BP to pay up to $18.7bn for Deepwater settlement; is BP in takeover play?
BP agrees to pay up to $18.7bn over 18 years as part of a settlement regarding the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which killed 11 people and caused one of the largest environmental disasters in US history.&nbsp; Earlier this month, BP agreed to pay $4.5bn and pleaded guilty to 11 counts of misconduct or neglect of ship officers.&nbsp; Investec has insinuated that BP&rsquo;s decision to resolve most of its overhanging liabilities is making it attractive to new investors or even as a takeover target.&nbsp; ExxonMobil and Chevron are considered to be the most suitable contenders.
In a nutshell: I grew up in Canada and went to the Royal Military College. After my service I joined Husky Oil and started my career as a bit of a roughneck for four years.

What are your professional qualifications and where did you do your studies?

I studied for a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical at the Royal Military College of Canada and as a result ended up owing them a commitment of four years.

What is your earliest oil & gas memory?

Working with Husky pumping and drilling wells in Saskatchewan before eventually moving to Indonesia.

What made you choose oil and gas as a career?

During my four years in the military I spent a lot of time in Calgary, watching the oil and gas guys drilling wells and so on, and just thought that is the life for me.

What has been your most enjoyable posting/contract?

In my case Indonesia has always been my first love. I realised that the country brought the best out in me as far as the ability to do something. My biggest love is basically the gas industry in Indonesia.

What has been your most embarrassing professional moment?

I’ll say the most dissappointing moment was when I headed up a farmout on a major exploration play near Sumatra. We farmed it out to the Japanese and the target was one well and it was a big elephant. We got excited when we got the mud up as there was a pressure increase, the zone was perfect but then the well test engineer couldn’t light the flare. Four hours later he rang back and said we had 82% carbon dioxide in 17 tcf. So we still had 1.8 tcf of gas but it was stuck in the middle of this other stuff.

What has been your scariest professional moment?

My scariest professional moment was probably my first job. I didn’t know anything about the oil and gas industry, I was an army offficer. Husky hired me because I had a leadership track record. The day after I got out of uniorm I bought two pairs of jeans, drove 300km out of Calgary and was in the oil patch. I had never even seen an oil rig. The only way I got through it is that I kept my mouth shut.

What has been your greatest sharemarket success? When Conoco bought Gulf Canada they inherited 28% of Gulf Indonesia and I was given the task to mount the defence against Conoco on behalf of the minority shareholders or to negotiate the best deal we could. We analysed the company added a few things up and realised the company hadn’t seen north of $9 for over two years. Eventually we sold it north of $12.

What has been your worst investment in the sharemarket?

I will just say backing the 17tcf of carbon dioxide in Indonesia.

Who or what has been your biggest career influence?

My father was definately my biggest influence. At the age of 52 he packed up the family (four kids) and sold his hardware store to go back to university and study his masters in teaching. That set the whole family on our nomadic wanderings because after what he did nothing seemed too hard.

What do you see as being the greatest exploration development during your career?

We discovered gas in Indonesia by accident when we were looking for oil. So we sat down and analysed everything and said where can we find gas again. We picked a spot, ran some 2D and eventually we discovered 12.5 bcf. So I would say a bit of gut instinct and trusting your knowledge.

Do you have any unfulfilled ambitions?

In my case I would definately say the reality far exceeds my wildest expectations. I have seen the world, I have been a president of an oil company and had a great role in Indonesia. The only thing I haven’t done is learnt the skills to run a small company which is what I am doing now at Nido, so this is my unfulfilled ambition.

You have spent time in many different countries, have you ever had any language difficulties while abroad?

When you go to Indonesia the first thing you do is take Indonesian lessons just to earn a bit of respect from the locals. But then you realise that in the oil industry in Indonesia english is the first language of business and they would all prefer to use english than have me crucify their language. I had a lot of respect for the locals as I realised that everyone I met spoke at least one more language than me.

What is your proudest achievement?

Developing the gas market in Indonesia. On August 9th this year a group of Indonesian colleges got 2.3 tcf of gas under contract from Sumatra to Jakarta and it is going to replace diesel being burned in industry.