The leading representative body for the UK oil and gas industry has announced the appointment of a new co-chair to its board, as the sector focuses on the industry’s recovery whilst meeting net-zero targets for 2021.
Arne Gurtner, Senior Vice President UK & Ireland Offshore at Equinor has now assumed this role bringing with him a wealth of industry experience. In this capacity, Arne will work with Contractor Co-chair, Phil Simons, VP North Sea & Canada, Subsea 7.
Across the UK, Equinor has a broad energy portfolio of oil, gas, offshore wind and low carbon projects. Based in Equinor’s UK operations headquarters in Aberdeen, Arne leads the organisation supporting Equinor’s UK and Ireland upstream activities, which includes the Mariner development and Rosebank, one of the largest undeveloped resources on the UKCS.
Gürtner has held a broad variety of leadership roles across Equinor, including his previous position of Vice President for Technical Excellence in a global business function, and brings experience from project development, integrity management and process safety in operations from the UK and Norwegian Continental Shelves, as well as global research and technology development. Gürtner also currently holds the position of OGA Asset Stewardship Task Force Co-Chair.
Arne Gürtner takes over from Phil Kirk, who is stepping down from the role.
Deirdre Michie, OGUK’s chief executive, commented:
“We’re delighted to have Arne step into the role as co-chair of the OGUK board. The industry experience he has will be vital as we seek to manage our way successfully through the challenges brought by the pandemic while seeking to deliver our net-zero ambitions.
“I’d also like to take the opportunity to thank Phil Kirk for all of his support. His insight, steer and guidance has been invaluable, and we are delighted that he will remain on the board.
“We value the different perspectives from across the industry, in our work to deliver Roadmap 2035. This diversity in thought is key to finding solutions for low carbon oil and gas production, whilst doing everything we can to support our world-class but fragile supply chain and protect the skills of our people for the future.”
