Powering Africa Forward: How Oghenekevwe Ovbije is Engineering a Resilient Energy Future

In this Conversation with Sunday Ehigiator, the Director of Energy Business at Energia Core, Oghenekevwe Ovbije, shares insights on upstream production gaps, the promise of geothermal networks, the overlooked potential of artificial lift, and the tools that can drive Africa toward energy resilience and economic transformation. Enjoy excerpt.

Ovbije is a distinguished energy systems engineer and infrastructure specialist, recognized for her leadership in advancing oil and gas production, geothermal innovation, and hybrid energy development across global markets. Her work integrates deep technical expertise with strategic energy solutions tailored to the evolving needs of emerging and industrial economies.

She holds an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and completed Infrastructure and Construction Finance as well as Product Line Architecture at Harvard. She also holds an MSc in Oil & Gas Engineering from the University of Aberdeen and a B.Eng. in Chemical Engineering from Igbinedion University Okada.

Her professional certifications include a Sustainability Certificate and a Digital Product Management Certificate from MIT, the Certified GeoExchange Designer Course from IGSHPA, and an Artificial Lift Academy and Application Certificate from Baker Hughes.

Oghenekevwe began her career in oilfield engineering, designing, and optimizing artificial lift systems across complex onshore and offshore environments in Africa, Asia. the Middle East, and North America.

At Baker Hughes, she led product line operations and capital projects, managing cross-functional teams and implementing lifecycle strategies for high-value field assets. She later served as a Principal Consultant at Wood Mackenzie, where she advised clients on infrastructure resilience, supply chain transformation, and post-M&A operational integration.

She currently serves as Director of Energy Business at Energia Core, where she oversees technical and commercial execution across oil and gas, geothermal, solar, and hybrid infrastructure projects. She brings a systems-level approach to designing resilient, low-carbon energy solutions that support industrial development and long-term sustainability.

Her international execution record and multidisciplinary insight position her as a key voice in shaping the future of energy across both emerging and developed markets.

Across Africa’s upstream sector, what do you see as the most persistent technical challenges limiting production efficiency and asset reliability?

The upstream sector can be constrained by a combination of legacy infrastructure, operational fragmentation, and human capital limitations. Many oilfields and processing systems operate well beyond their designed service life, with corrosion, flow assurance, and pipeline integrity becoming recurring issues.

Equipment breakdowns are not just technical failures they often reflect the lack of proactive maintenance regimes and asset integrity programs that are common in other regions. Equally significant is the shortage of skilled technical personnel. The exodus of experienced engineers, combined with limited exposure to advanced technologies like enterprise asset management (EAM), IoT-based surveillance, and predictive analytics, leaves many operators ill-equipped to adapt.

This is compounded by harsh operating environments onshore in remote terrain or offshore in high-salinity, high-temperature, high-pressure zones which accelerate wear and make logistics costly and complex. Moreover, infrastructure gaps, especially in power reliability, transportation access, and storage create dependencies on diesel generators, manual reporting, and outdated SCADA systems. Without modern field automation and digital visibility, decision-making remains reactive, and operational excellence remains elusive.

Many oil and gas wells on the continent operate far below their technical potential. What production strategies or technologies do you believe hold the most promise for reversing this trend?

Improving oil and gas production performance in Africa requires a balanced approach that prioritizes subsurface understanding, smarter completions, and practical optimization strategies.

A key starting point is enhanced reservoir characterization, integrating geological and engineering data to improve well placement, design, and intervention planning. With more accurate models, operators can target stimulation, refracturing, or EOR techniques more effectively. Artificial lift, when deployed strategically, is also impactful.

In some regions, Electrical Submersible Pumps (ESP) are installed during initial completions not for immediate use, but to eliminate the need for costly workovers when reservoir pressure declines. This anticipatory approach helps maintain output without downtime and loss of production.

On the surface, modular development using fit-for-purpose separation, power, and storage systems can unlock production in marginal assets.

Meanwhile, low-cost digital tools such as portable test units, flow sensors, and condition-based maintenance platforms offer real-time insights that help reduce inefficiencies and avoid equipment failure.

Where budget allows, applying selective enhanced oil recovery methods like low-salinity water injection, polymer injection or carbon dioxide injection can further improve recovery rates, particularly in mature fields. Ultimately, many wells need consistent monitoring, fit-for-purpose engineering, and smarter execution strategies tailored to local field realities.

Drawing from your experience across 200+ well installations in diverse basins, what operational patterns or lessons do you believe African producers consistently overlook?

