A Toolbox For Marketing In Oil, Gas& Energy Sector

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People believe that the oil and gas industry in East Africa is relatively new, and so it generates few opportunities.

I totally agree that Tanzania and Uganda are in the early stages of developing their oil and gas resources. But that does not mean that the industry presents limited opportunities in the region.

Opportunities are numerous in the oil and gas sector in East Africa.

If you look deep into the oil and gas sector in Tanzania, you will notice three things:

First, we have a lot of oil and gas facilities, such as natural gas plants, power plants, and oil depots. And they need recurring services such as maintenance and equipment supply that would keep the facilitiesrunning.

Secondly, oil and gas companies are still producing oil and gas resources.

Thirdly, major projects are coming on stream. There is the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project. We shall soonwitness the Tilenga and Kingfisher project in Uganda.

The good news is that, each day, these projects are in need of goods and services that your company can provide and thereby benefiting from the significant natural gas and oil discovery in the region.

Your Brand is Your Most Important Asset

Opportunities in the oil and gas sector in Tanzania and East Africa are numerous.

But marketing for the oil and gas industry needs a different approach. This is an industry where deals are made through handshakes and relationship.

Brand building is the key to developing industry relationship with clients, generating new business leads, and attracting talented employees.

The purpose of marketing and branding in the oil and gas sector is not to make quick sales but to find people who are interested in your offer and put them into your follow up database so that you can build a strong relationship with them.

If your company understands the relationship-based culture of the oil and gas industry and starts implementingmarketing solutions that build your brand value, then you will start to experience an amazing result. The contract will come naturally.

The oil and gas business is a very competitive industry. More companies like yours are looking for better ways to connect and create a solid relationship with clients. A strong brand presents you with numerous opportunities. It helps you build a relationship with clients, stand out from the competition, and win more jobs.

The Biggest Obstacle Facing Service Providers inthe Oil and Gas Sector in Tanzania and East Africa

The common belief among many people is that lack of finance is the biggest obstacle holding back the service sector in growing their business the oil and gas sector.

To me, funding is not a big issue for service providers in Tanzania. Most of the companies providing technical, consulting and professional services have a good reputation in offering amazing products and services.

But they often lack industry brand awareness that gets them considered for sourcing finance, attracting the best talent, and securing new business.

Your company’s brand might have an excellent reputation, but it should have high visibility in the oil and gas marketplace, too.

You can’t underestimate the impact of a visible brand in the energy sector. A strong brand has an easier time attracting new clients and securing funds, and the best employees will want to work with that company.

And once you win a contract or oil companies gives you a purchasing order, the bank can easilyfinance your working capital.

Five Things Public Relations and Marketing Communication Can Help Your New Brands Achieve in the Oil, Gas and Energy Sector in Tanzania and East Africa

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New oil and gas discoveries are being made in East Africa and the opportunities available for oil and gas exploration are awarded to the highest bidder every year. The East African region presents enormous business opportunities for companies who are willing to take new risk especially in Tanzania and East Africa’s oil and gas sector. Your company can capitalize on the opportunities in the industry through a public relations marketing program.
Among other things, the following are the five things public relations can do for your new brand in the oil, gas and energy sector:
1. Building Industry Presence
As you enter the new oil and gas market, nobody knows about your company, your products or even your services.
PR can play important roles in increasing industry presence as well as raise awareness for your products and services in the market.
2. Finding Local Partners
Tanzanian companies love to work with reputable and credible brands that have positive image. The good publicity can be worth many thousands of dollars in free advertising and, most importantly, can attract local companies that seek joint venture opportunities or seeking business-development opportunities with your company.
3. Attracting the Right Talent
To achieve your operation goals, your brand needs local competent workforce. A good PR can be play great role to convince the prospective employees that your company is a good place to grow their career.
For example, by creating a press release that promotes your branch in the region and contracting a public relation specialist to help publish your press release and earn media placement, this would increase your brand awareness and can attract competent workforce for your firm.
4. Generate Consumer Interest
Consumers want to order services and buy products from brands that have a positive image and a record of accomplishment in terms of delivery time.
Public relations can help you demonstrate your past achievements and completed projects. The practice generates the end-user interest, which is the ultimate goal.
5. Increase Your Brand Value
People love an established brand. This is why they search for reviews on your company services, ask for their relatives and colleagues’ opinion on your company, and call your customer care unit to see if the story tallies. Public relations give you the power and privilege to demonstrate what you are offering and how it can benefit the clients. This increases brand recognition and makes people value your brand. In essence, people will not need to ask their relatives or call your customer care unit, because you will have succeeded in creating a household name.
New brands seeking to enter the Tanzanian oil and gas market can do this by working with public relation specialists and producing a special report that tells the story of the company, and demonstrate the core value of the company and its track record. The public relations specialist would then send the report to major oil and gas companies in East Africa and distribute it to delegates at major industry events across East Africa. The practice helps prospective clients to keep in touch, which enhances relationship. This could attract investments to the company.

