TALKING over coffee in a smart Edinburgh hotel George Maxwell reflects happily on what proved to be a wise career choice he made in his youth.
On graduating from Robert Gordon College with a business studies degree in 1986 the Aberdonian was offered a job as a petroleum economist with Texaco or a better paid trainee jeweller’s post with H Samuel.
“I took less money and more excitement I guess working for Texaco,” laughs Mr Maxwell who went on to spend years working overseas but still speaks in the tones of the Granite City.
His record includes big jobs in the US, Singapore and Africa in corporations such as ABB and the former Addax Petroleum.
As chief executive of Aberdeen-based Eland Oil & Gas, Mr Maxwell enjoys the classic jet set lifestyle these days.
Eland is focused on Nigeria and Mr Maxwell makes makes regular trips to Lagos and Abuja as well as London, where the Aim-listed firm has an office.
The dad of three says he always spends weekends at home in Aberdeen with family, even if that means flying back late on Friday and heading off again for Monday business.
Eland this week revealed that losses tripled in 2016 during what it called a very difficult year.
But Mr Maxwell appears to be relishing life at Eland after seizing on the chances presented to him in an industry he thinks is unique.
“The opportunities are only limited to your own drive and ambition. It’s a classless industry which I think is great and really rewards ingenuity and hard work.”
Mr Maxwell got his first chance to live in Nigeria in 1992 with the ABB oil services operation. His interest in the country deepened in the years he went on to spend there with Addax, which was bought by China’s Sinopec in 2009.
At Addax Mr Maxwell learned much from its entrepreneurial founder and chief executive Jean Claude Gandur.
When considering a $75m investment Mr Gandur advised Mr Maxwell: “Forget the numbers how much is this thing worth? What’s your gut feel? Sometime deals can’t wait for the spreadsheet to be done.”
Mr Maxwell decided to make an entrepreneurial move with a colleague from Addax, Les Blair, in 2010.
Both felt they had the contacts and knowledge of Nigeria to do something in a country where lots of oil acreage was finding its way on to the market, although it was not easy to establish exactly what.
“Les and I were two guys with a briefcase … we were walking around London, Geneva, talking to financiers going to Nigeria, looking at potential projects visiting contacts.”
The two ended up focused on the OML 40 licence onshore, on which Shell stopped production in 2006 amid security concerns.
They thought there was enough potential on the licence to spend months negotiating to buy a minority interest in OML 40 from Shell, Total and Nigerian Agip. Worth around £95m, the deal was concluded in August 2012.
The best part of five years later Eland is producing 11,500 barrels oil daily, which it shares with other investors in OML 40. It expects this to increase to around 25,000 bod by the year end.
But the process has been fraught at times. Noting he gave up a safe job to found Eland, Mr Maxwell admits: “The sacrifices were far more than ever expected.”
In October 2011 the company sent £96m back to investors after it was unable to complete the OML 40 deal on the timetable it had set. It had to raise fresh funds from different investors .
The Nigerian government then decided not to allow Eland to have the influential role of operator of OML 40, appointing the state-owned oil company instead.
The company has switched to revamping existing wells rather than looking for new finds in the interests of economy.
“You can stand outside and bark at the moon as much as you like but it’s still going to be there. So you have to modify your approach,” philosophises Mr Maxwell.
It took a year longer than expected to bring the first well on OML 40 back onstream in February 2014.
Since becoming chief executive seven months later, Mr Maxwell has lead Eland’s response to challenges such as theft of crude from pipelines while dealing with the problems caused by the oil price plunge.
Eland lost $31m for 2016. Production was severely disrupted by the closure of the Forcados export terminal in February last year due to sabotage. It only reopened last month.
Eland shipped nearly 520,000 barrels of crude to a terminal off Nigeria in the interim.
After noting the pressure on its working capital, it completed a $19.5m placing on Wednesday. As this was oversubscribed investors still appear to have confidence in Eland’s prospects.
Mr Maxwell remains convinced it has a bright future in Nigeria.
“Militant activity is problematic for the industry, but there’s no one saying it’s time to give up because the opportunity is huge.”
But Eland has no plans to leave Aberdeen. It can access strong knowledge of the West African oil and gas industry in the city and a large body of Nigerian graduate students.
For Mr Maxwell the jet setting is likely to continue.
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