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SPOTLIGHT - VINCENT EGBE OKO

 

• MEMBER ‘DIASPORA’ MSGOBA WORLDWIDE
• CLASS OF ‘82
• CHEMICAL ENGINEER
• PETRO CHEMICAL CONSULTANT
• RESIDES IN ABU DHABI, UAE

 

Mr. Vincent Egbe Oko was born on 7th August 1966 in Makurdi, to Mr & Mrs Johnson Anefu Oko from the Akweya district of Otukpo Local Government Area of Benue State.

He attended Holy Ghost Primary School Makurdi and proceeded to Madonna High School Adagi in Adikpo LGA for the first 2 years of secondary school education. He transferred to the prestigious Mount Saint Gabriel’s Secondary School in 1979 to continue his education where he completed his secondary school in June 1982.

 

He proceeded to the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State in September of the same year to study Chemical Engineering graduating in 1988 with a Bachelor of Engineering (honours).

 

Upon completing the compulsory National Youth Service Corps program in Takum, the then Gongola State, he returned to Mount Saint Gabriel’s Secondary School Makurdi to teach Chemistry and Integrated Science at the invitation of the legendary Rev Fr Angus Fraser CSSp of blessed memory.

 

After 3 years of meritorious service to Mt. St Gabriel’s secondary school, he went into the chemical process industry to further his career in Chemical Engineering.

 

In October 1992, he joined NASCO Household Products Ltd, Jos as a Shift Chemical Engineer in charge of the detergent factory, making the famous ‘ACTION’, ‘BONUS’ and ‘BRYTEX’ detergent powders as well as other industrial cleaning products.

 

He joined TY Chemicals Ltd, Kaduna, Africa’s first White Oil Refinery as Shift Superintendent in November 1994 as part of the start-up and commissioning team.

2 years later in December 1996, he returned to Port Harcourt to begin his career in the Oil and Gas Industry with M-I SWACO Schlumberger and later Baroid Halliburton as Drilling Fluids Engineer. He worked in the creeks and offshore locations in all the states of the Niger Delta including Rivers, Delta, Bayelsa, Ondo, Cross River, Akwa Ibom and in the arid desert of the Bauchi Basin.

 

In September 2005 he moved on to work in the jungles of the Republic of Congo where he rose to the position of Lead Drilling Fluids Engineer with M-I SWACO - Schlumberger.

 

In 2011, he was transferred to a special project in the Republic of Chad to head the drilling fluids team in a newly acquired project with ExxonMobil in the Chad Basin. He was also the pioneer drilling fluids project manager for Glencore drilling operations in Chad.

 

In June 2013, he transferred to Pocra Quay in Aberdeen, United Kingdom as a Client Account Manager for British Petroleum (BP) operations, a position he held until September 2014 when he decided to become a Drilling Fluids Consultant for Bariod Halliburton in Angola.

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After only 6 months working as a consultant in Angola, he was invited to join the drilling fluids team at Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). He still works at ADNOC as a facilities manager overseeing the operations of a massive Liquid mud plant, drill cuttings thermal treatment and desorption unit and 2 waste reinjection wells. He hopes to retire from active drilling fluids service in the very near future.

 

His Career in the Chemical Process industry and upstream Oil and Gas Industry has not been without some sterling achievements. Below are just a few of them.

1. He was part of the team that designed and produced the first ‘white detergent’ powder in NASCO Household Products by successfully chlorinating a slurry of Sodium Alkyl Benzene Sulphonate to remove dark pigmentations resulting in a bright white detergent powder.
2. In TY Chemicals, as part of the commissioning team, he led the redesign of the Hungarian White Oil manufacturing process eliminating a redundant stage resulting in huge process costs and higher yields. He also led the project that changed the feedstock from Lube oil fractions to Automotive Gas Oil leading to the local manufacture of TYCHEM Lotox, a base fluid used in the formulation of Non-Aqueous Fluids widely used in the Oil and Gas industry to drill troublesome shale formations.
3. In the Congo, he successfully carried out a field trial of ‘BLACK FURY’ Liquid Gilsonite shale inhibition product. The product received high commendation from the client and was firmly included in all their subsequent Drilling Fluids programs. The field trial report he produced has been adapted for use by the product manufacturer in the performance report section of the product bulletin.

 

Vincent is a truly detribalised Benue State indigene. He is from the Idoma area but speaks Tiv fluently and is happily married to a Tiv woman from Gwer West LGA. Together, they have 5 lovely children.

 

 

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Posted 11 months ago