Not every conversation with an oil executive involves false teeth for sheep and a career break writing a novel but Simon Thomson is not your average oil-company boss.
A lawyer by training, the 47-year-old recently notched up a year in the top role as chief executive of Edinburgh-based Cairn Energy.
It has been a busy 12 months. The firm has given back $3.5billion (£2.2billion) to shareholders after selling most of its Indian business, brought Statoil in on its frontier Greenland exploration and snapped up two firms with sizeable exploration portfolios in the North Sea.
It’s just the start too. Cairn now has plenty of activity lined up in the North Sea, both in Norway and the UK, through the two recent acquisitions – Agora Oil and Gas and Nautical Petroleum – plus continued exploration off Greenland and new plays being sized up off the coast of Spain, Cyprus and now Morocco.
Mr Thomson said: “We are a relatively small team of people and we kind of thrive on deal activity and drilling.”
Born in Edinburgh, his father, from a farming family, was a dentist who made the headlines for inventing false teeth for sheep. In fact, the device was more a gumshield to help sheep continue to munch on grass long after losing key gnashers.
Not being clear of his own career path, Mr Thomson was advised to study law and picked Aberdeen University followed by Glasgow, however, it wasn’t his time in Aberdeen that influenced his move into oil and gas.
He said: “Originally I was a property lawyer in Edinburgh. I actually gave that up to write a novel. It was called A Legacy of Death and was set on the west coast of Scotland.
“I got an agent, but never got it published. I spent a year writing it and the agent said the signs were good, but that it would need about six months more writing.
“I couldn’t do that, I had run out of money and had a young family to support.
“Even without having it published, I did have a huge sense of achievement having finished it.”
Needing to rejoin the rat race he was offered a stop gap covering holiday leave for three weeks at Cairn, despite having no experience in oil and gas. He enjoyed it and the company so much he asked founder and CEO at the time Sir Bill Gammell if he could stay.
Mr Thomson said: “He (Sir Bill) said: ‘I tell you what, you can have a job but you are not going to do law any more. Hang on my coat tails and learn about deals and the corporate world and let’s see where we are going in a year’s time’.”
That is now 15 years ago. “Then and ever since it has been an enjoyable place to work whatever crises or whatever else is happening,” said Mr Thomson.
There is certainly a lot happening at Cairn now. While it has yet to find commercial oil off Greenland, it is still confident of the potential in the basin.
Cairn has Statoil as a partner and is working with a consortium including Shell gathering core samples in the Pitu block.
It has faced the wrath of environmentalists and Mr Thomson is sympathetic of their right to have an opinion but he says he feels Cairn’s record has proven its ability to operating safely off Greenland.
Cairn is also applying for licences off Cyprus, assessing its acreage in Spanish waters and, of course, looking to the North Sea.
He said: “Norway is relatively underexplored compared to the UK and there are still large discoveries to be made. People are looking at different play types, using different technology, different seismic, showing the North Sea – UK and Norway – can still produce material discoveries.”
Mr Thomson is also a non-executive director at Graham’s The Family Dairy, a position he says helps to give him a different perspective on his company and its business.
The keen traveller, skier and tennis player has four children, aged 13 to 19, for whom he spends time playing taxi driver from their new home south of Edinburgh. All of which will mean A Legacy of Death will sit on the shelf waiting for that extra six months’ work for a few years yet.
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