Oil veteran Linda Cook has her eyes on an empire By James Thomson, AFR 16 Nov 2017
Linda Cook is no stranger to the rollercoaster that is the oil and gas industry.
"I am old enough now to have lived through cycles in the industry, and hopefully there are lessons that we have learned not to forget," she said during a visit to Australia in 2007, not long after being named the world's 11th most powerful businesswoman by Fortune magazine
It is Cook's knowledge of those cycles that has seen her and her new business, Harbour Energy, emerge in recent years as a force to be reckoned with in the global oil and gas sector.
As the oil price climbs off the canvass – it has risen from about $US46 a barrel to above $US60 over the past five months – Cook is making her latest move on Australia's $9 billion Santos Group. Santos revealed on Thursday just how well Cook had anticipated the rise in prices. On August 14 she made a pitch for Santos at $4.35 a share, well above the Santos share price at the time of $3.35. Since that date, the oil price has leapt 21 per cent and Santos shares are now up 30 per cent. Cook, who is best known as the former head of Royal Dutch Shell's gas and power division, is the managing director of Harbour Energy, a joint venture between EIG Global Energy Partners and Noble Group.
The company was formed only in 2014, but has quietly been carving out a space for itself in an industry with an eclectic mix of giants and hopeful juniors.
An attempt to buy a Canadian oil and gas explorer called Pacific Rubiales in 2015 came to nothing despite two attempts, but in January Harbour made its big move, leading the $US3 billion acquisition of a portfolio of North Sea assets from Cook's old shop, Shell.
The deal was completed only on November 1, through a Harbour-backed vehicle called Chryasor. It cemented Harbour as the leading independent oil and gas company in the North Sea. Ominously for Santos, Cook said on completion of the deal that she would be looking to "replicate this strategy in other oil and gas producing regions around the world". Santos now knows exactly how serious Cook is.
The graduate of the University of Kansas is, of course, no stranger to Australia, given Shell's extensive oil and gas investments here, including the North West Shelf LNG project, the Pluto LNG project and the Gorgon LNG project.
It was Cook who first floated the idea that Shell could use a floating LNG plant to develop the Prelude field.
While Cook left Shell in 2009 after being passed over as chief executive – she was widely considered a favourite for the role after spending almost 30 years at the oil giant – she will be well and truly alive to the challenges that oil and gas players such as Santos have experienced in recent years, including political pressure and pressure from environmental groups.
Indeed, it was Cook who in 2008 argued strongly for LNG to be excluded from the emissions trading scheme proposed by Kevin Rudd.
She may face a similar task of staring down the Turnbull government, which seems intent on blaming Santos for the current east coast gas crisis.
Not only is Cook familiar with Australia's best assets, but she also knows the country's best executives well and has acted as a mentor to EnergyAustralia boss Catherine Tanna.
Will Cook get her chance to gain control of Santos? That remains to be seen. Santos rejected Harbour's first approach as being incomplete, but it is understood Cook will be back again. And she can't be underestimated.
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