1. Andy Samuel was one of the first off the blocks to welcome the Wood Review. The new chief executive of the Oil and Gas Authority wrote a first person piece for Energy Voice in the wake of the announcement.
In the piece, which he wrote just two days after the Wood Review was published, he said: “In recent months, however, more and more of my peers have remarked that it has become a difficult and costly place to do business. As the Industry Activity Survey points out today, there are some serious underlying challenges to fix, and quickly. The global competition for capital and skills demands speedy action.”
Read the full piece here.
2. Andy’s role with BG saw him head the firm’s North Sea business where he was responsible for 15% of the company’s overall global production and 800 employees. BG has stakes in both the Jasmine and Buzzard fields. In August 2008, he was named deputy asset manager for BG Group. He stayed in the role for a little more than two years before being named president and general manager of EXCO Resources.
In July 2012, he was named BG’s managing director for Offshore Europe. In September last year he was appointed to Oil & Gas UK’s board of directors.
3. He has pushed the government hard for tax breaks relating to high-pressure, high-temperature fields.
Developments in the Central North Sea, which can have reservoirs with temperatures up to 500C and with “extreme” high pressure, are known as ultra-high pressure, high temperature (uHPHT) fields.
UK-based BG is currently developing the £3billion Jackdaw field.
In June, Andy met with representative from the Depart of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) regarding tax changes.
At the time he said there was still “work to do to ensure investment conditions are met for the variety of companies looking to invest”.
This included extending the tax relief to 75% to bring it in line with onshore gas, and extending the ring fenced expenditure supplement from six years to 10 years.
4. He’s a geologist by background.
He obtained his BA degree from the University of Cambridge before completing his PhD at the University of London.
His career has seen him work on assets in the UK, Trinidad and Brazil. He also fulfilled a three year posting in Cairo as an exploration geologist where he honed his interest in deep-marine processes.
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