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By Rita Okoye
In an industry where scheduled or unscheduled downtime can cost millions per day, Gloria Siwe Usiagu has built her reputation on an extraordinary ability to execute flawless turnaround maintenance management under extreme pressure.
Her track record of delivering major facility overhauls ahead of schedule while maintaining zero safety incidents has established new benchmarks for operational excellence in Nigeria’s energy sector.
“Turnaround maintenance is where operational leadership is truly tested,” Usiagu explains from her position managing Renaissance Energy’s Soku Production Unit. “You’re coordinating hundreds of specialists, managing complex logistics, complex processes, and working against tight deadlines—all while ensuring that safety standards never slip.
There’s no room for improvisation when billions of cubic feet of gas production hangs in the balance.”
Her mastery of turnaround management was demonstrated during Shell’s Soku gas plant 2020 maintenance event, where she served as Event Manager processing over 700 million standard cubic feet of gas daily. The project required complete facility shutdown, comprehensive equipment overhauls, control/ safeguarding systems upgrades, new tie-in projects, novel technologies installation, regulatory activities and precision startup procedures — all executed within compressed timeframes to minimize production losses.
“Traditional turnaround management focuses on completing scope within schedule,” she notes. “But I learned that exceptional turnaround management requires understanding the intricate relationships between safety, efficiency, and innovation opportunities.” Her approach incorporated novel productivity measurements, including Hands-on Tool Time studies that revealed inefficiencies invisible to conventional management approaches.
The initiative yielded transformative results beyond schedule adherence. By implementing creative solutions to improve ‘wrench time’ — the actual time technicians spend on productive work — she delivered all key performance indicators including Goal Zero safety metrics, duration targets, cost parameters, and production availability benchmarks. More significantly, the project included commissioning efficiency improvements that increased processing capacity from 346 million standard cubic feet to 500 million standard cubic feet.
Usiagu’s systematic approach to turnaround planning reflects her background in industrial engineering and process optimization. “Successful turnarounds begin months before the first shutdown,” she explains. “Every activity sequence, resource allocation, contingency plan and simulations must be precisely choreographed to handle the complexity of simultaneous maintenance and improvement activities across multiple systems.”
Her leadership during the 2024 Gbaran turnaround maintenance — delivered 1.5 days ahead of schedule — demonstrated how extensive planning and maintained site presence create operational advantages. “Leadership during turnarounds isn’t about managing from conference rooms,” she observes. “It’s about being present as issues arise, resolving problems in real-time, and maintaining momentum when challenges threaten to create delays.”
The Gbaran operation required coordinating activities across 26 out-station facilities, including central processing plants, multiple flow stations, compression facilities, and gas processing systems. Managing such complexity while maintaining daily safety communications and proactive issue resolution exemplifies her hands-on leadership philosophy.
“Turnaround management reveals whether your safety leadership is genuine or superficial,” she added. “When you’re under schedule pressure with hundreds of contractors working simultaneously, your commitment to safety protocols gets tested. Maintaining daily safety talks and resolving safety concerns immediately — even when they create schedule challenges—determines whether you finish with success or incidents.”
Her cost optimization approaches during turnaround operations demonstrate how strategic resource sharing can deliver significant savings without compromising quality. Her collaboration during the 2021 Nun River/Diebu Creek turnaround, including shared resources for water barges and specialized vessels, achieved over $65,000 in cost reductions while maintaining operational standards.
“Turnaround cost management requires understanding that every dollar saved through smart planning is a dollar that can be reinvested in facility improvements,” she explains. “The goal isn’t just completing maintenance — it’s completing maintenance in ways that enhance long-term operational capabilities and sustaining design, technical and operating integrity.”
Her innovation in turnaround execution includes integrating efficiency projects that transform maintenance events into capability enhancement opportunities.
“The best turnarounds are those where you emerge with better operational capacity than before you went down,” she concludes. “When done right, turnaround maintenance becomes a strategic investment in operational excellence rather than just a necessary operational interruption.”
