Sir Richard Paniguian; BP troubleshooter who became head of defence sales at UKTI

SIR RICHARD PANIGUIAN, who has died aged 67, became head of defence sales for UK Trade & Investment after a wide-ranging and intrepid career as an executive of the oil giant BP.

An Arabic speaker of Armenian ancestry, Paniguian was a troubleshooter and project leader for BP in some of its most challenging territories. From 1999 to 2002, as vice president for the Middle East and the Caspian region, he was much occupied with the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline – the world's longest – across Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. On the eve of the Iraq War, he was to be found in Whitehall corridors arguing for a foothold for BP and other UK oil companies in post-conflict Iraq, amid rumours that the Americans were offering oil deals to France and Russia to secure their support for the war.

He also drove gas exploration projects in Libya, Egypt and Oman, and BP's first oil project in Angola. As group vice president from 2002 to 2008, he wrestled with the complexities and tensions of TNK-BP, a joint venture formed by bringing together BP's existing Russian oil and gas interests with those of a trio of politically connected oligarchs.

On his retirement from BP in 2008, Paniguian became head of the Defence and Security Organisation within UKTI, working alongside defence manufacturers in their export sales efforts, leading a successful drive to boost Britain's growing reputation as a global centre of excellence in cybersecurity, and accompanying defence ministers on trips abroad.

Successive ministers found Paniguian a tower of strength in this sensitive role, as well as excellent company. At ease with foreign rulers and princelings, he was a consummate professional in his mastery of technical briefs and tireless in pursuit of key relationships. If there was an opportunity to spend time with an Asian prime minister during a refuelling stop at a UK airport at 4.30am, Paniguian would be there. If one of his own political bosses was stuck in a corner at an arms sales conference, Paniguian was ready with a twinkling eye to effect a rescue with "Minister, I'm so sorry to interrupt but I must introduce you to the Panamanian ambassador …" Richard Leon Paniguian was born in London on July 28 1949. His father, Hracia "Pan" Paniguian, born in Constantinople, was a director of the J Walter Thompson advertising agency in London; he also worked for British intelligence, and in SOE and the Political Warfare Executive – where he met his wife, Mary Hubbard, Richard's mother.

Richard was educated at Westminster, where in 1966 he was favourably reviewed by a national newspaper for his performance as Busy in a school production of Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair. He went on to study Arabic at Durham University and later took an MBA at Insead.

After joining British Petroleum in 1971, he worked in Oman and the Emirates until 1978, then for two years in Tehran, where he was briefly arrested as a spy by the revolutionary regime after the fall of the Shah, having been found in possession of a transistor radio.

In the 1980s, he ran BP's oil trading activity, spent two years as vice-president of BP America, and was group finance director (1987-89). He was then posted to Turkey and was director for Europe before moving to the maritime side of the group in 1995. He was chief executive of BP Shipping for four years, and also served as president of the UK Chamber of Shipping.

Richard Paniguian was appointed CBE in 2007 and knighted in 2015, at the end of his tenure at UKTI. He listed his recreations as "cricket, kayaking and contemplation".

He married, in 1991, Nil Okan Kapanci; she survives him with her two sons from a previous marriage.

Sir Richard Paniguian, born July 28 1949, died June 25 2017