Richard Hardman

Richard Frederick Paynter Hardman, CBE 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 (2005–2006), Atlantic Petroleum 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 (CBE) in New Year Honours List of 1998 for services to the oil industry and the William Smith Medal by the Geological Society in 2003.

Career Starting his career with BP, where after working for ten years, he joined Amoco in 1969, where he became known for North Sea oil and gas exploration.

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 Geological Society. He was formerly chairman of the Science and Innovation Strategy Board of the Natural Environment Research Council, and also a trustee of the UK based education charity Oil Depletion Analysis Centre established in 2001.