How East African Nations Can Maintain Control of their Oil and Gas Sector while Attracting Huge Foreign Direct Investments

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The proliferation of new oil and gas discoveries and major oil projects coming on the stream create a huge demand for skilled workforce in Tanzania and Africa at large.
To make the business of extracting oil and gas resources better for nationals, East African nations should think about solving the workforce challenges in the region. That can be done by developing the structure of education and training of nationals to work in the oil and gas industry.
Challenges
From the first day an exploratory well is drilled, many emergent nations have one clear vision: to start extracting oil or natural gas from the ground quickly and to start making a lot of money.
I call this “short term thinking” and it intends to reap instant results, which has led the local industry to where it is today in many new oil and gas economies. The goal here is to rush into money-making opportunities.
So what do they do?
They invite international oil and gas companies to bid for available concessions. With a lot of political pressures, most of these nations would rush into introducing local content rules (that is, through national economic and national security policies, they restrict business activities in the sector, believing that this will increase the local participation.)
Instead of training people locally, these nations would offer scholarship to those who have high grades and send them overseas, and then local colleges and universities will have to train those whom are left behind.
This makes international educational institutions a lucrative market with a good number of African candidates.
Some of these graduates would never return home, worrying about the high rate of unemployment in the region and the missed-out people who could conduct R&D.
But here is a one-million dollar question?
How on earth can international oil firms and state oil firms hire people when they do not possess the relevant skills and knowledge to do the oil job?
From the first day I entered into the oil and gas industry, I have been told that the industry needs competency. It is an industry in which safety and productivity is absolutely paramount.
I totally agree that increasing local participation has a purpose, but local participation has little meaning without internal or local capability.
What are needed are not rules but local capability to execute the complex and challenging task in the oil and gas operations.
So what would happened in the next 20 years to the country with  “short term thinking” vision? The answer is pretty simple.
The local community will be unhappy as they will perceive this as “a foreign industry” and has little economic benefit in their lives.
Local supply chain businesses will have no business to compete with in the industry, because they will lack capacity and capability, which that competition will make them possess.
Oil companies will hire on a short-term basis, based on their needs. The local oil industry will necessarily rely on foreign expertise.
In addition, international oil firms will lose interest in investing in the opportunities in the region as there are few skilled employees and workers with experience and capacity to do the oil jobs.
The educational systems of these nations will remain the least efficient in the world and continue to produce graduates who do not meet the standards of the industry.
That’s dangerous because that is what leads to underutilization of resources in many emerging oil and gas producing countries.
Solutions
Imagine an industry that is dominated by locally trained nationals at every level, from entry-level position to managerial position.
The local supply chain should be competent enough to win business opportunities in the industry. And the nation’s educational system should meet the needs of the industry and be well respected across the world.
Imagine a country with people who have skills and experience to compete for employment and contractor opportunities both at home and overseas.
I strongly believe this can be achieved in emerging oil and gas countries. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. It will be a gradual process. But with the right strategies used for over 20 years, these nations would have bridged the local workforce challenges.
The right approach in growing oil and gas resources in emerging economies is to focus on building a new economy in connection with the right skills. That should be the primary objective from the moment the first oil and gas exploratory well is drilled.
Conclusion
Collaboration and partnership among international oil companies, relevant government department, private training providers and international institution could bridge the skills gap in African hydrocarbon countries.
The time has come to solve the challenge we have. Together, we can take the African upstream oil business both in 2019 and beyond higher. Cheers.

