We welcomed the opportunity to meet with the new CEO of Empire Oil & Gas Ken Aitken. Ken has all the credentials you would expect of a new mining executive. He has extensive knowledge of WA’s oil and gas industry through his senior roles with Origin, Mitsui, Apache and New Standard Energy as well as international experience in Norway, UK and Indonesia. Ken’s appointment is a positive step forward for the company which has undergone much transformation over the last 12 months with new shareholding and ownership structure. The significance of Empire Oil to the region is of course its potential financial impact in terms of jobs and investment in the community. But more importantly is the critical need for a professional, transparent and responsible business who recognises the potential critical risks of any such operation to the environment and upholds compliance and safety at all costs.
Ken has only been in the role for a couple of months and to his credit he is addressing the past issues and working to rebuild relations with neighbours. According to Ken, “My aim is to build values that are open, transparent and a good neighbour. We want to have a licence to operate”.
Ken encourages the community to get to know the business and hopes to organise an open day in Spring for neighbours and community to view the plant. He has already met with his most significant neighbour the Dewar family whom he has committed to undertake the water quality checks they have long hoped for.
Ken says he “is a hands on guy who likes to spend a lot of time in the field”. Having grown up in rural Scotland he shares he was taken aback recently at the rolling green fields that reminded him of home.
He understands the importance of the community. “Connections and relationships are everything.” Ken recalled his experience with Origin in Dongara , “There was a lot of road deaths with young kids. We ran free 4wd driving courses for all kids under 20 in the area. It was something we identified what can we do to help.”
Giving something back to the community is something he hopes to do in Gingin too. “I prefer giving time rather than just giving money but sometime it can be about doing both. It is not just about profits, visions and goals it is about connections and relationships.”
Empire Oil and Gas extracts gas using conventional flowing wells. There is no intention in the foreseeable future to frack. According to Ken, “We have no plans at the moment but should we need to, his first step would be community discussion”. Ken shares, “I have many years experience as a petroleum engineer and I have an absolute commitment to strict guidelines to ensure we protect the environment”.
Ken shared the inspiration for his strong safety and compliance culture.
“On 6 July 1988, I was 25 on an offshore rig and I was 6 Kms from Piper Alpha Gas platform when it blew up. 167 people died that day, being a young age and so close to such a horrendous industrial accident it made a huge impact on my life.
Afterwards I had a fascination for why did it happen, what were the compliance issues and lessons learnt. The company was Occidental and nick-named “accidental” everyone knew they were cowboys.
Witnessing something like that changes your life. I have since left companies that don’t upheld safety and compliance.
An example of such lessons learnt is a new policy that Ken has put in place, instructions for anyone onsite to shut the plant down if they see a risk. One of the problems with Piper Gas was that their operations crews did not believe they had authority to shut off production, even though they could see that Piper Alpha was burning.
We look forward to sharing future updates by Empire as they follow through on their commitment to being a good neighbour and compliance to environmental protection.
