Apache Corporation

20th Dec 2022 also sent to John Christmann

10th November 2022

Dear Mr Gallacher,

Apache North Sea has chosen to work with my event company, Prime Events for over 19 years. Over those years I have had the pleasure of organising numerous events for the Aberdeen team, the Executive Committee and Board of Directors.

I am proud of the relationship I have built with the Apache team and the work we have done with them. I, and my team, have always been treated with the utmost respect by the Board and staff at all levels, and the company has always been delighted with the work we have produced.

Unfortunately, I am writing to express my concern, at the unprofessional, disrespectful and unfair way the new events team at the Apache Aberdeen Office are now treating local partners like ourselves.

To explain, earlier this year, we received an invitation to tender for three events: a Summer Party, Halloween Party and Christmas Dance. We were delighted to have the opportunity to tender were hopeful that we would be successful.

On the 10th August we received an e-mail from Rachel Innes on advising us that Apache would like to work with Prime Events for the upcoming Summer and Halloween events. We had been successful in the tender for two out of three events, which was fantastic.

I asked for feedback as to why we werent successful with the Christmas event as we are always looking to improve and grow.

The reason given was that the other company who had been invited to tender had provisionally secured the better date with P&J Live.

The company in question had been invited to tender over a week before us, so had the opportunity to book the preferred date with the venue before we were even given a date.

This made the whole tender process unfair with one company at an advantage from the outset. If the Apache team had a preferred date in mind, they should have held the date with the venue themselves. As I am sure you know the tender should have gone out at the same time to ensure we were in a level playing field.

Under very difficult circumstances we went on to deliver a successful Summer Party event. Seven days beforehand, with everything in place, the timings were changed from an evening to afternoon.

This created double the work as everything had to be changed to fit the new timings. As a gesture of goodwill, we did not charge any extra for the additional work involved in changing the scope of the event at such short notice.

Whilst organising the Summer Party the preparation for the Halloween Event was also underway. The initial proposal from the tender had to be requoted as attendee figures had gone up.

I attended numerous meetings and phone calls to discuss the event. Just two weeks before the actual event, we were asked to cut the costs.

The costs were cut and the feel of the party was redesigned to meet the new budget. I called and e-mailed several times over the following days to check that the latest event plan was acceptable. We received an e-mail just 9 days before the party to say that Apache were not going to be progressing with Prime for the event however the event was going ahead.

As Im sure you will appreciate, at this late stage , most of the work had already been done. From proposing creative ideas, providing costs, changing this to reflect a change in numbers more than once and then rejigging everything to fit a budget.

We had already secured entertainment and subcontractors as it was a very busy time and we didnt want to lose any elements the events team had hoped to have at the party.

Whilst there had been so many eleventh-hour changes for the Summer Party, we never dreamt that after all the work we had put into the planning of the Halloween Party, and having been awarded the event management services through tender that we would then be told the company wouldnt be progressing with Prime.

Due to the very short cancelation notice, I advised the team that cancellation charges would be applicable.

Normal cancellation fees at this stage would normally be 100%. However, because of our long standing relationship with Apache, I restricted this to a charge to cover our fee and lighting and décor charges.

I have since been threatened with legal action and have been told the invoice will not be passed for payment and no more correspondence will be entered into.

I, my company and my subcontractors, all small local businesses, have been treated so unprofessionally and unfairly by Apache in this instance and for a company like Apache that purports to behave ethically it is both disappointing and unacceptable, especially after having had a great working relationship of almost 20 years.

I do expect the cancellation invoice to be paid and I hope you understand our position.

Your sincerely

Carol Fowler