Chris Ogiemwonyi an illustrious son of the Edo people, has served as Minister of Works for State, Group Executive Director NNPC (Exploration & Production), Energy consultant, a great technocrat, a reckon product of Harvard Business School, a volunteer and 30 unblemished years of civil service but in all, he has never forgotten his humble backgrounds and the reason he was called to serve.
Early years
Christopher Aigbovbiosa was born on the 21st
of March 1951 to Mr. Agbonkpolo and Mrs. Ekhosuehi Ogiemwonyi in Benin
City Edo state. After concluding his secondary education at Western Boys
School, Benin city, he proceeded to the University of Benin where he
earned a BSc. (Hons) in Applied Physics in 1974. Determined not to rest
on his laurels, he further went on to receive a post graduate diploma in
petroleum engineering from the University of Ibadan in 1976 through an
in-service programme. In 2007 and 2008 Chris was honoured with two
doctorate degrees; Doctor of Engineering Ph.D. (Honoris Causa) and
Doctor of Science Ph.D. (Honoris Causa) respectively.
A career of service
Petroleum Engineer IIChris began his career as a Petroleum Engineer II in 1975 with the Conservation Department and in February of 1977 he was seconded to SPDC (Shell Petroleum Development Company) Warri where he was to go an several courses including months Advance Petroleum Engineering training at the SPDC Training Centre in the Hague, Netherlands. In 1982, Chris Ogiemwonyi resumed work at the Exploration & Exploitation (E&E) Division of NNPC and in 1985 he was transferred to the National Reserves Evaluation as a Project Leader. While in office as a project leader, he coordinated all efforts in Dallas team USA in establishing a strong data base for the Oil and gas Industry.
Project Lead
In 1988, Chris became the project lead (Petroleum Engineer) of the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) in Benin City. The NPDC, incorporated in 1988 had as its main objective the mission to compete as an indigenous Oil and Gas producing Company. NPDC was assigned four acreages including OML – 65 containing Abura Field then producing at 980 bopd. Ogiemwonyi championed the takeover of NPDC and he kept an up-to-date reserves position of the company. As a field project leader in Abuja as his company had the major takeover asset from defunct TENNECO, Ogiemwonyi raised the production level from 980 bopd to over 4,000 bopd in 1990. In 1992, he served as Oredo Field Project Leader which was a Greenfield project that involved KELT ENERGY,UK and IP CONSTRUCTION, Calgary. The project was an engineering, procurement, construction as well as operations of 10,000 bopd early production facility which has now being expanded to process 30mmscf/d. Ogiemwonyi also served as Oziengbe field Leader. This is another 10,000 bopd EPC facility at Oziengbe field.
Group General Manager
In the year 1999,
Chris was promoted to the post of the General Manager, operations and
was moved to National Petroleum Investments Management Services (NAPIMS)
to oversee the Operations Division. In this capacity he went on to
champion several projects as a general manager most especially the Local
content initiative of the Federal Government, and due to his diligent
service; Ogiemwonyi got appointed as the Group General Manager NAPIMS in
2001. While serving as the Group General Manager NAPIMS, he supervised
the whole industry including the Joint Ventures (JV) and the Production
Sharing Companies (PSCs). Key projects under his watch at these times
included the EA field, Erha field, Bonga field, Agbami field amongst
others. During his term, NAPIMS achieved zero cash call arrears by
October, 2003 whilst encouraging a joint utilization of assets in the
oil industry.
Managing Director
In November, 2003, Ogiemwonyi was reassigned to NPDC as Managing Director and his expertise helped in increasing NPDC production from 20,000 bopd to 70,000bopd. He served as chairman, Project Monitoring Committee (PMC) of Okono/Okpho Development Project, a strategic alliance between NPDC and Agip Energy Limited (AENR). He also served as Chairman, PMC of OMLs 64 and 66 Project, another strategic alliance between NPDC and SINOPEC of China. In March 2005, Ogiemwonyi was again reassigned to National Gas Company Limited as Managing Director. His terms main focus was to increase gas supply to major customers like; PHCN, SNG, GSLINK, WAPCO, SHAGAMU, and EWEKORO, NOTORE FERTILIZER PH, OBAJANA CEMENT COMPANY as well as the NGC coordination of 130mmscf/d gas supply (WAGP – West Africa gas Supply Project) to Benin, Togo, and Ghana. Also among is portfolio was the Trans Sahara Gas Project –TSGP, involving 2 billion SCF/d supply from Nigeria through Algeria to Europe.
Group Executive Director
In September, 2007, Ogiemwonyi became the Group Executive Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC, Exploration & Production Directorate). In such highly esteemed capacity, Engr. Chris Ogiemwonyi was in charge of seven NNPC parastatals and subsidiaries which included National Petroleum Investment Management Services NAPIMS), Nigerian Gas Company (NGC), LNG & Power Division, Integrated Data Services Limited (IDSL), Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) Crude Oil, Marketing Division and Local Content Division.
In November, 2003, Ogiemwonyi was reassigned to NPDC as Managing Director and his expertise helped in increasing NPDC production from 20,000 bopd to 70,000bopd. He served as chairman, Project Monitoring Committee (PMC) of Okono/Okpho Development Project, a strategic alliance between NPDC and Agip Energy Limited (AENR). He also served as Chairman, PMC of OMLs 64 and 66 Project, another strategic alliance between NPDC and SINOPEC of China. In March 2005, Ogiemwonyi was again reassigned to National Gas Company Limited as Managing Director. His terms main focus was to increase gas supply to major customers like; PHCN, SNG, GSLINK, WAPCO, SHAGAMU, and EWEKORO, NOTORE FERTILIZER PH, OBAJANA CEMENT COMPANY as well as the NGC coordination of 130mmscf/d gas supply (WAGP – West Africa gas Supply Project) to Benin, Togo, and Ghana. Also among is portfolio was the Trans Sahara Gas Project –TSGP, involving 2 billion SCF/d supply from Nigeria through Algeria to Europe.
Group Executive Director
In September, 2007, Ogiemwonyi became the Group Executive Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC, Exploration & Production Directorate). In such highly esteemed capacity, Engr. Chris Ogiemwonyi was in charge of seven NNPC parastatals and subsidiaries which included National Petroleum Investment Management Services NAPIMS), Nigerian Gas Company (NGC), LNG & Power Division, Integrated Data Services Limited (IDSL), Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) Crude Oil, Marketing Division and Local Content Division.
Giving Back
As a loyal and dedicated member of his
community, over the years Chris Ogiemwonyi has contributed immensely to
actualizing his dream for his people. As a strong believer in the power
of education, Chris continues to donate educational scholarships to
bright and underprivileged students through his Chris for children
Foundation. He has also funded an ICT skills acquisition centre in
Ugbighele village of Orhionmwon local government so as to encourage the
teeming youths to become self-employed and employers of labour. Chris
Ogiemwonyi also raised funds to build a place of worship, a church which
was donated to his local congregation. He has improved employment in
his community by maintaining a huge oil palm plantation which has
provided indirect and direct employment for neighbouring villages. Moved
by common diagnoses of river blindness in his home town, he has also
funded several functioning boreholes across the communities to provide
clean and portable water.
Awards
- Recipient of the justice of peace JP award by the Edo govt.
- Kwame Nkrumah leadership award
- Patron, National association of Nigerian Students (NANS)
- Patron, Association of community newspaper publishers of Nigeria (ACNPN)
- Patron, Nigeria Union Of journalist, Edo State council.
- A knight of sacred order of St. Christopher (KSC)
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