•For me, the word impossibility does not exist

Chief Executive Officer of Brittania-U, Mrs. Uju Ifejika is a lawyer who rose through the ranks to become a corporate titan in Nigeria’s volatile oil and gas industry.

Known for her combative approach in achieving set goals, for which she has been tagged troublesome and a difficult person to deal with by some people who have encountered her, Ifejika has, in her career in the male-dominated oil industry, broken barriers to achieve what many would have considered impossible. Through resilience and hard work, she has demonstrated capacity in all the chains of the industry – exploration, production, and trading.

Through Brittania-U Nigeria Limited, she operates an oil block, a jetty, crude export terminal and vessels for the shipping arm of the company.

In this interview with Saturday Sun, Ifejika gave an account of the making of Brittania-U, how the company lost $23 million in search of oil in a dry field, and still continued to push the boundaries. She also spoke on how she became a multi-talented entrepreneur, acquiring skills in petroleum engineering, geology, and structural engineering.

 

By Tony Manuaka

You have been in the oil industry for well over 20 years. Tell us how the story of Brittania-U began

The company was registered in 1995, but it didn’t start doing business until 2001 when some people came together and put up a bid for a marginal field. And luckily, the company won the marginal bid. They bid in 2001, by 2003, they won and they were lucky they gave them 100 per cent participating interest while in some other cases, they joined people like two, three or four. By 2004, they now had to sign the contract. It was owned originally by Chevron; Chevron and NNPC now transferred their interests. It wasn’t a JV because the government used it as a means of trying to get the oil blocks that were drilled and they found oil but because it was not commercially viable for the IOCs, they now had to shut down. So, by 2000/2001, the government now said, instead of leaving these blocks unmanned, let us use it to create a marginal field to have Nigerians come into it. At the time they did that, many companies were not financially viable. So, a lot of people couldn’t pay for the signature bonus then, but we managed to have people who placed $150, 000 then. It was in 2007 when I left Chevron in September, because I took an early retirement. Two months after that, I joined Brittania-U. Then, Brittania-U had not started doing anything.

We took the first step, took a loan of $23 million from then Union Bank, but when we went to drill, they said it was a dry hole. So, $23 million went down the drain. That was the first experience we had. We went back, and after much analysis, we found out that we went in the opposite direction. But we didn’t have any money so what are you going to do? We went back to the bank to collect another $11.4 million and went back with the prognosis that they did at that time. Five days later, we struck oil. Then, the rig at that time was $350, 000. We now said that the best thing to do was to find a way to produce this oil that we have discovered. That was in 2008, when the Niger Delta region was boiling.

We had to go to Houma Louisiana to go and build the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) facility. So, we did the drilling. Two sides, one was dry holes, the other one was successful. We did that from February to April. We now said, okay, how are we going to produce? At first we wanted to go through the pipeline, but Shell told us that if we did the pipeline, everything that we put there would belong to them. And then with the uncertainty in the Niger Delta, we thought it was better for us to stay in one place. So the option for us was FPSO, for which we went to Louisiana. They were to have done it in three months but because of Hurricane Katrina, they did it in seven months. That was still the fastest anybody could have done it. We wanted to hire a tugboat, but they told us that it was $4.8 million. That is excluding fuel cost. Eventually, we got a tugboat for $3.8 million as against hiring. That tugboat towed that FPSO, which cost us $27 million. We now toed the FPSO and tanker barge we were going to use for shuttle together as against bringing them in separately. So we own the FPSO, we own the tugboat and we own the tanker barge. That was how we now came in and signed a contract with Chevron to off-take our crude. We used our tanker barge, load from our FPSO after production and use the tugboat to take the crude to Escravos in Warri. 

We started production in January 2010. From the time we drilled the well to the time we brought in the facility, installed the wellhead tank, it was 17 and half months. It was the fastest any indigenous company has been able to do what we did. Why we were able to do it was because I was in Louisiana most of the time, at the shipyard, to be able to shout at the people to get them to do what we wanted them to do. As at that time, the Consul General of the US Embassy said she had never seen a woman that saw Texas cowboys and was shouting at them. We also brought in two supply vessels, all of which belong to us.

