Steve BedfordSteve Bedford began his Engineering career in 1982 when he joined the South Nottinghamshire Area of the National Coal Board as a Board Scholar based at Babbington Colliery. Steve completed a year on the Mining Engineering Training scheme before going to Nottingham University to read Mining Engineering. During vacations Steve continued to progress through the Mining Engineering Training scheme. He graduated from Nottingham University in 1986 and joined British Petroleum (BP) as a Trainee Drilling Engineer based in Aberdeen. During his two year training programme Steve undertook assignments in the Central and Northern North Sea, and Dorset, covering all phases of drilling activity from exploration through appraisal, development, workovers and abandonment on land, platform and mobile drilling rigs. On completion of his training Steve was assigned to the development of the Dorset oilfields, primarily Wytch Farm.

In 1991 Steve returned to Aberdeen to work on the Magnus Field for the next six years. During this period Steve undertook various onshore and offshore based Drilling and Petroleum Engineering roles before moving to the Clair development in 1997 as the Senior Drilling Engineer, accountable for the design of the drilling and wells facilities for this new project, based in central London. When the Clair project was put on hold in 1998 Steve joined BP’s Upstream Technology Group supporting well operations in the North Sea and Middle East.

In 1999 Steve led the re-tendering of BP’s UK well service contracts and subsequently managed these contracts for the next three years. This was followed by a two year assignment as the staff lead for UK Drilling, Completion and Wells personnel. In 2003 Steve took up his current role of Well Services Manager for BP’s North Sea Region, supporting all the Company operated and non operated well service work in Western Europe. During his career Steve has undertaken short term assignments for BP in Colombia, Abu Dhabi, USA and Egypt. He has been heavily involved in the development and application of standards in well operations and is currently the Engineering Authority for BP’s European wells and well servicing operations.

Steve joined the Institute of Mining Engineers in 1982 and was elected a Member and Chartered Engineer in 1993, before registering as a European Engineer in 1995. Steve joined the Council of the Mining Institute of Scotland in 2003 and was President for the 2006-07 session. In 2007 Steve became chairman of the Petroleum and Drilling Engineering Division of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. In 2008 Steve received the annual award for mentoring in the oil and gas Industry from Oil and Gas UK.