Red Heather Experts Ltd
Expert Advisory and Witness Services
Red Heather Experts is a collective of highly experienced engineers and project managers that provide advisory and expert witness services, with particular focus on construction disputes and energy supply contracts.
Our extensive experience as project practitioners, subject matter experts, and consultants, spans a diverse array of market sectors. These include LNG, oil and gas, chemical and process industries, power generation, and utilities, on a global scale. This broad expertise enables us to deliver tailored solutions that address the unique challenges and opportunities within each sector. We pride ourselves on our ability to leverage our deep industry knowledge.
Our experts have done the work that they now provide opinions and advice on. That means they have made decisions in the cut and thrust of projects and operations, and critically had to live with the consequence of those decisions.
About Red Heather Experts Ltd
Our Background and Services
Headquartered in the United Kingdom, with a global network of experts, our expertise lies in assessing claims relating to the engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning, start-up, and handover of large-scale construction projects.
This expertise informs our expert evidence and testimony. Our clients are project owners, contractors, litigation funders, facility operators, project finance lenders, and lawyers, amongst others.
Red Heather provides industry experience and expertise to its engagements. These engagements range from multi-billion dollar disputes over construction projects and energy supply contracts, to assessment of damage and failure of individual pieces of equipment.
We are proud that clients come back to us time and again.
What We Do
- Expert evidence and testimony in arbitral and court proceedings
- Expert opinions for claim assessments and mediation
- Due diligence for litigation funders
- Due diligence for project finance providers, including project status assessments and construction/start-up monitoring
- Advisory services relating to process and power plant efficiency, optimisation, and debottlenecking
- Investigations into equipment failure, including root cause analysis
Our Approach
We combine our engineering, construction, commissioning, and project management know-how with diligent assessment of facts and industry benchmarks to deliver opinions and advice to our clients. We support lenders and owners in the period prior to project sanction, during the execution of construction projects, and in the operational phase of facilities. We provide expert opinions for claims and dispute resolution relating to all stages of project execution and an asset's lifecycle.
Our approach is straightforward – we use our industry experience to inform our expert views.
When asked for expert input, before we speak, we listen and we analyse. We are not afraid to have difficult conversations with clients to ensure any claim or investment is progressed with a full picture of the risks. On many occasions, we have saved clients hundreds, and likely billions of dollars, by providing honest and frank opinions at an early stage of claim assessment or due diligence of funding opportunities. We go the extra mile to stress test our opinions, to find the supporting industry data, and to provide the confidence to clients that the expert work product is accurate, independent, and will reliably serve their needs.
Introducing Red Heather Experts
Kevin Bunten founded Red Heather Experts on the premise that expert engagements need time-served industrial experience and should provide a reliable, bespoke, and cost-effective solution for clients.
Kevin holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Chemical Engineering and a Master of Business Administration degree, both from Heriot Watt University in Scotland. He has more than 28 years of experience in LNG, oil and gas, chemical, and process industries. Kevin is also a chartered member of
the IChemE, registered as a Professional Engineer in British Columbia, Canada, and a certified Project Management Professional with the Project Management Institute. He has extensive experience across all phases of the project cycle from engineering through procurement to fabrication, construction management, commissioning and start-up, and operations.
Having worked for leading engineering contractors, major international operating companies, and independent developers, Kevin’s global project experience is comprised of multiple large and mega-projects around the world,
including living and working in North America and South-East Asia.
Kevin is regularly appointed as a technical expert and provides independent analysis to corporate clients, arbitration tribunals, and courts. As a Technical Expert, Kevin is known for his extensive analytical skills that inform case theory, lender’s risk, and manifest in compelling experts reports that withstand scrutiny and cross-examination. Kevin has provided expert testimony in arbitrations seated in London, Calgary and New York and court hearings, including in the High Court in London.
Red Heather’s collective approach calls on a wide range of industry expertise as and when it is required. Regular collaborators to 'the collective' are Gale ‘Chip’ Slocum, Dave Eggelton, Sercan Akyildiz, and Kevin Allsopp.
Paul Bailey
Paul Bailey has 38 years of industry experience spanning engineering, operations, and capital project roles across the oil, gas, and associated process and contracting industries. He has experience in major/mega capital projects ranging to $14bn in value. Paul has a Masters Degree in Chemical Engineering and completed his executive leadership education at the MIT/Sloan School of Management Program in Boston, MA (USA). He is a Chartered Engineer with the IChemE.
Paul has held a variety of senior positions at global organizations in engineering, management, and director roles across the upstream and downstream oil and gas sectors, including significant time working in Europe, Asia, and South America. He was Director of Projects at Worley, Australia where he oversaw significant developments in Coal Seam Gas LNG Projects, a Board Member and Vice President Engineering for Odebrecht International responsible for EPC delivery of major mining and infrastructure projects across Africa, and Vice President of OMV, the Austrian State Oil Company, where he oversaw a portfolio of Major Capital Projects in the offshore oil and gas sectors of UK and Norway.
Paul’s last industry role was as Vice President Projects for Methanex where he oversaw the successful delivery of the $1.3Bn Geismar 3 Methanol Project in Louisiana, a Project which was executed with around 9 million work hours free of any lost time incidents in the period of COVID disruptions.
Chip Slocum
Chip Slocum is a specialist in power plant equipment and its design, fabrication, commissioning, and operation. He holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Mechanical Engineering. Chip has more than 40 years of experience in power plant equipment design, application, project management, sourcing, and manufacturing, including heavy duty and aero-derivative equipment. His experience includes 24 years in various roles with General Electric and 10 years of plant operations and maintenance for NextEra. Chip has testified in multiple arbitrations around the world.
Dave Eggelton
David Eggelton is a specialist in process plant commissioning and start up. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) in Electronics. Dave has over 36 years of experience in process plant commissioning and start-up delivery. Of which, over 25 years have been at manager and director level for both major EPC companies and international owner/operator companies. Dave has led commissioning and start up across a range of facilities in sectors such as Oil and Gas, Chemicals and Polymers, Power and Utilities, Pharmaceutical,
Bio-Technology and Industrial Gases, working for companies such as BP, Air Products, Aramco, Glencore, Bechtel, Petrofac, Kvaerner, and Jacobs. Dave has testified in an international arbitration seated in New York.
Kevin Allsopp
Kevin Allsopp is a graduate of the University of Calgary and has held a number of senior executive and project management roles during his 30-year career in the oil and gas industry in Western Canada. Kevin is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering International and has
extensive experience of claim resolution, including multiple depositions as a corporate representative.