Andrew Spedding - Geophysicist

It would be difficult for anyone growing up on the Isle of Purbeck not to fall in love with geoscience. As an enthusiastic Venture Scout, the young Andrew Spedding could not resist the charms of Kimmeridge Bay, Lulworth Cove, Wytch Farm oil field and ancient castles nestled between chalk downs, so grabbed a place on the Geology undergraduate course at Royal Holloway and began forging a profession from his passion.

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Scouts in early 1990s must not have taught navigation, because Andrew and his friend managed to turn a hike into the mountains from Durness (North Scotland) during his field mapping, into an arduous slog through bog, scree slope and forgotten valleys. Before eventually finding a road at 10pm and calling the hostel owner who came out to rescue them.

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Despite the geophysics part of his BSc being mostly an onslaught of equations rather than the real-world application, after graduation in 2000, Andrew became a Geophysicist with Veritas and found himself to be rather good at it (a claim verified by our MD, Matt Swan, who also worked here at the time).

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Having combined expertise in both geophysics and geology meant that Andrew was able to transfer from service company to operator. Between 2006 and 2020 he spent nine years at Hess and five at Eni, performing in-field testing, devising work programs for marine/land acquisitions and… supervising processing contractors (with the boot firmly on the other foot).

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These were good years, seeing the world and living in swanky places. But now a husband and father, the British weather began to seem more enticing than infinity pools by the Petronas Towers, or was it the proximity to grandparents and childcare…?

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Swapping boots again, Andrew re-joined the processing services sector at DUG in 2020 and RockWave in 2022. Having worked on both sides (client & contractor), his well-rounded experience helps us better understand our clients’ needs and maintain our focus on delivering exceptional service.