The oil industry:

 

The most lucrative part of the UK economy in the late 1970s was the offshore oil industry. Every skill, from welder to cook was needed on an oil platform. With George's undoubted skills our firm was providing some engineering consultancy to the off-shore oil industry and I spotted the need to help engineers already working on short term contracts. Typically, an underwater welder would fly out to an off-shore platform and work during a shut down period, then wait for another platform to need his specialist skills. I built up a database of reliable people who were busy and had no time to search for the next job. These skills were scarce, so companies would pay high rates for putting the right man on the right platform by the right date. This increased our commitment to the lucrative oil industry and for a time we had a shared office in Union Street, Aberdeen. It was a 10 hour drive from Cardiff, but an attractive journey though the Lake District and Scotland that I enjoyed.

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In those days several oil platforms were being built in the shipyards and towed out to position in the hostile North Sea. It was no good getting them in place and finding a fault in the assembly, so a new industry emerged to assure the quality of workmanship. BS5750 (1978) was launched and I developed quality management systems for many firms who made components and equipment for building off-shore platforms. They could be as ordinary as an accommodation module or as sophisticated as the process of tensioning the guy wires that held the flare bridge in place. It was a lucrative market which we exploited in 1978 but by 1985 the price of oil fell and Penarth Management began to focus on land-based projects.

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