Fuel's gold

Last month, britain's biggest company bettered its previous earnings record in posting profits of over £12 billion, largely boosted by higher-than-normal crude prices post-Hurricane Katrina and ongoing concerns over conflict in the Middle East. Another feather in the cap of multi-award winning BP chief executive (Lord) John Browne, who places huge faith in the company's four brand values - focusing on performance (setting global standards), innovation (delivering breakthrough solutions), being progressive (looking for a new and better approach) and being green (by demonstrating environmental leadership).

Intrinsic to such growth is the safety and security of BP's personnel and assets - if compromised, either upstream (exploration and production) or downstream (refining and marketing) then operations will inevitably suffer. As an extractive business, this blue chip operates in over 100 countries, some of them volatile areas from either a political or conflict perspective. On top of that, in a post-9/11 landscape the nasty spectre of terrorism is never too far away.

Fraud is also a major headache for any corporation, particularly one of BP's size and stature. This is an organisation that clearly deals in massive amounts of money, the company boasting its own trading division on the world markets. The energy solutions provider employs nigh on 110,000 people worldwide, encompassing over 100 ethnic backgrounds and nationalities. The provisions outlined by prevailing legislation place added pressure on aspirations of operating legally and ethically across the globe.

On the safety side, there's always the possibility of disaster striking. Although the inspection team investigating the recent Buncefield Terminal explosions in Hemel Hempstead should find no evidence of foul play, the blasts that rocked Hertfordshire pre-Christmas served as a wake-up call for the petroleum sector. BP's own wake-up call came last March, with the terrible accident at the Texas City plant in which 15 employees lost their lives. The cause was found to be human error, but it could just as easily have been a malicious device. Both events serve to highlight how energy supply operations would prove a spectacular target for terrorist groups.

Brand, people, assets: security

"The safety and protection of our people is the Number One priority," asserts Nigel Carpenter, BP's director of security operations for the Eastern Hemisphere. "The security team's essential remit is to enable BP's people to carry out their work successfully and safely, irrespective of the environment in which they find themselves."

Carpenter stresses that BP assiduously manages all risks to its business, irrespective of how they might manifest themselves. Top of the pile, though, are the aforementioned blights of terrorism and fraud. "You can have the best controls in the world in place for procurement and ethical conduct," suggests Carpenter, "but there is always the human element to consider. It's the human element that usually ends up perpetrating a fraud - individually, internally and/or in collaboration with some other party."

BP splits its operation into four regions, three of which fall into the Eastern Hemisphere (the other being the Western Hemisphere region, or the Americas, encompassing North and South America, Canada and the Caribbean). Carpenter supervises seven regional security advisors, the team looking after all points between the west coast of Ireland and Eastern Siberia, down to New Zealand in the south east while also covering Cape Town in the south west.

States Carpenter with not a little pride: "It's a significant undertaking, but we relish it. Two of the advisors are based in Singapore to cover our Asia Pacific business portfolio. One is in Cape Town, concentrating on sites in sub-Saharan Africa, there's one in Moscow looking after BP's Russian locations and those elsewhere in Eastern Europe and the Caspian locations. The remaining three are based in the UK, but are regularly on the road. One looks after the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (India and Pakistan), one takes care of Europe and the seventh member of the team presides over the UK and Scandinavia."

Interestingly, as the director of operations, Carpenter prefers to suggest that he leads the team rather than manages it. "At BP, we hire smart," insists Carpenter in perfect corporate parlance. "We recruit the best people we can find. My seven regional specialists are as good at what they do in a security risk management sense as I am. I'm just a little bit more experienced, that's all."

Leading from the front

Carpenter is indeed superbly qualified for his current overseeing role. Having glanced at this 55-year-old son of Wiltshire's CV prior to visiting BP's London offices in St James's Square, that deduction is an easy one to make.

