By Danlami Nasir Isah
Dr. Timothy E. N. Okon was born on August 17th, 1957. He bagged his First Degree in Geology from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) in 1977. He also holds an MSc and PhD, DIC of the Imperial College, London.
Okon majored in Petroleum Geophysics, focusing his research work on Seismic Stratigraphy and Litho-Velocity Analysis. He also studied Economics, Risk Analysis, and Reservoir Engineering Courses; Basic Management Workshop, Team Building, Strategic Leadership for Oil & Gas Managers, Negotiations of Financial Transactions, as well as World Petroleum Fiscal Systems & Framework for Gas Monetization/Gas Business Fundamentals.
He has no doubt demonstrated accomplishments in oil and gas upstream, midstream and downstream opportunities. Apart from that, he has excellent business skills in comparative analysis of fiscal regimes, economic evaluation of exploration, producing opportunities for capture and/or disposal or trades, midstream tariffing models, electricity tariffing, distribution and marketing economics; strategic and budget planning and oil & gas value chain negotiations. He has written an unpublished treatise on Options for Nigerian Energy Policy Development and the Nigerian Petroleum Fiscal Reform Programme. Dr. Okon was Director of Transformation in NNPC, working with Mckinsey to deliver institutional development and organizational strengthening framework for the commercialization of NNPC. He runs a full-fledged Energy Consultancy in Power and Petroleum Sectors.
As a Senior Technical Adviser on Fiscals & New Regulations between February 2016 and May 2019 in the Office of the Honourable Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr. Okon’s role included: Developing fiscal policy and fiscal legislation to back such policy with respect to the entire oil and gas value chain; Reviewing the Federal Government Accelerated Petroleum Revenues Program; Expert Witness on arbitration in the Total Upstream versus NNPC (2018); PSC renewal negotiations/PSC gas terms negotiations; Inter-ministerial negotiations with foreign countries (China/India) for loans to support the oil and gas sector; Expert Witness on arbitration in the Elf vs NNPC alternative funding case (2016); Business investment evaluation for new projects and proposals and Human capacity development (for senior and mid-level staff).
Between February 2011 and August 2015, he served as Group Coordinator, Corporate Planning and Strategy, as well as Director of NNPC Transformation and Acting Group Executive Director, Exploration and Production. His wide-ranging experience in oil and gas came to bear abroad, when he served as the Commercial/Business Advisor to ExxonMobil Exploration Company in Houston, USA between 2001 and 2006, where his duties had to do with coordinating business analysis and advising the Vice President, Exploration, on various projects to determine the business attractiveness of international oil and gas resource addition opportunities. He also assisted in developing and implementing capture plans through extensive coordination with staff in the other upstream companies of –Development, Gas Marketing, Production and Research, as well as in the economic evaluation of exploration opportunities, among other significant duties.
In 1983, he wrote a definitive and original work on the seismic stratigraphy of the Qua Iboe (documented as NXR 402) that inferred a deepwater origin for the Qua Iboe. Dr. Okon, an accomplished professional, who served in very sensitive positions in many parts of the world, is the Group CEO of the International Institute for Petroleum Energy Law and Policy (IIPELP)