Martin C Cox - Technical Business Development
CEng MIMMM

Martin began his Engineering career in 1979 as a National Coal Board Student Apprentice in the South Nottinghamshire Area working at Calverton and Gedling Collieries. After completing the Mining ET scheme, graduating in Mining Engineering from Nottingham Trent University (formerly Trent Polytechnic) 1983, he joined the offshore industry as a commercial diver working on subsea projects in the North Sea and Middle East.

Martin joined the Institute of Mining Engineers in 1979, elected Member in the mid 80’s and Chartered Engineer in 2004. In 1984 he undertook Postgraduate study in Offshore Engineering at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen. In 2004 he joined the Council of the Mining Institute of Scotland (MIS) becoming one of its Directors, and currently is the 2008/09 President. He also became a Council Member & Trustee in the Institute of Materials, Metallurgy & Mining (IOM3) in 2009, a serving Council Member IOM3 Petroleum and Drilling Engineering Division and a Member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and the Institute of Energy.

In 1986 Martin joined BPB Industries working in the evaluation of a variety of exploitation projects for coal, lignite, tar sands and mineral deposits in the UK, Canada, Europe and Africa. He transferred into the new oil & gas division evaluating exploration wells, and the phases of intervention activity that support drilling, development, production, workover and abandonment in the Southern, Central, Northern North Sea (and on land in Dorset) on platform and mobile drilling rigs. His final UK field assignment was on the development of the Dorset oilfields at Wytch Farm.

In 1991 Martin was posted overseas as location Manager in Pakistan, setting up operations on deep oil wells to the north, and in the gas fields of the Baluchistan desert. This was followed by further operational periods in New Zealand and Australia, returning in 1994 to secondment in the Netherlands to the Shell Dutch company NAM (50/50% Shell / ExxonMobil) in a newly forming well construction team, carrying out drilling and completion operations on the northern gas fields, and oil wells in the west. This was a period of intense development of extended reach drilling activity, building up experience and technologies in order to exploit on & offshore reserves from existing locations. It was followed by inclusion in the NAM Ultra Extended Reach Drilling team, formed to identify technology gaps and technologies required to further the scope of extended reach drilling (ERD) to an out-step of 15km. This included visit and review of the BP Wytch Farm extended reach drilling project which had achieved an out-step of 10km at that time.

A UK based period of technology development within the newly formed Reeves company (MBO VC backed from BPB industries) started in 1998, working with R&D and engineering groups, travelling extensively in the North Sea, Europe, Libya, Former Soviet Republics in Central Asia, Canada, Alaska, USA in order to develop opportunities for the application of new technologies, and support the existing business streams.

2000 saw Martin returning to Aberdeen, applying the newly developed technologies to the North Sea region until the company was bought out in 2004 by an international service provider. He left the company during the integration period in 2005, joining Expro Group, working initially in contract management before moving into a new technology development of HP/HT well clean up equipment, then developing well intervention production lines supporting production and abandonment activities. Expro Group was bought by an investment bank backed finance group in 2008.

Martin joined Aberdeen Drilling Management in 2009, to further and combine his experience to manage the application of expertise, capabilities and technology, with a view to future energy requirements and environmental challenges and continues to promote the development of clean energy potentially available from the coal measures by either coal bed methane extraction or underground coal gasification (UCG), and the potential for CO2 sequestration in old hydrocarbon reservoirs and un-mineable coal seams. All will require safe, cost efficient well construction activities.