Harbour Energy (LON: HBR), the UK North Sea’s top oil and gas producer, has emerged from its restructuring process, capped with changes of its leadership team.
Scott Barr, who has been with the business through prior iterations ConocoPhillips and Chrysaor, has been named executive vice president for North Sea.
He replaces Bob Fennell who is retiring after more than 35 years in the industry.
© Harbour Energy/ LinkedinHarbour Energy, the North Sea’s largest producer, completed restructuring on October 1, after a process which involved hundreds of people leaving the business in Aberdeen.
Fewer than 100 compulsory job cuts
In April, it said the move is expected to see “350 fewer onshore jobs in our UK business unit”, from a baseline of around 1,200.
Energy Voice understands that compulsory redundancies have numbered less than 100, while other measures including removal of outstanding vacancies, reduced contractor numbers and the offer of voluntary redundancy have made up the remainder.
Harbour Energy blamed the windfall tax for the redundancy process, though commentators have noted that the firm had not restructured since the merger of Chrysaor and Premier Oil in 2020.
One person with knowledge of the process that “the message to the business was around windfall tax” at the time, but “the reality is I’m not quite sure, to be honest, it was that much to do with it”.
The person instead cited efficiencies and ways of working for the cuts.
Ashley Kelty, of Panmure Gordon, highlighted earlier this year that the business had been “bloated” following the takeovers.
Harbour shocked the sector last year when it said it would not participate in the 33rd licensing round in the UK over the windfall tax, which has opened up speculation on its plans to instead invest overseas.
New co.
© Supplied by Harbour EnergyAmong recent changes for Harbour’s top team include Philip Whittaker, formerly of Boston Consulting Group, who became exec vice president for Global Services in January.
Meanwhile Gustavo Baquero, formerly senior vp at Equinor, was named exec vice president for Strategy, M&A and Energy Transition in June.
Other changes are understood to be taking place, including the international business led by Stuart Wheaton.
It comes as Harbour is due to deliver a $100m dividend to shareholders later this month.
A Harbour Energy spokesperson said: “Following the completion of the review of our UK organisation, which we previously announced due to reduced future activity levels in the North Sea, we have this week launched Harbour’s new organisation, including the appointment of Scott Barr as the new Executive Vice President for our North Sea business.
“We know this has been a challenging period for our colleagues and thank them for their professionalism and continued safe working throughout.”
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