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Jean-Jacques
BASSAFOULA
Congolese citizen
Exploration & Production Branch, Pointe
Noire, Congo. Operations Superintendent.
Scientific Baccalaureate followed by a two-year
university course in Chemicals.
Has been working on the Group’s onshore
and offshore operations for nearly 23 years
now. Also spent a spell in Maintenance.
When I was younger, I wanted to be a pilot
or a doctor. But I wanted to work in the
oil industry back then, too! When I was
still at University, back in 1982, I heard
Elf was recruiting and I sent in an application.
I went through the recruitment tests and
interviews, and got a job with the Group
that same year.
Training and development.
I started out as an operator. My integration
period involved a three-month theory course
followed by a six-month companionship at
Djeno, an onshore terminal, and on offshore
platforms. Then I spent a few years working
with senior operators on the Yanga and Sendji
offshore platforms.
I was appointed Operator in Chief of the
Tchibouela platform in 1987, and worked
there from the start of the project until
its commissioning. In 1991, I took a four-month
course at ENSPM in Pau, France, then went
back to Congo to work on one of the “old”
reservoirs, Emeraude, as Foreman.
Then I went back to France with a contingent
of 20 Congolese operators to prepare the
start up of the installations on the Nkossa,
a barge producing oil, LPG, and providing
high-pressure water and gas injection. That
one-year programme began with courses in
training centres in Pau and Boussens run
by professors from Toulouse IUT, and then
in sites specialising in safety training
(Miramas, Vernon and Marseilles marine fire
brigades) and ended up off Fos sur Mer,
on the barge we were going to commission.
Overall, it lasted a year. My job was to
prepare the barge and then to bring it back
to Congo. We got here after 43 days at sea,
commissioned it, and I worked on it for
four years.
Development tools.
Then I moved to an office job, to run two
platforms and to oversee the laying of the
62-km-long pipeline between them and the
onshore terminal. At that time, a new platform
project, Moho Bilondo, came up, and I was
appointed its Onshore Operations Correspondent.
But I missed offshore operations, and wound
up on a platform again before being promoted
to Operations Superintendent in the summer
of 2004!
Looking back, I’m quite proud of my
career. I wanted to grow and evolve within
the Group. I’ve climbed the ladder,
and I’ve been in management since
1992, because the Group gave me the tools
I needed to do so, and because I took the
opportunities at the right time.
Projects and priorities.
Human Resources is well organised today.
There are career-development plans and there
is mobility management. Young people joining
the Group have lots of opportunities waiting
for them.
Speaking personally, I have no regrets,
even if I never had an expatriation experience.
I nearly did, but the project was postponed.
But I’ve still been able to travel
a lot to France for training courses and
for project-safety meetings (project technical
revues, etc.). And the doors haven’t
closed yet. I’m still thinking ahead
because I think I can serve as Plant Manager.
However, from a personal point of view,
an exciting project starting from scratch
would rank higher on my list of preferences.
Maybe even serving as an expatriate if the
project involves doing so!
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