On leaving the village of Holt (near Trowbridge) at the tender age of 16, Carpenter joined the Royal Navy. His real desire was to teach sport and physical education, and qualify as a physical education teacher. Ordinarily, this would have necessitated going on to University and gaining a degree in an additional subject, but that wasn't in Carpenter's thinking. "The whole story of my education is that it came to me five or ten years too early," he admits. "At that time, I just wasn't mature enough to knuckle down and study on a serious basis."

Back then, there were too many interesting hobbies in his life, notably music - he confesses to being a great lover of Motown and the ‘classic' rock bands Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple - and sport (Carpenter played football competitively until he was 42, finishing on a high with a charity match in Aberdeen that raised significant funds for the Magiscan brain scanning appeal). Ultimately, he determined to serve his Queen and country while learning the rudiments of sports science as part of the deal.

The Missiles Branch of the Royal Navy was Carpenter's first port of call. It was a case of signing on during England's World Cup winning year, then working hard to attain the rank of leading seaman (equivalent to a corporal). "That paved the way for you to join your preferred branch of the Navy." Carpenter duly passed each aptitude test with flying colours, and was all set to begin his PT course in January 1970. "However, my commanding officer recommended me for commissioned officer, which meant that I would have to attend a junior officer's Interview Board," recalls Carpenter. It was an offer he couldn't refuse, so the PT course necessarily took a back seat.

Alas, Carpenter failed to impress the Board on this occasion, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Taking his place on HMS Bulwark, the apprentice seaman rubbed shoulders with members of the Police and Security Services Branch, to which he eventually transferred. He duly served his time as an investigator, also co-ordinating uniformed patrols and conducting specialist criminal investigations (initially in Plymouth and then in Hong Kong). The latter was winding down as a strategic base for British forces, but there were constant visits by US military personnel on R&R from Vietnam.

Drugs were used as a weapon of war in the Vietnam conflict, and that led to many difficult tasks for Carpenter. "The quality of the drugs on offer in the streets of Hong Kong was far higher than for those in Vietnam," he opines, "so it wasn't really surprising that American servicemen overdosed." Carpenter was personally involved in the investigation of 15 deaths from drug-related incidents. The sort of task that builds character, one suspects.

In 1979, and having attained the rank of Master at Arms, Carpenter was selected for promotion to commissioned officer. He graduated from the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth prior to serving as Naval Provost Marshal (equivalent to the regional chief of police) for Scotland and Northern Ireland, and later as Combined Services Provost Marshal in Gibraltar (as it turned out, his last Royal Navy appointment).

An ability to use the skills he'd learned in the Far East had earlier hoved into view as Carpenter enthusiastically served as an education officer on the subject of drug and alcohol abuse. As you might expect, Carpenter recoils in horror when the subject of 24-hour licensing is mentioned. "There are no positives to come out of 24-hour licensing," he states with total conviction. "In my view drinking in moderation is fine, but I've seen the downsides of what alcohol can do to people."

Moving into corporate circles

Carpenter had been on what he describes as a "fairly restricted career path" in the Royal Navy. By the time he reached his late 30s, he felt he'd achieved all he wanted to and that, if there was going to be any second career, something would have to happen... and fast. Initially, his appointing officer placed him at HMS Forest Moor in north Yorkshire as an executive officer managing 80 Royal Navy personnel and an equal number of BT engineers on what was a major communications base.

"I had over 20 different tasks, from sports officer to grounds maintenance officer, married quarters officer and catering officer. You name it, I did it. To be honest, that was the best possible grounding I could have been given in preparation for Civvy Street."

In his own words, Carpenter made great efforts to ‘civilianise' himself, interacting all the while with external authorities such as the local Mayor's Office. His cause was helped somewhat by the fact that the Catterick Garrison - an important resettlement centre for the military - was only an hour away. "That meant I could attend the odd briefing session on business and finance or sales and marketing. Diversifying my thoughts, if you like. It was a golden opportunity to assimilate a flavour of the corporate world."

