Marine Projects
Support operations to the main project
minutes reading time
Rod Gibbons
When you specialize in petroleum engineering projects, you get to take ownership of the results, that's the nature of petroleum engineering. Our specialty is well work and abandonments but we are well used to doing the work of 'other' disciplines to make sure the job gets done.
Sometimes you need to build the road, dredge the channel, manage the warehouse, or build the technical team to allow the project to succeed. When we get a brick wall in front of us, we are able to find a way around, under, over or trhough to get our customers goals met rather than say"it's not my job".
Other projects: Rock Mechanics
Getting it done
Dredging a channel to be able to get marine equipment in to abandon a lighthoused platform doesn't exactly meet the definition of Petroleum Engineering, but our goal was to safely abandon the wells by installing a snubbing unit on the top deck of an offshore platform.
The sea had filled in the channel to the platform and it needed to be deepened to allow the supply vessels and support barges to allow abandonment of the platform wells.
Most project managers in the oil industry know that when they show up to a production operation, they sometimes have to do things that, in theory could have been done by operations (I think I have not done a workover or drill on an offshore platform anywhere in the world without getting started by fixing the crane...but that's a different story).
A real team
Being prepared and flexible is required for effective project management. As soon as the ink is dry on a plan, that is typically when things start to change, and most companies prepare adequate contingencies for backup of "their part" but when something comes up because it wasn't known, or someone failed to do their job, that is where creative thinking and owning a project are most important.
This is where you can see the difference between a "service provider" or "hired help" and a "member of the core team", the latter works with all the others to lead the project through a crisis, not just making day rate while "waiting on orders" Support.
"It's about how anything can be done"
Oil and gas projects require multiple disciplines to accomplish the goals and Petroleum Engineering projects are, by their very nature, multi-disciplinary.
Ballycatter Engineering has learned the secret to project success is to own the project and always act in the client's best interest.
It is not about putting up roadblocks and saying why something can't be done, it is about thinking together and coming up with how anything can be done.
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