| Description | Tape 1 Side A: STEPHEN SPRECKLEY born 21 March 1949 Grimsby, Lincolnshire. Only child. Paternal family: came from Northamptonshire, Peterborough area. Army connection. Father, Alfred, lied about age to join Army during World War II. Family history stops when grandmother abandoned on beach as baby. Grandfather an army officer. Current job, Capability Consultant with Shell. Details re job. Maternal family, Robinson: came from Grimsby, fish buyers. Mentions limited career choices in Grimsby. Recalls childhood home, council house, working class family. Parents eventually bought house, now live in Aberdeen. Describes father, his immaculate dress, hard work throughout his life, his feelings about retirement, character, attitude to women working. Describes mother, her life as housewife, her personality, resilience. Relationship with her. Comments on being only child. Recalls childhood neighbourhood, games. Earliest memories. Describes nature of discipline in home. Following war, father had pacifist approach. Parents voted Conservative. Details. Own political position. Lived in strong Labour area. Religion not important in family. Education: went to Western Primary School 1954, Grimsby Technical Secondary School 1961-5. No strong memories. Feelings about Grimsby life, relative safety in post-war years. Recalls early television, radio. Enjoyed popular music. Had piano lessons - put off for life. Enjoyed reading, still does. Had mechanical interests as child. Always interested in working in business, with hands, mechanical engineering. Father able with hands. He worked in different jobs fixing things, as cheap post-war labour. Close family. Always a self-starter, organiser. Explains. Mentions reputation in job as reliable, able to translate things into action, complete jobs. Significance of secondary schooling for learning technical skills. Feelings about teachers. Didn't depend on them.
Tape 1 Side B: Left school at 16. Details re decision to do engineering apprenticeship. Parents supportive. Recalls decision to leave home, parents' reaction. No suitable work locally. Went to Vickers Engineering at Barrow-in-Furness. Mentions earlier summer and other jobs. Hadn't travelled much beyond London. Stayed in Barrow boarding house. Vickers built ships, Polaris nuclear fleet, had strong general engineering business. Details. Explains elements of apprenticeship including training school, drawing office, further education through day-release, night school. Hierarchy in training school. Details re work on nuclear submarine, work with mechanical fitters. Mentions Secrets Act. Recalls social life with other apprentices, pubs. First exposure to mountains, girls etc. Learned life skills. Explains. Not strong at sport. Got involved in hill-walking. Met wife in Barrow. Mentions apprentice friend who later worked for Shell. Describes own attitude to work, personal feelings about working with teams, need for them. Importance for managers etc of standing outside detail. Work at Vickers was about making things happen, innovation. Explains. Belonged to union. Details. Explains feelings re unions. Recalls lessons at Vickers re behaviour, what real work was like. Mentions father's sense of right, wrong; work ethic, current reputation. Did not want to stay in Vickers after apprenticeship. Explains. Joined Ocean Fleets shipping company as junior engineer 1970. Details re old ships, voyages. Mentions relationship with wife, a nurse. Self and wife independent characters. Details re her family situation, names. She trained in Lancaster Royal Infirmary, became nursing sister, midwife, still practising as nurse. Details re her current work involving surgical clinics, surgery nursing etc. Mentions three children. Reference to own work in merchant navy, offshore.
Tape 2 Side A: Spent about 18 months at sea. Explains benefit of experience, career aspirations. Recalls consciousness of North Sea oil/gas exploration, personal interest in the industry. Mentions Sea Gem disaster. Recalls public perception of gas industry as something forcing traditional industries out. Left Merchant Navy, spent some months travelling, did part-time work in steel works. Background to appointment as mechanic in Shell Bacton Terminal 1972. Details re interviews - saw power of networks. First impressions of Shell culture, security. Recalls culture of the art of the possible, innovation. Describes hierarchy. Male-dominated environment. Compares situations onshore, offshore. Soon given responsibilities, well paid. Recalls elitism associated with offshore work, sense of making contribution to UK economy. Felt well looked after by company. Shell attitude to staff in de facto relationships, reliance of staff on company. Sent to Leman 'A' Platform east of Great Yarmouth, first Shell production platform. Details re design of platform, life-expectancy of production. Shell has become conservative, attitude to futures prediction, risk has changed. Explains. Mentions defining moment of Piper Alpha, Shell fatal incident last year. Details re first job with Shell - like an induction. Worked at Bacton Terminal. Soon sent as Platform Mechanic on Leman 'A'. Details re shift. Responsible for mechanical maintenance. Platform was producing natural gas into Bacton. Details re work. Small crew. Explains business model. Most work done by Shell staff except catering. Compares with today. Details re work areas on platform, recruitment sources, eg instrument people from RAF. Most crews got on well. Explains. Compares safety culture with today. Mentions Piper Alpha. Recalls freedom to operate in work, manageable scale of operations.
