| Administrative History | Recorded as part of the 'Lives in the Oil Industry' oral history project |
| Description | Tape 1 Side A: TIMOTHY (TIM) WATSON born 25 July 1946 High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Now retired from BP/Amoco, involved in North Sea decommissioning; CEO of Recommissioning Partnership. Middle of three boys, father in RAF. Lived in various bases. Brothers' work, names. Details re father's work in radar, family home. Mentions flying career possibilities. Recalls childhood, and later adult experience of living in camps. Made Arab friends in childhood. Didn't know grandparents. Explains. Mother's family Swiss. Details re family circumstances. Mother became civil servant. Paternal family situation. Father's first jobs with Royal Family as pageboy. Details re his Air Force experience, unusual family background. Grandfather ran lace factory, Grays Inn Lane. Describes parents, their character, attitudes. Was suckled in Iraq by Iraqi nanny. Explains parents' enjoyment of Air Force social life. Brought up to be independent. Went to thirteen schools. Impact of this on friendships. Compares with oil industry situation. Parents very involved in community service. Details. Recalls their friendship with Steve Redgrave. Mother still running arthritis care organisation. Parents always busy, not family-oriented. Military discipline at home. Parents religious, had sense of duty. Got used to high ranking people in home. Compares own situation with non-military ones. Feelings about father. Parents supported Tories in spite of their origins. Father not interested in wealth. Recalls his attitude to life insurance. Social attitudes in Air Force compared with Army. Own interest in politics, politicians. Recalls education, attitudes to work, large choice of jobs. Compares with situation today. Recalls interest in soft side of engineering. Struggled at university. Good at sport, school. Details. Mentions education overseas. First break was choosing mining engineering.
Tape 1 Side B: Recalls drama interests in family. Mother related to Fay Compton. Reference to Compton McKenzie. Wife's family itinerant travellers in US. Daughter an actor. Details. Background to entry into mining engineering, education system in 1964. Liked text comics. Offered five scholarships. Chose Imperial College Royal School of Mines (RSM). Explains decision to go to Barnsley, Yorkshire, as apprentice miner. Details re mine work, camaraderie, discipline. Offered National Coal Board scholarship. Did not like RSM. Recalls first awareness of oil industry. No mention of it at RSM. Details re first oil industry job with Mobil in Germany. Lived in ex-prisoner of war camp. Learned German quickly. Explains. Mother, Swiss, was French speaker. Recalls introduction to drilling rigs. Left to own devices when young. Recalls a Hitler Junger. Recalls earlier experiences in Germany, work in Shell refinery as technician. Details re Mobil work learning basics of drilling engineering. Further details re parents, brothers, names. First oil job in Germany 1965. Reference to World Cup. Went to work on roller skates. Recalls enjoyment of Cologne life, reading. Left university, did mining engineering in Leeds. Had Shell scholarship. Sent to South African goldmines. Describes gold mine, industrial situation there. Mentions coalmine work near Leeds. Describes culture, makeup of South African goldmine workforce, race relations, violence, accidents. Attitude of Afrikaans, apartheid. Describes hard work. Life was cheap. Recalls influence of tutor at Leeds, social life, sport. Reference to Chris Fay Managing Director, Shell. Joined Air Force Volunteer Reserve, learned to fly. Took part in drama shows. Played rugby. Reference Controller of BBC. Details re RAF training, incident when taking aerial photograph.
