Never say no

“I was born disciplined”, says Aluka at the start of the interview. “With my parents both being academics, it was no surprise that I wanted to learn”, she continues, “but I was so determined that they never needed to chase me for any school-related work.”

Aluka grew up in Abraka, a small town in Nigeria’s Delta State, which gets its name from the fact that it is situated in the larger Niger Delta in the south of the country. Her parents both taught at Delta State University.

Aluka did not stay in Abraka for long, though. When she turned elev­en and had finished primary school, she went to boarding school. “Looking back, says Aluka, I think my parents were very brave to let me go at that age.” But she made it her new home straight away. “I saw kids arriving and burst out crying once their parents were about to leave. The only thing I thought was, what is wrong with you? It wasn’t be­cause I lack emotions; it was because I was so focused on what I was going to do there”, she says.

Aluka stayed at the boarding school for six years, after which she went to the Obafemi Awolowo University in Lagos. That meant she also left Delta State for the first time, not knowing that she would not come back, at least until today.

“I loved numbers, which is why I decided to study computer engi­neering”, Aluka continues. It was supposed to be a five-year course, but because of the frequent strikes from university personnel, it took her a bit longer. “It’s there where I met my best friends, and we still stay in touch”, she says.

After university, Aluka spent a year in mandatory military country service. “I liked it though”, she says, “especially because I was sent to a completely dif­ferent part of the country. I was trans­ferred to the north. It was a great year if only to be exposed to yet again a com­pletely new language and a different culture.”

Military camp service may sound harsh, it was actually much more civ­ilized than that. Following the inten­sive camp drills, I was lecturing at the local university as an assistant to the professor and also at local elementary schools”, she says. “And it was really nice to do that, and see the curiosity of the kids, especially the girls who tended to be the quiet ones.”

After her service, Aluka moved to Abuja, the capital of Nigeria in the middle of the country. “It was the best city that I had lived in thus far, she says. “It’s new, it’s big, and there is a lot of business and tech whilst it still felt homely at the same time.” She worked there as a network engineer in a telecom startup, until a friend asked what she wanted to do next…

Saving for a masters

And this friend happened to work for Schlumberger….

“I must be honest about this”, con­tinues Aluka, “I didn’t join Schlum­berger because I was so interested in the oil and gas industry. My main driver was to be able to complete a master’s course. And there was the prospect of travelling as well!”

So, in 2007 Aluka joined the drill­ing team at Schlumberger and moved to Port Harcourt. “Well, I spent more time working offshore than being in town”, she laughs. “Unlike the North Sea, where it is a matter of two weeks on and two weeks off, I had times when I spent 47 days offshore in one go.”

“Working for Schlumberger was quite exceptional”, Aluka continues. “They did not wait for you to get ready. You get ready. I was given responsibili­ty for running tools within six months after starting, and was supervising teams soon after. Combined with the travelling opportunities I was offered, I must say that whilst my parents were instrumental in making me independ­ent by sending me to boarding school, Schlumberger added the next step through their company and can-do at­titude.”

It was working with these downhole tools that Aluka got the idea of what the master’s course she was saving up for needed to be; something related to better understanding the subsurface. “I ran all these logging tools for two and half years, including a phase at Addax Petroleum in Lagos as the company representative, but I was not well aware of what was actually happening down there”, she admits. “That’s how I stum­bled across Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, as they offered a Reservoir Evaluation and Management course.”

“The group of students in Edin­burgh was very diverse and from all over the world”, says Aluka. “One of the best parts of the course was to go to Spain and visit outcrops to learn about the architecture of reservoirs. I learned so much more about geology, it became a little less abstract to me.”

I wasn’t here for sight-seeing

But then, after finishing her course, the oil price had just dipped in response to the 2008 financial crisis and jobs were not easy to find. Yet, Aluka was keen to stay in the UK.

“It’s nice to be in Edinburgh, I thought, but that’s not where my fu­ture job is, as that is in Aberdeen. So I moved to the granite city without hav­ing any concrete job offer yet, and with­out knowing anyone”, she explains.

But it paid off. Aluka found a job as a support geoscientist with the petro­physical software team at Senergy. She subsequently spent about eight years with the company, moving up from the software team to being a petrophysicist in the consultancy group.

