Three Industry Experts Share How Collaboration Between Operators and Service Providers Can  Drive Cost  Effectiveness and Increase Efficiency In Oil and Gas Projects in East  Africa.

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Collaboration among the industry stakeholders can solve the top problems faced by the industry . Fortunately, the oil and gas industry is gradually realizing this.

So I asked  three industry experts the following question.

How collaboration  between  operators (oil and gas producing companies) and service providers can drive cost effectiveness and increase efficiency in undertaken oil and gas projects in Tanzania and East Africa at large?

Sudesh Dewar

“It is of prime importance of having good collaboration between the operators and  service providers.The project gets it’s momentum when operator & suppliers / services provider works in one perfect accord. Sharing of complete project details with it’s demands / requirement to be identified at initial stage.

In this scenario the operator needs to identify the total capacity  and  capabilities of the suppliers or service providers. Over and above should have complete assessment of the additional resources the supplier/service providers can contribute.

Operator needs to share with the  service providers the complete insight / planning of the project so as to prepare early for the projects new needs / amendments as it progresses.

 

A perfect Synchronization between the operator and service providers can overcome any obstacles that may slow down the project. Regular / periodical meetings will be the essence of high speed deliverance of the project. Good collaboration will go a long way working on multiple project without wasting the process time in hiring unknown new vendors. Successful collaboration will bring about greater cost effective achievement.”

Why To Follow? Sudesh Dewar  is the managing director of Demps offshore Services ,  a company helping Exploration and Production and midstream companies with recruitment. The company also  have  international presence in South Africa. They  will be shortly opening our office in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania as well. Over the period of just ten years they are in the position to provide host of offshore personnel for dredging projects, upstream, midstream & downstream.

Mark LaCour

“This is a simple one. So most of this type of work where the service companies are doing work for the operators is done in a lump sum price, the work is bid upon. And the service company has to make sure they make some profits.

So they typically put in additional padding, additional numbers or additional dollars just in case something happens. Like if the job takes an extra day and they didn’t plan for that, they still make money.

Well that drives up the cost for the actual operator. And at the same time, if something bad happens like if it’s supposed to be a three day job and it takes 10, well now the service companies is losing money.

 So then they hurry up, try to get it done, which leads to mistakes that leads to people getting hurt. And it leads to inefficiencies in the operation. So the number one way that this could work is if the operators actually, instead of contractually having the service companies bid on work, if they contractually agree upon a margin. So the operator says “I don’t care how much it takes you to do this work, but you’re only allowed to make a 20% profit margin’. Well, now the service company can do a really good job, and if it takes longer, it doesn’t matter. The service company makes money so it can pay its people and keep his equipment at top efficiency. And at the same time, the operator gets the work done at the best possible price and the highest quality of work, which then increases production time. So that’s probably the number one way that the service companies and operators to work together where it’s beneficial for everybody in east Africa”

Why To Folllow: Mark LaCour is the managing  director of  Modal point. He 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 he knew absolutely nothing about the oil and gas industry.

That was actually valuable to him. He just didn’t know in that moment because when he got handed all the oil and gas accounts in BellSouth territory. He got handled everything; upstream companies, midstream companies, downstream companies and service companies. So, he 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.

And about nine years ago, he decided to start my own company which is Modal Point and we were market research company in oil and gas.

Imran Pishori
 

 ” Collaboration between Oil and Gas (O&G) companies and procurement houses (such as AP Central) can drasticall

increase the efficiency of the O&G company purchasing needs. The O&G company will have a central point of contact that

can help with pricing, expediting, shipping, consolidation, status updates etc. My suggestion is that,  It is essential 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.”

Why To Follow: Imran Pishori  is the C.E.P of AP Central. He was born and raised in Tanzania. In 1996 he left Tanzania to come to the United States to start University.After graduating, he  started his career at  Burns& McDonnell Engineering in 2002 where he  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, he 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.
Final Words
We have awesome oil and gas event held on Friday 23rd August at Best Western CBD hotel, Dar es salaam, Tanzania.
Click here to register so as you will be able to come learn about a new aspect of the oil and gas industry and network with awesome stakeholders related to the oil and gas industry.

Collaborating To Move The Oil, Gas Industry Forward

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Mark LaCour, Director, Modal Point

Mark LaCour, the managing director of the American-based company (ModalPoint), talks to the Oil and Gas East African Network (OGEAN) about the new realities of the world of selling in the oil and gas industry, the impact of collaboration in the industry. He also gives insight on the future East African oil and gas industry. And he shows young generations how to cope with this dynamic industry.

With over 23 years of work experience, Mark LaCour had the good fortune to handle assignments for the upstream companies, and downstream companies. So he knows the intricacy of this regulated industry
About nine years ago he quit the corporate job and started his own company which is Modal point, specializing in helping organizations to sell to the oil and gas sector,

Hussein Boffu asked.

