Austin Avuru

LAGOS APRIL 2ND (URHOBOTODAY)-Austin Avuru is the Founder and Executive Chairman of AA Holdings.  A Geologist by training who  spent over 40 years in the Nigerian oil and gas sector and was Managing Director of Platform Petroleum Limited and in 2010 became the pioneer CEO of Seplat Ltd, a company he co-founded.
Under his leadership, Seplat was dually listed on the London Stock Exchange and Nigeria Stock Exchange. He retired as CEO of Seplat in 2020 and remains on the Board. He is also the Chairman of AA Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to creating social-economic change in education and healthcare.

He is a fellow and past President of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE), a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and recipient of the Aret Adams Award. He is the author of “Politics, Economics & the Nigerian Petroleum Industry” and co-author of “Nigerian Petroleum Business, A Handbook”. He won the 2013 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the year award in the Master class category for Nigeria & the West African Sub-region.

Born in 1958 in Ipetu-Ijesha in what is now Osun state to parents who hailed from Abbi in what is now Delta state, Austin, as he is fondly called, began his education in a most auspicious manner. He left primary school with distinction then proceeded to Orogun Grammar School from where he passed out in 1975 with Division 1 in a class of 118 students. His result was so good that Austin Avuru was retained by the school, at the ripe old age of 17, to teach Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology.

He proceeded, subsequently, to the University of Nsukka where his academic trajectory was no less stellar despite his many extra-curricular activities as Leader of the Student’s Union Parliament 1978/79; Member of the University Debate Team 1978-80; and President of the University Graduating class of 1980. Austin graduated with a  B.Sc (Second Class Upper)  degree in Geology from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka even though he always found time to attend literary events with Prof. Chinua Achebe, Gbubemi Amas and many others at Anthill. He was, what many would call, a well-rounded student.

Three years after graduating, Avuru undertook a course at the E&E Training school at the Petroleum Training Institute, Warri. Out of a class of 36 Geologists and Petroleum Engineers, Austin Avuru emerged not just the Overall Best but also Best in Geology, Best in Geophysics and Best in Petroleum Engineering.

Even as a young Manager, Austin Avuru’s dedication to duty, his unparalleled brilliance and shining leadership qualities were recognized in 1989 when he was honoured with the NNPC GMD’s Merit Award for “Outstanding Performance and Distinguished Professional and Leadership Qualities.”

Ever questing after knowledge and perennially seeking to better himself, Austin Avuru proceeded to the University of Ibadan for a Post Graduate Diploma in Petroleum Engineering and once again, his path was paved with the cobble stones of excellence. He finished with 7 As and 3 B+s as well as the honour of “Best Graduating Student” in the Petroleum Engineering class of 1992.

Appointed the Chief Executive Officer of Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc since May 1, 2010, he has served as its Managing Director leading the nascent company formed as an SPV by Shebah and Platform from the conclusion of the divestment from Shell to a dual listing on both the Nigerian and London stock exchanges and upward to its enviable position as Nigeria’s pre-eminent independent which was recently migrated to the Premium board of the NSE after just four years of listing.

Oil industry practitioners regard Austin Avuru as an outstanding professional whose career trajectory has seen him wear a many-plumed hat as Wellsite Geologist, Production Seismologist and Reservoir Engineer at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) where his early career took off. Legend has it that as a youth corps staff at NNPC, Austin Avuru was supervising permanent staff who were attached to him as trainee Well Site Geologists.

After 12 years at the NNPC with working attachment stints at Shell and Chevron where his work was adjudged excellent, Austin Avuru joined Kase Lawal’s Allied Energy Resources, a pioneer indigenous deep water Operator, where he worked for the next ten years as Exploration Manager and General Manager, Technical.

It is instructive to pause and reflect on Austin Avuru’s relationship with some of his bosses and superiors in order to gain a firm handle on his work ethic, respect for superiors and on-going successes.

Two men come to mind. Two men who nurtured his entrepreneurial drive, provided oil and gas industry mentorship and sharpened his intellectual acumen. They are the aforementioned Kase Lawal, whose Allied Energy must have opened the young Austin Avuru’s eyes to the potential inherent in entrepreneurship and Macaulay Agbada Ofurhie who was Avuru’s boss at NNPC and now a Non-Executive Director at Seplat.

When Austin Avuru speaks about these men in formal and informal settings it is always with respect and a healthy dose of something approaching awe thus highlighting the need to pay homage to bosses and mentors; the same deference that many in the industry now show to Austin Avuru who has become a genial avuncular figure and bonafide mentor.

In 2002, Austin Avuru founded Platform Petroleum Limited and became the Pioneer Managing Director. In setting up Platform, Avuru assembled an impressive team of industry professionals to help realise his dream and they had achieved some significant success as a marginal field operator before the big opportunity came knocking following a spate of divestments by IOCs and Austin Avuru left to set up Seplat in 2010.

A versatile, cerebral and highly regarded professional with over 35 years’ experience in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, Avuru is a much sought after speaker, a Fellow and past President of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) and author of two books: “Politics, Economics & the Nigerian Petroleum Industry” as well as “Nigerian Petroleum Business, a Handbook” which he co-authored. Mr. Avuru’s intellectual sagacity and brilliance has earned him numerous academic laurels.

Thus, with the above recitation, it will interest readers to know that President Bola Tinubu’s  appointment of Austin Avuru  as one of the eleven new members of the  Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) board  perfectly suit the saying of “A Round Peg In A Round Hole”.

Report culled from Vanguard

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