Mick Borwell is to take over responsibility for Health, Safety, Security and Employment (HSSE) policy at Oil & Gas UK towards the end of the month in addition to his role as Environment Director. He will assume his expanded role at the trade association from 19 September 2015, when the current HSSE Director Robert Paterson retires. This is an interim position allowing the current scope of the HSSE directorate and others to be reviewed in light of the changing regulatory and economic climate now challenging the industry.
Mick Borwell has been Environment Director at Oil & Gas UK since 2007, and had previously led the environment team at UKOOA, Oil & Gas UK’s precursor, for six years. He entered the upstream oil and gas industry in 1989 in a consultancy position with BP. He subsequently worked in the Health, Safety and Environment departments at Occidental and Elf, where he was a member of the incident investigation team and had responsibility for environment, occupational health and the management of exploration in environmentally sensitive areas.
Robert Paterson retires from Oil & Gas UK this month after eight years in post at Oil & Gas UK as HSE Director. He joined the trade body in 2007 from the Health & Safety Executive’s (HSE) Offshore Division where he was Operations Manager with responsibility for the strategy and business support teams and also for a number of front line inspection teams.
Robert Paterson had over ten years HSE experience (five in the Aberdeen area) before moving into the newly formed Offshore Division in 1991 where he spent several years leading an inspection team. He managed and was an active participant in many offshore inspections, investigations and safety case assessments. Throughout his time in HSE, Robert was closely involved with the development of the post-Piper offshore regulatory framework for health and safety, operational strategy development and direction and in providing legal and enforcement advice and guidance to inspectors.
Deirdre Michie, Oil & Gas UK Chief Executive, said: “Robert has made an outstanding contribution to safety in our industry over his long career, which has been guided by a strong vision of the safer workplace, whether onshore or off. He firmly steered the association’s response to major incidents, such as the Macondo disaster and the North Sea helicopter fatal accidents, raising the bar on safety performance across the UK industry as a result. He also spearheaded the introduction of the UK Oil and Gas Industry Safety Awards and Oil & Gas UK’s Health and Safety Report, the comprehensive annual review the UK offshore oil and gas industry’s safety performance. We all at Oil & Gas UK thank Robert for his contribution and wish him a long and happy retirement.”