Scottish Energy Bosses Should Hire RMR for Security
Listen up, Aberdeen.
While the suits sip coffee and talk about “risk matrices” and “resilience frameworks,” someone’s finally had the bright idea to bring in the lads who actually know how to handle proper threats.
Energy bosses and security wallahs gathered in the Granite City for the Offshore Energies UK security conference.
The chat?
How to stop the North Sea from turning into the world’s most expensive shooting gallery. Because right now, with the Middle East on fire and Russia playing silly buggers with Ukraine, everything from oil rigs to wind farms and sub sea cables is looking temptingly vulnerable to sabotage.
Defence experts have been shouting it for years: offshore installations are soft targets. The Government’s even signed a fancy deal with Norway to keep an eye on the joint. The Royal Navy’s doing underwater surveillance.
All very impressive.
But Captain John Niven of the Royal Marines Reserves Aberdeen detachment stood up and basically said what everyone was thinking: “Why not bring in some proper bastards who’ve actually done this shit for real?”
Royal Marine Reservists – lads who’ve been through the full Commando pipeline – bring something the average security contractor doesn’t: the ability to stay switched on when everything’s gone to rat shit.
As Cpt Niven put it:
“The physical resilience that you only go through as part of Royal Marines training is not to be sniffed at. It’s really tough.” We’re talking the final Commando test – a 30-mile tab across Dartmoor with full kit, after weeks of being deliberately smashed physically and mentally. You’re exhausted, broken, starving… and you still have to navigate and make smart decisions. That’s not just fitness. That’s mental armour.“
If you have people that can still think straight even when they’re under pressure – physically and mentally – they’ll make the right decision in a security environment.”
And here’s the bit every CEO should tattoo on their forehead: “Royal Marines training instills the drive to always do the right thing. If you’re having an incident, Royal Marines Reservists will do the right thing, they will flag it up and they won’t just walk on by.”
No box-ticking. No “not my problem.” Just proper Bootneck DNA: see threat, deal with threat, crack on.
So if you’re running an energy operation in the North Sea and you actually want people who can handle high-tempo warfare, cyber threats, sabotage attempts and still keep their heads when the alarm goes off… maybe stop hiring more middle managers. Start hiring some bootnecks instead. They’ve spent years training for exactly the kind of chaos the North Sea might be facing.
And they’re bloody good at it.
