Career Gist with Dr. Mohammed Malah

We are back with Episode 2 on #careergist with Dr. Dr Mohammed Malah , a Senior Geoscientist at the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).?

The spotlight on our article gives young professionals a glimpse into different career paths in the Energy Sector, both locally and internationally. From technicians to administrators, financial analysts, legal practitioners, consultants, sales, programmers, and operational engineers, we provide you with the golden chance to connect and know more about seasoned professionals like you on a different spectrum.

Tap to learn about Dr. Malah's journey in his own words.?

Please give us a brief summary of your professional journey?

I am a Chartered Geoscientist who currently work as a Senior Geoscientist with the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), the upstream petroleum industry regulator in Nigeria. Before now, I have worked as a Geologist with the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency (NGSA), a geology and earth sciences data focused agency and with the Chad Basin Development Authority (CBDA), a river basin development authority. I started my journey studying for Geology at the University of Maiduguri in Nigeria and then proceeded to study for an M.Sc. in Petroleum Geoscience at the University of Manchester in the UK, where I also further studied for my Ph.D. in Petroleum Geoscience.

What do you do in your current role at your company?

In my current role, I work as a Geoscientist and as a Regulatory Officer. This job role entails looking at technical data with rigor to ensure adherence and compliance to Nigeria’s extant petroleum laws, regulations, and guidelines in the Oil & Gas industry. When you zoom in on this role, I work in a team where companies operating in the Oil & Gas industry submit applications to drill and complete oil and gas wells and sometimes do workover activities on these wells to develop oil fields. I look at the proposal applications to scrutinize the technicalities of the proposed activity and assess the compliance of such an activity with the extant regulations & guidelines to advise on issuing approvals or disapprovals accordingly. Also, on a bigger scale, I look at Field Development Plans (FDPs) as part of the team to examine the planned development strategy for such fields, and the feasibility of the adopted development strategy for the field in terms of both its technicality and compliance to regulations and guidelines. The role also entails visiting Oil & Gas facilities both onshore and offshore, where I inspect and monitor well drilling and other operations to ensure compliance.

What is your typical day like?

In terms of work, on any given day, I start off by checking my emails. This allows me to organize my day according to what activity needs priority and helps in making my to-do list for the day. So, these to-do lists will typically include what meetings/engagements I need to attend/establish, what applications need closing-out, etc. I prefer to do that at the close of business each day, which prepares my mind for the next working day but sometimes I do that in the first hour of the morning. Once at work, I already have a schedule to follow which helps my flow. Unless I have got early meetings, I do my heavy and analytical work in the morning and break for lunch and pray by noon then get back to work after that. For the rest of the day, I focus on other tasks such as reports, and committee works. I always try to leave my desk early to go home and rest well enough for the next day.

What is the most challenging thing about your work?

Well, my job is challenging and demanding, as you must be at your best all the time. This demands a lot of energy. However, the most challenging part of my job so far, I’ll say have been when away to the facilities or oil rigs during inspections and monitoring exercises. Some of the locations are remote and can be isolating and lonely especially since we are used to a fast-paced world now. So, if you are an introvert, you’ll enjoy such exercises but as for me, I sometimes try to make the most of it by taking a ‘pause’ from the world despite the challenge.

What is the most fun thing you love about work?

Traveling! – I love to travel, visit new places and get to meet new people and my job accords me that opportunity which I really love. Also, I love to learn as I believe learning never ends, and to this, my job always presents me with an opportunity to learn and grow everyday especially through the people I meet and the engagements I do have with them.

How do you balance work and life?

This is a tough one! – I’ll say I haven’t yet cracked this one out as it is tough, especially in Nigeria. Though I try my best to not let work overwhelm me by simply being conscious and aware of my other duties and responsibilities outside of my work especially to my family, my friends, and my community. So, I’d say, this is an area of my life I struggle with, and I am working constantly towards attaining equilibrium in both work and life.

What hard skills should someone in your field have?

You attain technical rigor by improving your quantitative and data analysis skills. In my job role, you’ll most often make decisions and reach conclusions based on analyzing complex data and information, so you must be comfortable working with ‘big data’. Specifically, to establish the technical rigor, you need to develop skills in data analysis, management & interpretation. And by data, I mean hardcore Geophysical data such as seismic data, well data, core data, geospatial data etc. And don’t forget to learn how to write technical and scientific reports and presentations to communicate your results and ideas.

What soft skills should someone in your field have?

In our industry, you almost always never work alone so a great soft skill to develop will be to learn to be a good team player and develop good interpersonal skills to excel in whatever role. Sometimes, you’d be required to work under pressure against strict deadlines, so it will be good to maintain a positive outlook, be optimistic and see challenges as a motivation.

What is the best thing about your work?

The opportunity to learn, like I said earlier, I am a philomath and somewhat an egghead and my work is always presenting me with the opportunity to learn. This is either from someone or a situation, and I love it when some new information comes along to crack my egghead every now and then. This gives me great joy really, the opportunity to learn and even more than that being able to apply the knowledge and see it work.?