Last year, we heard about a fire incident that ravaged your facility. What really happened and how are you recovering from that devastation?

Yes, the facility got burnt. I don’t know if you saw the pictures. It got burnt because last year, within the community, they said they had never seen the kind of wave and level of sea swell they experienced. It got up to four metres high. And it was going into the topside of the vessel and the vessel was loaded. It went into the MCC room, which houses the electrical equipment. And you know, electrical and salt water don’t go together. So the moment it got in there, it sparked. And because we didn’t have a fire-fighting helicopter in Nigeria, we were lucky, people that came in and supported us – the Navy and Shell, Chevron came in with their gun boats but they didn’t have the fire-fighting equipment. What happened was that the fire burnt down the FPSO and the fire went into the well-head. We had to mobilise everything we had. The chemicals we bought was in excess of a billion naira. But while this was going on, we hired vessels including local communities-owned vessels from the Nigeria Ports Authority. They all came in with their fire-fighting equipment and we were able to put off the fire within seven days, which is the fastest anyone could have done. The one at Ororo, which belongs to Chevron, is still burning till now and it’s going to five years. The one of the NNPC that is burning at Buguma is still on for more than a month now. You have the one at Bayelsa. We were able to do that because our crude is a condensate. Once fire touches it, it evaporates.

The National Environmental Standards and Regulation Enforcement Agency (NESREA), NIMASA and the community people went round to check and they didn’t find any spill because everything got burnt. But we have been able to complete the wellhead, from three wellhead platforms; we have expanded it to seven. We just finished the four-legged CSP conductor casing that will allow us to drill from additional wells from what we have. We were able to do all these things within the past seven months. We did the platform; it is now much bigger than it was.

Let’s take you back a little. You did the first oil well, nothing was found and you lost millions of dollars. Given the background that the government first abandoned it and at the first attempt you made, nothing came out. What gave you the courage to continue?

For me, the word impossibility does not exist. If you tell me that this is not possible, I will work day and night to prove to you that it is possible. Everybody told me the well was just a dry hole; that I should leave. I told them, No!

At the time you were starting this company, you will recall that many people then said indigenous companies would not succeed in this business. Were you aware of this?

Yes, I was aware. Mine was even worse because I am a woman. They told me that they gave me two months to fizzle out. When I heard it, I said okay. So, where are those people now? Most of their companies’ licenses have been revoked. My MD then, when I told him to prepare for a meeting, he would say, ‘Madam, this is technical, you don’t need to come, when I’m done, I will come and brief you.’  I would tell him that ‘I’m coming in, do the presentation.’ When I come in, he will be shocked at the kind of questions that I will ask him. Even when we were drilling the second well, he said it was not possible; that there was no oil there. Five days later, we struck oil. That is where we are today. We started Brittania-U with N1.5 million. It was the equivalent of $10,000 dollars. It’s about what you set out to do, and you have to be unapologetic about it, but you have to be focused.

You trained as a lawyer, became a company secretary, and eventually became an entrepreneur in the oil industry. How did you navigate your way to the top in an industry that is dominated by men?

I started as a junior lawyer, senior lawyer and then I became the legal adviser in 1991. By 1997, I became the Company Secretary, Public and Government Affairs Manager, that is three in one. After I held that position, nobody has occupied such a position in Chevron. The Texaco I worked for was downstream, even Chevron; they trade in petrol stations. But in life, you must understand who you are. Each and every one of us has a purpose, but you will have to discover yourself. You know what you want to do and the challenges you are going to face. Anything you are going to do that doesn’t have challenges, then, it won’t last. Those challenges are not meant to kill you; they are meant to toughen you and prepare you for a higher level. Yes, I’m a lawyer, but ask the geologist. I can interpret maps, I can do structural engineering, drilling, I even drive a boat. When I went to Senegal, I took over the boat from the captain, and he asked if I was a captain. I don’t even know where my legal wig is.

What would you consider as the greatest challenge you have faced in your career?

