Tower Resources chief executive Jeremy Asher was a late-comer to the upstream business.
However, he felt well-positioned for the move, having concluded a successful career as a downstream number cruncher, grappling with the above-ground challenges of European petrochemicals and the refining industry.
In the late 1990s, he was thinking about retirement. Asher had spent years in management consultancy, starting out as a Shell analyst and rising to head up Glencore’s global oil products trade before acquiring and turning around the 275,000 barrels per day Beta oil refinery at Wilhelmshaven, Germany, then selling it off.
