BY CHRISTY ANYANWU
Tell us a bit about yourself.
I was born in Ibadan in Oyo State in the south-western Part of Nigeria. I had my early school years in the same city where I attended St Louis Girl’s grammar school after which I proceeded to Ladoke Akintola University of technology, Ogbomoshoto study Chemical Engineering graduating with a Bachelor of Technology in Chemical Engineering in 2001.
What informed your decision to study engineering and the field you choose?
In secondary school, I was an excellent science student, and was passionate about mathematics and physics.I spent a lot of my time solving math questions and assisting classmates – an early indication of my ongoing passion for training and mentoring other engineers. With engineering, I saw that I would be able to take my love of physics and mathematics and apply them, through real-world applications of technology and technique –taking my abstract passions and manifesting them in the real world. From then on, I had an insatiable interest in engineering.
During my final year in my secondary school, I was already seeking opportunities to broaden by Engineering knowledge, so when the school organized a leadership seminar in which a Directional Driller from one of the Leading Oilfield Servicing Company,Schlumbergers poke as an expert in the field, I was keenly interested. I was already, of course, quite familiar with this company. As an international oilfield service company working in more than 120 countries, the company is well-known for its reservoir characterization, drilling, production and processing activities. In Nigeria – the largest producer of oil and gas on the continent – Schlumberger is a major employer and innovator in the field. I had the company in mind as a possible employer even before seeing this speaker.
The engineer spoke passionately about his job and his experience in Schlumberger and had a great deal to say about the technologies involved in directional drilling – which was then in its infancy. His presentation immediately put the company at the top of my list. I knew, however, that in order to work with such a reputable and innovative company, I needed to study and excel in engineering.
Paint a picture of your career and what has been the experience so far?
My career with Schlumberger started at the company’s Africa hub in Port Harcourt in 2007. Following a highly competitive hiring process, I started as a Completions Field Engineer Trainee. The position involved every aspect of planning, preparation, and execution of complex well completion operations –everything from sand control to casing to landing the completions string– across a wide variety of conditions and onshore(land, swamps) and offshore(Drill ships, Jack-ups) rigs.
I took the initiative to the most hands-on experience possible – stripping down complex, high-tech completions equipment;analyzing it for problems, and identifying areas where it could be improved to fit the environment and circumstances in which it was to be employed – often in difficult and dangerous offshore drilling environments. I also performed technical inspections of all equipment received from manufacturing plants to ensure that it met required specifications and technical requirements,recording and mitigating nonconformances. Once the equipment was tested, analyzed, and assembled, I also built the entire completion sub assembly – putting all of the equipment together for field use – and conducted workshop testing to ensure it would perform under extreme, high-pressure, high temperature (HPHT) conditions.
This specialized technical workflow expanded both my knowledge and my experience in tool functionality and integration into the entire completions system at the ground-level. Most Engineers/Managers in the industry lack this “on the ground” experience, so having used this high-tech and critical equipment at the completion site gave me knowledge and experience comparatively few can match, at Schlumberger or at any other oilfield or oil and gas company.
In 2008, I “broke out”, taking on a project (a “breakout job” in Schlumberger lingo)then taking ownership of it from Job Preparation through Job Closure. During the execution phase at the well site, I served as main focal point between Schlumberger and the major oil and gas Productioncompanyleading the completion operations and monitoring the process to make sure my directions were carried out efficiently, safely, and effectively. I t was a great test of my engineering skills and of my resolve, running the project as a woman in an industry which was – and still is– so male-dominated. There I was, a “young lady”, leading the entire crew for the operation. What made the unique nature of my position so vivid was reaction to my voice on the public address system communicating with rig engineers. Hearing a feminine voice in a male-dominated environment was a rare thing, and it felt great to “break barriers” in such a high-profile fashion. The company man from the client organisation and the entire rig crew were very supportive and performed admirably, and the operation was completed seamlessly.