Carpenter was eventually offered several jobs in fields as diverse as franchising and recruitment. Soon, The Mobil Oil Corporation knocked at the door with an offer to become the organisation's regional security advisor (and, subsequently, manager) for the exploration and production business in the North Sea (and, ultimately, across Europe, Africa and the old Soviet Union). It was 1989.

"At the time, the North Sea oil industry was concerned about soft drug abuse on oil rigs and platforms," explains Carpenter. "Most of the oil operators were looking to formulate some kind of drug and alcohol abuse policy, and were deciding whether or not to introduce compulsory testing for workers on platforms, for those operating machinery on the drill floor or those driving tankers."

Mobil may have hired Carpenter for that part of his CV relating to substance abuse counselling, but the job was very much about security management as well. He was placed in charge of security intelligence and assessment programmes, devising appropriate counter-terrorism measures, conducting and leading audits and surveys, travel security, fraud, other forms of so-called ‘white collar' crime and information protection. "Working for the upstream Mobil business was certainly a baptism by fire," concludes Carpenter.

Was the transition to ‘Corporate plc' a smooth process, one wonders? "Ten or 15 years ago the services-to-business security route was an obvious one. Corporations began to realise the benefits of engaging a corporate security manager or a risk management specialist. Boards of Directors believed they did so for protection, to anticipate potential problems and ensure good relationships with the local authorities. Given that aspiration, generally speaking it was ex-police personnel who were employed in the security function."

Security managers should do all they can to learn about the sector in which they operate. They need to gather some sense of how people feel about the job they do, and how they view risk within the business

As time moved on, there was a growing realisation that perhaps services personnel had just as much - if not more - to offer in terms of international exposure. "We perhaps had broader horizons than the majority of police officers," suggests Carpenter. Funnily enough, the global publication for BP's workforce is entitled Horizon. Carpenter is an avid reader.

Changing educational dynamics

Carpenter's security skills were deliberately brought up-to-speed between 1990 and 1992, a time devoted to serious study via Loughborough University culminating in the award of its Post-Graduate Diploma in Security Management. For good measure, he also scooped the Control Risks-sponsored prize for Best Project thanks to a highly intuitive paper on information brokering.

Importantly, Carpenter chose this moment in our conversation to fire some warning shots at the security managers of tomorrow. "The qualifications situation has changed dramatically," comments this sharp-suited professional who retains a charming West Country lilt in his voice. "Ten years ago it was all about experience. Now, companies are looking for a blend of practical, on-the-job knowledge and formal education."

Carpenter feels there is a gap in learning and employment still to be plugged. We are not yet at the stage, I don't think, of having a graduate recruit entering the corporate security world at anything other than a junior intern level where they learn the business. Sadly, most organisations don't have sufficient resource space to employ at that level."

He continues: "Graduates need to consider how they might build a portfolio of skills in, say, the security guarding sector or in technical services support which will stand them in good stead when they're contemplating the jump into corporate security." A hugely salient comment, and a message the industry must impart at every opportunity.

New horizons at BP

A 12-month stint as security manager for British Gas plc in 1995 was followed by a move to the Amoco Corporation in the summer of 1996, where Carpenter assumed the role of senior corporate security representative.

In this post he was responsible for the provision of a whole range of security services to Amoco business units in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the former Soviet Union, offering full support to clients from the London regional office.

Following the merger of Amoco with BP in late 1998, Carpenter then became regional security advisor within the group security network, and was responsible for the provision of advice and guidance on security risk management and support services to all BP Amoco operations in the Russian Federation, Eastern, Central and Southern Europe, the Balkans and Egypt. He has been employed in the role of director for security operations in the Eastern Hemisphere since October 2000, but just now there's a new challenge on the horizon... and Carpenter is desperately keen to tell me all about it.

