14 November 2017

How did you come to be in the oil and gas industry?

Having chosen Chemical Engineering as a degree subject I looked at various industries to join. I was very lucky to receive a sponsorship from British Gas and joined British Gas E&P Ltd as a Graduate Trainee.

Where do you see the greatest opportunity in today’s global oil and gas markets and how are you positioned to capture this opportunity?

Ours is an industry full of opportunity, for players large and small. For my Company, which exemplifies the spirit of the Oil and Gas Authority’s strategy to Maximise Economic Recovery in the UK (MER UK), our biggest opportunity is best described as “MER World”. We have already exported our business model very successfully to Malaysia and aim to repeat that success.

If you could wave a magic wand over our industry, what would you change and why?

I would change two things. On the Operator side, I would end the proliferation of Company Standards which are better described as “Company Bespokes”. It’s time we had an agreed way of doing things to drive efficiency up and complexity down. On the Contractor side, I would aim to keep greater diversification and allow some of the SMEs to flourish longer before they are bought up by Tier 1 Contracting Companies.

What are the strategic priorities for your company in the next 12 months?

Our key priority is to complete the Kraken project – one of the largest ongoing developments in the North Sea and due onstream in H1 2017. Beyond that, following our Restructuring and Capital raise, our aim is to deleverage the Company significantly. Meanwhile we will continue to focus on operational excellence in our running business.

What takeaways would you like attendees at World Oil & Gas Week to go home with regarding your company and your work?

It’s a seminal time for the industry and vital for all that we see greater capital inflows to drive activity. Operators and the Supply Chain need to show continued progress and clear evidence that waste is being eliminated sustainably and that our industry is making material inroads to lower break-even oil prices to improve our investment proposition. We hope that EnQuest’s work in the North Sea and Malaysia provides such evidence.

What is your proudest work-related achievement to date?

I am proud of the time I spent in Egypt inside the JV’s Rashpetco and Burullus Gas Company. Not only were we executing world class deepwater gas projects but we were also contributing to the development of the Egyptian nation and its people.

What three items would you take with you to a desert island? (NB: you may not choose a boat, raft, satellite phone or a book on ‘Practical raft-building for Dummies’)

1)       An ipad with e-Reader

2)       A satellite phone so that the iPad can update

3)       A bicycle

About Neil McCulloch

Neil is a graduate of Cambridge University and Heriot Watt University and holds a Master’s degree in Petroleum Engineering. He began his career as a graduate trainee with British Gas E&P and from 1996-2001 worked in a variety of technical consultancy and investment banking roles. He then went on to spend 11 years with BG Group in a range of senior UK and international roles, latterly as vice president & asset general manager, UK Upstream, with accountability for the delivery of BG’s UK North Sea business. Neil joined EnQuest in March 2014 from international oil and gas company OMV AG, where he held the global role of senior vice president production & engineering. Neil holds a number of external appointments including operator co-chair of Oil and Gas UK and a board member of the Oil and Gas Innovation Centre.