and facilities in the most challenging of terrains - the Niger Delta. The company has today become a major pipeline development factor in the country, region, and continent.

The company is also the key project driver in realization of Nigeria’s new gas infrastructure development under the ambitious Nigerian Gas Masterplan evolved to optimise the economic gains of the country’s vast natural gas resources. Oilserv also holds sway in other petroleum industry regions across Africa.

The company’s ISO 9001:2008 certification is a clear testimony of its compliance to most stringent global quality standards and operation efficiency.

Also riding on similar global certification for high standards and efficiency, Frazimex Limited, also established by Mr. Emeka Okwuosa, is in the fray with high end quality services in Front End and Detailed Engineering Design Services. The company takes the services scope further to cover new areas like civil engineering, electrical services, instrumentation and related activities.

With a full chain of total petroleum industry services in his service package, it is therefore only logical for Mr. Okwuosa to venture into oil and gas exploration and production with the establishment of Frazoil E&P Limited. And despite its relatively young age among competitors, Frazoil already operates Blocks 1 and 3 Offshore in the Republic of Benin, with the platform  and clout of a regional player.

Still under the banner of Oilserv  Limited Group, Mr. Okwuosa also floated the FrazPower Limited to capture the commercial opportunities in the fast developing gas-to-power markets that currently sweep across Africa; thus contributing to economic growth of the continent where natural gas is being positioned to drive quantum leap in power generation and bridge huge generation gaps that stall economic development.

“The strategic vision is to deliver at least 10 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas reserves in the next 10 years leveraging sources at varying level of go-to-market readiness,” FrazPower pledges. And the company is already providing distributed power solutions to captive markets in some industrial clusters in the South East part of the country, leveraging on micro gas liquefaction and compression technologies. The virtual pipeline solutions have since enhanced capacity utilization at the industries by introducing smart gas delivery solutions for power generation.

Ekcel Farms Limited is one of the newest of the companies floated by Mr. Emeka Okwuosa to demonstrate that commercial opportunities abound even in spite of the acute infrastructure and facility deficits in our domestic economy.

With initial $150 million in pocket, 5000 hectares of land and estimated workforce of 2000, Ekcel Farms flaunts the potentials to become a key economic growth driver and major contributor to the nation’s gross domestic product with its mechanized industrial farms which targets the high value ends of cassava and tomato production. 

Crown Energy Resources Limited which positions for solid mineral extraction with a modern quarry in Cross River State, is yet another offshoot of the growing Oilserve empire. The company delves into the exploitation of rock deposits for roads and sundry construction activities.

Therefore, the conglomeration of Oilserv Limited, Frazimex Limited, Frazoil Limited, FrazPower Limited, Ekcel Farms Limited and Crown Energy Resources Limited in one integrated business model with enhanced internal synergy and optimised economies of scale has unleashed efficiencies and leveraged collective potentials that established Oilserv Group as a leading indigenous energy factor; an economic power centre in its own right.

Mr. Okwuosa’s Oilserv Group has altered traditional stereotype of substandard products and low quality services that formed the incubus weighing down indigenous companies in the past decades when foreign oil companies held sway in the service segment of the industry value chain.

With above companies in the group, Mr. Okwuosa may have found expression to his passion for indigenous human capacity development in high technology areas of the petroleum industry. Through the group’s Graduate Training Programmes, Mr. Okwuosa offers young Nigerian graduates the rare and exclusive opportunity for hands-on training and exposure in oil and gas industry operations.

He is part of the powerful industry pressure group which influenced the evolution of the Nigerian Content Law in the petroleum industry with the aim to recover a level of control of the nation’s petroleum industry operations from the hands of fleeting - interest multinationals.

Nigerian Content policy objectives include, among others; to arrest traditional export of Nigerian petroleum industry jobs for execution in foreign countries. The law therefore aims to reverse the trend in a strategy that dissolves the huge oil and gas industry budget to reinvigorate activities in the business sectors of the domestic economy.

Mr. Okwuosa has consistently maintained that building local capacity for petroleum industry operations is of strategic security and economic importance for sustainable development of the country.

Thus while the graduate training programme targeted at building graduate capacity for project management, planning and control, operations and maintenance, quality assurance and control as well as other critical service packages, the related skills acquisition programme of Oilserv Group targets technical capacity for welding, fitting and other skills for sundry field activities.

With huge investments in the petroleum industry and ancillary sectors, Engr. Okwuosa boasts of lofty industry profile having earned a wealth of experience across the global industry terrains while working with multinational industry technology developers where he had marked out himself as an outstanding talent with restless aspiration to do something different.

Mr Okwuosa’s towering industry profile which compelled protracted applause from the crowd is supported by solid education from a selection of the world’s best institutions, ensuring sound knowledge and full mastery of industry operations. He continues to make contributions to the development of engineering and technical professions in the country through membership of numerous bodies, such as; Professional Well Log Analysts (PWLA); Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN); Pipeline Professionals Association of Nigeria (PPAN); Nigerian Institute of Directors (IoD); Society of Petroleum Engineers International (SPEI); and Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE).

Mr. Okwuosa is not new to industry awards and recognition. His footprints and accomplishments in the industry have in the past earned him innumerable awards.  They include; Award of Excellence by the Department of Physics, University of Nigeria (UNN, 2006); Annual OTC/PETAN Awards for Excellence 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015; US/African International Oil and Gas Leadership Award, Best of Africa 2013; Keyman Award by the Enugu Chamber of Commerce, Industry Mines and Agriculture (ECCIMA, 2014); Best CEO of the Year 2013; Best CSR Practice 2013; and Award of Excellence (Nanotechnology) (UNN, 2014) among others.

Mr. Okwuosa also garnered other awards which include: PETAN Oil and Gas Industry Achievement Award 2014; PETAN Distinguished Achievement Award 2014; and Fidelity Bank Distinguished Customer Award 2015.

Being an eminent Knight of Saint Christopher (KSC) of the Anglican Communion and Founder of Sir Chukwuemeka Okwuosa Foundation, he has also continued to positively impact his immediate and remote societies through scholarships, poverty alleviation programmes and limitless interventions in development of social facilities and infrastructure to enhance the people's quality of life.

It is clearly obvious that Mr. Emeka Okwuosa has a speedy flight to the heights of petroleum industry professionalism, and has maintained a frontline position, deepening the indigenous capacity for delivery of world’s toughest industry jobs in line with world class standards and best practices while remaining socially responsible.

It is therefore only rational and justified that his peers and colleagues in the industry salute and proclaim his many pioneer roles and outstanding contributions to the advancement of professional excellence, business best practices and audacious strides against challenging headwinds in recording and rewarding success.

It is on record that the Lifetime Achievement Award remains the most coveted honour to be conferred on any professional dead or alive in the Nigerian petroleum industry. It is not only all encompassing, it is at the instance of his colleagues, the very people most accurate in assessing him professionally. A Lifetime Achievement Award conferred on such an Industry leader at such a trying time,  symbolizes a resolute banding together of one and all, to encourage resilient in - house 'troopers' and 'striking forces' like Okwuosa to keep driving and pointing the way.

Indeed, the 2015 PETAN Lifetime Achievement Award establishes Mr. Emeka Okwuosa as one of Nigeria's oil and gas industry heroes.