Aberdeen oilman Steve Remp, who helped open up the Caspian Sea for exploration, has died aged 74.
Steve arrived in Aberdeen from his native California as the oil boom was stirring into life.
He spearheaded several ventures including the building of the first Sheraton Hotel in Aberdeen.
Steve and his first wife made their home near Oyne and set about restoring medieval Harthill Castle.
Ramco Energy
He later founded Ramco Energy, which specialised in handling and treating drilling pipes in the North Sea and Brunei.
As the former Soviet Union opened up, Steve was a prime mover in introducing western companies to exploration opportunities in the Caspian Sea.
Steve was born in Glendale southern California in 1947 and was to become the fourth generation of oilmen in his family.
He spent his summers roaming the Oklahoman oilfields on horseback with his grandparents.
Move to Europe
In the mid 1950s, his father, Tom, invented the Rapid-Tector oilfield tool and, after coming to the attention of Weatherford, moved to Europe with his family to expand its business.
Steve was enrolled in German and Austrian schools and soon became fluent in German. In Europe he developed a lifelong love for motorbikes, downhill skiing and geopolitics.
He also developed a fiercely independent attitude to life, living alone in Vienna from the age of 14 in order to attend the American school there.
University
After returning briefly to the United States to pursue a bachelor’s degree from Claremont College, and a masters from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Steve headed to Aberdeen which was emerging as the oil capital of Europe, in search of opportunities relating to the new industry.
As head of Ramco Energy, he identified new opportunities as the then Soviet Union began opening up for business in the late 1980s.
He made more than 30 trips to the Caspian Sea region at a time when travel there was both dangerous and eventful.
Vital link
Steve was one of the first foreign oilmen to enter Azerbaijan for almost 70 years.
His gregariousness and indominable spirit of adventure led to him becoming a vital conduit between the Azari government and foreign oil companies.
Ramco was designated the “eyes and ears in the West” for the state oil company.
In 1994 his efforts paid off, when Ramco became a key participant in the “contract of the century” to develop the giant 4.2 billion barrel Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli oilfield.
Offshore wind
Ambitious and forward thinking to the end, Steve later left oil and gas to take Ramco into offshore wind projects in the North Sea before retiring from that business and venturing into litigation funding.
Steve passed away peacefully at his home in the Cotswolds after a heroic two-year battle with bowel cancer. He is survived by his wife Anna, and two sons and a daughter from his previous marriage.
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