By Dan McCue
As a professor of petroleum economics and policy research at Louisiana State University's Center for Energy Studies, Omowumi "Wumi" Iledare is helping to prepare the next generation of oil and gas professionals for the challenges and opportunities the Gulf of Mexico.
In that role he offers students a comprehensive view encompassing everything from exploration to plugging and abandonment to the future of the world's energy mix. At the same time, the Nigerian petroleum engineer, offers them a first-hand, one-of-a-kind perspective on energy markets stretching from the West Africa coast to the Asia Pacific.
In addition to his work at the Center for Energy Studies, Iledareis an adjunct professor of petroleum economics at the Craft & Hawkins Department of Petroleum Engineering at Louisiana State University and the University of Ibadan, and a visiting professor of petroleum economics at the Institute of Petroleum Studies (IPS) in the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and to the African University of Science and Technology (AUST), Nigeria.
He holds a B.Sc. degree in petroleum engineering with honors from University of Ibadan, Nigeria, an M.S. in energy resources with emphasis on oil and gas economics from the University of Pittsburgh's School of Engineering, and a Ph.D. in mineral economics with emphasis on oil and gas economics from West Virginia University.
Over the years, Iledare has specialized in global oil and gas industry structure, conduct, and performance analysis; oil and gas exploration and production economics and policy research; the environmental effects of oil and gas exploration and production; taxation and regulation of the oil and gas industry; and refinery and petrochemical economics and policy.
Prior to joining the faculty at the LSU Center for Energy Studies, Iledare worked as a petroleum/reservoir engineer for Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) in Nigeria and as a reservoir/production engineer trainee for Mobil Producing Nigeria (MPN). He also worked briefly as an energy specialist with the California Energy Commission, Sacramento.
Iledare is a Senior Fellow of the United States Association for Energy Economics (USAEE) and the 2008 USAEE President.
He is also an outstanding member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).

You've played such varied roles in the oil and gas industry, I wonder if you had any kind of master plan when you got into the business?
"Master plan"? No. I am from Nigeria originally, and initially went to school there, studying petroleum engineering... then I came the United States, going to school first in Pittsburgh, Pa., and then West Virginia, studying different facts of the industry. If anything I'd say I was trying to create a niche for myself looking at the global industry.