Insights into Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry

Like a three-course meal, the retired Managing Director of National Engineering and Technical Company Limited, Engineer Johnson Awoyomi prepares a sumptuous literary feast with the launch of his three new books on the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry. He shares the thoughts behind his writings in a crisply chat with Yinka Olatunbosun

The queue for pictures with the author, Engineer Johnson Awoyomi at the launch of his three books in Lagos was as organised as those you’d find at passport control sections at international airports. Inside the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, a sizeable number of colleagues and friends of Awoyomi gathered to celebrate the author’s 60th birthday as well as his years of reforming one of the subsidiaries of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Prior to this position, he had served as the Group General Manager (GGM) of the Engineering and Technology Division (ETD) of the Nigerian National and Petroleum Corporation amongst other high-profile roles.

With the titles “The Cost of Fuel Scarcity,’’ “Cost Engineering and Cost Control of Medium to Major Capital Projects” and “Maximising Government Net Revenue in the Oil and Gas Industry- Cost Engineering Perspectives,’’ the author dissects the issues of national consequence from an expert point of reasoning.

Collectively, the books are intellectual guides for project managers, cost engineers, project owners, contractors as well as students. When put to task on what cost engineering means to a lay man, he was meticulous in his explanation.

“Everybody does cost engineering every day-from housewife to farmer to manager or even as a housewife. If you are a student and you want to go to the market, you get to the market to buy food stuff and find out that the price of fish has gone up, you will change your mind from buying fish to ‘ponmo’ (that is cow skin).

“You plan to buy N300 food and instead you buy N200 food. It is that act of making changes, deciding on what to do based on the budget availability. It is as simple as that. But it is more complex when it comes to capital projects. But it is only cost that everyone needs to know about. When you are cost aware, cost optimized, you add value.

“You minimize cost and maximize value. That’s the only way. If we can get that right in this country, things will go on track, on schedule and within budget. There won’t be an issue of cost over run,’’ he revealed.

Awoyomi’s response to the decline in reading culture is to write more books and distribute them to schools where they can reach students.

“When you launch books and people come to know what is in the books, they learn about its values and they start to read it. But it is a bad culture not to read books and we need to inculcate this into our children,’’ he responded.

Although he was tight-lipped when asked about his plans for his retirement, he couldn’t help the little smile that emitted a whiff of looming vacation.

“I have great plans. I would like to cool off first and have some rest,’’ he responded.

His book ‘The Cost of Fuel Scarcity in Nigeria’ provides a comprehensive answer to the cost of fuel scarcity for a country like Nigeria using the principles of Total Cost management while the second one on ‘Cost Engineering’ contains techniques and tools on cost control of large and medium-sized projects. The third book on ‘Maximising Government Net Revenue in the Oil and Gas Industry’ provides an insider’s perspective on how to deploy best practices in total cost management.