Susan Ochi Makut Bags Nigeria Technology Awards as Most Outstanding Oil & Gas Facilities Engineering Executive of the Year

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Read History Go to My Account Log Out Enhanced by Google News Susan Ochi Makut Bags Nigeria Technology Awards as Most Outstanding Oil & Gas Facilities Engineering Executive of the Year As Nigeria’s upstream petroleum regulator presses oil producers to eliminate routine gas flaring by 2030, a Nigerian engineer whose work

Listen to this article Share As Nigeria’s upstream petroleum regulator presses oil producers to eliminate routine gas flaring by 2030, a Nigerian engineer whose work has helped reduce flaring at three oil and gas facilities in the United States and avert more than US$7 million in regulatory penalties in Nigeria has received national recognition for her contributions to facilities engineering.

Susan Ochi Makut, a senior facilities engineering professional with Chevron, has been named the Most Outstanding Oil & Gas Facilities Engineering Executive of the Year 2025 at the Nigeria Technology Awards (NiTA), following engineering achievements spanning the company’s operations in Nigeria and the United States.

Her recognition comes at a time when Nigeria’s petroleum industry faces mounting pressure to improve operational efficiency, strengthen infrastructure reliability and reduce greenhouse gas emissions without compromising crude oil and natural gas production.

In July 2025, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission outlined a gas-focused energy transition strategy aimed at eliminating routine flaring by 2030 and reducing methane emissions by 60% by 2031.

Meeting those objectives will require investment in gas infrastructure alongside improvements in plant design, process automation, equipment reliability and emissions management, areas in which Ms. Makut has developed considerable professional experience.

Speaking at the award ceremony, Dr Felix C. Nnuji, Event Director of the Nigeria Technology Awards, praised Ms Makut’s engineering accomplishments across Chevron’s Nigerian and American operations, particularly her contributions to operational safety, infrastructure reliability and emissions reduction.

“Susan Ochi Makut’s achievements demonstrate the standard of technical excellence and professional leadership the Nigeria Technology Awards seeks to celebrate. Her career reflects a consistent ability to deliver results in demanding oil and gas environments, from leading critical crude oil storage tank calibration and infrastructure upgrades in Nigeria to improving process safety, operational efficiency and emissions management in the United States. Particularly significant is her contribution to a project that helped avert more than US$7 million in regulatory penalties while maintaining uninterrupted production. Her work shows how engineering expertise translates into measurable operational and economic value. We are pleased to recognise her contributions to the petroleum industry with the Most Outstanding Oil & Gas Facilities Engineering Executive of the Year 2025 award,” Dr Nnuji said.

For Ms Makut, whose career has taken her from Chevron’s Escravos operations in Delta State to the Permian Basin in the United States, the recognition represents a milestone in years of work addressing complex engineering challenges at petroleum production and processing facilities.

Reacting to the honour, she described the award as one of the happiest moments of her professional life.

“I am overwhelmed with happiness. I have given the best years of my career to facilities engineering, and to see that work celebrated on a national stage in Nigeria, where my journey began, is a dream come true. This award belongs to every woman who has stood on an offshore platform or a terminal jetty and been made to feel she does not belong there,” she said.

Ms Makut’s career took shape at Chevron Nigeria Limited, where she served as a Facilities and Terminal Engineer in the company’s Nigeria Mid-Africa Business Unit at Escravos. There, she worked on engineering assignments involving crude oil storage, terminal operations, equipment integrity and regulatory compliance, areas critical to maintaining safe and reliable petroleum production.

Among her major achievements was leading the calibration of six crude oil storage tanks using non-intrusive electro-optical distance-ranging technology, commonly known as EODR. The technique allowed the storage facilities to be measured without removing them from service, avoiding the production disruptions often associated with conventional tank calibration exercises.

According to her professional profile, the project restored regulatory compliance and helped avert penalties exceeding US$7 million while recording no safety incidents or production losses.

Accurate crude oil measurement remains an important issue in Nigeria’s petroleum industry, where discrepancies in storage volumes affect regulatory reporting, commercial transactions and accountability for produced and exported hydrocarbons.

The successful completion of the calibration exercise without interrupting production addressed both the technical and financial demands of petroleum terminal operations.

Ms. Makut also led the repair and upgrade of the 400,000-barrel Escravos crude Tank 8, delivering the project a full quarter ahead of schedule without serious injuries or fatalities. The assignment involved maintaining the integrity of critical petroleum storage infrastructure while managing engineering, operational and safety requirements.

