Scottish Enterprise has appointed Melfort Campbell, chairman and CEO of Imes Group in Aberdeen, as the joint chair of its Oil & Gas Industry Advisory Group alongside Jim Mather, Scotland’s Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism.
In a further move, SE has also confirmed David Rennie as head of its Oil & Gas/Thermal Generation and Carbon Capture Team.
These two strategic appointments have been made as part of Scottish Enterprise’s drive to strengthen its capabilities with regard to energy, which is now a major part of the overall Scottish economy.
The Oil & Gas Industry Advisory Group, previously co-chaired by Bob Keiller, has identified a number of priorities as being important for the industry’s development:
Skills
Place (local infrastructure).
Supply-chain development (within the oil&gas sector).
Supply-chain diversification (such as into renewable).
Innovation.
Industry promotion.
In some of these areas, the group will work with other entities tasked with lead responsibility for some of the issues – for example, ASCEF in terms of place and OPITO in terms of skills. In other areas such as supply-chain development there will be a more active role in terms of advice and recommendations.
While renewables are an important new industry, SE says it has not lost sight of the basic fact that the oil&gas sector remains of huge importance to the Scottish and wider UK economies and needs to be valued and further nurtured.
As part of this, SE will be considering a “refresh” of its support and approach to the oil&gas sector over the coming months and will be working with the advisory group and others, as appropriate, to assess future priorities and what support should focus on.
While Melfort Campbell hardly needs introducing, David Rennie does.
Having been interim director since April 2010, he was confirmed to the post following a competitive process.
He initially joined on secondment from the Scottish Government, where he headed up the oil&gas and CCS team.
Rennie was responsible for the development of the CCS roadmap which was launched in March and set out the main objectives and milestones for the development of carbon capture and storage in Scotland.
Previous to this, he worked in a number of different areas within the Scottish Government, as well as at Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the Welsh Development Agency.
Adrian Gillespie, head of energy and clean technologies at Scottish Enterprise, said of the two appointments: “We need to ensure we maintain Scotland’s prominence as a global hub for oil&gas, building on the world-leading expertise and technologies that already exist within Scotland and export them to new and emerging markets around the world.
“The industry advisory group will play a key role in outlining the needs of the sector and what we need to do in order to respond to the global opportunities that still exist for oil&gas.
“I am delighted that Melfort has agreed to co-chair the group along with Mr Mather. As an existing member, his input into the work of the group, to date, has been of enormous value and I am grateful that he has agreed to take on this role.
“I am also delighted to announce that David Rennie has been appointed as Scottish Enterprise’s Director of Oil & Gas and Thermal Generation/Carbon Capture & Storage. David has recently been filling the role on an interim basis on secondment from the Scottish Government, but will now join Scottish Enterprise to take up the position permanently. This appointment reflects SE’s ongoing commitment to developing Scotland’s important, world-class oil&gas sector and the increased focus on developing Scotland’s potential in carbon capture and storage.”
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