In my experience across more than 200 artificial lift installations spanning Nigeria, Qatar, Congo, Cameroon, and India, one key lesson is the importance of holistic system design. A common oversight among producers is treating the artificial lift system as a set of isolated components selecting a pump, motor, or controller without fully accounting for how the lift method interacts with the wellbore geometry, reservoir behavior, accessories in the production string and surface constraints.

This lack of integration can lead to suboptimal performance, higher energy consumption, and premature equipment failure. Another critical gap is post-installation optimization. Artificial lift systems are not “commission-and-forget” solutions they require ongoing adjustments as drawdown, GOR, water cut, and sand loading evolve over time.

In many cases, once the system is installed, there’s limited surveillance or data-driven tuning. This reduces efficiency and shortens the run-life of ESP equipment. Proactive monitoring, even with basic tools like runtime logs and amp draw trending, can flag early issues before they escalate. Operators also tend to focus heavily on initial capital cost rather than lifecycle value.

This short-term approach often results in underinvestment in automation, remote diagnostics, or more durable equipment suited to corrosive or sandy conditions. There’s also hesitancy to adopt newer lift technologies that may be better aligned with specific field characteristics.

Finally, frequent power failures, especially from unstable generator systems, remain a major operational risk. Lift systems designed without accounting for power quality, voltage drops, surges, or intermittent outages are more prone to tripping, overheating, or control faults. Designing for local realities and building local capacity for system optimization are key to long-term success.

How can African producers extend the productive life of aging upstream assets while balancing operational risk and long-term cost?

Extending the productive life of aging upstream assets in Africa requires a coordinated strategy that goes beyond maintenance, it must blend engineering resilience, production innovation, risk mitigation, and financial discipline. A foundational step is implementing structured asset integrity and risk management programs.

This includes comprehensive condition assessments, corrosion control, and predictive inspection tools such as drones and non-destructive testing. Embedding a strong safety culture through workforce training and contingency planning is also critical, especially in offshore or high-risk locations.

On the production side, opportunities exist through field redevelopment and near-field optimization. Reconfiguring existing wells, sidetracking, or exploiting small satellite pools through subsea tiebacks can extend output without major capital outlay.

Where applicable, artificial lift systems, pressure maintenance, and enhanced oil recovery (EOR) remain vital tools for offsetting decline curves. Yet the real multiplier lies in technology adoption. Digital twins, remote monitoring, and AI-enabled predictive analytics allow operators to foresee failures, optimize lift systems, and manage performance in real time even in low-access or power-constrained areas.

These tools reduce both OPEX and unplanned downtime. Equally important is rethinking business models. Partnerships with technology firms and regional independents, as well as smart acquisitions of mature assets from exiting majors, can unlock scale and flexibility.

Budgeting should also account for deferred decommissioning costs and include realistic investment horizons to justify life extension strategies. Finally, overlooked heavy and unconventional oil dismissed in the past may now offer economic upside if producers apply tailored completions and thermal recovery approaches, as seen in Canada and Venezuela. Sustainability and resilience are no longer optional, they are part of ensuring long-term asset value in a competitive, transitioning energy market.

What specific advancements in artificial lift or subsurface monitoring could serve as significant changes for Africa’s maturing fields?

Africa’s maturing oilfields are entering a phase where production optimization must be rooted in intelligence, not just equipment upgrades. Declining pressures, increasing water cut, and complex flow dynamics require artificial lift and monitoring technologies that can adapt in real time and perform reliably in harsh environments.

One of the most promising developments is the evolution of next-generation Electrical Submersible Pumps (ESPs) and Progressive Cavity Pumps (PCPs). ESPs now feature advanced metallurgy, gas-handling capabilities, and variable speed drives, enabling them to perform in corrosive, abrasive, or high-GOR environments common in many African basins.

PCPs, particularly effective in viscous heavy oil reservoirs, offer a steady alternative where reservoir flow is challenging and thermal stimulation is limited. Gas lift optimization is another area of opportunity. When integrated with real-time surveillance, operators can adjust gas injection rates dynamically based on well performance trends, increasing efficiency, reducing gas usage, and stabilizing output without requiring invasive interventions.

This kind of adaptive, data-informed gas lift control is a strong fit for aging, unstable wells. On the monitoring side, real-time downhole systems using acoustic telemetry, and distributed temperature and pressure sensing (DTS/DPS) allow operators to pinpoint inflow changes, detect failure signatures, and respond before performance loss escalates.

