Total’s UK managing director Philippe Guys has bid farewell to the North Sea after a 36 year career.
The industry veteran’s tenure at the top has seen him enjoy triumphs – including launching the French oil giant’s Venezuelan ventures and pushing its Qatar agenda – alongside tackling challenges like the Elgin platform’s major 51 day gas leak, and most recently the firm’s significant overspend on its West of Shetland project.
Speaking exclusively to Energy Voice about his decision to leave the industry, Guys, 62, said he has taken it all in his stride.
The company leader, who spent the entirety of his career rising through the ranks at Total, got his start after a chance meeting in a French café.
“After I graduated from my high school of engineering I started to work as a civil engineer for company in France,” he said.
“It was during these two years when I was having a drink with some friends that I saw this one guy, who looked very happy and only seemed to work half of his life.
“He was working four weeks on, four weeks off. When we discussed this he showed me his business card.
“On one side his name and function were written in English and on the other side it was written in Arabic and I said, ‘Who are you working for ?’
“He said to me, ‘I’m working for Total in Abu Dhabi.’
“And I said, ‘Oh my goodness I want the same type of business card.’”
Guys soon found himself in front of a Total HR manager for the final vetting process.
“When I had my interview to start working with Total the person from the HR had an office just beside the Eiffel Tower and he told me, looking out of the window, ‘You see Mr Guys? What is that piece of equipment?’
“I said, ‘Yes, it’s the Eiffel Tower.’
“And he told me, ‘Yes, it’s not a drilling rig, so you will not be working in Paris.’
“And that was exactly what I wanted.
“So the little joke about the business card was effectively one of reasons I started working in this industry, but really I found in oil and gas everything that I wanted, which is being outside, living in the most remote places and working in drilling.
“I found adventure.”
Guys will leave his post in early November. His successor, who has not been publicly named, will takeover after an initial settling in period.
He added: “Believe it or not my first assignment was on a drilling rig in Abu Dhabi and that’s where I got my first business card in Arabic. That was in 1980.”
The move saw him quadruple his pay overnight.
It also served as a starting point for a long list of credentials and achievements, including working in 13 countries, managing on onshore first for Total and positioning the firm as one of the North Sea’s most prominent players.
But his rise to the top wasn’t a premeditated calculation, according to the company leader.
Instead, he said: “I think the beauty of what happened to me is, honestly, I never thought what would be my next move. I never had some tremendous ambition. I just liked what I was doing.
“And in every position that I ever held I was always learning something, meeting new people and enjoying what I was doing without thinking, okay, my next job will be a pay grade higher.”
And it wasn’t like he was without offers. But for Guys a 36-year stint with the same company isn’t about complacency. To him it’s a badge of honour.
“Loyalty and humility to the company is something that in France at least is very important,” he said.
The only next move he was concerned about was what do in life after Total – a move he has been contemplating for the past “couple of years”.
Guys will split his time mentoring young innovators on behalf of Total and cultivating the family’s French vineyard in Brittany, where he lives.
He said: “It’s about sharing my knowledge about the oil and gas industry with the newcomers because it’s a beautiful one. That is one of the things that makes me feel comfortable about leaving because I won’t be cutting all ties. This is the minimum I can do to promote Total and to promote the oil and gas industry, which has made me a living for the past 36 years and a beautiful career, and so I want to share that knowledge that I have.”
The beautiful career includes a string of “standout moments”.
“It started when I took my first helicopter to go to my first assignment in Abu Dhabi. That was a standout moment. I remember saying, ‘Wow, I’m taking a helicopter!’
“It’s routine now.
“It was the first decision I had to take by myself on a drilling rig to pull out the bit, change the bit and rerun the bit. And all the way down to the decisions I am taking right now – some of which have been quite incredible.
“Then when I was the vice president of drilling and completions worldwide, I was running all over the world visiting people.
“I will always recall when I came back for vacation in the summertime and my wife told me, ‘Phillipe, did you realise that it has been more than six months now that you haven’t slept more two nights in a row in the same bed?’
“I said, ‘Yes, you are right.’
“That’s something that was a standout moment because I was exhausted.”
But with exhaustion came exhilaration.
In 2001, Guys found himself in the leadership hot-seat for the first time when he was named the managing director of Total’s new Venezuelan start-up.
“It was a standout moment because I had never been managing director to that point and the company that I was going to lead didn’t exist. It was a new licence that we obtained and all of a sudden from one week to the other I was given the key to something new to develop. Even the name of the company did not exist.”
His first port of call? Hire the new company’s lawyer.
Three years later the company had 130 people on its books, drilled seven wells, built an onshore gas plant and started producing a steady flow of gas, which still makes returns today.
The experience was more than learning the start-up ropes for Guys. It was also his first crash course in managing people – something he says is both the best and worst part of leading a business.
“Running a company is just how good you are at making the people working with you embark on your project. Honestly, it’s a great pleasure to have that and to discover new people and a new way of working, but at the end it’s about realising what you are there for, which is making the company move forward,” he said.
“The worst is effectively when you realise that you can’t do everything for everyone and that you have to sometimes make a strong decision, which will affect the people you are working with.”
Guys later went on to lead the firm’s Qatar push during the last downturn from 2007 to 2011 – a downturn which did little to quell the country’s appetite for energy.
“Qatar was a place where I didn’t see the crisis and I felt like I was out of the reality, because Qatar was Qatar and Qatar was booming.
“I saw the new Doha being built around me. And I thought ‘I’m living a another standout moment’, because I’m in a country that has a lot of resources, a lot of way forward in terms of future and I am part of it.
“I’m not saying I participated in the building of Qatar, but almost because we were such a big part of the energy trade.”
He added: “It’s different standout moments. It can be on the human side, it can be on the technical side and it can also be on the professional side.”
Guys later left Qatar for his final shift in the North Sea. A stint which would see him lead the response to a 51 day gas leak, and manage in both an upturn and downturn.
“Last week I had my brother in law visit me in Aberdeen and I took to visit the oil and gas museum,” he said.
‘That’s a long time I’ve known him, because he’s my best friend I’ve known him for 45 years.
“He told me when he came back, ‘Philippe, I realise now how wonderful your job was and how wonderful it was for you.
“I said, ‘You’re right. I may not have described to you what I’ve done but it’s a wonderful job and I’m very proud having done it.’
“And I would do it again.”
For Philippe’s in-depth take on his North Sea career, how he responded to Elgin, how long he thinks the downturn will last and what he what he would have done different in Shetland check back tomorrow.
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