He wants to be self-employed in the oil & gas industry
Good evening Sir Jarus,
How was your day? My name is Farouk. I am currently reading your ebook (The Road to Victoria Island), been glued to it from start, thank you for all the vital information, personal experiences and ideas in the book. I do appreciate you for putting out this material and even more for selling it at a token fee, I don’t think I would have valued a free book more.I just finished my NYSC this past February. I graduated from a British University with a 3rd class degree in Business Administration (Yes, very poor but I don’t want to give reasons or wallow in self pity for coming home with such poor academic grade when it matters most). I have decided to move forward and use my negative grades to get positives out of my life.I wrote Graduate Record Exams and scored 308 (thereby giving me a slim chance to enter for a master degree in USA), already applied to 4 Universities in USA for my MBA. I hope to get through as much oil and gas training as I can during my masters programme and if possible to change from MBA to MBA oil and gas or Masters in energy economics. I am looking to getting more active in the O&G industry but mostly interested in starting up my own contract or logistics firm in the industry. I am also passionate about rice farming and already training for this. Kindly help evaluate my new targets… criticize, correct , also help enlighten me more in the self employment areas of O&G industry as per areas of specialization for a business minded folk like me. I will appreciate your guidelines and possible area of focus for me.Thank you in advance for your reply,Farouk.
*****
Thanks for the kind words, Farouk.
Good you have put your poor grade behind and looking forward to making the best out of a situation.
First, with your surname (which I didn’t publish) I suspect you are from a financially okay family. That means you may not have much problem financially, although investing in the oil and gas being a capital intensive industry, is no child’s play.
Second, you are on the track pursuing your Masters and I think either in Oil & Gas Management or Energy Economics is fine for your MBA.
Third, since you have made up your mind to start your own servicing firm, and not seek for job in the oil and gas industry, you need that MBA very badly and your mindset should be different from someone studying to get job after finishing. Use the opportunity of your MBA studies to think thoroughly about what you can do differently.
Oil & gas industry is one very large industry and requires servicing from contractors of all kinds of specialization. Logistics is a very good aspect. Personnel supply is another. Things as small as contract for waste disposal are outsourced by oil and gas companies for their contractors in the fields, and people make millions from it. Even supply of food to field workers!
If you want to start from the downstream, if you can finance the acquisition of a truck, you can start from that. You can partner with well-established transporters like A.A Rano, Sarki Surajo and others who I’m sure will accept the offer, your truck will start getting business from Oil majors. What many people don’t know is that all these trucks that are branded Oando, Total etc are actually owned by independent transporters who transport those fuel products for them, and get their fee, depending on distance and volume transported. With 4 million Naira, you can get a decent truck and affiliate with a well-established transporter to penetrate the oil marketing companies.
Do a thorough research. Set up the company without delay. Partner with a couple of experienced professionals. If you can bring a couple of people on the board of your company, like your father’s friends (or if the popular person bearing your surname is your father or grandfather), or their children. You can actually hustle your way to getting small contracts.
You are on track. I wish you the best.
Jarus
Farouk, the main man has said it all. Jarus, keep it up bros, may Allah continue enrich you.
Thank you so very much sir Jarus,
Your response is such a great intervention at this point in my life. I am very pleased to know that i have taken on the right steps to correct my poor grades. I will keep in touch from time to time to keep you in the know as to how i plan to carry on. I will start on my research before leaving for my masters to help ease the process of starting up. Thank you so much for allowing God use you as a tool of blessing to our generation.
Good night,
Good morning Jarus,
Coming across your site and reading posts and comments brought a high relief to my long research on my career. I have a B,Eng in Mechanical Engineering (2:1) from one of the universities in Nigeria, but never practiced Mech. Engr. in the industry plus 10 years working experience in oil and gas industry. I lost my job since a year ago due to this fall in oil price. It’s been difficult securing another job since then and I am considering going to Uk for a master’s degree. My concern now is that I have put in 7 years in the technical aspect of the job (Piping Engr) and the last 3 years in Project Management. I left Piping for Project Mgt because I didn’t have flare for it again and I was looking at Management opportunity in oil and gas sector. Looking at the way the the oil and gas industry is laying off now, what is your take on my three choice of courses? 1. MSc Construction Project Management (University of Reading), 2. MSc Energy Management (Robert Gordon University), 3. MSc Petroleum, Energy and Finance (University of Aberdeen). Which of these will give me a lift looking at the economy in Nigeria at the moment and in future?