11 January 2016
What are your strategic priorities and growth targets for the next 12-24 months?
Grow my company’s presence in Asia both in terms of trading of energy and securing associated investments in energy infrastructure.
Where do you see the greatest opportunity in the O&G market and how are you positioned to capture this opportunity?
Global LNG supply is expected to grow by some 140 MTPA by 2020. The LNG market is becoming more liquid and this offers opportunities for companies like my own to connect new markets with available supply while offering flexible pricing and risk management services.
What do you foresee as the greatest challenge to our industry's future growth?
Attracting and retaining talent during the low commodity cycle and ensuring a healthy influx of new graduates into our industry.
These are tough market conditions with depressed oil prices and global reductions in capex and workforce, what measures and practices are you putting in place to adapt to this new (but not unknown) working environment?
The role of an energy trading company is to connect Buyers and Sellers under any market conditions and ensure the stable supply of competitively priced energy. As a utility company we can play a role in helping develop downstream markets – this will be particularly important in encouraging the further penetration of natural gas in Asian markets at a time when the global LNG market becomes more liquid.
If you could wave a magic wand over the global industry, what would you change and why?
A true global gas price. A global gas price would encourage faster penetration of gas in energy markets, make it easier to finance new sources of gas supply and offer customers world-wide greater access to risk management tools.
How would you describe your company in once sentence to a new investor/client?
Leading utility company with a global energy trading platform.
You are attending our 2016 Asia Pacific Assembly, what is your goal at this event and what take-away(s) do you want attendees to go home with regarding your company and your work in Asia Pacific?
On 1 January I became an employee of Uniper, a company being spun-off from E.ON. I hope that the participants in the conference will come away with a greater awareness of the Uniper brand and the activities of our company.
How did you come to be in the O&G industry?
I joined Schlumberger in 1989 straight-out of university with the promise of an overseas adventure. Here I am 25 years and 11 countries later living in Singapore.
What is your proudest work-related achievement to date?
Being part of the commercial team which secured first sales of Russian LNG to Japan – it was a historic event.
What one businessman/women do you admire most and why?
Elon Musk. To have the vision and drive to change the established order of things for the benefit of humanity (and ultimately his shareholders).
What was the wisest advice you received from a mentor?
You have two ears and one mouth, use them proportionately.
What advice would you pass onto a recent graduate embarking on a career in O&G?
We are all economic migrants, be prepared to move overseas and go where the opportunities exist. Remember the Russian proverb, “he who doesn’t take risk does not drink champagne”.
How and where do you prefer to spend your spare time?
Enjoying the company of good friends over delicious food and fine wine, reading, studying Chinese and being outdoors.
What is your all-time favourite book?
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.
What is you all-time favourite film?
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
What three items would you take with you to a desert island?
Case of beer, a good book and a satellite phone.
About Andrew Seck
Dr. Seck was named Vice President LNG Marketing and Shipping in November 2016. He has more than 25 years of experience working in the international oil and natural gas industry and began his career as a wireline engineer working for Schlumberger. Following his doctoral studies, he spent eight years in Russia with Shell including an assignment with Sakhalin Energy Investment Company where he marketed the first sales of Russian LNG into Asia/Pacific. Following a corporate planning assignment with Shell in Houston, he joined Qatargas Operating Company Ltd. where he worked for almost six years as Assistant Director, LNG Marketing, East of Suez, with the responsibility for maintaining and growing Qatargas’ LNG sales portfolio throughout the Asia-Pacific region. At the beginning of 2015, he joined Uniper Global Commodities SE as Regional Head of LNG, Asia based in Singapore.
Dr. Seck holds a Ph.D. from the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy, University of Dundee, Scotland and a Bachelor of Science in geological engineering from Queen’s University, Canada.
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