How to achieve full optimisation of marginal oil fields, by Okotie

Mr Dickson Okotie is the Chief Executive Officer of  Eunisell Solutions, an indigenous oil and gas service company. In this interview with Roseline Okere, he spoke on the challenges facing full optimization of marginal oil fields in the country and the solutions. Excerpts.

WHAT type of services is Eunisell rendering to the oil and gas sector?

Eunisell Solution was actually established to render technical and financial solutions in the oil industry especially in the area of accelerating production in marginal fields. We realised that with the years of experience Nigeria has in the oil business, we have not seen an outstanding Nigerian company that transcend beyond border in terms of quality, service and safety. We have seen different companies coming into the country because they have been able to transcend beyond borders. We also took a looked at the fact that we have this natural resource but what value are we as Nigerians able to get from it? What value could we bring that will give us competitive advantages. 

   This is why decided it was high time we began to show our competence as Nigerians in handling these challenges for marginal oil field operators, which is what we have done over the years. We are happy that the industry is fast growing and the technologies in place are just basic technologies.  So it all depends on how each company is able to apply these technologies appropriately going by their philosophy. 

   For us, we took the niche to work a lot more on the production of optimisation (maximisation) “ side of the oil and gas by doing surface testing, well flow bar, early management, we do sand management, production facilities. We maximise the BST, BTT.

What are the projects that you have worked on so far in the country and what were the challenges you encountered while executing those projects?

When we started the surface well testing services, we were contracted to test a well. On getting to the site, we were informed by the client that they expected us to test 2 wells simultaneously at the same time. Initially, we had estimated that it is going to be an easy job to test one well, but it was quite challenging when the terms changed. The challenge was that the number of personnel required for the job would need to be increased, the expenses would increase, the way we also coordinate becomes different and the time given to work on these projects was very short. 

   People would think that probably as a Nigerian company, you only have one set of equipment, but that wasn’t the case for us. Although at that time we are only using those equipment for the first time for such a huge project, in the end the client told us then that we were not great and that will have to get an international company to handle their next well. True to their words, they actually called an international company for their next well, but suddenly they came back and contacted us again, asking if we could mobilise our men at a short notice to handle the job; they confessed that the so-called international company did not have the competence to deliver as much as we did in the previous job.

That was how we continued working for them and today, we can say that we have one of the best experience working in the field.

What has been your experience working with marginal fields operators over the years?

Technically speaking, if you don’t gave what it takes, you may not be able to stay in the business. First, people would want to know if you can look after their huge investment and handle the work properly and perfectly.  

  What has helped us excel with marginal field is the fact that the operators basically feel safe that we are able to take certain amount of risk with them. When I look back and assess what we have done so far, I feel fulfilled. When I look back I have this level of contentment that what I thought to be impossible has actually been made possible. We now have a global outlook. Looking at what we have on ground and with the infrastructure in place, we see that the future is there to conquer.

  One thing I can assure is that our clients are fully pleased with us. In the last couple of years, we have established a name built on competence and reliability in the industry and marginal field operators who have tried us can attest to this.

Would you say the local content policy contributed to your success as an indigenous operator?

Most times when I am asked this question, it is quite challenging to answer whether local content has enhanced what we do today through the marginal field operations. Well, I can say that If the marginal field operators were not around, it would have been a difficult because of the bottleneck and the process that you have to go through.

Tell us about some of the other projects you have executed?

The Uturugu gas field is one worthy to mention. Some years ago, the project was brought to us but there was a lot of apprehension in the field reason being that some years back that field had some issues with international capitalist, so, some of the people knew the history of that place so they will call me on the phone and ask series of questions. The project was not awarded to us for the purpose of clarity, it was awarded Halliburton, an international company but they handed it over to us, because they were already aware of our competence, even though we compete.

   Since the reason we were founded was to render solutions, we immediately bought the different equipments required to handle the job, check the expectations of the field as well as assemble the right people for the job.