as an Operations Manager initially in Aberdeen and then in Great Yarmouth to run a project for Conoco and subsequently the Southern North Sea activities. Once this was established, he moved back to Aberdeen to manage the UK operations. In 1990 he was appointed Country Manager in Norway managing Scandinavian and Russia operations at a time of change following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. In 1994 he moved to Singapore as Vice President, Asia Pacific to turnaround a loss-making division. This involved creating a new team, a strong ethos, giving people clear direction and allowing them the scope to do their job properly. The business expanded significantly opening new operations in Australia, Bangladesh, India and Vietnam. After four years and following the acquisition of Western Atlas by Baker Hughes in 1998 Robert was asked to move to Houston as Vice President, Global Operations. In an oil price downturn and after 6 months in post, he persuaded the Board to split the business into Western and Eastern Hemisphere Operations. He and a colleague then each took responsibility for Global Operations and Sales in their respective hemispheres. By then the business employed 18000 people worldwide, with sales of $35 billion and some of this growth was coming from the move into integrated services where the oil companies were starting to contract out support services which might include drilling wells, managing infrastructure etc. After 30 months in this role, Robert was approached by a friend and former colleague who worked in private equity and was asked to join Vetco, an oil and gas business that had been bought from ABB in mid-2004. Robert joined in 2006 and in 2007 the subsea business was sold to GE and subsequently in 2008 the Aibel engineering and construction business was sold to a Norwegian Group by which time he had become the President of the holding company. Whilst not Roberts’ first introduction to private equity, his positive influence in funding business growth and restructure, was clearly demonstrated at Vetco Aibel. With new owners finding their feet, Robert was then invited by Credit Suisse to join Total Safety Inc. as Senior Vice President International Operations to improve global sales in the oil and gas sector. This was at the time of the Macondo incident in the Gulf of Mexico which accelerated their growth. A number of acquisitions were achieved including Z-Safety in Belgium, France, Germany and Netherlands. This was significant for Total Safety and gave them the direction they needed and once business had settled, Credit Suisse sold out in late 2011, which saw Robert take some
time out. Robert, a keen pilot, had some time to enjoy his passion for flying, making a trip around Africa and undertaking other memorable journeys.
for the subsea injection of dispersant; and to further assess the need for and feasibility of global containment solutions.
After a few months back at home, in late 2012, he was then approached about and subsequently joined as CEO of Oil Spill Response Limited in Feb 2013. This was a familiar name to him as when at Vetco Aibel his VP HSEQ had previously served on the Board of EARL (East Asia Response Limited) which subsequently merged with OSRL and by coincidence met his predecessor over dinner through a mutual friend. After a smooth handover he took the reins and it was apparent that Robert would be helping to navigate OSRL through considerable organisational and operational change.
The Oil Spill Response Joint Industry Project: to manage the recommendations on oil spill response – develop new recommended practices, improve understanding of oil spill response tools and methodologies and to enhance coordination between key stakeholders internationally.
Following the Macondo blowout in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010, the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP) created the “Global Industry Response Group (GIRG)”, to learn the lessons from the Macondo blowout and other similar events. Its work was divided
$700M in Capex to create well Capping
into three core areas:
PREVENTION: to improve drilling safety and reduce likelihood of a well control incident INTERVENTION: to decrease the time it takes to stop the flow from an uncontrolled well RESPONSE: to deliver effective oil spill response preparedness and capability
Robert working as a field engineer in the Middle East
OSRL have been heavily involved in all three groups. SWRP spawned OSRL’s Subsea Well Intervention Service (SWIS) which is in operation 24/7. Its members have invested stacks, Containment and Offset Installation Equipment and to provide infrastructure to support a robust response capability to ensure that in the unlikely event of a Macondo type incident, industry will be better prepared to respond. To ensure that industry has a broader more integrated capability the Global Subsea Response Network (GSRN) has been set up by OSRL to provide a more comprehensive group of companies that can provide the full gambit of services that maybe required during a subsea well incident. Naturally the Oil Spill Response Joint Industry Project has involved OSRL in considerable work with all of the major oil spill response organisation, this includes the Global Response Network which Robert chaired for three years. Large responses do not generally rely on one company responding to and dealing with the whole incident. To achieve a successful response requires a network of local and regionally based competent responders together with global resources to combine resources to quickly and efficiently deal with major incidents.
In May 2011, IOGP published GIRG’s comprehensive set of recommendations and proposed that three entities be created to manage and implement them.
The Wells Expert Committee (WEC): to analyse well incident report data and share lessons learned, advocate harmonized risk-based standards, communicate good practice, provide permanent improvement in well control teams’ competence and behaviours and promote continued improvement in BOP reliability and efficiency. The Subsea Well Response Project (SWRP): a consortium of operators to investigate, design and deliver improved capping response with a range of equipment for shutting down wells; to design additional hardware
OSRL has also spent much time working closely with IPIECA as part of the joint industry project updating IPIECA excellent and comprehensive good practice guides. Concurrent with this activity has been the introduction of a jet powered dispersant delivery system using 2 x Boeing 727 aircraft. Ambitious in concept it took time to deliver when the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) ruled that dispersants should be treated as flammable liquids. Being a pilot, Robert understood how the CAA have to ensure safety but found the delay to the project frustrating. The resolution came through a series of lengthy and costly engineering and safety studies which resulted in the certifying bodies recommending approval. This gives OSRL a tremendous aerial wide area dispersant capability with the previously contracted
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