Argyll Analytics
Environmental Analysis for Sustainability Insights
Background
Environmental Analysis for Sustainability Insights
Geology
My career in the oil and gas industry began in 1996 after graduating from the University of Aberdeen with a joint honours degree in geology with petroleum geology and a masters degree in soil science. I spent 19 years, mainly as a wellsite geologist and operations geologist, applying my petroleum geology knowledge to exploration, appraisal and development wells in the UK and overseas in Greenland, Angola and the United States of America. Until 2005 I worked for major service companies and operators including Halliburton, Mobil North Sea and ExxonMobil Exploration Company, successfully completing the ExxonMobil Wellsite Geology, Operations Geology, and Seismic Interpretation schools as well as advanced training in well log analysis and coring during that period. After gaining significant experience and building my reputation, I spent the remainder of my years in the energy industry consulting as an operations geologist and senior wellsite geologist on long term projects for Chevron UK, Esso Angola, Cairn Energy and BP Angola and acting as a mentor in many cases for graduate geologist employees.
Oceanography
Having spent years working offshore I had become fascinated with the ocean, so in 2015 I accepted a place to study for the masters degree in oceanography through the University of Southampton at the prestigious National Oceanography Centre. Compulsory courses covered a broad range of physical, chemical and biological oceanography topics and I focused my optional modules on seafloor exploration and surveying, coastal sediment dynamics, modelling coastal processes, global climate cycles, and climate change. Short projects successfully completed in the seafloor exploration module included a high voltage submarine cable route selection study, Quaternary evolution of the Thames Estuary area using geophysical and swath bathymetry data, and the use of sidescan sonar data to study a saline density current in the Black Sea as an analogue for turbidity currents. I also gained a distinction for a project in the modelling coastal processes module, designed to assess if navigation into Southampton Water could be improved and if the operational tidal window could be increased by dredging a new channel. My individual research project involved acquisition, processing and interpretation of sub-bottom profile data and analysis of high-resolution bathymetry to infer the origin, evolution and sediment transport pathways on a coastal, shallow water sandbank. I graduated with merit in 2016.
Environmental Assessment
In 2017 my career took an unexpected path in to aquaculture that kick started my career as an environmental analyst. Until 2022 I worked for Mowi Scotland within the environment team, to support the sustainable development of aquaculture and delivery of environmental compliance in Scotland. The role primarily involved preparing individual licensing applications and environmental impact assessments where required, and site development feasibility assessments using GIS mapping and analysis of environmental constraints and historical farming data. When the opportunity arose I would also assist with basic particle tracking modelling and reporting of marine modelling work that supported my licence applications. In 2022 I took on the role of Licence Applications Manager for Mowi Ireland where I was solely responsible for the acquisition and management of licencing and permitting for the farms, which involved close collaboration with environmental consultancies and project stakeholders. In support of my environmental work I became an Associate Member of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment through which I completed the IEMA Foundation Certificate in Environmental Management and Advanced Environmental Impact Assessment training.
Data Science
Throughout my career, analysis of data and samples has been key to the successful planning, acquisition and post operations learning of all projects that I have worked on. As technology develops, more data becomes available, but much of it remains under utilised due to lack of skills required to handle and make sense of the ever increasing data resources. As a result of becoming frustrated by my own lack of data science skills to extract valuable insights from large amounts of data I set out to gain the skills needed. I gained a scholarship from the University of Aberdeen and completed the Data Science: From Data to Insight certificate in 2021. This gave me a really good understanding of how to mine, analyse, and process large datasets, as well create effective data visualisations using Wolfram Mathematica and R. It also gave me an understanding of how data-generated insights can be harnessed to inform business strategy.
To further develop skills in data science, I completed the IBM Professional Data Science certificate in 2025. This gave more in depth training and practice using Python, SQL, machine learning and generative AI for data processing, analysis, visualisation and reporting.