Her responsibilities extended beyond crude oil storage. At the Escravos Gas Plant, she contributed to a team that completed an offshore bypass project in less than ten months ahead of the 2023 turnaround, sustaining uninterrupted gas supply to the Nigerian Gas Infrastructure Company, the West African Gas Pipeline Company and other regional markets.

The project helped protect gas deliveries during a major maintenance period, demonstrating the importance of engineering planning in maintaining energy supply across interconnected infrastructure.

Ms. Makut said the experience gained at Escravos shaped her professional approach to facilities engineering.

“Those years at Escravos shaped everything I am as an engineer. We had to deliver accuracy and compliance without stopping production or putting anyone at risk. Every barrel that is measured, stored and shipped carries the trust of regulators, partners and communities. When I heard about this award, my mind went straight back to those days on the tank farm and at the gas plant, and it told me the sleepless nights were worth it,” she said.

Her career subsequently took her to Chevron’s Mid-Continent Business Unit in the United States, where she works as a Facilities Engineer in the Permian Basin, one of America’s major oil and natural gas producing regions. There, her engineering responsibilities have focused on process safety, operational efficiency, equipment reliability and emissions reduction.

Her professional record identifies Collier, Coronado and Billy Miner 2 as facilities where she contributed to sustained reductions in gas flaring. She also helped convert inlet process controls from manual to automatic operation, improving the management of gas flows and reducing flaring, venting and production losses.

The improvements address a recurring challenge in oil and gas production, where changes in pressure, flow rates and equipment conditions require effective control systems to maintain stable operations. By improving automation and gas handling, facilities engineers help operators recover more usable gas while reducing unnecessary emissions and operational disruptions.

Ms. Makut’s responsibilities in the United States have also included process hazard assessments and the resolution of outstanding safety recommendations.

Her professional profile records that she evaluated and closed assigned process safety recommendations ahead of schedule, contributing to improved compliance and operational risk management.

Her work on the 2024 Billy Miner 2 process hazard analysis earned her a PHA Excellence Award, recognising her contributions to identifying and addressing potential hazards in petroleum operations. These achievements carry particular relevance for Nigeria, where routine gas flaring continues to present economic, environmental and regulatory challenges.

For decades, petroleum producers have faced criticism over the burning of associated natural gas, a practice that wastes potentially valuable energy resources and contributes to greenhouse gas emissions.

Nigeria’s efforts to eliminate routine flaring require stronger gas gathering, processing and transportation infrastructure, alongside improvements in how production facilities operate.

Ms. Makut’s work in the Permian Basin reflects the practical role facilities engineers play in addressing those challenges through process automation, equipment reliability and improved operational controls.

Her contributions also extend into academic research examining the technical challenges affecting petroleum infrastructure. She has authored and co-authored over 50 scholarly publications addressing gas gathering and vapour recovery systems, front-end engineering design, process safety management, offshore equipment reliability and floating production facilities.

Among her research contributions is a study examining gas gathering and vapour recovery systems for reducing flaring at onshore petroleum facilities, a subject directly relevant to Nigeria’s efforts to improve associated gas management.

Her broader research explores how engineering decisions made during facility design and operation influence equipment performance, maintenance requirements, safety and environmental outcomes.

These studies reflect an emphasis on preventing operational problems through improved engineering design, risk assessment and maintenance planning.

Beyond her research and engineering responsibilities, Ms. Makut has accumulated an extensive record of professional recognition.

Her latest recognition at the Nigeria Technology Awards draws attention to Nigerian engineering professionals whose work extends across international energy operations.

The award also highlights the contributions of women working in technical roles within an industry where engineering leadership has historically been dominated by men.

For Ms. Makut, the honour carries significance beyond professional recognition.

She said she intends to use the award to encourage more young Nigerian women to pursue careers in engineering and take on demanding technical responsibilities in the energy sector.

“I want every girl studying engineering in Nigeria to see this and know that she can do it too, and do it brilliantly. My happiness will be complete when I see more women leading major energy projects. I will keep mentoring, keep innovating and keep raising the standard of safety in everything I do,” she said.

As Nigeria works towards its 2030 routine gas-flaring elimination target, the recognition underscores the importance of engineering expertise in improving petroleum infrastructure, reducing operational disruptions and managing environmental risks.

For Ms. Makut, the journey from Escravos to the Permian Basin reflects a career built around addressing the technical demands of petroleum production, from maintaining accurate crude oil measurements and upgrading storage infrastructure to improving process safety and reducing emissions.

Her recognition by NiTA brings attention to the work of facilities engineers whose decisions influence how safely petroleum operations are conducted, how efficiently resources are managed and how reliably energy infrastructure performs.