Coupled with digital twins, these tools transform reservoir management from periodic to continuous. I am currently leading work on an intelligent field optimization model that merges real-time data, predictive analytics, and digital twin simulation for both artificial lift operations and geothermal systems.

The goal is to enable continuous decision support across the asset lifecycle, something that could shift how Africa’s mature fields are managed. For these innovations to gain traction, operators will also need to invest in digital infrastructure, technical capacity, and governance frameworks to enable sustained impact.

Materials degradation, particularly in deepwater environments, remains a critical concern. How should engineers approach long-term integrity in high-stress offshore systems?

In deepwater environments, degradation is not just a technical nuisance, it is a constant, high-risk factor that can compromise safety, increase OPEX, and shorten the lifespan of major offshore assets.

Engineers have to start by shifting from a reactive mindset to a life-cycle integrity strategy that begins at the design stage and extends through operations and eventually decommissioning.

My perspective on this issue has been shaped by research I led on the plastic and elastic deformation of steel under cyclic stress, including testing conducted in Aberdeen, a global hub for offshore materials research.

That experience deepened my understanding of how structural fatigue evolves over time. It reinforced the importance of selecting materials not just for initial strength, but for how they behave under long-term mechanical and environmental stressors.

That is why material selection is so critical. Corrosion-resistant alloys like duplex stainless steels or nickel-based materials are often well-suited for offshore use, but compatibility between metals must also be carefully managed to avoid galvanic degradation.

In some applications, composite materials or 3D-printed alloys offer improved resilience with lower environmental impact. Corrosion prevention should be multi-layered, incorporating high-performance coatings, cathodic protection systems, and sound fabrication design.

But these barriers only remain effective if paired with real-time condition monitoring and data-driven inspection strategies. We now have access to autonomous drones, ROVs, and IoT-based sensors that can feed into AI platforms to identify degradation trends and optimize inspection frequency.

From a maintenance standpoint, it is about consistency, routine checks, protective system upkeep, and proactive repairs. When degradation occurs, in-situ remediation strategies like composite patching or welding need to be executed without major operational disruption.

Ultimately, offshore integrity is not a materials problem alone, it is a systems challenge. Long-term resilience depends on tight coordination between materials science, predictive analytics, operational discipline, and compliance with international standards. That is how we build infrastructure that not only performs but endures.

What are the most important priorities for modernizing Africa’s energy infrastructure, and how can engineers help ensure these systems are resilient, diversified, and future-ready?

Modernizing Africa’s energy infrastructure requires moving beyond short-term fixes and embracing a systems-level approach, one that connects power, heat, fuel transport, and industrial resilience. While electrification rightly remains a central goal, we must also expand our focus to include thermal systems, geothermal potential, and the infrastructure that ties these sectors together.

My own work in geothermal energy, particularly in the design of intelligent thermal field networks, has demonstrated how underutilized heat sources can be harnessed to support industrial zones, stabilize mini-grids, and displace diesel use in off-grid regions.

Unlike intermittent renewables, geothermal offers reliable, baseload potential that aligns well with the demands of emerging economies. When integrated with battery systems or solar PV, these geothermal-driven platforms can deliver both energy access and operational stability in a single package.

But infrastructure gaps extend far beyond generation. Aging oil and gas pipelines, unmonitored well pads, and outdated thermal plants continue to limit reliability and inflate costs.

Engineers have a responsibility not only to optimize these assets technically but to integrate them into a broader infrastructure vision, one that includes data-driven planning, predictive maintenance, and cross-sector energy modeling.

In my experience working on artificial lift systems and field optimization, I have seen how lifecycle thinking can turn marginal fields into productive contributors, this mindset must now extend to infrastructure at large. We also need to rethink where and how we build.

Grid extension cannot be the only strategy. Engineers must lead the rollout of modular, hybrid systems integrating solar, geothermal, and storage designed to meet the real-world constraints of Africa’s geography, logistics, and capital environments.

In the end, Africa doesn’t need to replicate the legacy systems of other regions. It can leapfrog them. That means engineers must be involved not just in construction, but in policy shaping, technology integration, and regional planning. When we design infrastructure that reflects local energy realities while anticipating future pressures, we do more than modernize, we create resilience.

Based on your global experience, which technical or policy frameworks from other markets could usefully inform energy operations across Africa?

Having worked across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and North America, I have seen how frameworks both technical and regulatory can either accelerate or constrain energy progress.

