TOM COLBERT
Skills Overview:
A highly qualified and outgoing Commercial Director / Advisor with substantial UK and international experience across the differing facets of the upstream and midstream sectors of the energy business. Accustomed to operating at board level and to formulating and controlling company strategy and business plans. A record of success in building and managing multi-cultural teams based upon subject matter knowledge and sound people management principles. Entrepreneurial business developer with considerable commercial experience and network.
2011 to present - Commercial / Investment Advisor for a number of companies either as a staff member or as an independent consultant through my consultancy, Silurian Energy Ltd.
Lloyds Register, Royal Bank of Scotland, Premier Oil, Oilfield Petroleum Consultants.
Engineer and Head of Reserves Based Lending at RBS, Commercial Director at Lloyds Register.
Reserves report advisor to Chrysaor.
Led a project to successfully divest Premier Oil assets in Pakistan for some $ 65 million.
Originated two reserves-based lending transactions with a value of some $250 million.
Delivered investment analysis and opinion for the Royal Bank of Scotland investments with Perenco, Tullow, Enquest, Ithaca, Faroe Petroleum, and various other oil companies.
Advised the M&A department of Premier Oil on asset purchase, including assisting in a $50 million bid for assets in Pakistan.
2006 - 2011 MND Exploration and Production Ltd.
Managing Director of the company that was primarily focused on Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan. The company owned both operated and non-operated exploration interests in the above regions in addition to a non-operated producing interest in Pakistan.
Responsibilities
Leading a team of sixteen professionals and support staff in London and Pakistan, with an annual work programme budget of some $ 30 million at the peak of our operations.
Setting the strategic direction of the company in consultation with shareholder wishes and constraints.
Overseeing the preparation and presentation of the annual budget to shareholders, and the preparation of the annual company valuation.
Overseeing all aspects of safety, the implementation of business processes, performance management, business development, and representing MND E&P to external bodies.
Achievements
Secured a $40 million reserve based lending facility with BNP Paribas.
Initiated a $300 million acquisition attempt for Regal Petroleum, opened an office in Ukraine, and secured 3 new licence areas in Morocco.
Profit for the year 2010 was $7.5 million.
Participated in 11 wells, including 2 discoveries and 2 appraisal wells, and 5 seismic campaigns, all completed within acceptable budget limits and without the need to request additional funding from shareholders. The estimate of value added exceeds $100 million.
Set up the business to have a number of call-off contracts with a wide range of resource providers (technical, legal, safety, security, HR), in order to adequately manage the operation with a very small number of personnel.
2002 – 2006 Shell International Petroleum Company
Senior Business Advisor in the Gas and Power Division of the company. Based at the international headquarters in The Hague and leading value assurance reviews (VARs) for a variety of new projects worldwide. Value assurance being used by the board of Shell Gas and Power as the principal quality assurance process for final investment decision.
Responsibilities
Value Assurance Review team leader for a number of major Gas and Power developments each valued at several hundreds of millions of dollars (e.g. Altimira LNG Terminal, Nigeria LNG Train 6, West African Gas Pipeline, Olakola LNG, and the Balgazand to Bacton Interconnector).
Participating in Exploration and Production VARs as the Gas and Power representative with specific knowledge of upstream commercial issues.
Internal consultant providing technical and commercial guidance to business developers worldwide.
Achievements
Rationalised the midstream portfolio and significantly reduced the number of active (but non value adding) projects using criteria I had developed to gauge strategic fit and economic attractiveness.
2000 – 2002 PricewaterhouseCoopers
Principal Consultant in the Oil and Gas division of the management consulting practice of PwC, advising international upstream companies at board level on strategy, performance management and organisational change.
Achievements
Led a team of 10 consultants advising the board of Oil India on the strategic alternatives for expanding their international and local operations.
Board level advisor to Lukoil Overseas on the organisation of their, then nascent, international business development capabilities.
1997 – 2000 British Gas International (Bg)
International Business Manager reporting to the Vice President for Europe and North America. Responsible for Bg’s UK to Europe Interconnector and Belgian pipeline assets, controlling a budget of some $ 30 million per annum and leading a team of 5 people, which I also recruited.
Responsibilities
Bg’s shipping representative to Interconnector UK and regular attendee at Board meetings.
Manager Trinidad LNG (train II)
Achievements
Led the development of Bg’s business to business operation to ship gas to Europe, supervised the set up of the information systems, recruited the commercial and operational teams required to manage Bg’s $ 300 million investment in the Interconnector, and negotiated and executed the contract to manage “out of hours” operations.