A New Business Model for the Oil and Gas Companies in Tanzania and East Africa

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The price of crude oil is recovering gradually after going through a major slump in 2014–2017.
This has profound effect to everyone engaging in any aspect of the oil and gas business: from oil and gas professionals to oil companies that extracts oil and gas resources to those who providing supportive services.
For the service providers, efficiency is vital to surviving in the current oil and gas market. International oil companies are looking for better result at competitive prices and within a short period of time.
On the other hand, international oil companies are forced to adjust their business model to cope with these uncertain times.
In the oil and gas industry, two business models get most of the attention:
MODEL NUMBER ONE: Old School
An international oil company would hire a highly experienced expatriate from any part of the world and bring them to work in East Africa.
They could also buy goods and services from any part of the world, if that will get them the price and quality they want.
This model is outdated and not economically viable.
The cost of hiring an international oil and gas professional and bringing them to work in Tanzania outweighs the cost of training and employing local workforce. Also, relying on oversea workforce and suppliers can give the oil companies the following addition cost:
  • Foreign exchange rates
  • Extra paper work and documentation such as work permit, resident permit etc.
  • Import duties
  • Agent brokers and middlemen expenses.
  • Import and customs fees*
This makes this model less effective and not commercially viable as most oil firms are seeking to cut cost to cope with the current environment.
MODEL NUMBER TWO: NATIONALIZATION MODEL
Model number two is an investment-driving model, which is typically focused on reducing cost, increasing local government revenue, generating value to government, communities and citizens, and improving the locally based economy.
This is a profitable model for international oil and gas companies that are searching, developing and extracting oil and gas resources in Tanzania and East Africa.
I hope this helps. If you find this article useful, share with friends.

Skilled Labor Shortage: What the Oil Industry in East Africa Need to Do

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What do you think the oil and gas industry in Tanzania and East Africa at large need?
The industry needs many skilled and competent people at every level to work in the industry. It is obvious that there is shortage in the current local workforce in Africa. The industry is “crying” for many skilled, competent and committed  individuals to explore oil and gas resources.
The workforce shortage challenge in East Africa can be addressed by creating an education and training system that meet the standards of the oil and gas industry.
So, educating and training people who would capitalize on the new found oil and gas wealth is vital for the local industry development.
By training local people, the East African industry will be dominated by local workers and this will promote the locally based economy.
Oil industry  presents many technological challenges in the exploration and production of natural gas offshore.
The country has to decide: East African companies either invest in technical capability or leave it to international competitors.
When you educate and train the local workforce, the industry will be localized after a certain period thereby promoting the local economy.
The Right Approach to Competency Development in East African Oil and Gas Sector.
The shortest route to meeting this challenge is through partnership and collaboration at the local level.
Private training providers have an opportunity to grow their business by training learners at national universities and colleges rather than relying on training staff at major oil companies –which is a “tiny” market.
On the other hand, local colleagues could provide access to training facilities and classrooms to private training providers. This is a cost-effective method and it will help them train local people quickly than they will if they build a new training center.
Final Words
The challenges of building local workforce can be met through collaboration between international workforce and training providers as well as between government departments and international oil firm.
Time has come to solve the challenge we have. Together we can take Africa upstream business both in 2019 and beyond. Cheers.

