SAIPEC 2025: Hobark demands prioritization of African capacity utilization
Sopuruchi Onwuka
Petroleum industry policy connoisseur, Dr Emmanuel Okoroafor, has called on policy drivers and commercial players in Africa to immediately forge binding intra-continental local content collaborations that would optimise existing capacity for shared growth and value retention.
He also called on government regulators to also prioritize and encourage intra-African technical partnerships as a way of shutting off job exports through phoney foreign technical partnerships.
The industry services provider and academician stated at the ongoing Sub-Saharan International Petroleum Exposition and Conference (SAIPEC) in Lagos that opportunity is calling for the African petroleum industry to leverage the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA) in harnessing the continent’s oilfield service capacity for optimization, shared benefits and enhanced economic growth.
His call directly plugs into earlier suggestions by the Group Chief Executive of Oando Plc, Mr Wale Tinubu, who had at the last African Energy Week in Cape Town, South Africa, demanded African governments to deliver the fate of the continent’s petroleum industry in the hands of home grown independent companies.
Mr Tinubu who pointed at the prevailing slew of divestments by international oil companies from African conventional oil provinces made it clear that the international oil companies hold no further prospects for the African petroleum industry.
Group Chief Executive of Oando Plc, Mr Wale Tinubu
He said that whereas the international oil companies are pulling out capital in response to calls for energy transition and migration of investments from the continent, the african indigenous independent petroleum firms have more to offer in driving new exploration and gleaning out more resources from brownfield assets.
Dr Okoroafor who is Executive Director at Hobark International Limited recommended total use of African material and human resources in exploitation of fossil and new energy, especially in the face of dwindling international support for development of petroleum resources in the continent.
He stressed that total crew change from foreign multinational players to African indigenous players has become inevitable in view of the rising trend of local content in the industry. He said the overall objective of building significant African capacity for the industry could be rapidly achieved if the ACFTA provided the crucial market incentive for investments in capacity development.
Dr Emmanuel Okoroafor who holds PhD in Materials Science from Université Denis Diderot (Paris VII), Paris, France, is not just an energy industry analyst; he is a registered Chartered Engineer of the UK Engineering Council, and a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (UK).
Apart from being the Executive Director of Hobark International Limited where he pilots the business of the integrated oilfield services group at its head offices in London Mayfair, Dr Okoroacfor has also held various teaching and research positions in universities in the UK and France.
In laying templates for closing skill gaps in the industry, Dr Okoroafor recommended harnessing and utilizing abundant experience in the continent to groom younger generation of personnel. He added that the full value of all the investments in local capacity building is to curb capital outflow from the continent through job retention and consumption of local services.
“I think we have people who have been in the oil industry for many years. In these years, many suitably qualified Africans have been trained, skilled and exposed to global play. They have picked up a lot of experiences and expertise,” Dr Okorafor stated.
He however pointed out that whereas the petroleum business remains a global play, importation of foreign expatriates might still be necessary but only in areas of industry services where no capacity exists anywhere in the continent.
In advising African oilfield service providers to drive growth through partnerships, mergers and acquisitions; Dr Okoroafor noted that growth is faster and more sustainable when firms of different competencies and competitive advantages come together to consolidate into bigger companies.
According to him, the service big firms like Baker Hughes, Schlumberger, Halliburton and others actually started as small companies like the PETAN companies.
“But they eventually came together; different firms came together to form those mega companies. So, there were mergers and acquisitions towards consolidation into the big service firms that now dominate the world,” he noted.
“Merging will sustain the gains we have achieved locally mainly by internal growth. And pursuing inorganic growth requires having the mentality of sustainability. That entails that you bring other people that share the same dream of driving the business to sustainable growth. That is how the oyibo people merged to form all the big companies that we talk about today.
“If you have something that you think is overgrown, then you must integrate into a larger group. There is no need carrying it along. If we want to compete with international companies, we must think and act like them,” he advised.
He said that time has come for African companies in the upstream petroleum industry to seek partnership within continent in order to curb the spate of brief case contractors that front for foreign companies.
Dr Okoroafor called on regulators to grant permission for importing foreign technical partners and expatriates only when it has been ascertained that there is no existing capacity on competency in the African continent. He also recommended that African countries should first explore expatriates and technical partners in the continent before shopping overseas.