Marketed Bg’s surplus capacity and supervised the development and execution of sales contracts.
Negotiated the Interconnector Transportation Agreement on behalf of Bg and a contract to manage Bg’s line pack and refill obligations.
Negotiated with partners to successfully deliver the agreement to develop Trinidad LNG Train II.
1995 – 1997 JKX Oil and Gas
Business Development Manager invited to join this independent company specialising in the former Soviet Union at its flotation on the London Stock Exchange. Responsible for portfolio management, and business development. Reporting to the Commercial Director, and to the Managing Director.
Responsibilities
Represented JKX at public relations activities with Georgian government officials, funding banks, the UK Department of Trade and Industry, and the Foreign Office.
Achievements
Refurbished a 2500 bbl/d field in Georgia using local labour and a local project manager and with a budget of only $3 million.
Developed a business relationship with Glencore and signed a $ 20 million per annum oil sales contract to successfully market our Georgian crude oil.
1990 – 1995 Mobil North Sea Ltd
Asset Management Advisor (Acquisitions and Divestments) promoted from my role as a senior staff reservoir engineer into this commercial group where I negotiated and managed the transaction of oil and gas deals as well as a number of other general commercial agreements.
Responsibilities
Reserves co-ordinator supervising the evaluation of all oil and gas reserves for Mobil’s UK affiliate.
Achievements
Led a complex negotiation for the successful disposal of Mobil’s Turkish affiliate.
Executed a large number of value adding deals in quick succession. Namely, I led the teams and concluded the negotiations for the purchase of Texaco's interest in block 9/12a in order to facilitate the development of the Nevis field.
Led the negotiations for the swap of Mobil's assets in Tranch 6 of the NNS for Total's Peel Basin assets in the Irish Sea.
Initiated and concluded the farmin to BP's block 30/3a, and concluded a difficult farmout of block 9/26 to Repsol. In all the above cases I also signed the final agreement under a standing power of attorney from the Board of Mobil North Sea
Initiated and delivered a novel Area of Mutual Interest agreement for the Faeroes and West of Shetland licensing round, which resulted in a highly successful licence application, and negotiated several Joint Operating Agreements.
1985 – 1990 Shell UK Exploration and Production
Petroleum Reservoir Engineer in the Operations, and Appraisal and Development groups.
Responsibilities
Petroleum Engineer supervising offshore directional drilling and fracture stimulation operations
Operations Reservoir Engineer supervising and analysing the testing of exploration and production wells.
Reservoir Engineer in the Prospect Appraisal and Development group.
Achievements
Commissioned the Leman F and G platforms prior to commercial production.
Constructed simulation models to predict the technical and economic performance of new oil and gas fields, including the full field simulation model for the Pelican oil field.
1975 – 1985 Civil Engineering Project Manager
Prior to working in the oil and gas industry I worked as a civil engineer, commencing in 1975 with Cementation Construction and ending in 1985 with Noble Denton. During this time I worked as a Project Manager, Resident Engineer and specialist Geotechnical Engineer engaged in both onshore and offshore projects, with early responsibility for leading teams and controlling budgets of up to $US 8 million. I became a Chartered Engineer and Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, at the minimum age of 25.
Influenced as a child by the nearby Aberfan disaster of 1966, I spent my first six years, post graduation, supervising major earthworks and drainage schemes, mostly in the South Wales coalfields, where I held responsibility as a Resident Engineer and Deputy Resident Engineer on two major land reclamation schemes to remove and make safe a number of very large spoil heaps and mine workings. My early work convinced me that I should specialise in Geomechanics and I returned to university to complete an M.Sc. in the subject.
Upon successful completion of the M.Sc., I was offered a position as a specialist geotechnical engineer monitoring the safe construction of a major road scheme across the site of the original "mudslide" at Aberfan. The earthworks at that time being the largest geotechnical scheme under construction in Europe.
From there I went on to work on the earthquake analysis of nuclear structures before entering the world of offshore engineering with Noble Denton and Associates. I spent a very happy year at Noble Denton designing the anchor piles for the Balmoral floating production system, successfully relocating a jack up drilling unit offshore Gabon, after it had previously catastrophically collapsed at the wellsite, and managing a joint industry study into the foundations of offshore drilling units including making a presentation at the OTC (Offshore Technology Conference) in Texas.
In 1985 I was offered the position of Petroleum Engineer with Shell UK. I very much considered this an extension of my interest and experience in geomechanics, and acceptance of the role brought me fully into the exciting world of oil and gas.