What to Do to Attract Stakeholders to Your Oil and Gas Companies in Tanzania and East Africa

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Oil, gas and energy companies operating in East Africa have crucial job to do to convince the East African populace that how the company is managing the impact and environment, health and safety risks of operating in the East Africa regions.
This is achieved by demonstrating the way companies (your company, by extension) overcome risk and operational challenges as well as forecasting future performances. For example, your company can hire a skilled hand to describe, through engaging content, how they meet local content in the region with few skilled and competent workforce. Or even describe how your company is addressing global issues such as climate changes.
The Benefit of PR to Oil, Gas and Energy Companies
Many oil, gas and energy companies, and oil and gas association realize that public relations is the best way to build brands, generate investors’ interest, build positive image with communities and government bodies, and position their company at the top in the market.
 Let us take a sneak peak into the mind of an investor who always looks for return on investment. To achieve that, he or she would want to invest in credible brands that have positive image. His thinking, research and evaluation is solely for the purpose of choosing a brand or company that has a track record of high performances. Therefore, one can conclude that a public-relations marketing program is the best way to attract more investment.
An effectively managed PR program will produce a carefully crafted special report on your company’s operations in Tanzania and/or East Africa, gallery of corporate social responsibility and featured interview with the MD or CEO of your company on how the company has made giant strides despite challenges.
If this report is then distributed to the delegates at major industry events across Africa, it will produce good results
The PR program will not only help manage the company’s brand but also lead to investors seeking to invest in your company. This coverage can be worth as much as thousands of dollars in free advertising of your company and, most importantly, it will help you attract the right talents and suppliers, generate investors’ interest and strengthen relationship with stakeholders as you make them understand your operations.
Your Company Will Get a PR Person, Whether You Want it or Not
One thing which is true about the oil and gas industry is that it operates in challenging regions and complex tasks. Despite the advancement of technology, when  industry professionals still go further to find oil and gas resources in the deep water, drilling for oil and gas both onshore and offshore, there are possibilities of injuries and even death. Drilling is a dangerous task.
Even if your company decides to not have any PR program, one day, an event or crisis will occur that will dent the company’s image. The media will come knocking on your door, and you will have no choice but to respond. A company that utilise public relations marketing programs can control the damage or crisis.
How to Win Over East Africans in the Oil, Gas and Energy Sector
One of the key ways to use PR effectively is knowing how to win stakeholders’ minds. But how do you win their minds?
Press Release:This can be a powerful tool in your PR marketing program. A press release that describes the change in management, increase in natural production or starting new drilling programs can strengthen relationship with stakeholders, if distributed to the industry publications and media contacts. Oil, gas and energy companies can create and distribute these press releases by working with PR professionals who have cultivated a strong relationship with respected publications. These publications will ensure they get the desired attention.
Special Report:This special report can highlight the achievements of your company despite challenges. It could feature, by order of importance, the following:
•An overview of your company operations in Tanzania and/or East Africa.
•An exclusive interview with the Minister for Energy.
•Interviews with the Director or CEO of your company.
•Photo gallery of Corporate Social Responsibility activities of your company.
With the help of PR professionals, the report can be distributed to delegates at major industry events across Africa. Again, this could worth as much as thousands of dollars in free advertising.
The Media: Part of your PR marketing program should be utilizing the media to publish the stories about your company and her operations, in order to get good coverage, reach a wider audience and help your company manage its brand image.

“Collaboration, key to Tanzania’s oil, gas growth” – Imran

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Imran  Pishori, C.E.O, AP Central

