Goodfellow passes on Shell UK baton

Phimister takes Aberdeen hot seat

There’s a handover of the helm under way at Shell’s UK Continental Shelf and Ireland business based out of Aberdeen.

After roughly two years steering the unit through huge changes against a background of the third major oil price storm to rock the North Sea, Paul Goodfellow is taking on a new challenge as Shell’s vice president wells based at Rijkswijk in the Netherlands from April 1.

Assuming command in Aberdeen is Steve Phimister, who has for the past year been UK “transition lead” for the integration of BG Group’s business into Shell following the successful £ 36billion takeover completed early last year.

Mr Phimister also oversaw the £3billion North Sea phased package sale of mainly former BG assets to UK independent Chrysaor which was announced only three weeks ago.

Mr Goodfellow’s new role is international covering wells of every kind, from exploration all the way through to decommissioning of redundant borehole, and includes unconventionals.

It also marks a return to wells for this mining engineering and rock mechanics specialist who initially worked in a variety of related roles before taking on broader leadership remits.

In 2000, he was assigned to Shell Exploration & Production Company (SEPCO) as the operations manager for deepwater drilling and completions and in August 2003 he took up the role of wells manager for the Americas.

Mr Phimister is a chemicals and minerals engineer by discipline, has worked around the world for Shell and notably led a sevenyear period of strong growth for Shell in Australia, including roles as generalmanagernon-operated ventures, GM unconventionals and GM business development.

He has worked closely with Goodfellow throughout the BG assets integration and shake-out process and expects to oversee aperiod of growthontheUKCS and where West of Shetland is pivotal in this regard.

Meanwhile, WoodGroup has hired a former Amec Foster Wheeler managing director Alan Johnstone as president of its “asset life cycle solutions” business in Europe.

Mr Johnstone brings almost three decades of North Sea, Southern North Sea and Caspian oil & gas experience.

He is a long-standing member of Step Change in Safety's leadership team and was chairman of the Offshore Contractors'Association until August, 2016; a position he held for three years.

“Mr Goodfellow’s new role is international covering wells of every kind”