"First of all, it's important for you to understand that the single most important aspect of my job is the people management side," he states with visible enthusiasm and honesty. "That's probably down to the values instilled in me by my late mother, Ivy, who was great with people. She stressed the importance of discipline and morals. Consequently, I really enjoy interacting with others."

Carpenter feels that he brings a counselling and mentoring style to the party. "I would never dream of telling any member of my team exactly how to do their job. I would lose their trust and respect if I ever did. Rather, it's a case of us sitting down and setting performance targets based on their knowledge of what they know they need to achieve in their own sphere of influence. I'm a big believer in empowerment, not micro-management."

Carpenter will need all of his well-honed diplomatic skills now as he takes on a newly-created role targeting the issues of security and Human Rights, as well as the security of critical energy supply infrastructure around the world.

Various pieces of legislation (including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act) and corporate social responsibilities make it incumbent upon BP to demonstrate - at all levels - that the organisation operates within the Rule of Law, in an ethical manner and with the main points of the UN Declaration on Human Rights firmly in mind. To this end, BP is one of the initial signatories to The Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights.

To date, further signatories are the UK, US, Norwegian and Dutch Governments, some of the other oil companies - among them Exxon-Mobil, Shell and Chevron-Texaco - and a handful of non-Governmental organisations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

"The Voluntary Principles are not legally binding," adds Carpenter, a former chairman of the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers, current member of ASIS International and a Fellow of The Security Institute. "We aspire to them to ensure that, wherever we operate - and in particular where we use public or private security forces - we do everything in our power to influence the host's Human Rights record by training our personnel in Human Rights-related issues. If we ever discover abuses we can then ensure that they are thoroughly investigated and dealt with."

Carpenter chips in with the example of Columbia. "Our pipelines there are protected by the local security forces. The same is true in Azerbaijan and Georgia, and for certain facilities in Algeria. We are therefore working extremely hard in these nations so that we can then build Human Rights elements into our operational integrity programmes. In essence, we are ‘operationalising' The Voluntary Principles. That's how I view the role."

As a senior security professional, Carpenter is now tasked with providing the ‘global template' for the business to apply The Voluntary Principles. He suspects that 30% of his time will be concerned with pure energy security issues. "After all, the security of critical infrastructure is paramount." Indeed.

Giving back to the industry

By his own admission, Carpenter has had a "stimulating career" in the security industry. Now, he's intent on putting something back. Apparently, he regularly receives calls from people who want to work for a major corporate. Bear in mind here that there are only six larger organisations than BP on the planet.

"We cannot possibly see everyone, but I'll always try and find the time to have a conversation with those who wish to make the transition into the corporate security arena. I rose through the ranks in the Royal Navy and I know - because I was told so many times - that I commanded far more respect from my staff because they knew I had already been through exactly what they were experiencing."

Carpenter knows he is a lucky man. At BP, the security function enjoys the full support of the company's leadership. "The Board respects and trusts our judgement," explains Carpenter, his face full of pride. "That's not to say we don't encounter regular challenges, but that's as it should be. It's then that we have to be sensitive and prudent in our recommendations."

Carpenter signs off on our interview with yet another excellent piece of advice for aspiring (and practising) security managers. "One of the best things I ever did on first joining Mobil was to learn the business I was in. By that I mean the host business, not the security aspect of it. I visited platforms and tried to understand what a tool pusher does. I wanted to comprehend the logistics of running an offshore operation. Gather some sense of how people feel about the job they do, and how they view risk in the business. If any security manager in the private sector doesn't make this a priority when they start a new role then they cannot hope to provide the right degree of service." So true.

Carpenter then goes for the jugular. "Never assume you know what a business needs from its security professional before learning it inside-out. Security in the corporate world is about building relationships. Gaining trust. We should see ourselves as businessmen first and security specialists second."

For Nigel Carpenter, security is now an holistic risk management function positioned at the heart of the modern business. "And it's not a science," he stresses. "It's an art."