James Richards

Well Abandonment Director

About James

James joined Well-Safe from CNR where he was Well P&A Team Leader, leading the P&A team through the highly successful Ninian Northern Platform P&A Campaign, permanently abandoning 24 platform wells in under 12 months, and more recently the reservoir abandonment of an over 30-year-old subsea dual-string completion well in the Murchison field using LWIV.

In this role, he was also responsible for developing abandonment costs and plans for all of CNR International’s assets, in West Africa and UKCS.  James has been heavily involved in the UKCS P&A Community, including being a part of the OGUK workgroup responsible for the 2017 update to the Well Abandonment Guidelines.

Prior to this, he worked as Superintendent for the Murchison Platform P&A Campaign and as Drilling Engineer for drilling campaigns in the Ninian Field.

James has a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Nottingham, and started in the oilfield with BG Group, progressing through their Graduate Development Programme, before working as Night Supervisor out on deepwater E&A campaigns in East Africa and development well drilling off the west coast of India.