Richard Frederick Paynter Hardman,

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(born 1936) is a British

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 a leading applied

petroleum geologist A petroleum geologist is an earth scientist who works in the field of petroleum geology, which involves all aspects of oil discovery and production. Petroleum geologists are usually linked to the actual discovery of oil and the identification of po ...

. He was the

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

of the

Geological Society of London The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with more than 12,000 Fellows. Fe ...

, 1996 – 1998 and Chair of the Petroleum Society of Great Britain. In a career spanning over 40 years, he worked in oil and gas exploration as a geologist in Libya, Kuwait, Colombia, Norway, and the North Sea with companies including BP, Amoco and Amerada Hess. Working as an Oil & Gas Drilling & Exploration consultant, he was later Executive Director, Exploration at

Regal Petroleum Regal Petroleum plc is a petroleum company based in London with assets in Romania, Ukraine, Greece, and Egypt. It was founded by Frank Timiş in November 1996, and is listed on the London Alternative Investment Market AIM (formerly the Altern ...

(2005–2006),

Atlantic Petroleum Atlantic Petroleum was an oil company in the Eastern United States headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and a direct descendant of the Standard Oil Trust. It was also one of the companies that merged with Richfield Oil Corporation to form ...

UK, and a Director of FX Energy, Inc., based in Salt Lake City, US, since 2003. He was awarded the

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(

) in

New Year Honours List The New Year Honours is a part of the British honours system, with New Year's Day, 1 January, being marked by naming new members of orders of chivalry and recipients of other official honours. A number of other Commonwealth realms also mark this ...

of 1998 for services to the oil industry and the William Smith Medal by the

Geological Society The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with more than 12,000 Fellows. Fe ...

in 2003.

Career

Starting his career with British Petroleum (BP), where after working for ten years, he joined

Amoco Amoco () is a brand of fuel stations operating in the United States, and owned by BP since 1998. The Amoco Corporation was an American chemical and oil company, founded by Standard Oil Company in 1889 around a refinery in Whiting, Indiana, a ...

in 1969, where he became known for

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

oil and gas exploration. He worked with the company for next 11 years, before joining

Superior Oil Superior may refer to: *Superior (hierarchy), something which is higher in a hierarchical structure of any kind Places *Superior (proposed U.S. state), an unsuccessful proposal for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to form a separate state *Lake ...

for three years and finally 18 years at

Amerada Hess Hess Corporation (formerly Amerada Hess Corporation) is an American global independent energy company involved in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas. It was formed by the merger of Hess Oil and Chemical and Amerada Petrol ...

to become its vice president of exploration till 2001. He is now an oil and gas exploration consultant and since 2001 as a senior consultant to various oil and gas companies, including

Enterprise Oil Enterprise Oil was a major UK independent exploration and production company based in Europe, with core areas of activity in the United Kingdom and Ireland, mainland Europe, Brazil and the Gulf of Mexico. The Company was once a constituent of the ...

, Neptune, FX Energy Inc and Atlantic Petroleum UK Limited and executive director, Exploration at

(2005–06). He is the former chairman of both the Petroleum Group of the Geological Society and the Petroleum Exploration Society of Great Britain and the former president of the

. He was formerly chairman of the Science and Innovation Strategy Board of the

Natural Environment Research Council The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) is a British research council that supports research, training and knowledge transfer activities in the environmental sciences. History NERC began in 1965 when several environmental (mainly geogr ...

, and also a trustee of the UK based education charity

Oil Depletion Analysis Centre The Oil Depletion Analysis Centre (ODAC) is an independent, UK-registered educational charity. The centre is working to raise international public awareness and promote better understanding of the world's oil depletion and peak oil problem. It ...

established in 2001.

References

British petroleum geologists 1936 births Living people Commanders of the Order of the British Empire People in the petroleum industry BP people {{UK-geologist-stub