TALKING ABOUT ROUND PEG IN A ROUND HOLE -

Engineer Chris Ogiemwonyi began his career as a Petroleum Engineer II in 1975 with the Conservation Department and in February, in 1977 Ogiemwonyi was seconded to SPDC (Shell Petroleum Development Company) Warri. This secondment was enriched by a four and half month Advance Petroleum Engineering Programme in 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, Ogiemwonyi coordinated all efforts in Dallas, USA in establishing a strong data Base for the Oil and gas Industry.

In 1988, he was moved back to the Exploration Division of the Exploration& Exploitation (E&E) as Head, Petroleum Engineering Department Company to nurture the newly created Petroleum Engineering Department.

In 1988, Chris Ogiemwonyi became the project leader (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.

He was the 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.

In the year 1999, Chris Ogiemwonyi 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. He also championed several projects as a general manager most especially the Local content initiative of the Federal Government, due to the hardworking service; Ogiemwonyi got appointed as the Group General Manager NAPIMS in 2001.

While serving as the Group General Manager NAPIMS, Ogiemwonyi supervised the whole industry including the Joint Ventures (JV) and the Production Sharing Companies (PSCs).

During his days in NAPIMS, Ogiemwonyi served as Chairman, Nigeria OTC Committee between 2003 and 2004. Notably, he also championed and surpervised several key projects which includes the EA field, Erha field, Bonga field, Agbami field amongst others.

During his term, NAPIMS achieved zero cash call arrears by October, 2003. As GGM NAPIMS, the Oil Industry was encouraged on joint utilization of assets such as offshore swamp rigs.

In November, 2003, Ogiemwonyi was reassigned to NPDC as Managing Director[5] 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.

Managing Director - National Gas Company
Ogiemwonyi was again reassigned to National Gas Company Limited as Managing Director[6] in March, 2005. He was determined to increase gas supply to major customers like; PHCN, SNG, GSLINK, WAPCO, SHAGAMU, and EWEKORO, NOTORE FERTILIZER PH,OBAJANA CEMENT COMPANY etc NGC is coordinating 130mmscf/d gas supply (WAGP – West Africa gas Supply Project) to Benin, Togo, Ghana and hopefully to Ivory Coast.

TSGP – Trans- Sahara Gas Project, the 2 billion scf/d supply from Nigeria through Algeria to Europe was another portfolio under his supervision as NGC’s helmsman.

Group Executive Director -
In September, 2007, Ogiemwonyi became the Group Executive Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC, Exploration & Production Directorate).[

While he served as GED Exploration and Production, Engr. Chris Ogiemwonyi was in charge of seven NNPC Companies 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.

President - EETCLTD
Ogiemwonyi is currently the President of Energy and Engineering Technology Consulting Group, a position he has occupied since May 2011.

President - ESC
Engr. Chris Ogiemwonyi served as the President, Energy Strategy Centre (Esc) Abuja, an Energy and Consulting Group between September 2009 through April 2010.