Speakers

Wade Cherwayko is an international oil and gas executive with over 35 years of invaluable experience and knowledge working the  African E&P sector where he has successfully negotiated, acquired, developed and financed significant oil, gas, mining and power projects.

Mr Cherwayko graduated from Northern Arizona University with a degree in Geology. Wade started his African oil adventures in Nigeria 35 years ago when he formed partnerships with some of the first Nigerian indigenous oil companies including Amni Petroleum, were Wade’s company Abacan and Amni  developed the proven Ima Field and which included the conversion of a jack-up rig into a MOPU and an FSO, the field reached 48,000 bopd after the initial development by Abacan and Amni. Abacan also drilled the first successful exploration well on the Nigeria side of the Benin Basin on the Yinka Folawiyo block offshore Lagos.

Mr Cherwayko was also the  founder and a major shareholder of Mart Resources Inc., whom together with Midwestern Oil & Gas  developed  the Umusadege oil field onshore in Nigeria. Mr Cherwayko successfully over saw the project development and funding and was instrumental in bring the field to  38,000 barrels of oil per day and increase reserves from 4 million to 80 million barrels. Mart Resources was merged with Midwestern Oil & Gas in 2016.

Mr Cherwayko was also the  co-founder of Centurion Energy, which was a North African focused oil and gas development and production company, which was sold in 2009 to Dana Gas from the UAE for $950 million.

Wade was also the founder and CEO of Signet Petroleum, an African focused oil and gas exploration company, which held deepwater exploration assets in 4 African countries. Signet sold its Namibian exploration asset to Shell in 2014 for USD $95 Million and based on Signet’s initial seismic acquisitions and play-type generation, Shell drilled the significant Graff discovery, which opened up the Orange Basin and several new discoveries.