The flash of inspiration that led to a £14m business
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Jody Clarke Nov 14, 2008
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Phil Murray of Petrotechnics
As the son of an engine driver, Phil Murray, 50, decided on his career early. Growing up in Barrow-in-Furness, where 15,000 people worked in the shipbuilding industry, it was hard to ignore the oil tankers and nuclear submarines that dominated the Cumbrian town's harbour. "I can still remember ships being launched into the harbour. That got me interested in mechanics and engineering, although my wife doesn't think I'm an engineer because I don't do any DIY!"
After studying mechanical engineering at Salford, Murray joined BP, working ten years in Alaska and Norway, before settling in Aberdeen. He would probably have stayed with the company if it wasn't for a horrific car accident in 1987. "I came round a bend and this guy preferred my side to his. It wasn't my fault. But... I didn't walk for five years because they were rebuilding my right leg. Let me tell you, that really focused my mind."
In and out of hospital, unable to work, Murray had plenty of time to think. That's how he hit on a way of transforming the way oil firms did business. At the time, most computers were run by "men in white coats. You needed a degree in linear programming to start one up." But Murray could see no reason why people in the industry itself – oil rig technicians, for example – couldn't be trained up to do the work, resulting in huge savings. So in 1989, with £50,000 raised against his home, Murray moved into an attic office "that we shared with a boiler. Even in Aberdeen in the winter it was stifling." Hiring computer engineers, he devised software to allow ordinary technicians to draw pictures of wells and the equipment that went into them, something that draftsmen were previously employed to do. "All the point, click, drag and drop that you now get in Microsoft Windows we built into this system."
Innovative as this program was, he had an even better idea in 1998. By this time his firm, Petrotechnics, was turning over £1m a year. "If you look at a technician working on the frontline of any hazardous industry... they have very little technology around them." Safety checks and procedures were still done "by one guy shuffling a load of paper around, so what we did was to simplify the process – identify the job, identify the hazards, identify the controls to isolate the hazards to allow you to work on it safely, and put it all in one computer program." Called Sentinel Pro, BP tested it in 1998. By 2000, more than 30% of the North Sea was using it. Petrotechnics grew at 6% a year, and now turns over £14m. "We're saving companies millions in manpower and other associated costs."
Although the oil price is falling, he's not overly concerned. "In 1990 there had been ten years of oil price declines, so you'd think it was probably the worst time to set the business up. But when prices are low, there is a stronger move to improve technology," he says.
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