The Client Drilling Superintendent issued a commendation letter noting my professionalism, the team’s competency, and my commitment to safety. With that success I was promoted to supervising field operations,first as a Field Engineer in 2008, a Senior Field Engineer in 2009 and then, in August of 2010, as a General Field Engineer.
General Field Engineer (GFE)designation was another career milestone. Within Schlumberger, GFE designation is equivalent to an advanced engineering degree. Engineers seeking this elite designation must create, develop, and execute projects that impact the field population and the company as a whole – and ideally have significance beyond that.
I recognized I could make that kind of impact addressing an urgent need – both within Schlumberger and the industry generally – related to technical support for completions.When faced with urgent technical issues, field personnel spent a lot of time searching through the company’s completions database, going back more than 20 years, within the company’s vast “In Touch” system, containing over 100,000 entries related to completions alone. Expert“In Touch Engineers” can be contacted who – theoretically – have the personal knowledge and the ability to quickly access information when field personnel approach them with an issue.
Unfortunately, the process was burdensome and time-consuming. Thesupport systems were based on “tickets” – requests for solutions regarding an immediate problem in the field. This made quickly finding relevant content problematic – when the knowledge DataEngineers were contacted for support, their answers often conflicted with those in the database, due to changes in technology or technique since the last solution had been posted. The company attempted to correct for that through technical alerts and new tickets, but those updates were not cross-referenced, so there was no easy way for a field operator to know the latest information at the time of use. All that time searching for the correct solutions added to the “non-productive time” (NPT) on a given project – which already can be nearly half of budgeted costs – and there was a high chance information would be outdated or obsolete.
2009 and 2010 saw increased demand for completion services and a corresponding increase in the need for quick and accurate expert support. I realized that the key to meeting that demand was not necessarily tied to the database itself. By reducing the learning curve and providing more effective and comprehensive field training to the engineers and operators working on site, they would already be equipped with the answers to common technical questions, relying far less on Schlumberger’s knowledge database system.
I created an original scientific and business contribution, “Fundamentals of Well Completions”. This groundbreaking training scheme has greatly impacted the company’s learning program, and has proved to be of major significance within the larger field. It is not only a training tool, but a critical on-site reference for expert engineers and operators, as well as the teams from major international oil and gas companies with which the company partners worldwide. With quick accessibility to the information, engineers and operators can concentrate on planning and execution of completions, not time-consuming searches.
My GFE project was so successful that, in 2011, I went to Company’s Middle East Learning center in the UAE as a Completions Instructor. There, I implemented my Fundamentals program throughout the region. I designed and delivered training & development programs to dozens of Field Engineers and other specialists – elite, learned experts in the field with engineering qualifications and engineering education equivalent to at least a master’s degree coming from as many as 140 different countries – in a wide variety of complex high-tech completions techniques and equipment. I set passing criteria for students, then judged their competency and graded accordingly. I also implemented continuous improvement initiatives throughout the center which streamlined the training process and increased the skill and knowledge of student engineers. I served as the critical link between engineering facilities, the field, and the training center,maintaining contact with engineers in the field, assessing the latest techniques and technologies being used, learning how they worked relative to earlier practices, and integrating the new practices into training across the center’s classes.I trained over 190 students between 2011 & 2014 who went on to lead successful drilling and completion projects all over the world in support of the world’s largest international oil and gas companies
In 2014, my career took me to a Southern African nation, Angola where I served as Completion Field Services Manager for most all of the company’s Sub-Saharan Operations.I directly led an expert team of more than 30 engineers, specialists, and operators handling on-the-ground operations for Schlumberger’s partnerships across the region, including with super major international oil and gas giants both British and American Company as as well as for distinguished regional and indigenous companies across the region.
For example, in 2016,a Multinational company planned its first Cased Hole Gravel Pack (CHGP)sand control system in the region for a deep-water drilling campaign off the Angola coast. Introducing technology for the first time in a region involves unknown variables, and companies involved in the project tend to have serious trepidation about moving forward, even in traditional drilling. This case involved a drilling and completions scenario which can be described as anything but traditional. The well drilled to reach this gas flooded reservoir featured an unusual trajectory, an “s” shape including a 67-degree tangent at least 1000 meters long. Getting piping and equipment through the well in order to even case it would be incredibly complicated, to say nothing of the required sand-control, which looked well-nigh impossible.
