Meet Eng. Mayom Kuir: The PetroQuest Oil & Gas Magazine Engineer of the Month for January 2020

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Born in Kongor in a small village of Pakuor near Pawel, Eng. Mayom Kuir hails from the former Jonglei State, Twi East County. His early childhood, like the most of South Sudanese youngsters during the Sudanese Civil War was a turbulent one. With the massive recruitment into the Army, Mr. Mayom was not of age to be recruited into the army at the time.

“We were not at the age they required in army training until 1999 where everyone aged 14 years old and above were conscripted into the military training” recalls Mr. Mayom.

Despite the civil war, Mr. Mayom opted for education as his priority without even knowing what he would become in the future. This was due to the motivation he has received after getting first position in his class which became his motives regardless of school hardship at the time. He has maintained his pursuit of education since that time until he completed A-Level in Maraca Secondary School in Arua District.

Mr. Mayom was a medical student at the University of Upper Nile in Khartoum when he made a shift of career following scholarship to study in Malaysia.

Eng. Mayom Kuir

Mayom won the Malaysian International Scholarship which he came across while browsing internet at an internet café in Khartoum in 2007. After having doubted the authenticity of the opportunity, he set out to confirm with the Malaysian Embassy prior to applying.

“I went to Malaysian Embassy in Khartoum to confirm if this scholarship was true. They confirmed that it was true and encouraged me to try my luck if I may meet the requirements.”

Eng. Mayom Kuir who currently works with Schlumberger as an international staff had an amazing career since graduating at University Selangor commonly known as UNiSEL as a Mechanical Engineer. During his university time, Eng. Mayom was very active in student co-curriculum activities where he was appointed as the president of international students’ society in UNiSEL and the first elected president of the newly formed South Sudanese Students Association in Malaysian Universities commonly known as SSSAMU in 2009.

After completing his studies at UNiSEL, Eng. Mayom won a job offer with Schlumberger following a competitive selection process from a pool of about 80 candidates. Eng. Mayom was posted to Norway as an international Mobile Engineer Trainee. After starting off as junior engineer, Eng. Mayom worked on several projects in the North Sea alongside multiple oversea assignments including Venezuela, Egypt, Qatar, Kuwait, Dubai, Gabon, Senegal, Mauritania and South Sudan.

Eng. Mayom was inspired by another Engineer by the name of Deng Diar Manyok whom he came across in 2012 when Eng. Deng was running his construction company at the time.

With the enormous training and the technical expertise, Eng. Mayom, sees himself running Operations & Management position at least for the next two years. He hopes he can take up any national call of duty to participate in collective building of South Sudan oil and gas industry when it is the right time to do so.

 “When a national call for duty comes my way, I will view it as a recognition to share my expertise that I have gathered around the world in some rather tough environments handling complicated jobs, with South Sudan in the capacity I am deemed fit” Says Eng. Mayom

This interview was conducted in recognition of Mr. Mayom achievements. PetroQuest Oil & Gas Magazine is honoured to present him with the Engineer of the Month Award which is an award given to South Sudan own outstanding engineers in the oil and gas industry. You can read full interview in our quarter one expected in the second week of March.