Magda Nour El Din is Head of Geological Services at Shell Egypt. She talks to ‘Shell in the Middle East’ about her background, her career as a bio-stratigrapher and her current work...

“I was born in Alexandria, I have one sister and three brothers and I am the eldest. My father was a General in the Egyptian Army but sadly he has passed on. My mother did not go out to work but she was, of course, very busy bringing up children.

I started school in a French convent in Alexandria but at the age of seven my family moved to Cairo and I joined the Arabic system. After school I went to Ain Shams University in Cairo, where I studied geology, chemistry, mathematics and physics. However, my true love was geology and my goal was to spend my life working as a geologist. At university I was a champion fencer with the foil - or ‘shish’ in Arabic. I enjoyed it very much but did not carry on the sport after leaving university.

From university I joined the General Petroleum Company [GPC], which was then Egypt’s only national petroleum company. At that time we carried out geological studies for foreign companies which did not have their own specialist staff in the field in Egypt.

I stayed at GPC for almost 13 years, during which time I married my husband, Mohamed Lamei, who worked as a civil engineer for the Egyptian Drilling Company [EDC]. Mohamed now has his own business, mainly carrying out construction activities for companies in the oil sector. We have three daughters, who have graduated from The American University in Cairo. Aya is a civil engineer, preparing for her PhD in water resources with the Delft Institute in Holland, whilst she lives in Paris. Marwa and Youssra are also civil engineers working with their father, although Marwa is interested in interior design and she is progressing with her Master’s Degree in this field.

When I left GPC I was working as a senior bio-stratigrapher and Shell had an opening for that position. I applied and got the job and have now been at Shell for over 20 years. A bio-stratigrapher is someone who determines the age of rock strata using fossils to date the strata.

After four years with Shell in Egypt I was offered a position as a stratigrapher with Petroleum Development Oman [PDO] – a company in which Shell is a shareholder - and I was the first Shell Egyptian secondee to get a job at PDO. At that time, I moved only with my three children because, unfortunately, my husband could not get a residence visa and was only allowed to come and see us on visit visas. I was told that a wife should follow her husband and be on his visa – not the other way round!

Despite this, I did enjoy my time in Oman, and when I returned to Shell Egypt I was appointed as Head of Geological Laboratories, a position I held for 12 years. After that I was promoted to Head of Geological Services, a post I still hold today.

Following my move to my present position, the laboratory reduced most of its in-house analyses and the work was put out to contractors in Egypt and overseas. Part of my role is to select and manage those contractors.

I have also started to work in geochemistry, which is a relatively new field for me, and have taken up the role and responsibilities of an exploration geochemist. This discipline deals with the occurrence, source and maturity of crude oil and natural gas.

After 21 years with Shell I still enjoy what I do - otherwise I would have gone home long ago! I am learning something new every day and I am proud to have worked for Shell for such a long time. Like all big companies, Shell may have its faults but it is still a very good employer. I do my job, they pay me well and I am satisfied.