How technology is changing the sales in the oil and gas industry?

Technology’s changing sales in a lot of ways. First thing is, it used to be that people in the oil and gas industry had to talk to salespeople to learn about the salespeople products or services to be educated. Now, you don’t need to do that with the Internet. Companies can go online and learn everything they need to know about you and your competitors, which means a sales person’s role comes in much later in the process. Not Early on like it did 20 years ago or even 10 years ago, but more toward the middle. About 70% of the sales process is usually completed by a company before they reach out and to talk to a salesperson. The other thing is marketing. It used to be that if you had an online presence, it was basically a catalog of what you, your company offered.
.look at what we’re doing with the podcast, what we’re doing with the blogs that we put out there. We’re seen as an expert and we’re not a big company, we’re 13 people, but we’re seeing as big as some of the companies out there and have thousands of employees because we figured out how to use social media properly. This new younger workforce that’s coming in learns differently than the older generation. And a lot of that learning is taking place online. So that’s how technology’s changing. Selling an oil and gas industry.

What is collaboration important in building the oil and gas industry?

Collaboration is our future. Up until just recently, companies that were competitors competed fiercely and that included in the local areas of the world they operate in. That can no longer happen. Now even if your competitors, you have to cooperate.

A, we’re already in the industry, Sharon metrics, and data around health, safety and environment. And we’re also looking at starting to share information around things like production numbers and uh, pipeline flows in refinery outputs, right? Once you have the technology in place that you can strip out the identifiable information, the industry is a whole, um, benefit. Some collaboration. Just imagine if you could take all of the, um, the geophysics or geoscience work from all the oil and gas companies they’ve done all of world and put it together and start crunching those numbers. You would find all types of hydrocarbons that they don’t even know is there because you had this enormous data set to work with wears right now. You know, Exxon works with its data set. Petro Ross works with its data set shall work this data set. So the collaboration is the future of the industry.

And like I said early about this new younger workforce, this new younger workforce loves to collaborate and they’re doing it. So I think the culture of the industry will change to be more collaborative.

How do you see the future of the East African oil and gas sector?

It is going on a rocket ride. Straight up. You look at the onshore discoveries made in Uganda and Kenya.

Look what’s going on in Tanzania and Mozambique and East Africa has an explosion in hydrocarbon and then the governance of East Africa is looking to take advantage of this now.

There’s still problems with corruption and those problems need to be. But it’s actually pretty amazing to watch how quickly these governments are working with the large super majors in joint ventures to tap into these hydrocarbons cause they know that is prosperity for its people.
They know its schools, education, roads, infrastructure, and health care. So there’s an early pilot all skiing. He pops a agree with twin, a lot of east African companies and the supermajors out there and it’s just a way to further the growth. East African is going places and it’s really, really cool because that part of Africa typically has been very poor and this is literally to be prosperity for the populations out there.

If you were speaking to a young generation, what is the important advice you would give them?

Learn, learn, learn, learn, learn. I can’t say that enough. And don’t just learn about your job in oil and gas. Pay attention what’s going on in the medical field, pay attention to what’s going on in retail, pay attention to what’s going on in technology. The future is the ability of our workers to learn new processes, new techniques, new technology. Because the only gas industry is changing.

So if you’re a young person, you’re coming in our industry, learn as much as you can. If you’re an engineer, the one bit of advice to tell you right now is to take some big data analytics classes and actually not just engineers, but if you’re a project manager, accountant, go take some big data analytics, cognitive machine learning, artificial intelligence, big data analytics. It would be a part of everybody’s job. And if you’re one of the young people that are their inner and all the gas industry and you already understand that it’s what you way ahead of all your competition.

What is it that makes you so passionate about the oil and gas industry?

That is an easy one to answer. I think the oil and gas industry is the most important industry in the history of mankind. It is what’s brought us out of an aggregation society and allowed modern civilization. It’s what makes modern life possible, and it’s what’s going to bring us into outer space. The future literally is dependent on hydrocarbons. People in oil and gas, also are some of the best people in the world. I could tell you story after story after story of really wonderful things people in companies have done with each other in the oil and gas industry to save people’s homes or lives are children, are farmland or parks. You know the amount of wildlife restoration that we do all over the world is incredible. We don’t do a good job as an industry of telling that story, but that’s why I’m so passionate. The industry makes modern life possible. It’s the future of mankind and it is just the best people on the planet.

Sub-Saharan Africa Oil/Gas Industry Leaders Meet In Tanzania Conference To Discuss Emerging Opportunities In East Africa.

