With more than 30 years’ oil and gas industry experience, John Scrimgeour – the new executive director of the Aberdeen Institute of Energy – is now viewing industry problems in terms of what the University of Aberdeen can do to solve them.
Having worked for a number of leading companies across the globe, Scrimgeour was the person chosen to front the Institute – launched last year with the aim of creating a focal point for all the energy-related research being carried out at the University.
“What really surprised me is the breadth of the research being carried out here. In industry you have a very narrow perception of what, for example, law is about, and what lawyers do,” he said.
“But here the lawyers are looking at all manner of things with wide-ranging consequences such as getting the legislative framework correct to make North Sea decommissioning work.
“I used to work as a reservoir engineer. I think I’ve a pretty good idea conceptually of how a reservoir works. But some of the geologists here are looking at things in ways I had never thought of. Some of it is simply genius!”
Scrimgeour is certain that the oil and gas industry is aware there are bright people at Aberdeen but he doesn’t think they realise how applicable the research is to problems that industry is facing right now.
“My main focus is speaking to industry, finding out where their issues lie, letting them know about the capability here at the University and trying to get our academics involved to see what we can do to help solve their problems,” he said.
“If the technology is not advanced, then the North Sea will suffer, and could even experience a premature death.
“Adapting new technologies, new strategies and thinking is important for the future and the industry needs to find ways to encourage this. We have people at the University capable of the innovative thinking required and they are being strongly encouraged and supported to apply that thinking to address industry problems.”
Scrimgeour suggests that a lot of the smaller technology-driven companies could really use the help of Aberdeen University but that they don’t know about things like Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) and how easy and cost-effective it could be to work with the institution.
He adds: “I’ve always been a strong advocate of postgraduate study, and the university is addressing the wider ‘skills shortage’ with its extensive range of taught postgraduate courses, including brand new offerings in Petroleum Engineering; Reservoir Engineering; Geophysics; Renewable Energy Engineering; Oil and Gas Computing; Energy, Politics & Law, and Energy Management, adding to our existing suite of around twenty distinctive programmes. This makes us an important energy educator globally.”
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