He made his fortune and reputation by recognising the massive potential of the North Sea, and by his own estimation did “incredibly well” during the oil and gas industry’s boom years.
Now Sir Ian Wood has pledged an incredible £4.5million to ensure that Aberdeen and the rest of the region has a bright future long after the lifeblood of the area’s economy runs dry.
The huge donation from the Wood Foundation to Robert Gordon University will be spent on turning the institute and the city into “world leaders” in the oil and gas industry for teaching, research and technology. It should also keep the sector anchored in the north-east long after operators have filled their last barrel.
The money is the second multi-million pledge made by Sir Ian and his family trust to benefit the north-east in the space of a fortnight. Earlier this month, it was announced the Wood Foundation was giving £10million to build a new patient and visitor car park at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
Now, it is hoped the gift to RGU will lure new talent from across the world to make Aberdeen a global centre of excellence for the oil and gas sector.
Sir Ian said he wanted the institute to encourage the supply chain of service and manufacturing firms to remain in the north-east once the operators have left town, and maximise the industry’s lifespan in the face of dwindling barrel numbers.
He said last night: “The foundation is giving a lot of thought to what happens to Aberdeen in the medium term. Whichever way we look at it, and we might be lucky, we may have some additional oil reserves, by 2050 we are going to be producing perhaps 2,000 barrels a day. Now we are 1.4million barrels a day and in 1998 we were 4.2million a day.
“You can’t get away from the inescapable, we are on a depletion line. We should all be thinking about what is going to be done to help Aberdeen adjust to what is going to be a huge economic challenge.
“Part of that is trying to maximise oil and gas activity which stays in Aberdeen post-North Sea oil. That is an interesting challenge.”
Sir Ian gave £500,000 to RGU to establish the Oil & Gas Institute in November 2013, with the total investment becoming the second largest single donation to a university in Scotland.
RGU will use the money to set up new undergraduate and post graduate courses to equip students with the skills to lead the next era of oil and gas, with engineering, accountancy and law all target areas.
Sir Ian has been working with the university over the past six to seven months to develop key pillars of the institute’s work with decommissioning, drilling, operations and business the main focus.
He added: “The aim is to attract some really good new people, new teams, from elsewhere and how can we get RGU up from being just a strong player in Scotland to a strong player in the UK to then a strong player internationally in oil and gas.”
Professor Ferdinand von Prondzynski, principal of RGU, said the university was “extremely grateful for the huge generosity of The Wood Foundation.
“It is hugely significant to RGU to have his support as we develop our ambitious plans for the institute.”
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