Andrew's Story
Working in the Fossil Fuel Industry
I joined Shell in 2007 with a PhD in biochemistry because I wanted to work where science met engineering.
I began in advanced biofuels, leading a platform responsible for multi-million-dollar budgets, intellectual property, and external partnerships. Early in my career, I recognised a recurring pattern in energy: technical promise is often the easiest part, scaling requires economics, supply chains, regulation, and operational realities to align.
In 2011, I moved into hydrogen, leading a portfolio of infrastructure initiatives across Europe and the United States. My work sat at the intersection of safety, regulation, technology, and commercial decision-making. A major part of the role involved translating technical vision into plans capable of surviving investment scrutiny, which is a far more demanding discipline than simply identifying what is technically possible.
Three lessons from that period shaped how I think about hydrogen delivery. First, standards matter far more than most people realise. Without consistency across projects, costs and timelines escalate rapidly. That is why I worked with the Energy Institute and contributed to ISO and BSI committees because repeatability is where real efficiency is built.
Second, partnerships determine pace in ways that no individual organisation can fully control. Third, system-level planning matters enormously. I led hydrogen supply and station placement analysis for Germany across the 2017–2030 horizon, helping shape real infrastructure planning discussions.
In 2019, I founded RHC New Energy Consulting, advising boards and executives on technology strategy and transition delivery. My work included chairing the advisory board for a major green hydrogen project, advising joint venture CEOs on investment timing, and delivering regulatory and policy evaluations for the European Commission. That experience reinforced something I had already begun to understand: policy does not simply support projects, it determines whether they can survive at all.
In 2021, following BP’s “Reinvent” strategy and its net zero ambitions, I joined BP’s Advanced Fuels Leadership Team. I worked across technical and commercial teams during a volatile period of market and policy change, while also representing BP externally and contributing to industry standards.
From 2024 to 2025, I held a Strategy and Integration role supporting a major fuels business, including operating model redesign and embedding lifecycle assessment capability into commercial decision-making.
When I realised it was time to leave
In 2025, BP fundamentally reset its strategy to prioritise higher-return investments in oil and gas. That shift forced a direct question for me: how closely did I want my day-to-day work to align with decarbonisation outcomes?
I had hoped to continue working in low-carbon fuels, particularly given growing external mandates, but large organisations inevitably balance competing priorities. There is always tension between emerging low-carbon opportunities and the institutional gravity of established businesses.
Leaving meant stepping away from the infrastructure large organisations provide – teams, brand, budgets, systems, and institutional memory and replacing all of that with personal responsibility for direction, pace, and delivery.
What I’m Doing Today
Today, I focus entirely on the hydrogen sector, where I have built strong relationships and networks over many years.
Globally, around 100 million tonnes of hydrogen are produced annually, almost all from fossil fuels, generating roughly a gigaton of CO₂ emissions each year. Replacing this “grey” hydrogen with low- and zero-carbon alternatives represents one of the largest industrial decarbonisation opportunities available.
Since leaving corporate life, I have divided my time between advisory work, standards and strategy contributions, and building something new. I advise green technology start-ups on how to move from concept to investable pathway, and I continue contributing to the Energy Institute Hydrogen Strategy Group because practical, system-level work remains important to me both professionally and personally.
At the same time, I am establishing Oxford Hydrogen, focused on developing low-carbon hydrogen production systems designed to integrate into existing industrial sites. The business model strengthens economics by co-producing hydrogen alongside selected high-value chemical products.
I also continue advocating for disability inclusion, with a particular focus on creating practical systems that help families better navigate work, education, and care.
Parting Reflections
One pattern I have repeatedly observed in oil and gas is the tendency to recognise major shifts whether in hydrogen, AI, or big data relatively late, often triggering a cycle driven by Fear Of Missing Out.
Large investments follow before the necessary capabilities are fully developed, integration struggles, disappointment sets in, and leadership eventually announces a return to “core competencies.” Then the cycle repeats.
That approach may once have made sense when the industry believed its core business had an indefinite runway. In a world increasingly moving toward lower reliance on oil and gas, it becomes far more risky. The longer organisations wait, the harder it becomes to build the skills, partnerships, and operating models needed to transition effectively.
I believe the industry can do better than simply “move at the pace of society.” Historically, oil and gas companies have demonstrated that when they choose to, they can lead society in a direction of their choosing, whether through the rapid expansion of LNG systems, the “dash for gas,” or large-scale infrastructure transformations.
The question now is whether the industry will choose to lead again in the transition to low-carbon energy or continue to follow.