Scots businessman Robin Watson wanted to be an architect when he was young and thinks being a sports journalist could be his ideal job, but his career path took him into the oil industry and he now heads a business employing more than 8,000 people.
Having spent a decade with Petrofac and a similar spell with Mobil North Sea before arriving at Wood Group last year, he was appointed managing director of the UK operation of Wood Group PSN recently.
The father of three, who hails from Mull and now lives in Aberdeen, said: “The merger of Wood Group’s production facilities with PSN in the UK creates a business of significant scale, a company with an unrivalled talent pool and one of the world’s largest and most sophisticated brownfield energy service providers.
“We have extended capability and presence in all of the major oil and gas and energy centres in the UK and can offer an enhanced and assured service delivery to all of our customers.
“The merger made perfect business sense.”
Wood Group PSN operates across four UK locations: Aberdeen, Glasgow, Runcorn and Hull. It employs more than 23,000 people in 35-plus countries out of Wood Group’s workforce of more than 35,000.
Mr Watson, 44, is accountable for the delivery of contracts such as the large integrated service contract extended recently by TAQA and similar major contracts with Talisman, Shell and BP.
He said: “The combination of Wood Group with PSN has brought together two very strong cultures, a confident backlog of work and some of the best talent in our industry. The UK is not only our corporate headquarters, where all of our key decisions are made, but it is also a service centre of excellence for training and development, which is a fantastic springboard for sharing skills around the world.
“The UK remains our primary skills base. It is for this reason we are so focused in finding and delivering innovative ways to address any potential industry skill shortages.
“We have almost 5,000 people working offshore in the UK at present, with more than 3,000 onshore, so developing and retaining the skills of every one of those people is important.”
Mr Watson said expert skills were transferable and, in the right business, with the right support, it could be done quite easily.
He added: “The landscape for outsourcing work to contractors has changed dramatically in the last decade; operators are no longer looking for lowest-bid-wins type contractors.
“They are looking for partners they can trust, who operate safely, with integrity, can take financial responsibility and who have the best skills for the job.
“We are a people company so we recognise our responsibilities in ensuring we are able to provide those skills that our current and potential clients require.
“In the UK, we see lots of opportunities to transfer skills, not just around the world but across sectors.
“For example, we are currently transferring those with skills in traditional upstream oil and gas operations to decommissioning, which is a sector that presents the UK supply chain with an abundance of business opportunities.
“Additionally, through our Re-engineer programme, we are also working with armed forces personnel to transfer their skills into the oil and gas and sector. This programme has been a resounding success and continues to attract new recruits from non-traditional sectors.
“There is also a growing renewables industry here in the UK, for which we need even more skills. In essence, we are occasionally competing with ourselves, which can be a challenge. To be able to push people forward though and evolve and develop, we need to have new blood coming in, so encouraging and attracting young people into the industry is a continued focus for us right now.
“In the UK, we take, on average, about 60 graduates and designers each year through our graduate scheme and design academy. We provide training and work experience and have then been very successful at retaining them in our business.
“Having the ability to invest in people development through initiatives like this is important and the merger has allowed us to increase this investment.”
Mr Watson began his career as a petroleum engineer with Mobil North Sea in 1990. He remained with the company for over a decade, working his way up from operations to management, before moving into the service sector. He joined Petrofac as an operations manager, soon gaining the position of director of operations management and created its dutyholder business in the UK before taking on the role as head of worldwide production for Petrofac Energy Developments.
When asked about what his favourite part of his job was, Mr Watson said the opportunity to work constructively within the community, in an effort to give something back, was very rewarding.
He is a supporter of Monty’s Maggie’s Appeal and Wood Group PSN in the UK is aiming to raise more than £50,000 in the coming year.
Monty’s Maggie’s Appeal is led by Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres and the Elizabeth Montgomerie Foundation, the charity set up by golfer Colin Montgomerie in memory of his mother, who died from the disease.
It is aiming to raise £3million to open a Maggie’s centre at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary to provide practical and emotional care to people with cancer and their families from across the north-east.
Mr Watson said: “Personally, I’ve always tried to be actively involved in the Aberdeen community, either within the sphere of education or, for example with Maggie’s and I do strongly believe there is a moral responsibility on us all to give something back.
“Apart from anything else, it is very rewarding and usually great fun.”
