How to benefit from lucrative openings in the bubbling oil sector

The East African region is emerging as an oil and gas producer, with commercially viable quantities of oil and natural gas having been discovered in Uganda and Tanzania respectively. PHOTO/FILE 

In Summary

• Mr Odongo, a graduate of instrumentation and control engineering from the Mombasa Polytechnic, landed his first employment at Saudi Aramco, the fourth largest oil and gas producing company operating in Saudi Arabia, in 2007, as an instrumentation and control engineering technician.
• Having the health and safety qualifications in addition to the experience of having worked in oil and gas producing countries, Mr Onyango landed a job at the security firm as a training manager in the oil and gas division.
• According to Mr James Mbote, the managing director of Oilfield Movers Ltd, many people are not aware of the standards that one is required to meet in order to secure a job in the upstream oil and gas sector.

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By IMMACULATE KARAMBU
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Erick Odongo, the training manager of KK Security, could be practising as an engineer had he stuck to his profession.

But he chose to venture into a completely different field that has seen him join the list of the few people whose services are currently much sought after by oil and gas exploration firms operating in Kenya.

Mr Odongo, a graduate of instrumentation and control engineering from the Mombasa Polytechnic, landed his first employment at Saudi Aramco, the fourth largest oil and gas producing company operating in Saudi Arabia, in 2007, as an instrumentation and control engineering technician.

“I held the position for just six months before I switched to a profession in health, safety, and environment,” he told Money.

Prior to this, Mr Odongo had failed to get a job in a Dubai-based company because, at the last stage of the interview process, he could not answer a question about what he knew about safety.

Keen interest

Determined to learn more about health, safety, and environment, Mr Odongo started investing in the relevant courses that would ensure that he is certified to work in any oil and gas producing company’s health and safety department. He already had a keen interest in the oil and gas sector.

“I became interested in the oil and gas sector the moment I switched to the health, safety, and environment department at Saudi Aramco.

I had to study health and safety courses. I started with the Nebosh international certificate in occupational safety and health in the United Kingdom through distance learning,” he said.

After completing the certificate course, he says he upgraded to diploma and other courses associated with health and safety, which have collectively cost him about Sh500,000.

Oil and gas producing companies operate within specific standards that dictate the type of workforce to recruit for their upstream operations (which encompass exploration and production of oil or gas resources) and even the type of equipment and services to contract to aid their activities.

For instance, the health and safety course that Mr Odongo enrolled for is one of the requirements for people hoping to get employed in the upstream oil and gas sectors, specifically in health and safety departments.

For Mr Odongo, having the right credentials helped him hop from one employer to another within the same industry.

After working at Saudi Aramco for two years, he says he moved to DynCorp International, an American company specialising in military logistics based in Afghanistan, as a health and safety professional.

He worked there for one-and-a-half years, then moved to ATCO Group, a Canadian oil and gas company, where he worked for six months.

Recently, the KK Security group opened an oil and gas division.

Having the health and safety qualifications in addition to the experience of having worked in oil and gas producing countries, Mr Onyango landed a job at the security firm as a training manager in the oil and gas division.

The East African region is emerging as an oil and gas producer, with commercially viable quantities of oil and natural gas having been discovered in Uganda and Tanzania respectively.

Commercial quantities

Although exploration work in Kenya has encountered deposits of oil and natural gas, the country is yet to realise the commercial viability of its resources.

However, preliminary data that has been submitted to the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum indicates that the country is likely to emerge as an oil producer.

Various announcements of discoveries have attracted interest in local exploration blocks from international oil and gas explorers, creating an opportunity for local residents to tap into the growing industry.

According to Mr James Mbote, the managing director of Oilfield Movers Ltd, many people are not aware of the standards that one is required to meet in order to secure a job in the upstream oil and gas sector.

“This is the case both because the industry is relatively new in Kenya and because it has very few people participating in it right now, hence most people remain without knowledge of what they need to do in order to land jobs and contracts within the upstream sector,” said Mr Mbote.