Oil, Gas and Chemical Committee

The Oil, Gas and Chemical Committee (OGCC) is a Technical Activity Committee (TAC) of the Process Industries Division focused on technologies associated with downstream processing activities in the oil, gas and chemical industries

 

Industries represented

The following are some of the industries we cover:

  • Oil
  • Natural gas
  • Industrial gases
  • Petrochemicals and industrial organic chemical producers
  • Industrial inorganic chemicals (speciality chemicals)
  • Agricultural chemical industry
  • Plastics, rubbers and resin manufacturers
  • Fibres.

What we do

We deliver a programme of value adding, interesting and innovative products and services which significantly increases interest from the IMechE membership and the industry in general, in the oil, gas and chemical community.

Our objectives

  • Keep engineers abreast of advances in technology and best practice through lectures, seminars and conferences
  • Reach the broadest possible audience of engineers interested in oil, gas and chemicals by collaborating with appropriate divisions and Groups within the IMechE and other related institutions and organisations such as IChemE, BASEEFA, ICE, IGEM and the Energy Institute
  • Support IMechE initiatives to influence government
  • Communicate the content and impact of regulations on the oil, gas and chemical industry and provide input to regulatory bodies
  • Promote education, training and continuing professional development
  • Foster excellence within mechanical engineering by managing the award of the Ludwig Mond prize
  • Support career development awards
  • Encourage the sharing of process safety news
  • Identify and evaluate new developments and emerging technologies in mechanical engineering with the potential to impact the oil, gas and chemical industries.

Get in touch

Have a question or would like to get involved?

Contact our Member Engagement Team

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Committee members

Christopher Robinson PhD, CEng, MIMechE - Chair

Principal, MMI Engineering

Richard Tiplady CEng MIMechE ACGI - Past Chair

Richard Tiplady 300

Turnaround Engineer, Tiplady Engineering Management Services Ltd.

Richard is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer with over 25 years experience in engineering major turnarounds for onshore oil refineries and gas facilities.

He works as an independent contractor for number of major oil and gas companies and global consultancies in the U.K. and overseas.

Whilst undertaking his mechanical engineering degree at Imperial College, Richard gained work experience in the nuclear fuel industry. After graduation he spent five years in heavy steel industry maintenance during which he gained Chartered status via the IMechE MPDS process. He then progressed to turnaround engineering in the process industries.

John Phillips CEng FIMechE - Past Chair

John Phillips

Consultant

John started his career as a student apprentice with Rolls-Royce, Bristol Engine Division in 1969. Following graduation from Bath University he joined the Development Test department responsible for the sea level and high altitude testing of aero gas turbines. In 1976 John moved to Davy Powergas in London as a machinery engineer in the oil, gas and petrochemical industry responsible for fluid machinery for onshore and offshore plants. He subsequently worked in a similar capacity for McDermott and M.W.Kellogg before moving to Air Products at Walton-on-Thames in 1989 to take on the role of Machinery Design Manager.

John retired from his position at Air Products as Global Manager, Cryo Systems Machinery in 2015.

John joined the Oil, Gas and Chemical Committee in 1988 and has chaired it since 2013.

Tim Adisa CEng MIMechE

Mechanical Engineer, Bechtel Ltd

Cecil Bardouille CEng MIMechE MIET - Corresponding/Co-opted member

Lead Integrity Engineer, Oil Gas Exploration & Operations
BP Exploration & Production Company Limited, Azerbaijan

Philippe Bridgeman BEng (Hons) MSc CEng FIMechE MWeldI Eur Ing

School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing, Cranfield University

Eur Ing Philippe Bridgeman

A Chartered Mechanical Engineer with over fourteen years of oil and gas industry experience, IMechE Fellow, Member of TWI, active member of Bedfordshire IMechE Panel, and a real passion for engineering. BEng (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering from RGU and MSc in Welding Engineering (Welding & Metallurgy) from Cranfield University.