I took control of the project for Schlumberger from its conceptual design through its ultimate successful completion. Constantly engaging with the client and other stakeholder partners throughout the process –I identified and mitigated risks, addressed stakeholder concerns, and prepared contingency plans. I designed the completion program on paper and presented the client and all other contractors and stakeholders with a detailed overview, ensuring all of them were informed and on-board with the design and implementation of the CHGP – the most critical component of the planned deployment.
My risk analysis not only identified primary risks to the project but took the constantly changing plans for the well into account, providing mitigation and prevention plans to reduce risk. This required constant review of project parameters, constant monitoring of site conditions, and constant communication with the client and the Engineering Team.
The completion of the well was planned to take 37.54 days. My leadership, planning, and groundbreaking risk analysis resulted in completion 1.14 days early, saving $700,000 in rig time alone, with increased injectivity and no recordable injuries. The client organization recognized my remarkable achievement with a commendation, crediting the success to my planning and leadership.
In 2017, I went to Ghana, as Schlumberger’s Project Manager for the Intergrated Oil and GasField Development Project providing Technical Support to one of the Major Italian Company
This project was in very deep water, involved extreme pressures, and saw temperatures more than 150°C. It also contained potentially deadly CO2 & H2S (Hydrogen Sulfide) gases. I created complex completion designs and tool configurations for these wells tailored to suit the harsh environment and simultaneously reduce costs. My design ensured the equipment would withstand the environment throughout the life of the well – two decades or more – and I reviewed the design with expert engineering teams from both the client and Schlumberger, showing both companies we would reach the objective safely and efficiently.
Key to my critical role in this project was sand production control during the production phase. Based on my expert on-site analysis I recommended the then-new FracPAC solution, resulting in a successful completion, minimum reservoir damage in the well bore and the surrounding area, and better inter-connectivity and injectivity. This method saved the client millions of dollars avoiding equipment damage via sand production.
Based on that success, I became main focal point for the client in all other sub-segments involved in the project (coil tubing, wire line, and testing segments).
From an engineering point of view, what are the major challenges of deep offshore oil and gas exploration?
Deepwater Exploration Environment is challenging in comparison to shallow water or land completion. These include such issues as extreme water depth, extreme high temperature and pressure, remoteness, and personal safety,among others. These challenges forced the oil industry to develop technologies and techniques in order to adapt.
One of the major changes in this environment is in equipment selection. It is crucial to select the right metallurgy for well conditions and reservoir fluid, taking well depth High Pressure and Temperature, and presence of CO2 or H2S into account.
Secondary, the design must also address the unique aspects of subsea completions. Multilateral and highly deviated wells and “smart” wells offer great prospects. In the design and installation phase of the completion and subsequent life of the well, the presence of certain design parameters and ease of installation must be considered, as well as how future stimulation, intervention or work over can be accomplished and/or accommodated.
As much as it is important to closely monitor well operation and drilling parameters to keep the risks involved under control, there is need for continuous development of new technology to overcome the Deep to Ultra Water challenges.
In the course of your job, what are your most favorite work destinations? Or talk about your favorites holiday destination
I would say my favorite work destination was Abu Dhabi, UAE. Abu Dhabi is a double capital – it’s the capital of the UAE and the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. It has a sea or stretch of water having many islands, of about 200 islands stretching along the coastline.
The city is a true symbol of luxury with vibrant city life combined with old oriental traditions. It has an array of skyscrapers, malls, and world-class.One of the things I love most about the city is that it is quite safe, and the minor crimes are quite low. Another interesting thing about the city which I love is during the wintertime (they call it) is the abundance of flowerbeds, parks, lawns and green spaces that you can easily forget that the desert is near.