For as long as Energy’s editor can remember, parents involved in the North Sea have appeared reluctant to encourage their offspring into the oil&gas industry.
Couple with that the perception that this is a dirty, polluting industry and little wonder there has been a marked reluctance among the young to engage, as witnessed by the still small number of Brits signing up to relevant degree programmes – although that may at last be changing for the better.
However, there are those who shoulder the negatives aside and grasp brilliant opportunities. Among them is Kirsten McBeath, a promising star at BP.
Hers is an oil family as her father worked for BP on the Forties team, so throughout her early years, she had great exposure to the industry and developed a keen interest in this area.
“He encouraged me to take an interest. As a result, I began to see what a great industry it was, and dad’s job seemed very exciting,” McBeath told Energy.
She started flirting directly with the industry at the age of 14. It was a one-week placement with Enterprise Oil (later acquired by Royal Dutch Shell) which gave her the opportunity to gain a broad understanding of the different disciplines. Geophysics particularly caught her eye, something which, in any case, chimed with her interest in physics, maths and geography.
“It was a great week,” said McBeath.
“I went around every department; everything about it caught my eye … really, really exciting.”
School over, she read geology and petroleum at Aberdeen University, then took a Master’s in exploration geophysics at Leeds.
During this five-year period, she completed three separate oil&gas-related internships and went on to join BP’s exploration and production graduate programme.
There is a tradition whereby oil companies trawl key universities for talent, and BP is one of them.
McBeath: “BP really stood out because of its commitment at graduate level … setting challenge schemes and a thorough early development programme.
“It was important to me that I transitioned with a company that would do exactly that, and BP does it in a fantastic way.”
Her first placement was with the Andrew-field team. The timing was excellent as, within weeks of joining, BP signed a deal with Chevron which saw the acquisition of new acreage calculated to deliver a boost to the CRINE-generation field.
She became involved in exploration and appraisal well planning which brought new life to the 1990s platform and unlocked the further potential of the area.
The data which McBeath was involved in collecting and analysing meant that the team was able to start drilling very quickly in the new acreage.
The second placement was in Stavanger, this time working on the Valhall field. A compacting chalk reservoir, she described the project was a particularly challenging and fast-moving one, with wells being drilled hot on the heels of data analysis and planning.
Then came a placement in Algeria – out in the Sahara Desert, where there was no infrastructure and the team had to build its own airstrip.
This was one of BP’s most high-profile and successful projects, and the first ever to be completed using the company’s Independent Simultaneous Sweeping (ISS) technology.
“Algeria is where I spent most of my time last year … 3D land seismic … implementing a new technology, which was a huge success,” she added.
And then came another North Africa assignment, this time, five weeks in Libya working as BP’s onboard seismic processing representative. BP had been granted a seven-year licence and, when McBeath arrived on the project, it was two years in. Together with her team, she had just five years to collect and analyse the data from 17,000sq km of seismic sweeps while on board a vessel. The data was collected in just one year.
Today, McBeath is working as a geophysicist for the North Sea Harding field – also a product of the CRINE cost-reduction era.
She is seeking to maximise the recovery of oil from the mature field while BP increases the level of investment to prepare for the recovery of gas once the oil has depleted.
In short, McBeath is clear that she has made the right choices – by going into the offshore industry and becoming a second-generation BP staffer.
And her message to others who aspire – “Be all you can be and you’ll go far.”