In this interview, Hussein Boffu sit with  Imran Pishori, C.E.O  at AP Central to discuss the importance of  collaboration between local service providers and foreign counterpart in enhancing industry growth.
 Briefly tell us how you found the oil and gas industry?
 I was born and raised in Tanzania. In 1996 I left Tanzania to come to the United States to start University.
 After graduating, I started my career at  Burns& McDonnell Engineering in 2002 where I was involved with Engineering, Design and Construction projects.
 In 2008 I joined Quicksource Inc. a procurement company as Vice President gaining experience in all aspects of the Business.
 With the combination of both Engineering and Procurement, I started AP Central to stream line the process of helping clients navigate from Engineering (if needed), to RFP to Procurement. We help you optimize your supply chain solutions.
In formal life I am Professional Engineer (PE) with 10 years’ experience supplying Maintenance, Repair and Operation (MRO) parts to Egypt, Qatar, Trinidad, Argentina, UAE and Tanzania.
Tell us a little bit what does your company do?
AP Central allows you to streamline your purchasing needs with a one stop center.  This includes the whole process from Request for Proposal, Engineering, Procurement, Order History, Expediting, Packing, Export Documentation, delivery to freight forwarder or directly to your end destination.  AP Central has all your needs
Headquartered in Houston Texas, the oil capital of the USA, AP Central is strategically located to serve all our clients’ needs with major industries and freight forwarders located in close proximity.
How does collaboration between local service providers and the foreign counterpart could enhance the local industry growth.?
Collaboration between local service providers and foreign counterpart can enhance any project.  The local expertise is needed to build the relationship with the end user and then work with the foreign counterpart to get the project done.  Currently there are very few manufacturers of equipment in Tanzania to support the growth in Tanzania and most of the equipment and material will need to be imported.  Therefore a fluid collaboration is needed between the local and foreign companies to provide a seamless transition from Engineering to RFQ to Procurement to Shipping to Installation and finally to Commission.
There is a complaints some  services providers are delivering poor quality services and missing schedule , How true is this and do you have any internal mechanism to handle that?
It is very true that there are many poor service providers.  It is very important when the end user awards a bid to a company, they not only look at price but research the company they are awarding the bid to.  Many service providers are single owned enterprises with no experience, financial issues, etc and will regularly quote low prices but in the short and long term the end user will be negatively impacted due to low quality goods, delay of schedule, no follow up service etc.   If there are any issues and they have been paid, the low quality providers will move on and not work with the end user to fix the issue.
AP Central has a dedicated team that expedites all orders and provides weekly updates to the end user showing the progress of all orders.  We also buy the products from reputable ISO certified companies to ensure the best quality product is being delivered.  Our goal is to build a long term relationship with the end user and this is accomplished by providing quality products in a timely manner and providing any support the end user needs even after the material is used and commissioned.
If somebody wants to learn more about what you, where they should go?
They have to visit www.ap-central.com

Demps Offshore Services  To Bridge The Local Skills  Gap In Tanzania’s Oil and Gas Sector.

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Sudesh Dewar, C.E.O , Demps Offshore Services

 

Sudesh Dewar, Is the Chief executive Officer of Demps offshore services, He talks about the operations, challenges, and initiatives for overcoming the local workforce challenge in East Africa’s oil and gas sector with special focus in Tanzania.

HUSSEIN BOFFU  brings the excerpts

 

Briefly tell us how did you get into oil and gas business?

Started my career in the oil & gas field from the year 1985. Commenced my career from the fleet personnel department. My involvement revolved around crewing & Manning for various offshore spreads in the offshore oil field sector.

Later took over international assignments, functioning from UAE. Was instrumental in setting up offices & operations within the India & middle east region for my then employers. Developed & managed international crewing agencies & vessel agents for offshore projects which were pertaining to Oil explorations & Offshore EPC.

Finally ventured into my own business in the year 2006 of providing professional crew management services to offshore/onshore projects. Covered all segments of oil & gas. We have the ability to arrange & manage large contingent of the workforce for multiple projects. We handle the entire gamut of HR. Our concept/intention is to ease out the pressure of managing the required manpower & give the client room for focusing on other important issues. Our philosophy is to be an integral part of the client’s project success. My company stands on three pillars namely dependability, client’s confidence & professionalism.

 

Skilled workforce shortage is the biggest challenge in developing the local oil and gas industry. How does that impact your operation in the region, is there any internal mechanism to overcome the challenge?

Looking at the current workforce in Tanzania especially for oil & gas projects is an absolute shortage. This is because there have not been any large oil & gas operations carried out in the past. Our company stands a great chance to capitalize due to our geo-strategic location (India). We will be providing highly professional manpower be it for any projects at a very competitive price. One of the reasons for being price competitive is because of our location.  As we intend to open up our branch in Tanzania, all efforts will be made to train & develop the local manpower available. Thus creating job opportunities. This will further make us more competitive in services & rates.

 

The industry crash of 2014-2017 was the worst in the decades.  The price of oil is recovering gradually. How has this impacted your operation?