Tape 2 Side A: Details re incident when eardrum popped - end of ambition to become commercial pilot. No consciousness then of oil industry. Explains maverick attitude of hard rock miners. Got job with Rio Tinto Zinc. Recalls meeting wife. Details. Background to applying for job with Amoco as petroleum engineer in Great Yarmouth, job interview 1970. Details re caravan accommodation. Misconception re nationality of Amoco. Recalls first trip away, new wife's ignorance re whereabouts. Wife's background in Wales, nursing, midwifery work. She became health visitor. Details re children, names. Describes first experience offshore, moving drilling rig from West Sole to Indy Field. Details re southern North Sea. Describes job culture, own attitude to fear, work. Details re transfer baskets. Reasons for enjoying work. Describes day's work. Recalls influential individuals, eg two Canadian Red Indians, other colleagues in drilling etc. Senior staff predominantly American, some British. Recalls Tommy Wood and other colleagues, eg Mitch Watt, 'father' of southern North Sea exploration. Details re original Montrose (Amoco) well drilled by Sea Quest, secrecy surrounding first oil sample, announcement of success. Further details re Watt, relationship with him. 1970-3 period of high activity in North Sea. Work divided between Great Yarmouth and offshore. Recalls Great Yarmouth at the time. Introduction to worldwide firms. Innovative atmosphere, work unfamiliar to everybody, even drillers only used to waters of Gulf of Mexico, Persian Gulf. Everybody was inventing new ways of doing things - wouldn't be allowed today. Young engineers given lots of authority. Size of gas fields offshore. Leman largest in world. No limit on money available. Own role in testing equipment. Details re platforms.
Tape 2 Side B: Responsible, in pool of testing engineers, for testing wells on exploration rigs off Aberdeen. Details re early flight via Dyce to rig. Compares helicopter routines then, now. Gas industry progressed fast in south. Details re completion report work. Reference to Schlumberger. Always a company man offshore, contractors. French Forex rig popular because of availability of wine. Protest re working hours organised by wife. Details re her work as team-nurse. Office was family-oriented. Details re social activities with wife, small office situation. Explains perforation of wells, pressure measurement, displacement of mud with water, lighting of flares, completions. Reference to Wessex helicopters. Wells directionally drilled. Details re depth, manipulation of drill strings, accuracy. American drillers technically competent, experienced. Looked up to drillers. Many British nationals trained as drillers. Details re drill brake, well testing. Key jobs: design, completion of well; well testing; roving well testing in UK, Norwegian North Sea. Great Yarmouth was European hub of Amoco exploration. Did work in Italy. Details. Mentions trials of atmospheric suits. Amoco an American-oriented friendly company. Details. Compares with other companies. First British engineer in Amoco to ask to go overseas. Recalls industry competition, apocryphal stories re spying, surreptitious information-gathering, eg in bars. Amoco successful in early bidding for blocks. Compares Yarmouth and Aberdeen. Little was known re deep-water work. Details. Didn't like Aberdeen, attitudes there. Explains. Very competitive there. Attitude of big boys. Comments on Norfolk people. Reaction of Aberdeen people to oil industry which was misunderstood. Feelings of Americans from Texas about Aberdeen, Yarmouth. Relationship between Yarmouth, Aberdeen people. Return of industry to Yarmouth. Transferred to London 1973.
Tape 3 Side A: Amoco offices in Great Yarmouth now empty. Details re Amoco in 1970s, colleagues, training, benefit of mining experience. Recalls informal appointment to jobs. Explains what makes good petroleum engineer. Effect of computers. Importance of presentation skills now. In 1970s much more hands-on work. Changes in office procedures. Amoco had safety culture but also desire to get job done. Compares with today's standards. Recalls attitudes to safety etc. Safety arrangements in early days. Comments on Piper Alpha disaster. Mentions sense of self-preservation. Involved in post-Piper safety reviews. Never felt pressure to cut corners in 1970s. Reference to Northwest Hutton platform. Recalls former regime concerning offshore installation managers, their lack of training. Mentions female OIMs. Compares test results of women, men. Never came across union people during 30 years. Knows little about unions. Mentions pay offshore. Recalls Amoco refusal to participate in a licensing round because of BNOC (British National Oil Corporation). Reference to Tony Benn. Own job changed from hands-on work to UKOOA (UK Offshore Operators' Association) trade associations. Chairman of Oceanographic Committee 1976. Details re fleet, guesswork in industry, overweight of early platforms. Involved in economics of platforms when oil price high. Most North Sea critical decisions made 1973-6. Explains. Recalls advent of Margaret Thatcher, attitudes to oil industry, impact of BNOC on BP and other parts of industry. Comments on perceptions of North Sea. Amoco had American boss until end. Comments on consequence of this. Mentions Russian venture. Recalls feelings at BP merger. Compares with other mergers. Explains career progression in Amoco. Recalls times away from family, relationship with children. Compares with father's situation.
