Senior Centrica Energy executive and former ConocoPhillips executive Colette Cohen is to lead Aberdeen's new Oil & Gas Technology Centre (OGTC).
The organization, backed by industry stalwart Sir Ian Wood's Wood Foundation, is setting out to make Aberdeen a "got to global center for solving offshore mature basin, subsea and decommissioning technology challenges."
Sir Ian, former head of Wood Group and the author of a major report on the state of the North Sea industry in 2014, says Aberdeen is a strong operations center and service center, but that to maintain its relevance in the future it had to establish itself also as a technology center for the oil and gas industry.
Announcing the appointment this morning, Sir Ian said the OGTC would have solutions centers focused on solving the main industry challenges set out by the Technology Leadership Board (TLB). These are small pools, reducing drilling costs and asset integrity, as well as decommissioning and digital technology. The body will also work with established centers of excellence in the UK, such as the National Composites Centre, as well as helping set up others. It will also incorporate a supply chain technology accelerator.
These will also be supported, it is hoped, by £180 million (US$239 million) Scottish and UK Government funding, via the Aberdeen City Region Deal, and industry match funding.
How existing organizations, such as the Industry Technology Facilitator, National Subsea Research Institute and the Oil and Gas Innovation Centre fit in with the new body is yet to be seen, with Sir Ian acknowledging there would be some overlap between the three organizations and OGTC. He said they would either become part of OGTC or would fit a particular niche, with the aim that there would be no duplication among the organizations.
Cohen, who has spent 25 years in the oil and gas industry and was latterly senior vice president for the UK and Netherlands region with Centrica’s upstream business, will take up the new post mid-August.
"I'm lucky I'm coming in at a time when we have a moment in our industry when there is a large momentum around collaboration. Industry and contractors, government and the regulator, and that's a powerful group. As an industry we have either been not interested or not proactive in reaching and to share ot co-fund activities when it's not in our own license block. Now we are looking at the aviation and aeronautical industries and seeing they have been very successful in this space."
She said Opportunity North East, a private sector body, helped secure funding for the Aberdeen region, and the Technology Leadership Board had set out key themes the industry needed focus on. What was needed was a vehicle to pursue them - hence setting up the OGTC.
It will be recruiting staff and premises in coming months, with an aim for 15-30 staff.
Cohen began her career as a petroleum engineer with BP and has worked in Aberdeen, Astana (Kazakhstan), Houston and Stavanger over the past 25 years in a variety of senior management roles with a strong technology focus. Before joining Centrica in 2013, she spent 15 years with ConocoPhillips, latterly as managing director of its Brittania Operator Limited joint venture with Chevron in the UK. She has been co-chair of the OGA’s North Sea Decommissioning Board, a member of the Technology Leadership Board and a member of the Board of Oil & Gas UK.
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