Yes, the oil prices are increasing with some setbacks from time to time. Considering the price fluctuation & upper trend we prepare ourselves in such a way that we can sustain especially the downtrend & complete the ongoing contracts. Hard negotiation on salary, surplus skilled crew availability in the market, providing steady employment, lucrative perks are the essence of our competitiveness. If indicated by the clients the project contract value, we can come out with competitive price thus enabling the clients to complete projects on a profitable note.

5 Reasons Why Public Relation And Marketing Are Important For Every Company In Oil, Gas

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It is no secret that some people still criticise the oil and gas industry. There are environmentalists claiming that the industry’s stakeholders cannot protect the environment as well as community groups whining that oil and gas activities (such as exploration) contribute little or nothing to mankind.

The industry is still relatively new in East Africa. Consequently, many people are still ignorant of the industry’s benefits to the society.

The oil and gas industry has been depicted as negative, and this perception is common among the people. That is dangerous.

Because it will affect the ability of oil companies to hire and retain the best talents that will develop the localised oil industry. This perception is a threat to oil companies and their reputation, and will affect their day-to-day activities.

Most importantly, it will ruin the image of the companies in the stakeholders’ mind. These stakeholders include: investors, government bodies, suppliers and shareholders.

However, public relations can be a powerful tool to enhance the oil companies’ image, strengthen the relationship with stakeholders and improve the reputation of oil and gas companies.

For example, take a press release that tells a powerful story about your company’s operations, your corporate social responsibility programme.

With public relations specialists or agencies that have a strong relationship with editors and journalists, and connection with publications and media outlets in Tanzania and East Africa, your company’s message will get the maximum exposure it deserves.

Your message will reach more audience, raise your brand awareness and create a positive company image with stakeholders.

Here are the benefits of adopting public relations and marketing communications program.

1.Attracting Talent:

Shortage of skilled personnel is one of the challenges in the developing oil and gas industry.

“So many young people nowadays don’t want to come to work in our industry. The oil and gas industry is an industry of engineering and project management. What happens if there are no competent project managers and engineers to hire? It’s going to hurt the stakeholders in the industry,” says Mark LaCour, Director, Modal Point.

The popular and growing belief among young people is that the industry has no or gloomy future.

Public relations and marketing communications program can inform the young generation that your company is one of the best places to develop their career and, by extension, make a difference in the society. This will help oil and gas companies hired talented young minds.

2.Strengthened Relationships

Public relations also improves your relationship with stakeholders such as investors, regulators, shareholders and suppliers. For example, with the help of public relations specialists or agencies, your organization can produce a special report which highlights giant strides your company has made; say, for instance, how you meet the local content requirements in a region with no skilled labor. The PR agencies will distribute that report to the major industry events in East Africa and beyond. So, your message remains visible long after issuing the report. It will reach many investors and other stakeholders which wilk continue to raise awareness for your company. It will build relationships for you because the potential investors or stakeholders are have read how your organization handles risk and challenges, and the giant strides you have made despite the challenges.

3.Enhanced Trust and Credibility

PR improves the reputation of your company, and reputation is one of the major reasons people patronize businesses. When you tell stories about your company’s operations and activities, you raise customers’ trust and that of suppliers who would like to or who work with your company, because they understand your operations and activities.

4. Increase Brand Value

Public relations also help create brand awareness and maintain company’s image

Public relations is more than just publicity. It creates a perception that stakeholders should and would have about your company.

“Oil and Gas Face Negative Perception”-Mark LaCour

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Mark LaCour, Director, Modal Point

 

 Mark LaCour, Director Modal point has shaped  enviable career in oil and gas sector. A driven business-minded man. In this interview he shares the impact of collaboration in the nation’s oil and gas industry.Industry trends, digital technologies and his prediction  for the future of the oil and gas industry in next five years.

Hussein BOFFU  brings the excerpts.

Briefly tell us how did you get into oil and gas business?

I got started in the oil and gas industry almost twenty five years ago working for the phone company in the East of the United States of America. And I knew absolutely nothing about the oil and gas industry.

