The Business On... Andy Inglis, Head of Production at Petrofac

A rapid recovery?

Yes. Having quit BP in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Andy Inglis is back, joining the oil services company Petrofac in March as, erm "chief executive of the Energy Developments and Production Solutions businesses". Which, in English, means he's going to head the production operation.

Jobs for the boys then?

Well, Mr Inglis left as part of a management shake-up after the appointment of Bob Dudley to succeed Tony Hayward as chief executive, but he was on a sticky wicket having been in charge of the exploration and production division at BP, making him responsible for the safety of offshore oil drilling.

Ouch

Yes. The operation is likely to come in for some serious flak in a week when Barack Obama's commission becomes the first official investigation to publish findings. Greenpeace has already fired a broadside at the appointment. It may not be the last. Mr Inglis won't be sticking around in the US though. His new job requires him to relocate from his base in Houston to London.

Isn't Petrofac rather thumbing its nose at the US with this?

Well, Petrofac isn't an oil explorer. It provides services to oil companies such as infrastructure and drilling and it does lots of its business in the Middle East and Asia. The appointment has got the City scribblers interested because it signals a desire to expand the Energy Developments division. It co-invests in oil and gas production, processing and transportation alongside Petrofac clients.

So his contacts book should be useful?

Very. To be fair, Petrofac has been hugely successful in recent years. You don't do that by hiring mugs. Prior to the spill, Mr Inglis's BP career was a glittering one. Notwithstanding that spill, he's no mug.

What's he like?

A family man. When posted to Alaska in 1994 to manage the Kuparuk field, his first wife died suddenly leaving him to raise his two young daughters. He remarried in 1997 and had another three children, although his punishing BP work schedule limited the time he could spend with them. That won't change at Petrofac.