Engr. Joseph Ezeh Nwakwue was born in Umuahia, Abia State on April 14, 1970. He received the B.Eng and M.Eng degrees in Petroleum Engineering from the Federal University of Technology, Owerri in 1992 and 2019, and later obtained MBA at the Lincoln University, USA in 2009. Presently Lead Partner at Zera Advisory & Consulting, Lagos with over 30 years of Petroleum industry experience in private and public sector.

Engr. Nwakwue consults across the entire oil and gas value chain on technical, commercial and policy issues and has made significant contributions to the industry working on assets across the globe, across the technical disciplines of Well Engineering, Reservoir Engineering and Management, Workover planning and execution, Field and Production Operations, Metering, Data Management and technical computing. He has held several positions – Completions & Workover Engineer, Area Operations Engineer, Senior User Support Engineer, Reservoir Studies Engineer, Engineering Lead, Senior Engineering Specialist, Reservoir Engineering Advisor in ExxonMobil (MPN), General Manager, Technical and JPMT Subsurface Lead (COPDC Benin), and served as Special Adviser (Policy & Regulation) to Honorable Minister of state –Petroleum Resources (2017 – 2019).

Engr. Nwakwue has authored and co-authored several papers in the area of Well Engineering, Reservoir Engineering and Management, Gas Market development, Oil and Gas Policy, Industry governance and Regulation and made significant contributions to the development of the Nigeria’s national Oil, Gas and Fiscal policies, Midstream and Downstream Industry development, Petroleum Industry Act, Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialization Program, and many other Nigerian Oil and Gas sector reform initiatives. He has also served on several industry committees. Joe is an industry thought leader and engages across platforms dealing with industry challenges.

He is a COREN Registered Engineer. Fellow, the Nigerian Society of Engineers. Member, the Nigerian/International Association of Energy Economists and the Nigeria Gas Association. He was the 2020 Council Chairman, Society of Petroleum Engineers Nigeria. He also served as the Caretaker/Interim Chairman (2025) of the Nigerian Institution of Petroleum Engineers that revived the Petroleum Division of Nigerian Society of Engineers ushering in the present leadership.