TWO years after trading one of the biggest jobs in the North Sea oil and gas industry for a lower paid role in an unknown quantity, Colette Cohen appears delighted with the results of a move that was fraught with risk.

“This is the most fun I’ve had in years,” says Ms Cohen as she reflects on her experience as the first head of the fledgling Oil and Gas Technology Centre formed in August 2016.

“You don’t earn as much when you do something like this, but do you enjoy and do you get great amounts of satisfaction and do you get to give back to the community and the industry? Absolutely. That’s an amazing thing to wake up to every morning.”

The decision to take on the OGTC job meant Ms Cohen assumed responsibility for trying to make a reality of an idea that oil services grandee Sir Ian Wood came up with as the industry reeled from the impact of the crude price plunge.

The centre was conceived in response to the problem of how to maximise the potential of technology to help the industry fight back while trying to ensure the supply chain remained rooted in the North East.

Ms Cohen’s work has involved navigating uncharted territory, a world away from the Irishwoman’s last job running the North Sea operations of the mighty Centrica.

The challenges have included encouraging firms with promising technology ideas to share them with the new body while promoting collaboration in an industry in which competition can be brutal.

But she has already seen enough to be confident the body has a valuable part to play.

“We’ve looked at more than 500 technologies; you’re really looking for ones that will make a difference, have an impact. We only invest in projects that work on more than one asset, multiple fields, multiple platforms.”

The centre has already approved around 100 projects in areas such as non-intrusive inspection.

“By us spending a quarter to half a million with that technology proven you can save 240 million every year as an industry. The leverage you get off every dollar or pound you put in in technology is so amazing.”

Ms Cohen shows satisfaction in the fact a wide range of firms have agreed to work on projects, including giants and independents. The 86-strong membership includes 32 firms that operate oil and gas fields.

Some have shown enough faith in the potential of the OGTC initiative to provide access to precious assets including platforms and rigs. Members have agreed to spend time on field trials that can help take technologies from the conceptual level “through the valley of death” to deployment in the field.

“We’ve had support across the industry both operators and the supply chain.. we had some early adopters some big companies that really led the way like Total, Chevron who stepped in early. We’re now pretty much seeing all the major operators at the table and being really engaged, Nexen, Shell, BP, Taqa, they’re all there.”

The perspective work at the OGTC provides leaves Ms Cohen feeling confident firms are responding to calls for them to become more collaborative to help make the most of the North Sea.

“I do think though that organisations like us enable it. It’s still difficult, one to one, for some of the operators to be collaborative without getting into non-competitive issues.”

With the OGTC already making an impact, Ms Cohen intends to stay in her post for long enough to prove that the initiative is sustainable.

The satisfaction may also be partly because a lot of her effort at Centrica became focused on shrinking the organisation in response to the fuel price plunge.

But in completing that work Ms Cohen was able to draw on experience gained in other downturns in what is a cyclical industry. The Queen’s University graduate joined BP in 1991 just before the oil price plunged. She went on to run operations in the US for ConocoPhillips amid the 1998 crash.

“We had all of the having to let people go, our rigs being stacked and all of that so going into Centrica in a similar period I think I had a lot of experience I was able to pull on.”

Ms Cohen used the results of her learning to develop an innovative approach to helping Centrica to meet the challenges posed by the slump in the crude price after it peaked at $115 per barrel in June 2014.

Oil fell to below $30/bbl in the first quarter of 2016 before major exporters agreed late that year to curb production to support the market.

The response at Centrica included developing a programme to save a hundred million dollars in 100 days. This was based on the belief that rather than leaving it to management to make cuts it would be better to be open with staff and make them part of the solution.

“It was a bit like crowd sourcing. Rather than as a leadership team choosing to cut the budget by $100m and arbitrarily picking points we went to the staff and said to survive we need to cut $100m you tell us how … and they made $100m savings for the forward forecast in something like 66 days from all their idea generation.”

The industry seems to be on the road to recovery, helped by the recent increase in the crude price to around $72/bbl and by efforts to increase efficiency.

But big challenges remain.

“If we want to be here in 20 or 30 years there is a need for us to transform the way we work. We need to think about remote operation, digitisation, automation. That means we need to start thinking about our low carbon footprint because it’s a low carbon economy coming.”

Oil and gas firms also need to maximise the potential of women as they work to become future proof.

Ms Cohen has seen big changes since she experienced the shock involved in starting work on a North Sea platform as a young petroleum engineer.

Brought up to feel she could do anything the was disconcerted to find people looking at her in a “what do you think you are doing here” way.

“I was the only woman on the North Sea platform when I first went out there and it’s wonderful your naivety when you’re young.”

But after showing belief in her right to be in her job and a determination to work hard Ms Cohen found the people she worked with were great.

“I think the offshore environment if you’re willing to commit and work hard is actually a very enabling and protective environment for anybody but particularly women. I think they look out for you, they’re very supportive and helpful and it feels very safe.”

Ms Cohen went on to hold big jobs in the Caspian region as well as the US before returning to the North Sea.

She has found time to become good enough at golf to play off a respectable 14 handicap and to volunteer with Springer Rescue Scotland, which helps dogs in need.

The book lover is also putting her energy into the industry’s efforts to do a better job of selling itself as a career option for talented women.“I think the part that hasn’t changed, which is a shame, is that we don’t have more women coming through, more engineers.”

Part of Ms Cohen’s response is to support the Powerful Women organisation.

“It’s talking to the next generation, to the young and the ones who are already in what I would call mid-level leadership to not only provide mentoring but to provide support and a safe haven to ask questions in.”

Noting that women run a range of big operations in Aberdeen in industries such as oil and gas and transport, Ms Cohen laments: “I’m not sure that the next generation has the belief yet in those opportunities and I think that’s the part that we need to inspire more.”