That was actually valuable to me, I just didn’t know in that moment because when I got handed all the oil and gas accounts in BellSouth territory, I got handled everything; upstream companies, midstream companies, downstream companies and service companies. So, I got to see the entire industry how it works from beginning to end which is actually really valuable. Most people in our industry don’t know the whole industry, they only the part that they work in.

So, I did a bunch of work there, made a lot of great relationships, really proved myself during hurricane Katrina. My last corporate job was with Forrester Research where I had the oil and gas key accounts. And about nine years ago, I’ve decided to start my own company which is Modal Point and we were market research company in oil and gas.

So, I literally built this company, I did nothing but learn and talk to industry leaders about trends that we can help our clients sell their products and services. So, once again, I was consistently constantly learning about the industry.

During that journal, I got a bunch of associations that wanted me to come on board. I’m on the board of directors with the American Petroleum Institute, the director of public relations and so, that even further my industry knowledge. As part of growing Modal Point’s business, I got involved in social media. We launched the first podcast about four years ago and you fast forward to now and we now have the top six podcasts in the world in the oil and gas industry all sponsored by big companies and we’re growing. We add a new podcast every other month or so.

I now get paid to speak or do panels. And so, Modal Point I’ve literally shut down as my market research company and sort of back up as my speaking platform.

So, if Hussein would ask me today what do I do for a living, I have to say I just talk for living which is actually kind of cool.

 

Aside from the drop in oil price, what are some of the challenges the industry is facing?

The industry is facing two – two big challenges right now. One is negative public perception which there’s always been some of that, but in the last decade social media has allowed the people that don’t like our industry to amplify their messaging. And so, a lot of people in the world don’t understand the benefit that our industry brings to mankind. That’s dangerous. That’s going to affect us the ability to hire and retain talent to work in new areas of the world.

The second thing I spoke about talent is the labor shortage. So many young people in today’s world don’t want to come work in our industry and the oil and gas industry is an industry of engineering and project management. What happens if we can’t hire project managers and engineers? It’s going to really hurt us.

Now, part of that is the drive the adaptation of new technology. And then, finally, the anti-oil and gas people have gotten really smart. They figured out if they can shut down pipelines and you can’t move hydrocarbons to markets so there’s no reason to drill, there’s nothing for anybody to buy. And, same way with water, both — getting rid to produce water and then actually the use of fresh water in drilling operations.

And so, those are some of the challenges the industry is facing, but the negative public perception I would say is number one.

 

 

How do you think the global oil trade will evolve in the future?

The trade is already evolving. With things like block chain, there’s no longer chances for people to get rip off for people to steal from other people during oil and gas transactions. So, the global oil trade will evolve.

The other thing that’s happening here in the US is we’re getting more and more LNG exports and less and less crude oil exports. Now, we still – still to this day export a ton of crude and natural gas and that won’t ever stop. But, it is interesting to see the rise in LNG exports because LNG is the fuel of the future. If you look at what Exxon and Shell has done the last couple of years, they’ve turned themselves into natural gas companies because they realized that natural gas is the fuel of the future.

But, there’s a flipside to that and that is even though we’re building around the world and a lot of here in the US LNG facilities to export natural gas, other parts of the world then need to build the opposite of that which is LNG import facilities so they can take that liquefied natural gas and turn it back into a vapor and put it in their gas system. So, that’s just years and years and years and years of construction projects which will benefit the companies that build those types of things.

 

 

What are your thoughts on collaboration between service providers in the East African oil market?

So, right now they are not collaborating, but if they want to maintain future business, they will have to collaborate. The world’s population is rapidly getting to a point where they understand because of things like internet access how business should be done, right? They’re no longer sequestered off somewhere and they don’t understand how the rest of the world does business.

One of the big things is the oil and gas industry needs to be fully supportive of local communities. So, not just come there and offer jobs, but come to different countries and offer careers, not a job, but career paths. Offer things like help build schools and hospitals and medical care and help build infrastructure. And we do that, but in order to do that effectively in the future, the service companies especially have to quit looking at each other as competitors even though they are and work together.

It’s interesting, you’re starting to see this happen right now in the US in the Permian which is one of the hot fields of land in the world. There’s not enough resources, so the service providers are having to work together because they don’t have any choice and it’s actually a really beautiful thing.

