In our continuing coverage of Ugandans excelling abroad, CEO East Africa Magazine shines a spotlight on Mwesiga Kenneth Asiimwe, a Business Segment Operations Manager and Geofrey Kazungu Mulera, a Project HSE Lead, both at Halliburton, one of the world’s largest providers of products and services for the ever-evolving needs of the energy industry. We also profile, Allan Mugisha, a Well Engineering Manager at Springfield E&P, a wholly-owned Ghanaian oil and gas company; as well as Joseph Kibirango, a Project Manager with Tullow Oil Plc in Accra, Ghana.
CEO East Africa Magazine also features Herman Mukisa, a Senior Reservoir Engineer with Schlumberger, a global oilfield services company, one of the world’s largest by revenue.
Allan Mugisha
Well Engineering Manager
Springfield E&P
Allan Mugisha is the Well Engineering Manager for the Springfield Group, based in Accra, Ghana, a position he has held since 2019. He is a well-rounded Well Engineer with operational experience in land-based shallow and deep wells (Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya), as well as Offshore wells (Southern North Sea – UK & Deep-water West Africa – Mauritania, Ghana).
He has over Fifteen [15] years of working experience in various aspects of the well engineering life cycle (from exploration, appraisal, development and abandonment) including managing drilling projects, contracts, budgeting and cost control. He spent 11 years in Tullow Oil having joined as a drilling engineer in 2008 working between Kampala, and the fields in Buliisa and Kaiso Tonya.
He then moved to Tanzania as a drilling engineer for Tullow Oil for the Likonde-1 well in Mtwara (Southern Tanzania). As a Senior Drilling Engineer, he worked in the Southern North Sea (Schooner field), and Deepwater Mauritania (Fregate-1 and Tapender-1 wells) before being assigned to Kenya (both Turkana and Nairobi). His last year in Tullow Oil was in London working on a well decommissioning project.
He is a registered Engineer with the Uganda Engineers’ Registration Board (ERB), a Chartered Engineer (Engineering Council, UK) and Member, the Institute of Mechanical Engineers (UK), a Member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and a Member of the Uganda Institute of Professional Engineers (UIPE).
He holds an MSc in Petroleum Engineering from Heriot-Watt University, UK, and a BSc in Mechanical Engineering (1st Class Hons) from Makerere University, Kampala. He also has a Certificate (Distinction) in the Fearnley Procter (UK) Well Engineering Competency Program as well as a Certificate in Procurement & Logistics Management.
Allan’s career highlight includes his Leadership of Springfield E&P’s Afina-1x deep-water exploration drilling campaign offshore in Ghana’s West Cape Three Points (WCTP) basin which resulted in one of the most significant discoveries of hydrocarbons in Africa, by an African oil company. This discovery opened the door for the ongoing unitization discussions between Springfield, ENI and the government of Ghana.
Joseph Kibirango
Project Manager
Tullow Oil Plc.
Joseph Kibirango is a Team Leader at the London-based Energy Company., Tullow Oil Plc.
He describes himself as a “qualified Chartered Civil/Structural Engineer who holds 20 years of international experience on major infrastructure and energy projects”.
“ I hold many years of managing the execution of energy projects onshore and offshore. I have delivered multi-disciplinary projects within client or operator and contractor organisations underpinned by good stakeholder management, effective team leadership, good business, and contract management practices,” he says.
As a project manager, in the Energy Sector, he provides technical, organisational and project leadership at various levels as well as assists in formulating and implementing business strategy and plans. He also advises Ex-coms on governance and policy issues specifically related to sustainable development of finite resources.
Some of the key projects that he has worked on, in his words, include, leading “efforts within the International Oil Operator community to get a world-class asset in East Africa (Tilenga Oil Project) off the ground both technically and operationally.”
“I worked with Tullow, TotalEnergies and CNOOC alongside many Government entities to develop and implement a road map to a Final Investment Decision for the Lake Albert Development,” he explains.
He is a Chartered Engineer with the UK Engineering Council, a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers (UK) and a registered Engineer with the Uganda Engineers’ Registration Board (ERB) as well as a Member of the Uganda Institute of Professional Engineers (UIPE).
He holds an MBA (Distinction) from the Imperial College London, an MSc in Engineering from Leeds University, UK, and a BSc in Civil Engineering (1st Class Hons) from Makerere University, Kampala.
