On Tuesday, June 25, Julius Rone, the Managing Director and Group Chief Executive Officer of UTM Offshore Limited, UTMOL, will celebrate his 50th birthday in a blaze of glory. In the build-up to the celebration of his joining the coveted club of quinquagenarians, his heart has been filled with joy, and everyone around him shares in his joy. For the man famously called The King of Gas, his 50th birthday will be enthusiastically celebrated and treasured. It is a once-in-a-lifetime event that signifies a huge milestone in his life.
Therefore, if he chooses to seek seclusion in a room inside his palatial mansion just so that he can pour out his mind in gratitude to God for lavishing His favours on him since birth, he should be allowed to freely embark on that spiritual exercise. And who would blame him for dedicating the day totally to God, if he has to, because death is almost as cheap as a sachet of pure water in this country?
But Rone, who has an infectious sense of hospitality, spares no expense in meeting family members, business associates, friends, and employees on that day. It was gathered that the day will not all be about eating continental dishes and sipping exotic drinks, as many of those whose paths have crossed in life will use the occasion to pour encomiums on the man who is said to understand the spirit and letter of friendship.
Rone has done well for himself since his UTM Offshore Limited was incorporated in July 2012, a situation that has always made him a subject of interesting discourse among his contemporaries and even competitors. He made history when the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) issued his company the license to establish the first floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) production plant in the country. Even though fate has positioned him in a privileged position, Delta State-born Rone is still as humble as they come.
In his inspiration struggles, he never fails to gladden the hearts of his beautiful wife and mother of his lovely kids, Utibe Rone (Nee Umoh). For him, the journey to fame began when he worked as a protocol assistant at OMPADEC from 1995 to 2000 and later as a protocol assistant to a former Chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, between 2000 and 2008.