Philippe has worked on both greenfield and brownfield projects, in the UK and Australia as EPC and client, including FEED, detailed design, maintenance and operations. Specifying, evaluating (TBE), procuring, vendor managing, problem solving and equipment testing (FAT) of a high number of static, packages and rotating equipment, that has resulted in extensive travel across the UK, Europe and Australia. Recently qualified as a CSWIP 3.0 - Visual Welding Inspector too, because why not.

Taking advantage of the low oil price and differed high CAPEX projects in the oil and gas industry Philippe has taken the exciting opportunity to join the 'Welding Engineering and Laser Processing Research Centre' team at Cranfield university having won a full studentship / scholarship and bursary, sponsored by Airbus, to undertake a long term personal goal of completing a PhD in Manufacturing in a cutting edge Manufacturing process – WAAM.

Also guest lecturing for Cranfield University on their Welding Engineering, and Design of Rotating Machines MSc courses.

Jamie Cadden

Senior Terminal Engineer, Teesside Terminals
Inter Terminals

Ian Chapman CEng MIMechE

HM Specialist Inspector, Health and Safety Executive (HSE)

Simon Cathery

Chief Mechanical Engineer, Costain

Damian Doherty

Consultant

Jon Gibbins

Professor of Power Plant Engineering and Carbon Capture, University of Sheffield

Jon is the Centre Director of the UK Carbon Capture and Storage Research Centre and a member of the Centre's Coordination Group and is the Research Area Champion for Solvent Post-Combustion.

He has worked on coal and biomass gasification and combustion for over 30 years, at Foster Wheeler, Imperial College and the University of Edinburgh and on carbon capture and storage (CCS) since 2002. He is currently Professor of Power Plant Engineering and Carbon Capture at the University of Sheffield and Director of the UK CCS Research Centre.

He is involved in a number of other academic, industrial and government initiatives on CCS in the UK and overseas, including the SaskPower CCS Global Consortium Advisory Committee.

He was also a member of SaskPower's Clean Coal Project Advisory Panel for their 400MW oxyfuel plant study in 2006-2007, has participated in reports and inquiries on CCS for a range of UK Government and other organisations and has contributed to a number of media pieces and other outreach activities on CCS.

He also takes an interest in broader energy system issues, as a member of the DECC Scientific Advisory Group from 2010 to 2014 and through participation in ongoing work on electricity system balancing, economics and regulation.

Rodney Gilmour CEng FIMechE, MIChemE

Rodney Gilmour 300

Process Engineering Design on Line Ltd

Rodney is a Chartered Engineer, a Member of the IMechE since 1989, and Fellow since 2011. In 2017 he was elected a Member of the IChemE.

Following a degree in Engineering Science from the University of Oxford, St. Anne’s College, he joined the Organics Division of Imperial Chemical Industries gaining experience in engineering design, commissioning, maintenance and project engineering. In 1989 he moved into project management in research and development supporting the ICI Klea team that won the MacRobert award in 1993 for a new ozone-benign refrigerant. After a period as plant engineer for a vinyl chloride plant Rodney moved to Albright & Wilson to head up corporate engineering projects.

Rodney set up a consultancy in 2003 and has since undertaken a wide range of assignments including the design and commissioning of plants in China. In 2008 he undertook an MSc in chemical engineering with design at the University of Manchester. He has served as an expert witness on a number of large cases concerning process plants and is currently studying to become a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

He was granted a patent for a canned pump design in 2002. His book “Phosphoric Acid: Purification, Uses, Technology and Economics” was published by CRC in 2013.

Rodney is a Trustee of the Clean Rivers Trust which works to protect and enhance the water quality of rivers and ground-waters

Emily Ho PhD BSc CEng FIMechE

Senior Consultant, BHR Group

Emily holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Cranfield University and a BSc from UMIST, UK.