Herman Mukisa
Senior Reservoir Engineer
Schlumberger
Herman Mukisa is a Senior Reservoir Engineer for Schlumberger based in Canada. Schlumberger is a global oilfield services company, that as of 2022, was both the world’s largest offshore drilling company and the world’s largest offshore drilling contractor by revenue.
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Mr. Mukisa describes himself as “a talented professional with an extensive background in reservoir engineering who has developed expertise across a range of oilfield developments around the globe”.
He is currently assigned to the Schlumberger Digital and Integration segment that mainly focuses on designing and implementing oil field subsurface development workflows as well as acting as trusted advisors to clients around the globe across different asset classes (green and brownfield developments).
His principal areas of interest and expertise include multi-disciplinary data integration to develop an understanding of different oilfield depletion plans, long and short-term production forecasting, evaluating enhanced oil recovery schemes and actively participating in technical assurance activities. He is currently involved in designing and implementing subsurface reservoir modelling workflows for worldwide energy transition projects.
He holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering (Distinction) from Kyambogo University and an MSc in Petroleum Engineering (Distinction) from Heriot-Watt University in the United Kingdom. He is currently a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (Calgary Section).
He started his career as a Mechanical Engineer in Uganda specialising in the maintenance of plant equipment. He was later awarded a Commonwealth scholarship to undertake his Master’s degree in Petroleum Engineering. He then had an internship at Tullow Oil Uganda Operations where he was introduced to the oil and gas field. Following his internship, he joined Total E&P as a Reservoir Engineer specialising in Reservoir characterisation, well-testing design, supervision and interpretation.
He has spent the last 10 years working for Schlumberger in North America(USA and Canada).
Mwesiga Kenneth Asiimwe
Business Segment Operations Manager
Halliburton Oilfield Services
Kenneth is the Operations Manager for Testing and Subsea Services for Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding Nigeria) for Halliburton Oilfield Services, since April 2019. Based in Accra- Ghana, he is responsible for oversight of ongoing Deep Water operations in Ghana, Senegal, Mauritania, Ivory Coast, Namibia and Angola.
He has 15 years of experience in reservoir characterisation in the domains of surface well testing and sampling, data acquisition and drill stem testing which apply to the exploration, appraisal and development phase of oil and gas projects.
His core attributes include process optimisation and project management.
He has previously worked with Schlumberger, another global oilfield services company, where he participated in over 50 well-testing projects in over 10 countries including the first deepwater well tests in Mozambique and Tanzania.
While with Schlumberger, he also worked in Aberdeen as a Special Projects Supervisor in the North Sea. He then spent 18 months with National Energy Services Corp (NESR) in Saudi Arabia leading as a well-site co-ordinator leading Lump Sum Turn Key projects covering multiple services. He then joined Halliburton in 2019 as Account Manager/Project Engineer for a multi-well/year project for Tullow Oil Plc before assuming his current role as Operations Manager for the ‘Africa Other’ region in 2022.
He holds an MBA in Oil and Gas Management from Robert Gordon University, UK, a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from Makerere University, Kampala as well as various industry-recognised technical and QHSE trainings. He is currently completing his Project Management Certification with PMI® and is a Member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).
Geofrey Kazungu Mulera
Project HSE Lead
Halliburton Energy Services
Geofrey Kazungu Mulera currently serves as the Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE) Lead for a Six Rig Drilling and Workover LSTK (Lump Sum Turnkey) project based in Saudi Arabia. He has held this pivotal role since 2016. Mr. Mulera is a highly experienced HSE professional with expertise in Safety, Health, and Environment management, particularly in drilling and workover operations, as well as the construction industry. His extensive career has seen him contribute his skills and knowledge to various oilfields, including Uganda, Kuwait, South Iraq (Basra), North Iraq (Kurdistan), Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia.
With over fifteen (15) years of experience in HSEQ (Health, Safety, Environment, and Quality) Management, Mr. Mulera’s journey began at Nabors Drilling International during the drilling campaigns for projects like Ngasa and Kingfisher wells in Uganda. Subsequently, he embarked on international assignments, starting in Kuwait, followed by South Iraq (Basra), North Iraq (Kurdistan), and Bahrain, where he held the position of Country HSE Manager.
Geofrey holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics Technology from Kyambogo University. Additionally, he has earned a Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety Management, further enhancing his qualifications in the field.