The greatest challenge is the government not coming out to support indigenous companies. Not support in terms of the law, but for Nigerian companies, they don’t have access to funds. These are the areas they need to come in because if they do it, you will have more people coming in. There are people they have given oil blocks but they are not able to raise money and they end up losing it after paying so much for a signature bonus. Then, you go back and do another bidding process. The government needs to do it in such a way that you can put down your asset as collateral; they give you soft loans, then, we can get more than the two million barrels of oil production per day that we are projecting. There are people who are eager to do business, but they don’t have the resources, and they cannot access loans from the banks because the banks will ask for impossible conditions.

But are there specific challenges that you have faced as a woman in this business that ordinarily shouldn’t have been a problem if you were to be a man? And are there advantages you have gained because you are a woman?

I’m not one of those women that look at myself as a woman and then begin to face limitations because when God created us, He created us equal. So for me, being a woman is not a negative thing. If you block my way because I’m a woman, I will…because some women will be shaking their body and be going, No, I no dey for that level. The only thing that can stop me is my ability to take on impossibilities and make them possible. And I don’t want anybody to give me a soft landing or preference because I’m a woman.

So what are the things that drive you?

The things that drive me are that I have God as my pillar. There is nothing I do without first presenting it to God. And you should be able to do things and get them right, without cutting corners. We have gone through many challenges that would have brought us down but here we are, still standing. The first one was that we met a dry hole, the second was when they brought our facilities here to work on them and it took us 11 months because none of the banks wanted to come to our aid. But some people gave us money. That is why it is good to have a good reputation. Although we paid back, we were able to finish the project and start production. We had previous fire incidents before the latest one. But this one is the highest because it went into the vessel. If we didn’t pay our insurance premium, it would have been a different case. Now it is the insurance company that we are chasing around. In seven days, we put out that fire. That is why I tell you that Brittania-U is a different company.

You have broken the glass ceiling. What advice do you have for younger women who are trying to find their feet in business?

The only thing I’ve always told women is, ‘Don’t look at yourself that you have limitations’ because when God created us, yes, He took the bone from the rib of Adam to create Eve, but the brain Eve had was what she used to manipulate Adam to eat the forbidden fruit.  So, that tells you that you have an incredible capacity. It is just for you to know what it is and be able to manage it. Be focused. Most women are looking at ‘o! I’m very pretty.’ That one no de bring money. And you have a limited time. After some time, the beauty will fade. Be focused, get your job done.

With what is happening in the oil and gas industry, the country keeps going back and forth. Why is it that we can’t even get some things right?

Yes, you get that where you have people who are not intellectually sound. If you were a successful entrepreneur before going into politics, you will come out better because of your mindset. If you look at people who are governors today, with private sector backgrounds, you will see what they are doing. In Nigeria and Africa, energy will continue to be the source of revenue. In 2010, during the time of Diezani Alison Madueke as Petroleum Minister, they were talking about green energy and gas master plan; I told them it’s not going to work – even now, because the cost of doing gas is almost ten times the cost of doing oil. But the government can have clusters where people can transmit their gases. But if you tell someone who does not have money to handle his marginal oil field to begin to package gas, where will the person see the money to do gas?

Many people describe you differently. Some say you are a tough woman; others call you iron lady and other such names. How do you describe yourself?

Is it only tough? They will tell you that Madam Uju is a troublemaker, very tough. For me, my first name is Trouble; second name, Trouble, last name, Crazy. No apologies, so long as you don’t say, she is fraudulent. Let it be trouble because I will not allow you to manipulate me or steal from me. 

In your public and private life, what are the things you like and the ones you don’t like?

I like to eat good food; and I like to cook.

Do you still find time to cook with all the skills and certificates that you have acquired?

Nobody de cook for me o! No one cooks for me. Even when the cook is there, I cook my food. Yesterday, I cooked onugwu and oha soups, and I still made stew in the night. When I get to the United States, it is in my house that people come to eat Nigerian food. Some people eat and carry some as takeaway.

What do you dislike?

The only thing I don’t like is when somebody is not upright in dealing with others. There are some people who have seen what you have done and they are not happy and they want to pull you down. When that one happens, I’ll be the one to shoot that person down.