Even though the oil price dipped in 2009, the major slide took place in 2014. Along with so many companies in the oil and gas sector, Senergy went through multiple redundancy rounds. Not an easy time for anyone.

I am not someone who likes to play the shaming game when it comes to working in oil and gas. No, it’s a shame to do that actually.

Having a job is important, but Alu­ka also relied on Senergy as a sponsor of her UK visa. “Finding another job is one thing”, she says, but finding another company wanting to sponsor your visa is another matter.” Being so dependent on your employer to be able to stay in a country is something that is probably hard to imagine for people who have never been in such a situation.

“So, I had a backup plan”, Aluka says. “Whilst in Aberdeen, I applied and was granted a permanent residency from Canada. Don’t get me wrong, I could have gone back to Nigeria, and I have many friends who work there, but I wanted an international career.”

Fortunately, though, Aluka never needed her Canadian visa and man­aged to keep her job at Senergy.

However, after eight years in Aber­deen, Scotland had become too small for Aluka, and she asked her employer if it was ok to be transferred to London where the company had another office. Astute as she is, she told management that the London team needed at least one petrophysicist to be physically there.

From LinkedIn to LYTT

“After two years working in the Lon­don team, which I enjoyed fully, I start­ed to look around”, says Aluka, “and came across Lytt, a technology spin-off from bp.”

It turned out to be a good fit, as Lytt was all about processing data derived from a relatively new technolo­gy used in downhole logging, DTS and DAS. Distributed Temperature and Distributed Acoustic Sensing technol­ogy is based on fibre optic cables fitted in the wellbore, deployed either perma­nently or as part of a well intervention to monitor inflow, well integrity or per­form borehole seismic acquisition.

“Amongst other things, I was tasked to come up with new ways to process and filter the data such that the trials bp was carrying out in the North Sea and in Azerbaijan were meaningful”, Aluka says.

“You’re sleeping it and waking it”

After two years at Lytt, something started nagging with Aluka. Even though she began at the company thinking to make it to retirement, over time this completely turned into a de­sire to be independent and set up her own business.

“What it was going to be, I had no concrete idea yet, but it was consistent and I trusted that something good was going to happen”, says Aluka. “Maybe other entrepreneurs recognize it, but it was literally on my mind 24 / 7, and I almost had to do it to set myself free!”

So, she left Lytt and entered the dark hole.

And where are we now, more than a year later? “Well, things have started to come together”, Aluka laughs.

“Quite soon after I had left, I was contacted by a company that connects entrepreneurs with tech companies to provide advise on a board level. I had to think about it for a while, but I made that step and now I meet fantastic peo­ple in the tech community, who I try and help navigate the hurdles of grow­ing a business.”

But she is still very much present in the oil and gas industry. “It’s a long story, but I now manage a project in Ghana, looking at three different fields and coming up with plans to drill infill wells”, Aluka says. “I was responsible for finding the people to carry out the work, so in some ways, I’m back to my Senergy days, but now it’s me having to manage it all”, she laughs.

And it suits her, the combination of integrating the input from the vari­ous technical experts to communicat­ing the results to the client. On top of that, Aluka has also become an associ­ate petrophysicist for consultancy firms Tracs and ERCE, so it is easy to see how busy her days are.

And the little secret is, all this hap­pened only to a limited extent through social media. “I am not on X, not on Facebook, I only do LinkedIn really”, says Aluka. “I prefer that other peo­ple speak about me rather than speak about myself.”

Instead, it is the network of estab­lished contacts that has helped her most of all to get where she now is. “Authen­tic relationships are ones that you don’t necessarily build on social media, and it’s those that have brought me so much over the past year.”

“And do you look ahead at what’s coming next?”, I asked. “No”, Aluka concludes, “because I am doing things I like. The only thing that is in my head is expansion and never say NO to upcom­ing opportunities. How I will blend a new project in is a worry for tomorrow!”

For very good reasons, Aluka takes pride in what she has achieved so far. “And let’s be honest about this, it is the oil and gas industry that has given me all these opportunities. I am not some­one who likes to play the shaming game when it comes to working in oil and gas. No, it’s a shame to do that actual­ly”, she says. “We must not forget how essential oil and gas still are for society, and how essential it was for me to do all the things I’ve done. Let’s please not forget that!”