Colin Barry Phipps (23 July 1934 – 10 January 2009) was a British

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althou ...

and chairman of several petroleum companies. From 1974 to 1979 he was a Labour Party Member of Parliament, but in the 1980s he joined the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

Early life and studies

Colin Barry Phipps was born in Britain on 23 July 1934 at

Swansea Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea ( cy, links=no, Dinas a Sir Abertawe). The city is the twenty-fifth largest in ...

. He attended Townfield Elementary School in Hayes,

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

, then

Acton County Grammar School Acton may refer to: Places Antarctica * Mount Acton Australia * Acton, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra * Acton, Tasmania, a suburb of Burnie * Acton Park, Tasmania, a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania, formerly known as Acton Canad ...

, and the

Bishop Gore School The Bishop Gore School ( cy, Ysgol Esgob Gore) is a secondary school in Swansea in Wales, founded on 14 September 1682 by Hugh Gore (1613–1691), Bishop of Waterford and Lismore. It is situated in Sketty, close to Singleton Park and Swansea ...

, Swansea. From

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

he gained a

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

i
Geology
in 1955; and a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

i
Geology
from the

University of Birmingham , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

in 1957.

Career

Parliament

He stood in the Walthamstow East by-election in March 1969, and lost decisively. He served as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for Dudley West from February 1974 to 1979, when he stood down. His successes in the oil industry made him one of the more wealthy Labour MPs. He joined the

in the 1980s, and unsuccessfully stood for election in Worcester at the 1983 general election, and

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies about north of Wolverhampton, south of Stoke-on-Trent and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 70,145 in t ...

in 1987.

Geology

From 1957 to 1964 Phipps worked with

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard ou ...

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and the United States. In 1964, well before North Sea oil was known about, he left Shell and became an independent geology consultant and in 1973 he founded Clyde Petroleum, which had many involvements in

North Sea oil North Sea oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons, comprising liquid petroleum and natural gas, produced from petroleum reservoirs beneath the North Sea. In the petroleum industry, the term "North Sea" often includes areas such as the Norwegian Sea and ...

. While working with this company he was also an MP from 1974 to 1979. He became the company's chief executive from 1979 to 1983 and its chairman from 1983 to 1995. From 1989 to 2002 Phipps was chairman of Greenwich Resources, a

gold mining Gold mining is the extraction of gold resources by mining. Historically, mining gold from alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. However, with the expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface ...

company. He was chairman of the English String Orchestra (and was also involved with the English Symphony Orchestra) and

Falklands Conservation Falklands Conservation (FC) is a charitable organisation formed to protect the wildlife and the natural environment of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. It intends to conserve and undertake scientific research in the biosphere of t ...

from 1990 to 1992. In 1996 he founded

Desire Petroleum Desire Petroleum plc was an oil and gas exploration company headquartered in Malvern, England. It owned offshore exploration and production licences in the North Falkland Basin in the waters north of the Falkland Islands and its core focus was t ...

, remaining chairman until his death in 2009. Although Phipps had visited the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouzet ...

in 1975, he did not become hopeful about oil prospects in the area until 2004, when a seismic survey of the

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...

showed considerable quantities of oil.

Personal life

In 1965 he married Marion Lawrey, and they had two sons and two daughters. Phipps died on 10 January 2009, in a Birmingham hospital.Oil exploration pioneer passes away
/ref> He owned a farm in

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

References

*''Times Guide to the House of Commons October 1974'' *

External links

''Times'' obituary

News items

Falklands oil in April 2007
{{DEFAULTSORT:Phipps, Colin 1934 births 2009 deaths Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 Scientists from Swansea People educated at Acton County Grammar School People educated at Bishop Gore School Alumni of University College London Alumni of the University of Birmingham Fellows of the Geological Society of London British petroleum geologists Deaths from pancreatic cancer People in the petroleum industry Social Democratic Party (UK) parliamentary candidates