FG should create good fiscal incentives to attract more investment in energy sector  -Engr. Obi Uzu

Congratulations on your 60th birthday. How has the journey been for you and the company?

  I’ve had a very good life. In my past 60 years, I’ve never spent more than a day in the hospital. I’ve never had an accident nor been robbed, so I’ve never had a misfortune. I will say clearly that it is by God’s grace. I won’t say it is by my intelligence or hard work. I have been tremendously blessed by God. Even my family has experienced God’s goodness. I can’t ask for more. For the company, I’ve had fantastic relationships. My friends, partners, staff and everyone I’ve worked with has been glorious. With transparency and trust which we’ve built in our processes, we are on autopilot in the company and everything is working according to divine model.

 

Sir, you mentioned transparency, what other key virtues has helped you in life?

 

The basic, key virtue I can mention is trustworthiness. Other virtues I can mention are our commitment to service, self-discipline, accountability, positive attitude, compassion and love.  With my consistency in these, people have helped me, including those I don’t know.

 

What would you consider to be your landmark achievement(s) in 60 years?

Honestly, I’ve worked in the oil industry for 28 years with an unblemished record.  As a matter of fact, this is huge for me. Also, being able to set up the Global Process and Pipeline Services Limited (GPPSL) company, which is a world-class certified company commended by Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Nigeria International Energy Summit (NIPS), International Oil Companies (IOCs) and others. We’ve installed tremendous strategic business structure in the company which has worked. It’s a partnership company, so it’s not about me. For me to be in a partnership for 14 years without any internal conflict, working with the laid down principles is an achievement. Our company is growing stronger everyday because we submitted our interest into the processes and control. Honestly, at 60 years, I see myself fulfilling my God-given mandate and destiny.

 

Kindly share the insights that led to the birth of the company.

 

I worked for Shell for two years as a contract staff. I left them and joined BJ services where I spent almost 14 years. While working there, I put in a lot of dedication. I put my records and name on the line, but envy got in when I was rapidly promoted. On two occasions, I was accused of something I didn’t do. After the investigation the first time, I was exonerated but after 5–6 years, another set of allegations came in. I recall that I was the country manager for eight and half years. I realised that God’s grace had kept those people from succeeding despite chasing me for 13 years. When it was time for me to jump the boat to be safe. This was what led to the establishment of Global Process and Pipeline Services Limited. We’ve been in operation for 14 years. Within this period, we have won more than 8 National and International recognized awards. It has been a successful journey.

 

Sir, what has been the impact of your company on the nation’s economy since it commenced operation?

 

Sincerely speaking, we are one of the few indigenous oil servicing companies that has supported Nigeria to produce oil all these while. There were two major international service companies that were doing this kind of services before now but four years ago, both of them left the country. We jumped in and filled the gap. Today, we are supporting most of the IOC’s in all their major assets maintenance in Nigeria. If we were not there, how will those assets be maintained? That’s 60% of all oil production. You can do the calculations to see how important our services are. Even at the refinery, we have supported them. Though we are silent, we are very important for oil and gas production in Nigeria. We’re wrapping up more resources to continue supporting them so that they don’t have to look outside the shores of Nigeria.

 

What is your future plan and investment outlook for the company?

 

 

My future plan is to see how I can replicate this in other countries. We are considering Guyana, Angola, Mozambique and Ivory Coast to see which of the countries will give us a favourable platform to expand what we’re doing; if we can get two other countries to expand and build up structures like we have done in Nigeria. In the long run, we are looking at investing into food processing and batteries. We’re discussing with some companies in China. I see a lot of potential in the battery business. Battery business is going to explode. It’s the next oil and gas, that’s where the whole world is going. It’s going to be bigger than oil and gas. Whoever has the opportunity should step in now and progress alongside the evolving technology. Today, the battery of long storage has not been fully developed. Imagine if a cell phone cannot hold battery life more many hours, you wouldn’t call it mobile device. As a result of technology, if batteries can be made to function efficiently for few days at a stretch, you can imagine what the market of mobile phones could become. It will be bigger than Nigeria’s economy. I see it as a huge opportunity. Whenever I’m thinking, I think ahead.

 

Now that the world is talking about energy transition and Nigeria is seeking energy justice. What is your advice for African leaders in ensuring a smooth energy transition within the limited period?