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Dapo Ayoola, C.E.O Zenith Professional Training

 

In this interview, Oladapo Ayoola, CEO, Sub Saharan Africa Upstream Oil and Gas Summit speaks on the forthcoming conference in Tanzania and need for collaboration between operators on the continent’s Oil, gas sector.

HUSSEIN BOFFU  brings the excerpts.

Can you tell us about the Tanzania conference?

This year’s summit will provide opportunities for practitioners and investors to showcase what we already have, exchange ideas on what we are doing rightly and what we can learn from each other-West Africa learning from east Africa, east Africa copying best practices from West Africa and South Africa.

From April 10, we will discuss the unique investment opportunities in east Africa with a focus on Tanzania.  We are asking PURA (Petroleum Upstream Regulatory Authority) of Tanzania to come and tell us what we need to do for a successful investment.

We have asked the CEO of Petroleum Commission of Ghana to come and talk to us. This is because if investors know what the fiscal policies are and what the procedures are, it would be easier for them.

Nigeria is a success story of so many indigenous entrepreneurs who have gone not just into downstream but Exploration and Production. We have many success stories to take to the rest of Africa such as Eroton, Aiteo, Amni, Seplat among others.

At the summit, we will also discuss funding opportunities. Can we pull together as a continent and fund genuine investment opportunities on our soil?

You’ve talked about the success stories and funding opportunities, how do you hope the conference will tackle some of the challenges in the sector?

Like in any sector, the challenges are there but the way we are approaching the challenges is focusing on opportunities and talking to regulators. If regulators are upfront with investors by telling them what they need to do and then we get a checklist, that’s all an investor wants to know.

The investor wants to know what the challenges are and that’s why on the 10 th, we will be bringing key regulators to come and talk to investors and say, “this is what we’d be asking of you”

The other challenge is funding. On the other hand is technology. In terms of manpower, Nigerians are as brilliant as any other part of the world. What we have not been able to put together is our own funding mechanism. Another issue we have not perfected is technology.

We know that if you have the right personnel, you know the fiscal policies of the country, then you can bring a huge pocket to your advantage, then you buy the technology and then we have the capacity to deliver.

Can you share some of the success stories of the past events?

Despite it being an up and coming platform, we are beginning to see the impact.

Specifically, during the first edition in 2015, Nigeria Petroleum Exchange (NIPEX) was there and they had a stand. We had a gentleman there from Uganda. Today, NIPEX is consulting for Uganda regulators, supporting them on how to start a Petroleum Exchange which will be the first in East Africa. That is a nation to nation benefit.

There are also individuals who are consultants who have met and relationships formed for mutual commercial benefits.

Last year, we broke new grounds. We brought about 25 oil and gas host community members who came to the platform to say what they would like to see and how best they can make the relationship between them and oil  companies a beneficial one.

We also introduced Women in Petroleum forum. The leadership in the petroleum sector is male dominated. I have a brilliant young daughter in the university who I’d like to be given a fair level playing ground. One point we made last year was to explain that even if that young girl is studying finance, there is a place for her in oil and gas.

A popular misconception is that one need to study engineering to work in Oil and Gas but there is someone who runs the Administration, Community engagement, finance and IT. It is a basket where everything must be present for the smooth running of the organization.  We are saying the girl child has a place in the oil and gas.

So, we are calling on women who have achieved success in the oil and gas industry to mentor young ladies right from the university. We are widening the platform as part of our own contribution.

You’ve introduced Renewables as one of the focal point of this conference. What do you hope to achieve with this?

In Africa, we cannot do without the issue of renewable because we have huge potential that we are not harnessing. We have the Solar, Wind.

When we were younger, we all knew electricity comes from Kainji Dam which is hydro.  And now we know that our sun is now being tapped into for solar energy. Technology is going towards that sector. We are aiming to service the same market. So, both sectors must meet at some point.

It is an item that will feature on the 2019 agenda at the conference.

Any final word?

I would like to invite everybody who is a key player in the sector to join us in Dar es salam , Tanzania on April 9-11, whether you are a geoscientist focused  in exploration or an  you are in HSE, Engineere, Community Engagement Officer , an investor.

It is the place to be.

This is where we prepare for the future of the continent where somebody who sits in Kampala, Uganda should be able to look through his table, bring out the card of an African specialist that he has met somewhere and then collaborate.

There is no reason why Tanzania should be going in search of consultants in Europe when Nigeria has 60 years experience. You can imagine the number of people who have retired with the wealth of experience.

So, why are we not sharing best practice? Why importing from somewhere where they don’t understand our peculiar community challenges? This is the platform for the future. It is a platform created by Africans for Africans for us to meet on our soil to exchange ideas and best practices to further harness the huge potential of the Oil and gas reserves on the continent.