"Conduits"

Dear Student/Young Professional,

Happy New Year!

I trust you’re doing great and I hope this meets you well.

Today I write to you on your lifelong role as “Conduits”

The word Conduit describes a passage through which fluids or current flows. Conduits scarcely exist in isolation and are characteristically formed by the assembly of similar parts to achieve an objective.

Permit me to continue my crash course on Petroleum Engineering with this analogy; To extract crude oil from the ground all the way to the surface, we need conduits (tubings) that stretch very far (greater than 13,000 feet sometimes) into the ground. These conduits are made up of different parts assembled together to handle flow safely. Once at the surface, the baton is passed to another set of conduits which ensure crude oil flows to the flowstation (processing facility) and this continues from one set of conduits to another until it gets to the “consumer”.

Let’s pause for a bit. So far, you’ve seen pipes and processing facilities as the conduits, but now see people; from the drilling engineer, mud engineer, wellsite geologist, geomechanical engineer, to the flow assurance engineer, flow station operators, pipeline engineers, chemical engineers, supply chain specialists, traders, accountants, commercial and finance experts, that move with the products and ensure the products get to the consumer. They’re all conduits!

No one is an end in itself, even the “Consumer” is a conduit. Consumers are the channels that generate and maintain the usefulness of the product, which guarantees the relevance of the entire process. They’re not the end. Consumers could even be seen as the beginning of the conduit, as every process is birthed by the desire to meet a need.

"It is pertinent to understand you’re a conduit connecting those behind to those ahead of you". Understand the need to give back and the role you play in doing so. Conduits do not think as individuals alone, they understand their roles in systems and help build those systems".

Conduits understand success is not found in pulling down the next guy to look good but in creating value and bringing about meaningful positive change.

As you go on this year, always remember conduits make big things happen but a barrier to flow makes nothing happen!

Till next time

Yours Sincerely,

Simon Ikpebe