Tape 2 Side B: Describes typical daily routine on Leman 'A', producing platform. Details re maintenance routines, breakdown maintenance. As mechanic was responsible for driving crane. Describes crane training at old RAF base. Compares with system today. Dangers of crane work, attitude then to safety. Mentions shock-loading. Recalls bad spells through 1980s because technology then not up to job. Since then, big turn around in crane safety. Mentions bar on board Leman 'A' no longer used. Given beer, wine at Christmas. Details. This no longer happens. Early on, got interested in well services. No union involvement on platform. American presence in Shell was limited. Mentions Brits, Dutch, Canadians. Many Americans in service industries in Aberdeen. Details re personnel in company. Had little interest in other companies. Explains. Details re well services work, exploration, completion, down-hole safety valves, wire-line work. Mentions Air Anglia flights to Aberdeen, Wilbur Wright. Explains difficulty explaining complex offshore work to people onshore. Recalls 1974 trip to Aberdeen, refusal of car rental firm to hire car to oil people. Reaction of Great Yarmouth people to oil/gas industry. Role of Production Supervisor (PS), senior person on platform. All crew relatively young. Mentions yellow hat band of PS. Changes with institution of Offshore Installation Managers (OIM). Later changes to command and control, emergency response issues. Details re work shift routine, being based at Great Yarmouth. Recalls doing well test at Christmas time, long time away from home. All work difficult, constantly pushing boundary. Recalls risky situation with faulty ballasting on Ocean Voyager. Safety was about looking after each other. Explains. Married 1974. Little impact of work on home.
Tape 3 Side A: Part of project team during 1970s centring on sub-sea completions - breakthrough technology. Explains background, development of Shell Expro's first sub-sea completions 1976. Tests carried out at Bacton Terminal. 50% of oil/gas production now from seafloor completions. Asked to go to Aberdeen as Production Well Services Supervisor when things picking up there 1980. Explains family arrangements. Feelings about leaving Norfolk. Explains geographical spread of responsibility. Asked to mentor new intake of well servicing staff. Got involved in career structure changes, hierarchy, technical situation. Recalls leadership battles within company. Involvement of Dutch, British, Canadians, Scots. Little concern re opposition companies. Significance of Piper Alpha disaster. Same thing could have happened to Shell. Mentions Brent Alpha explosion near the time. Safety, management upgrade in whole industry post-Piper including installation of major shutdown valves. Explains tension, issues, interests involved in shutting down platforms. Explains own management style - leading by doing. Has good coaching skills. Two populations of staff in Shell: high fliers with appropriate career stepping stones, and others. People like self have broken pattern. Believes in art of the possible. Explains term CEP (currently estimated potential). Details re family situation in Aberdeen at time, life in country, golf. Always had strong work ethic. Piper Alpha disaster: recalls hearing news, reaction. Explains own conduct in difficult situations. Considers possibility of own survival on Piper. Everybody knew somebody on Piper. Details. Recalls presentation re recovery of accommodation module. Reference to Ian Gordon. Details re Shell helicopter crash last year. Mentions own induction programmes which include information about disasters, Shell Expro timeline. Comments on family atmosphere in Shell, its people, attitudes.
Tape 3 Side B: Move to corporate management 1992. Realisation that company could do better including in safety. In late 1980s, apart from work in well engineering, ran onshore workshop in quality management, performance improvement. Details re Total Quality Management (TQM), Dr Joseph Duran, Duran Institute. Explains Shell's interest in Duran. Given responsibility for TQM in well engineering. Mentions well engineers' preoccupation with measurement, including non-productive time. Did same work at corporate level. Details re programme, improvements. Mentions paradox of own attitude to team-working, aim for technical career. Appointed Quality Management Advisor for £1.3B Brent redevelopment project. Details re outcome, own role. Involved with Brent Spar situation. Explains lesson for Shell. Mentions technical work re disposal option, Shell's ignorance of non-technical agenda, Greenpeace's position. Explains Shell's mistakes, public image. Reference to Press & Journal. Shell now has clear reputation-management process. Reference to Nigeria. Reference to incorrect Greenpeace data. Brent Spar's eventual disposal. Shell later did retroactive systems view of Spar. Details. Critical point when Shell added data to argument. Issue became corporate affair. Appointed Head of Management Systems 1998. Explains role during major reorganisation, reason for CREST (Cost Review in Expro Study Team). Own prospects, jobs in corporate area as facilitator, organiser of conferences and leadership teams etc. Joined HR team to support change processes. Put together new organisational structure 2000. Impact on staff, own career. Asked to be Capability Consultant. Explains choice of self for job, painful aspect of work. Sense of bereavement with changes to own situation. Now dealing with ex-Enterprise people. Impact of Enterprise purchase on Shell. Feelings about recording interview. Looking forward to future challenges.
Summary of interview exists for tapes 4 & 5 but are closed for access. |