Please share your top predictions for the next five years?

I don’t have a crystal ball. I think downstream is going to be a huge market for everybody. And downstream is basically taking hydrocarbons and turn it to stuff that you can sell like plastics and paints and insulation and foam rubber and you know car tires and windmill blades. That’s going to be huge because the world’s population is moving out of rural agrarian society.

You know think of China, think of India, think a lot of the countries in Africa where right now people are farmers and they have a family that’s their labor force and that’s what they use to feed themselves. In another generation or two they’re all going to be living in cities. So, right now, they don’t need plastic buckets and they don’t need Tupperware and they don’t need, you know, Band Aids, but pretty soon they will need that and all that comes from hydrocarbons. So, that’s one of the big things in the future is we’re going to use less and less oil and gas for fuel, but more of it to make stuff.

The other thing is the oil and gas industry is vital to space travel. No one ever talks about that. The only fuel that has enough energy density to get us out of our gravity well here on earth is hydrocarbons. So, you look at what Elon Musk is doing with Space Xs. His rockets run on kerosene, refined from crude oil. It’s basically kerosene and liquid oxygen, it’s the power combination to get us out. So, all of these stuff that makes space life happens; space suits, oxygen tanks, shelters, space stations, reentry capsules, the tires on the landers, the remote operated vehicles that we send out ahead of the humans, all that is made from hydrocarbons. So, I think the space industry is going to be another big growth area for us in the future.

You can see a lot of stuff geopolitically happen. The US now is for the first time in its history has the ability to out or over supply OPEC. If we wanted to, we could open up all these wells that are sitting here that haven’t been put production here just in the US and produce more oil and gas than OPEC ever could.

Now, we geopolitically are the swing player, that’s a really cool place because one of the things that you can do is you can use hydrocarbons as a weapon and that’s what OPEC historically has done. Now, we’re taking that ability away from them and unfortunately, also, away from the Russians. I really wish the Russian US would start cooperating instead of looking at each other as enemies. I was a marine during the Cold War; I don’t want to go back there. So, hopefully our leaders can fix all of that.

We talked about – we haven’t talked about for the future things like data, the data that the oil and gas industry has created for years all of a sudden has become value – has become more valuable in the future.

 

You know you look at something like Google maps, companies like Exxon and Chevron have that type of degree of global seismic data. So, not just the pictures of the buildings and where the streets are, they know what’s under the ground all over the world, that is super valuable.

So, those are some predictions in the next five years.

What are the imperatives in LNG and other oil and gas projects in Tanzania industrialization?

LNG is a quick way for Tanzania to start producing abundant reliable cheap electricity for its people. That abundant cheap reliable electricity leads to prosperity because now schools have electricity, hospitals have electricity, the people in Tanzania have electricity, so they can learn so they have internet access. So, I think it’s – and LNG is automatically 60% cleaner than running coal to make electricity. So, I think that’s a good use of LNG in Tanzania.

The thing is though, they may not actually need LNG as Tanzania’s developing its oil and gas projects, you’re hitting natural gas, actually a lot of natural gas. Unless you’re going to export it, you don’t need to spend the time or the money to compress it into LNG, you just need to build infrastructure to bring it to all the people.

If you think about it here in the US, I have a natural gas stove sitting in my kitchen right now. When I go turn that natural gas stove to a big infrastructure, so a series of pipes, literally my stove is connected back to the Jurassic or [0:11:13 inaudible] era in our history because that’s where that well is. Think about that. I am literally getting natural gas that was developed while the dinosaurs are on the earth or after or before and it’s being transported through the infrastructure we have here in the US to my stove so I can use it. Tanzania could do the same thing and, actually, you’re headed that way.

So, there we go, I answered Hussein’s questions. I’m going to send this off to be transcribed. I hope people found this valuable.

Now, if you’re in the Tanzania area, check out what Hussein is doing. He is really a mover and shaker out there. And we partnered with him on several things and we’ll continue to partner with him because he’s just doing really good business.