After graduating from Warwick University with a degree in maths in 1987, he moved to Brighton and qualified as an accountant at Arthur Young (soon to become Ernst & Young) in 1991. His first move into oil and gas was to Amerada Hess in 1996, where he was Head of Finance of North West Europe. Six years later, in 2002, he left to set up CH4 Energy with two Hess alumni, the successful business venture which managed the Markham field in the southern North Sea. The business was sold to Venture Production for £285mn in 2006.

That deal provided equity and the freedom to start up again, so in 2007 he founded Chrysaor (named after an ancient Greek figure). It had acquired financial backing that it used to acquire offshore licences including Spanish Point, on the west coast of Ireland, and Solan in the west of Shetland. The latter was originally explored by Amerada Hess in the 1990s, but was left untapped due to low oil prices. Chrysaor acquired it, did appraisal drilling in 2008–2009, and began extraction in 2013 at the rate of 28,000 b/d.

Former Chrysaor Finance Director Andrew Osborne, who joined the company in 2011, describes that field as the company’s main asset. But further expansion was being blocked, Osborne recalls, by banks’ reluctance to provide asset financing in the years immediately following the financial crisis, particularly for a single-asset development, which was seen as particularly risky.

To get around the problem, Kirk brought Premier Oil in to take over development and to fund 100% of the development, with Chrysaor owning half, and Premier Oil the other, to be repaid based on future production. ‘The Premier Oil deal was innovative and complex... It was classic Phil. He couldn’t raise money from conventional means, but wouldn’t take no for an answer, and went out and found something else,’ Osborne says.

Unfortunately, billions of pounds of cost overruns at the Solan field nearly bankrupted the company. Instead, it took legal action against Premier Oil, pursuing it all the way to the High Court, where it was settled before trial. That allowed Kirk, Osborne and Chrysaor to survive the ordeal.

Birth of a UK independent 
Kirk’s next move was to buy up Shell assets in 2017 for $3.8bn, including support via Blair Thomas, formerly from 3i, now running private equity firm EIG.

In his eulogy given at the memorial service on 23 September, Osborne picked up the story. ‘Having laid the foundations, we bought ConocoPhillips assets in the UK for $3bn in 2019 and then listed the company on a London Stock Exchange by reversing into Premier Oil in 2020. Another classic Phil, hugely complex, multi-billion dollar deal done during the height of the COVID restrictions; only Phil could pull that off. So, from a small office in Maddox Street with no production, no revenue, no cash and a handful of people, Phil created one of Europe’s largest independent oil and gas companies [Harbour Energy] with over a quarter million b/d of production, over $3bn of annual revenue and over 2,000 employees.’

Kirk served as Harbour Energy’s Executive Director, President and CEO Europe until his departure in 2022. Linda Cook, CEO of Harbour Energy, says: ‘Phil was a visionary leader who played a key role in shaping Harbour and our UK acquisitions. He was highly respected across the company and the industry, and his values continue to influence our work today. Our thoughts are with Phil’s family and all who knew him.’

Bob Fennell, former Executive Vice President of Operations at Chrysaor, recalls: ‘Everyone lliked to spend time with Phil, whether it was the offshore guys or onshore staff; he managed to engage really well with operations folks. He was interested in everyone,’ adding that his genuine interest in engineering went down really well. Fennell also remembered that Kirk was a firm supporter of buying British, and a keen supporter of technological innovations, including early investment in 3D scanning of offshore platforms, drone aerial inspections for asset integrity and innovative well technologies.

Supporting young professionals

Kirk, who was enthusiastic about developing the prospects of young people, became one of the first supporters of the young Aberdeen Young Professional Network (YPN), sponsoring it for three years in a row. The YPN founder Denis Pinto – who first met him when he worked at Premier Oil – remembers him as a ‘hands-on people person; one of the few CEOs or presidents who would sit down with engineers and talk with them.’

When Kirk retired the year after, it was a measure of his popularity that offshore workers on one platform sent him off by creating a video message, all wearing Chesterfield football team shirts. More than a retirement project, the club, in the town of his birth, received £1mn of his investment in 2022, making him co-owner, alongside his brother. ‘Under their leadership, Chesterfield enjoyed a remarkable revival, both on and off the pitch, with a renewed sense of community and ambition,’ the Club wrote in a memorial note published in August.

CEO of the Energy Institute, Nick Wayth FEI CEng says: ‘Phil Kirk was a trailblazer in the renaissance of the North Sea, boldly leading and building what became the largest operator in the basin through Chyrsaor and Harbour Energy. He was also a thoroughly decent, amiable and likeable human. We are proud that Phil was a Fellow of the Energy Institute. His legacy will remain for many decades to come.’

• Further reading: ‘Emerging trends in the global oil and gas sector’. The oil and gas industry is at a significant juncture. Energy companies, investors, regulators and other stakeholders are re-evaluating their strategies relating to the energy sector. Darren Spalding and Kirsty Delaney of law firm Bracewell (UK) LLP identify emerging trends shaping the industry in the short-to-medium term as the market evolves.
• Video: ‘'Mythbusting the energy transition'. Listen to Phil Kirk FEI, CEO, Chyrsaor, talking to the Energy Institute’s Aberdeen, Highlands & Islands Young Professionals Network as part of a wider series of interviews, including Louise Kingham OBE FEI, CEO, Energy Institute and Dr Ian Broadbent, Managing Director of Broad Horizons Consulting.