 

The best approach is for the federal government to channel more resources into oil and gas infrastructure that will enable them to produce more like what Saudi Arabia is doing. When you produce more and have enough reserve, you can now put more money into agriculture, infrastructure and others. There’s no way you have a business, spend every money you get from it and think the business will grow. Even if you have a store, if you’re not restocking it, it’s not going to work.

Our oil productivity has been going down. It used to be about 2.5 million barrels per day. It’s around 1.3m–1.7m today. We’re struggling; we need to ramp up production quickly to 3 million barrels per day so that we will have reserves that we can deploy into other infrastructure and technology.

Until we have that money, we are just borrowing and using it to feed our children which is not sustainable. What we are doing now is borrowing money to spend on what is not bringing returns. If we had used those resources to develop some of the assets, we could have been producing an additional one million barrels. The revenue we will get from it would have been enough to sort out the problems we are facing currently. It is a problem of mismatch.

Why don’t they put investments or put flexible policies in place that will make investors put more money there to produce more oil? To be honest, in a couple of years – 40 or 55 years’ time, this oil will be useless. Now it’s useful, we have to do everything to bring it to the surface and sell it now that it has value. What happened to us in coal is playing back again. Enugu and its coal is still there, nobody is utilising it; that is gone. Nobody is coming to mine coal as a premium again. That technology has gone. In the future, the same thing will happen to oil. Let’s get the oil to the surface today and enjoy the benefits of it.

What can we do to ramp up oil production?

The easiest way to ramp up production is by increasing our investment to develop more assets. We must ensure development of new fields that can bring oil from the ground thus, increasing the national production. As a matter of fact, we must drill more wells. In the short term, the government should increase their incentives to attract more investors and settle what is going to be workable in the Niger Delta, between the host communities and the investors, for them to have a friendly environment to operate in. As at today, the cost of security is enormous in oil production. This cost needs to go away for it to become very economical for someone to produce at a lower cost and increase the profitability.

 

You recently launched a book, what is it all about and what motivated you to write it.

 

The book I launched is a way to narrate my story—the story of grace, glory, dry bones coming alive again and that there is still God. Someone can come from nowhere and become somebody. I want to tell the story myself. I could have gathered the material together and when I die my children will put the story together and tell it probably not in the same perspective of how it happened. Everybody I had told my story before now, had inspired me to write this book, so that other people in despair situations today will have hope in life. It is a motivational book that clearly shows how faith, values and destiny are tied together to get good results. I maintained a very strict core value irrespective of the profits I get. If it is not ethical, I’m not going to do it and that has kept a lot of things coming my way even when I don’t struggle for it. I imagine the story of David in the Bible, when Samuel went to the house of Jesse to anoint a king. For them, the first son should be the king or the other older ones but the chosen one was the one in the bush rearing the sheep – that is just my story. I’m the least expected. How I was chosen from the bush, I can’t explain it but that was what happened. It is a way of thanking God and sharing my testimony through the book.

 

 In your story, you shared that you went for an interview in a traditional attire, what prompted that?

 

Yes, that was what I had at that time. I wouldn’t have gone naked for the interview. In fact, I had to go to the village to get the cloth, it was not mine. It is to show you the depth of poverty and lack of resources.

 

What made you study petroleum engineering for your first and second degree, was it a deliberate decision?

No, it wasn’t. I will tell a very good story of what led to it. I got admission in 1984 into electrical engineering. My parents and brothers wanted me to read medicine because I was very brilliant when I was young. I put in the course for Jamb but missed the cut off mark so I got pissed off. The next one I wrote, I decided on my own that I will do electrical engineering. I made this decision because the first person that built a duplex building in my village after the war read electrical engineering. I had the inspiration from him that I will still build a duplex building if I chose his course. My uncle, who studied medicine in Russia then, was struggling to survive. So, my choice was based on economics. In my second year as an electrical engineering student, the faculty went on an excursion to ExxonMobil in Akwa Ibom. They had a very beautiful hotel opposite the General Hospital in Eket. I was given a suite at Quai Ibom; that was the first time I slept in a hotel. That night, I didn’t want the day to break. At the dining room was a buffet, we were told to eat what we wanted. As students that ate 0:1:0, we tried to eat and see how we can reserve some in the stomach. When I returned from the excursion, I thought that there must be money in petroleum for the company to spend that much, just for student’s excursion. I decided not to climb the electric pole again. This was how I changed to petroleum engineering. I informed my Head of Department and was told that I had to get above 4 points in my CGPA before swapping. In year 3, I started registering petroleum engineering courses and in year 4, they found out that I didn’t have any course in electrical engineering for year 3 and 4 so they were confused on what to do and couldn’t tell me to go back. They agreed to let me scale through since the two courses are in the same engineering faculty, that was how I got my first degree in petroleum engineering.

