About

Alex Ridout has always combined corporate ability with legal attributes in his career, but did not originally envision working in the oil and gas sector, originally qualifying in a boutique London legal firm. Moving to the Middle East region in 2002, he realised the huge opportunities in oil and gas for a top legal counsel and took up a position in-house with Baker Hughes, where he significantly strengthened the on-ground regional legal and contract support of the NYSE-listed, global OFS company. At his next job, Dragon Oil (where he was brought in ‘specifically to create the legal function’ of the business), he had a similarly successful tenure: ‘between the time when I joined in April 2006 until I left in late 2012, the production had increased more than four-fold and the company’s share price had improved significantly’. From here and, ‘looking for a change’ after six years with Dragon Oil, Ridout made the move to Lamprell in November 2012 where he has been ever since. Having spent long periods improving the fortunes of all three of the companies he has worked for in an in-house legal capacity, he emphasises his commitment to the cause: ‘I suppose the theme in my career is that, from having made a decision to go into oil and gas, I have been committed to the oil and gas upstream sector at a senior level for more than 15 years’. This resolve has manifested itself in a number of highly impressive projects and contracts successfully executed. Perhaps chief among these is his work on the $5.2bn deal with Saudi Aramco and other high-profile partners to create an extensive maritime complex in Eastern Saudi Arabia, which was publicly announced in June 2017. ‘This project has been ongoing for 18 months’, he recalls, ‘and I was involved from start through to shareholder approval. It has taken a huge amount of time and effort throughout, and seeing it through to approval is a very proud moment’, says Ridout.