Oil company manager must pay special damages

Threaded drilling pipes are stacked at a hydraulic fracturing site. Photo / Bloomberg

An oil company manager has been ordered to pay $71,000 to his former employer after he downloaded hundreds of thousands of company documents before leaving to work at a competitor.

The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) ordered James Watchorn to pay special damages to TAG Oil, after he was found to have downloaded 350,000 company documents to his external drive before leaving the company.

TAG Oil said the files included highly confidential and commercially sensitive information.

Watchorn defended his actions, saying he had worked at several energy companies before, and always made a habit of backing up documents to use as templates for future work.

He said he was unaware the company's geotechnical information had been downloaded during a "gross data dump", and that it was unintentional.

Mr Watchorn worked as the company's Production/Facility manager from April 2011 until July 2012 when he resigned.

He then began work at NZEC, a direct competitor to his former company, TAG Oil said.

Andrew Cadenhead, chief operating officer of TAG Oil, told the ERA the oil and gas industry was fiercely competitive, and geotechnical information would be of incalculable value to a competitor such as Mr Watchorn's new employer.

He said any damage caused by a leak in information could take years to become apparent.

The ERA ruled that Mr Watchorn was "deceptive" and his actions breached contract, but found no evidence to prove he passed information on to his new employer.

Mr Watchorn was ordered to pay $65,567 in damages to TAG Oil, and $12,000 in penalties, half of which to be paid to the Crown and half to TAG Oil.