Andrew Murphy

Green Hydrogen, Black Numbers

Hydrogen projects rarely fail on technology. They fail on delivered cost, on offtake nobody will finance against, on infrastructure the project does not control, and on consent that arrives years late. I published a five-test screen for separating the projects that reach black numbers from the ones that do not, and I use it on my own work as well as on other people's.

The framework is free to use and reproduce under a Creative Commons licence. It was first presented at CERAWeek in Houston in March 2026.

Record

2026 –

CEO, Oxford HydrogenLeading development of a hydrogen production technology engineered for step-change improvement in efficiency and cost, for integration into established industrial systems.

2026 –

Managing Director Europe, GeoKilnEuropean expansion of a stimulated geological hydrogen platform backed by Breakthrough Energy. Partners, capital and market entry across the UK and Europe.

2024 – 25

Manager Strategy and Integration, bpRedesigned the operating model for a $4.5bn gross-margin fuels business and a 145-person fuels technology organisation. Built the case to centralise life cycle assessment capability. Aligned the biotech pipeline with commercial priorities.

2021 – 24

Advisor Future Mobility, Advanced Fuels Leadership Team, bpRepresented bp on the board of the US Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Partnership. Chaired the Energy Institute working groups that produced UK guidance on hydrogen refuelling systems and the first cross-industry quantitative methodology for hydrogen safety distances.

2019 – 21

Founder and Director, RHC New Energy ConsultingChaired the advisory board of the 800 MW Southern Green Hydrogen project, advising the joint venture CEOs on investment timing and route to market. Advised the Petronas board on a $1.3bn hydrogen and ammonia export facility. Delivered a techno-economic assessment identifying more than $500m of net value on a Shell waste-to-energy project. Evaluated projects for the European Commission.

2018 – 19

Innovation and Product Development Director, Watts Water TechnologiesEuropean Leadership Team member. Restructured R&D and product management across eleven sites in seven countries. Ran a product certification crisis to resolution. Delivered more than £8m in procurement savings.

2011 – 17

Senior Hydrogen Technology Engineer, ShellNegotiated partnerships with BMW, Air Liquide and Linde delivering award-winning hydrogen infrastructure. Represented Shell on ISO and BSI committees. Built the hydrogen supply and network phasing models adopted by H2Mobility Germany. Initiated a NASA technology transfer for subsea inspection worth more than $100m in savings.

2007 – 11

Platform Leader, Advanced Biofuels, ShellDirected the advanced biofuels platform: budgets, intellectual property and techno-economic validation for ground and aviation fuels. Global GMO Safety Officer.

Full CV, appointments and publications

Churchill Fellow 2026

I hold a 2026 Churchill Fellowship in governance and public policy for Trust by Design: Making Clean Energy Welcome in Every Community. The subject is delay. The transition to net zero requires an estimated $3.5 trillion of annual capital spending, and that figure assumes the money is deployed efficiently, which it rarely is. Solar farms and onshore wind projects stall for years, and are sometimes killed outright, by community and regulatory conflict.

The Fellowship takes me to Chile, Norway and Japan to study how the best project teams manage that conflict and hold schedule. Three very different political cultures and operating environments, which is the reason for choosing them. The output will be a public benchmarking report on reducing delay in green infrastructure.

Fellowship profile at the Churchill Fellowship

What I am hired for

• Investor diligenceReading a hydrogen investment case as one system and reporting where it fails, in the order the failures are likely to bite.
• Board and advisory seatsAdvising CEOs and joint venture boards on investment timing, sequencing and route to market, as I did on the 800 MW Southern Green Hydrogen programme.
• Safety, standards and consentSafety case logic, separation distances, applicable standards and the competence regime an insurer and a regulator will both accept.
• Speaking and moderationKeynotes, panels and board briefings on hydrogen economics, geologic hydrogen, safety and energy security. Speaking record.

How I work on advisory mandates

References

Recommendations left by people I have worked with. The full set is on LinkedIn.

Get in touch