Dominic grew up, not with a silver spoon in his mouth, but with a resolve to succeed through hardwork. And thus, armed with this desire, Dominic, from his school days in Pope John’s Secondary School and St.Augustine’s College where he had his Secondary and Sixth-Form education respectively, planned his life meticulously, knowing very well that the only short -cut to the top was through hardwork, good planning and perseverance.
Exhibiting traits of precocity, Dominic’s academic progression seemed to have been fast-tracked, as right from his Sixth-Form education, he gained admission to pursue his Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering at the University College of London and thereafter, a Master’s programme in Petroleum Engineering at the Imperial College in the UK.
Now sitting in a plush office and occupying a central position as the Senior Reservoir Engineer at Tullow Ghana ltd., Dominic’s  decision to, says of his success, “forgo a lot of life’s niceties” in order to achieve his dream seems to have paid off.
What it takes to be a Senior Reservoir Engineer in a world-class oil company
Having worked in the petroleum industry for the past 14 years with working stints in such countries as the UK,Angola,Saudi Arabia,Norwey, Nigeria among others, Dominic considers his rise to his current position as, not a fluke, but through hardwork.He started his career working for, as he says, “a small company” in the UK, he then moved to Schlumberger, Petro-Canada, Sonangol and then Tullow, UK.Whilst working for Tullow UK, he founded his own Consultancy Firm called NOSC Ltd.which run consultancy services for companies in the Oil industry.

Though Dominic concedes that luck, to some extent, played a part in his meteoritic rise, he insists that “right attitude and hardwork” are the main ingredients in every man’s success. “You would have to take your destiny into your own hands”, he says, implying that even with a good background and environment, if one is not ready and determined to work hard, success would elude him/her.

What is a Senior Reservoir Engineer’s work?

“A Senior Reservoir Engineer’s work involves the day-to-day management of the oil field”, Dominic reveals. Thus for this oil engineer whose judgment could  break or make a giant oil company, his unalloyed interest in Chemistry as an academic discipline  is not enough to inform the major decisions he has to take. This has spurred him on to expand his purview in other academic disciplines.
Working with the geologists, Dominic has to analyze and assess available data in order to make informed decisions to his superiors on “how certain the estimates of the quantity of oil in the ground is; how much oil is taken out at any given time and rate; how much oil is left; and how long it will take to exhaust the reserve”, among other critical decisions. Effectively, the life of an oil reserve or well depends on the judgment of the senior reservoir engineer.

His philosophy in life

Born in Accra, this well-travelled engineer who speaks fluent Portuguese and French among other languages believes the only way to always stay ahead in the game is “to be proactive”. Little surprise that he gets to the office as early as 6:30 am to prepare for the day, brainstorming on issues and pre-empting the possible issues that might be raised by his superiors in the course of the day.

Family, Future and Advice to the Youth

That clichéd expression that “behind every successful man is a woman” seems to be at play in Dominic’s life, as he gleefully responds to a question about his family, “yeah, I’m married with three lovely kids”. Though one would have expected a man with this specialized level of expertise to be angling to be in the employ of  the government, Dominic believes in working for himself and thus looks up to a time when he would have contributed his quota to Tullow and then move on to work for himself.
He believes in hardwork and thus admonishes the youth not to worry about their circumstances but “to keep working hard” and shelve the fun for the future. He believes getting to his current position “is not a big deal, because everybody can do it”.
Though Dominic would not want to stand on top of the roof and sing about his story because of his sheer modesty, his story says one thing: it is easy to dream, but a daunting task to achieve your goals if you don’t possess the mental toughness and focus of a Dominic Agyapong.