Tape 3 Side B: Away from North Sea 1976-89. Mentions work in Kharg Island as Engineering Supervisor etc, Houston, Egypt etc. Compares situation in North Sea, Iran. Worked in Dubai. Returned to Facilities Department, Head Office UK 1988. North Sea had become mature. Advent of environment as an issue. Reference to Greenpeace. Impact of computers on oil industry. Comments on impact of Piper disaster in Aberdeen, London. Feelings about disaster. Details re earlier warnings re Sutton. Disaster could have happened to anybody. Changes in management attitude in Amoco. Occidental no worse than other companies. Mentions working partnerships of oil companies. Biggest change in attitudes of people offshore to safety. Compares disaster with air accidents. Comments on Cullen Report, causes of disaster. Head of Decommissioning, Amoco UK 1989. Background to appointment. Recalls doubting attitude of DTI (Department of Trade & Industry) to size of Northwest Hutton Field in early years. Recalls attitudes to abandonment/decommissioning. Details re early TLP (tension-leg platform), benefit for decommissioning. Recalls conservatism of Chicago owners. Details re pioneering Hutton platform, positioning, cost - nightmare to remove. Impossible to get divers to sea bottom. Mentions early storm. Platform never a financial success. Details re East Shetland Basin reservoir formations. No specific guidelines then re de-commissioning although obligation eventually to remove platforms. Reference IMO (International Maritime Organisation), 1989 Petroleum Act. Attitude in industry. Recalls starting Decommissioning Group for Amoco. Later Chairman UKOOA Decommissioning Group. First rule-setting plan for decommissioning 1992. Effect of Brent Spar controversy, Greenpeace. Mentions various organisations involved in situation. Brent Spar, a watershed re decommissioning. Explains. Statistics re platforms worldwide. Attitude of Greenpeace, Shell to oil industry.
Tape 4 Side A: Brent Spar controversy (cont'd). Attitude of oil companies to decommissioning. Own interest in potential uses of pipeline systems in North Sea. Possible re-use of platforms, objections of engineers. Attitudes to old platforms - which are safe, well maintained. Pipeline use only limited by imagination. Mentions solar, hydrogen, wind power. Left Amoco 1999. Details. Compares own, BP, public approach to decommissioning. Reference to John Browne. Reference to wars fought in North Sea. Price of being global company - North Sea standards could reverberate elsewhere. Explains. Mentions leaks in petrol stations, refineries. Feelings about BP, their procedures, lack of innovation, compares with own approach. No re-commissioning/decommissioning now. Oil industry decommissioning information has disappeared. Explains industry lack of interest in decommissioning. Relationship between safety, environment. Money spent unnecessarily on recovering steel that nobody wants from seabed to satisfy Green lobby. 25,000 wrecks in North Sea. Attitude of Greenpeace. Difficulties re oil companies' reputations. Did MA dissertation re topic. Details re own lone voice re preservation of pipelines, rigs-to-reefs proposals for breeding cod, negative Greenpeace, oil industry, political reaction. Details re Re-commissioning Partnership which will ultimately carry out work. Explains title of organisation, compares with decommissioning. Mentions support of Bob Blizzard, Chair of All-Party Oil and Gas Committee, MP for North Norwich. Explains 'Uncle Fred' analogy re decommissioning, need for appropriate preparation. Current use of energy etc in present disposal methods. Problem of reputation of oil industry. No love lost between oil industry, Government. Reference to recent oil strike. Starting on new career path re decommissioning. Oil industry still hands-on, messy, invisible, will be needed for long time. Main problem transportation.
Tape 4 Side B: Blank |