Colin Barry Phipps (23 July 1934 – 10 January 2009) was a British

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude ...

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, alt ...

and chairman of several petroleum companies. From 1974 to 1979 he was a Labour Party Member of Parliament, but in the 1980s he joined the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

Early life and studies

Colin Barry Phipps was born in Britain on 23 July 1934 at Swansea. He attended Townfield Elementary School in Hayes,

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbourin ...

, then Acton County Grammar School, and the

Bishop Gore School The Bishop Gore School ( cy, Ysgol Esgob Gore) is a secondary school in Swansea in Wales, founded on 14 September 1682 by Hugh Gore (1613–1691), Bishop of Waterford and Lismore. It is situated in Sketty, close to Singleton Park and Swans ...

, Swansea. From

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = � ...

he gained a

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

i
Geology
in 1955; and a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper ''Piled Higher and Deeper'' (also known as ''PhD Comics''), is a newsp ...

i
Geology
from the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingha ...

in 1957.

Career

Parliament

He stood in the

Walthamstow East Walthamstow East was a parliamentary constituency in what was then the Municipal Borough of Walthamstow in east London. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the fir ...

by-election in March 1969, and lost decisively. He served as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

for Dudley West from February 1974 to 1979, when he stood down. His successes in the oil industry made him one of the more wealthy Labour MPs. He joined the

in the 1980s, and unsuccessfully stood for election in Worcester at the 1983 general election, and

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies about north of Wolverhampton, south of Stoke-on-Trent and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 70,145 in ...

in 1987.

Geology

From 1957 to 1964 Phipps worked with

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard o ...

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in ...

, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and the United States. In 1964, well before North Sea oil was known about, he left Shell and became an independent geology consultant and in 1973 he founded Clyde Petroleum, which had many involvements in

North Sea oil North Sea oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons, comprising liquid petroleum and natural gas, produced from petroleum reservoirs beneath the North Sea. In the petroleum industry, the term "North Sea" often includes areas such as the Norwegian Sea an ...

. While working with this company he was also an MP from 1974 to 1979. He became the company's chief executive from 1979 to 1983 and its chairman from 1983 to 1995. From 1989 to 2002 Phipps was chairman of Greenwich Resources, a

gold mining Gold mining is the extraction of gold resources by mining. Historically, mining gold from alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. However, with the expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surfac ...

company. He was chairman of the English String Orchestra (and was also involved with the English Symphony Orchestra) and Falklands Conservation from 1990 to 1992. In 1996 he founded Desire Petroleum, remaining chairman until his death in 2009. Although Phipps had visited the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubou ...

in 1975, he did not become hopeful about oil prospects in the area until 2004, when a seismic survey of the

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...

showed considerable quantities of oil.

Personal life

In 1965 he married Marion Lawrey, and they had two sons and two daughters. Phipps died on 10 January 2009, in a Birmingham hospital.Oil exploration pioneer passes away
/ref> He owned a farm in Worcestershire.

References

*''Times Guide to the House of Commons October 1974'' *

External links

''Times'' obituary

News items

Falklands oil in April 2007
{{DEFAULTSORT:Phipps, Colin 1934 births 2009 deaths Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 Scientists from Swansea People educated at Acton County Grammar School People educated at Bishop Gore School Alumni of University College London Alumni of the University of Birmingham Fellows of the Geological Society of London British petroleum geologists Deaths from pancreatic cancer People in the petroleum industry Social Democratic Party (UK) parliamentary candidates