 

As the Vice Chairman of Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN), what is the impact of the association and where do you see the association in the next 10 years?

 

The association had made a lot of impact in the oil and gas industry. We have end-to-end services which we provide to the oil and gas. The Nigerian content development and monitoring board has helped the association to push their course. However, as the vice chairman, what we intend to do is to improve the services quality delivery to the world standard of best practice and to meet expectations so that the benefits will be to the buyer who is the client, as well as the service providers. Service quality and payment concerns or a mismatch on expectation and delivery between the buyers and the service providers will be reduced or eliminated. This the next line of action we want to take. As well as disciplining our members who could not fit into the new standards.

 

Kindly share with us your Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) exploits in the past 20 years. How much have you spent so far in your social investment?

I have been giving bursary for the past 13 years to about 1,105 disbursements. I don’t have a foundation because I don’t want it to be in the media to hype who I am. What I am doing is my personal discussion with God and a way to say thank you to God. Part of the ministry I was called to is ‘giving.’ Americans say that the hands that give roses always smell nice. I have told my kids that when I die, part of my will would contain giving which is dear to me. If they continue giving, they won’t lack. I will still do more in terms of giving to society. Though, I’ve been hurt while giving scholarships to students by those managing the scholarship programme. They scammed me and I wanted to stop 5 or 10 years ago but God ministered to me, using the illustration of a farm whereby some seeds grow fruits, while some don’t despite being nurtured the same way. You won’t stop planting because of that but will be encouraged by those producing fruits. I am a channel that God has blessed to bless people. In 2005, I rebuilt the Anglican church in my village on my own. The church didn’t ask me to. I just felt, ‘let this building not fall on those worshipping God’. I was earning a salary then. The Bishop that commissioned it said since he started ministry, he has never seen such before. I was part of those that rebuilt the market over there as well. They were thinking I was doing those projects for a political campaign, but I am not a politician and I have not decided yet to become one. I’m doing it as part of my ministry. When I was young, my mother would say that if you have the spirit of giving, you will give from the small kernel you have. Don’t wait until you’re very rich before giving. Everyone that related to me went to school on full scholarship. I have trained more than 7 or 8 children aside from secondary school to university without any strings attached.

 

What can you say is your greatest regret in life?

 

Eeerr mm… when I look back, what I struggle to forget is my ugly past. Sometimes it makes me stiff, and it makes me hard on other people because I’m expecting them to pass through the same tunnel. How do I erase that part of me and see life as more enjoyable? It made me start playing golf and that is the best thing that has ever happened to me in my old age. Playing for 4-5 hours as a way to take my mind off it. The second regret I have is that my parents, who did everything to ensure my survival, didn’t enjoy anything before they died. They died early, so when I see my friends buying cars for their parents and giving them drivers, I wish I had that opportunity.

 

What would you say have been keeping your marriage and what lessons do you want the younger ones to learn?

My marriage is kept on faith. We are strong Christians. My wife is a minister at the Redeemed Christian Church of God. We are bonded naturally not by anything. I had only my daughter for eight years and my wife was moving to different hospitals, but I said if we have another child fine and if we don’t, fine too. Why are we going to hang ourselves because we want more children? Her friends started feeling like I’m in a secret society and don’t want children to come. Now we have three children. I married her based on the values I saw in her, not on what I will get. I didn’t marry my wife as a children incubator. My wife takes good care of me like I’m one of her sons. This doesn’t mean we don’t have our challenges.

 

What has life taught you in the past 60 years?

 

Life has taught me that irrespective of shortcomings, or things you can’t get today, if you live with ethical values and in the way of the Lord, God will remember you in His own way. God will send His angels to help you. The angels might be those you know or don’t know. In the Bible, the story of Abraham and the three visitors he welcomed, and the reward of a child inspires me. So, it’s beyond prayer and fasting. Keep doing good, keep planting until your seed falls on a fertile ground and germinate. This has worked for me.