Emily has over 20 years’ experience in process and equipment, research and development projects from concept, feasibility study, scaleup, plant design, installation to commissioning. Her core expertise includes thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, process engineering, fluid sealing and material science. She worked with high temperature high pressure multiphase fluids, bioethanol, steam, process chemicals, cryogenic fluids as well as beverages and food.

Emily is also a member of the Fluid Sealing working group in the ISO Fluid Power Systems and Components Technical Committee.

Calum Hughes - Corresponding Member

Principal Consultant, Yellowood Energy

Ian Johnson

Consultant

Amal Kansagra CEng MIMechE

Giles Lunn MIMechE ACGI

Giles Lunn Giles is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer with over 17 years’ experience in the oil and gas industry.

Following a Year In Industry as a draughtsman with Milton Roy in Wokingham, he studied mechanical engineering at Imperial College, London, graduating in 2002. He then joined Foster Wheeler (now Wood) in Reading and followed the IMechE Monitored Professional Development Scheme, achieving his Chartership in 2006.

Giles has gained experience in various areas of Wood’s business including project engineering, project systems, and legal. He now works as a Principal Static Equipment Engineer leading the Equipment Engineering team on projects and also responsible for the engineering, design, fabrication and installation of pressure vessels and other static equipment.

Giles has worked on projects at every stage of the plant life cycle: study, front end engineering and design (FEED), engineering procurement and construction (EPC) and revamps, on a variety of oil, gas and chemicals projects located around the world including in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Christopher Mellows FCMI PCQI

Christopher Mellows FCMI PCQI

Director, Zulu Joint Integrity & Training Ltd

Chris Mellows has 31 years’ experience in the oil, gas and chemical industries.

Rather than following a purely academic route, Chris started his career as a mechanical engineering apprentice with BP Chemicals and has since worked specifically within the downstream oil & gas, chemical and petrochemical industries for various blue chip organisations as well as contract support companies.

During his career, he gained particular mechanical joint integrity experience on refinery HF Alkylation units. It was this experience that drove Chris to become involved in QA/QC for turnarounds and projects and eventually enabled him to start his own business in 2009 specialising in joint integrity management and leak prevention of bolted joints for UK COMAH sites. Chris and his team now also deliver industry standard joint integrity training and assessment courses throughout the UK (and overseas).

He has extensive experience of supporting assets in terms of design and delivery of joint integrity processes in line with industry guidelines and best practice to help achieve a safe and timely leak-free start up of plant and has a passion for supporting UK apprentice programmes in terms of training delivery and competency assessment of bolted connections of pressurised systems.

Chris is a qualified NVQ assessor, a member of the Chartered Quality Institute (Practitioner) and the Chartered Management Institute (Fellow).

John Morton

John Morton

Product Line Director for Advanced Wet Seal Solutions, John Crane

John Morton is the Product Line Director for Advanced Wet Seal Solutions for John Crane, based in Slough, Berkshire, he is the current Vice Chairman of the European Sealing Association and a previous Chairman. He has represented the Sealing Industry at the World Trade Organisation and participated in a European Union trade delegation. John is a member of the API 682 Task Force currently working on the 5th Edition.

Andrew Normand

New Business Manager, Encora Energy Limited

Michael Rimmer CEng IMechE

Principal Consultant, Costain

Ahmed Saleh

Head of Operation and Technical Support, Air Liquide Advanced Business & Technologies UK Ltd

Stephen Shaw CEng FIMechE

Group Engineering Director, AESSEAL UK Plc

Donald Smith PhD, CEng MIMechE

HSE Manager, Eni UK

 

Martin Waller IEng MIMechE

Sales & Contracts Engineer, Kinder-Janes Engineers Ltd

Ian Watson CEng FIMechE

Fluor Ltd

Annabel West

Programme Manager, Operational Excellence Team, SGN


Prizes and awards

The Committee provides nominations to Process Industries Division's prizes and awards