While each region has its context, Africa stands to benefit from adapting several proven models. In North America, asset lifecycle management is treated with rigor, Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) systems are used not just for tracking equipment but for integrating maintenance, production planning, and performance analytics.

This proactive culture rooted in data-driven planning and accountability could significantly improve the reliability and longevity of Africa’s aging infrastructure.

In India, I served as one of the project managers on a major field development initiative valued at over $250 million. The project combined the construction of hundreds of new wells with a chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) program. What stood out was the integrated delivery model multiple service providers, engineers, and technical experts operating under a single umbrella to execute a complex, multi-phase initiative.

That level of structured collaboration offers a compelling model for African markets, where smaller players could pool capabilities through special purpose vehicles (SPVs) to deliver capital-intensive energy projects more efficiently. In the Middle East, strategic investment vehicles have been used to channel oil and gas revenue into long-term infrastructure and energy diversification.

That kind of sovereign-backed planning where energy projects are aligned with national development can help African nations build resilience beyond commodity cycles.

Finally, across the EU and U.S., stable, transparent regulatory frameworks are the bedrock of successful transitions. Africa can foster more investment by offering predictable terms, honoring long-term contracts, and incentivizing innovation through clear policy signals.

How should the energy industry reposition itself to be future-ready, especially in emerging markets like Africa?

Building future-ready energy systems demands a fusion of technical innovation, capital strategy, and long-range policy thinking. I have managed large-scale capital projects and contributed to M&A analysis, gaining firsthand insight into how infrastructure realignment, diversification, and capital optimization are shaping the next phase of energy leadership.

In the U.S., for example, the wave of midstream mergers is less about size and more about strategic flexibility. Infrastructure is being reconfigured to support LNG exports, energy-intensive data centers, and decarbonization zones. We are also seeing collaborations between traditional energy firms and tech giants to deliver dependable, low-carbon power to digital infrastructure.

This convergence marks a new era, one where hydrocarbons, renewables, and digital technologies coexist. Africa must approach its energy build-out with the same level of strategic intent.

PRather than constructing assets in silos, emerging markets should focus on vertical integration linking upstream production with grid infrastructure, industrial parks, and end-use sectors. Public-private partnerships and blended finance will be essential not only for funding but for driving innovation and risk-sharing.

Diversification is also essential, that includes not only renewables and natural gas, but also geothermal, waste-to-energy, and hydrogen pilots that reflect each country’s resource base.

As systems become more digital, investing in cybersecurity, data governance, and local technical capacity will be critical. From a policy standpoint, predictability matters.

Transparent regulatory frameworks, time-bound approvals, and investor-friendly tariff regimes are the bedrock of long-term capital formation. Equally important is ensuring energy systems are designed with resilience in mind both to withstand climate shocks and to serve as platforms for economic transformation.

The most competitive energy markets of the future will be those that connect upstream production, midstream infrastructure, and end-use demand in a way that is low-carbon and investable. That is the challenge and the opportunity for emerging economies today.

If you were advising regional energy ministers or NOC leaders, what three urgent priorities would you recommend for strengthening Africa’s upstream future?

First, invest in local capacity that matches ambition. Local content laws are important, but they often remain surface-level because the technical depth simply is not there.

The core problem is not policy, it is capability. You cannot drive upstream growth if local teams cannot run diagnostics, optimize wells, or maintain complex facilities without external support. Strategic investment in training, mentorship, and applied project exposure not just classroom theory must become non-negotiable. And it must extend beyond engineers to include regulators, policy analysts, and operations managers.

Second, bring clarity to the investment environment. Africa has more hydrocarbon potential than many realize but unclear fiscal terms, opaque data, and shifting policies create uncertainty that repels capital.

I have seen how this plays out in bid rounds, partnerships, and even mergers, investors retreat when they cannot model risk. The solution is not necessarily new legislation. It is predictability: clear licensing rules, time-bound approvals, enforceable contracts, and transparent data access. These build trust in the system, and trust attracts capital.

Third, link upstream planning with industrial policy. Too many fields are developed with little thought to value chain integration, no processing hubs, no infrastructure corridors, no manufacturing strategy, this is a missed opportunity.

Strategic alignment between energy ministries, industrial commissions, and investment offices could transform upstream development into an engine for domestic job creation and regional competitiveness. Countries that tie oil and gas to long-term infrastructure, mineral processing, and energy transition industries will capture far more value economically and politically.

These three priorities, people, policy, and platform are what will define Africa’s upstream future. The next phase must focus less on discussion and more on implementation by building systems designed to deliver lasting impact.