How OTUNBA MIKE ADENUGA Struck Oil In 1990

Not many people know that Otunba Mike Adenuga is a big player in the Oil sector, just as he is in Telecoms. Before his involvement in Telecoms, which gave birth to GLO, he was the clear leader in that sector. He owns Con Oil, which has filling stations across Nigeria. It was when the new Telecoms revolution came that the Apesin of Ijebuland decided to join the Bigger Boys who dabbled into Telecoms.

How did he get into Oil? City People can tell you the story. It was in 1990. It was by a stroke of luck and God’s blessing. This is because 32 years ago, he didn’t have the foggiest idea of what it was like being a player in the Oil sector, which was then the world’s biggest business before Telecoms & IT came to upstage the Oil business. But today, the 69-year old high-flying businessman, has become a major player in that league. He has since become a towering giant in the slippery terrain that is Nigeria’s Oil industry. He is arguably the biggest and the most successful indigenous player within that sector. But many don’t know how big he is in that sector because he does make noise about it. Mike Adenuga is one of those larger-than-life personalities many people don’t know well.

He likes to operate below the radar.

He likes to focus. He likes to concentrate. He always likes to keep his eyes on the ball.

For instance, when he is in town, no one knows.

He spends the greatest part of his time in his massive office inside his Banana Island home in Lagos. He has no time for frivolities. As a rule, he does not attend parties. He does not pay social calls. If he needs to reach out to anyone, his aides will fix that.

With his giant size television set switched on to major news channels to enable him catch up with world events, he busies himself with a lot of paperwork, which is often punctuated by intermittent phone calls. His empire spans Banking, Real Estate, Oil Gas & Telecoms and stocks. He sits atop a conglomerate that traverses several continents. He has three big offices in Houston, Texas, Mayfair, London and Lagos, Nigeria. His empire consists of the following companies. Worldspan Consult Nigeria Limited, Tradoil Ltd., Equitorial Trust Bank, Consolidated Manufacturing (West Africa) Ltd., Consolidated Oil, Zug, Switzerland and Mayfair, London, Consolidated Business Machines, to mention only a few.

But of all these, the one that used to consume his time was Consolidated Oil.  Through his phones, he monitors developments on his Oil field, Offshore. As many times as possible in a day, he constantly gets in touch with his rig. This is in addition to a situation report that lands on his table daily. By virtue of his involvement in Oil, Dr Mike Adenuga has certainly become an expert and a guru in the Oil and Gas industry, particularly in the exploration/production and the crude Oil trading aspects. His ability to keep finding Oil is phenomenal. He is highly reputed to have a nose for smelling Crude Oil and the ability to position his rig and drill Oil in the right closures. His knowledge of the industry is visceral. He is quite at home with all the terminologies. He can also interpret seismic data, logs, and complex petrophysics data.

Yet,  he was never a trained Oilman. His entry was fortuitous. It was a gamble that has paid off. 32 years ago, he had Consolidated Oil prospect for Crude Oil, thereby setting in motion the agenda that would help to increase Nigeria’s Crude Oil reserve from 16 billion barrels to about 20 by 1995. He was one of the indigenous businessmen who got exploration blocks. That decision has paid off handsomely. For he enjoys, not only the privilege of being the first Nigerian to find recoverable Oil,  he is the only Nigerian today producing Oil in commercial quantity from his Oil field offshore in the Niger Delta. Through his efforts, Nigeria’s Oil output, at almost 2 million barrels a day, well over the country’s 1.86 barrel a day OPEC quota, has been driven further upwards.

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