Making Your Company’s Operations Safe and Efficient
Operations Support
1. Operations Management
I was privileged to serve 4 years as a platform manager and Offshore Installation Manager (OIM) on Mobil's Beryl B platform in the UK sector of the North Sea. Besides being responsible for safe operations while offshore, the group of platform managers had profit and loss responsibility for the Beryl field. It wasn't an easy job, but it was extremely rewarding. I worked with some great people and made some good friends. As this was my first job in producing operations, I took the opportunity to learn from these awesome people. This experience has served me well since that time.
2. New Operations Development
I spent 6 years leading a team of oil & gas professionals preparing operations management manuals for a super-major's new country affiliates that were being created around the world. This multi-year project covered both onshore and offshore locations in the United States, West Africa, Europe, and Russia. The types of operations were oil & gas field production, FPSO, pipelines, and LNG terminals. A very broad scope of topics was covered by a suite of some 50 types of operations management manuals.
3. Operations Work Management Systems
While working on new operations developments, I had the opportunity to develop a complete operations work management system, including: Permit To Work Systems, Lock-Out Tag-Out Systems, Instrument Override Permit Systems, etc.
4. Operations Auditing
While serving as an OIM for Mobil, I had the opportunity to lead the first safety management system of Mobil's new gas plant in St. Fergus, Scotland.
While serving as operations director for an engineering contractor in Houston, I assembled a team and created a process for doing an operations audit of a large oil company in Australia.
I have also served on several Pre-Startup Safety Review (PSSR) teams.
5. Professional Engineering Reviews
I have worked on a project to do a PE level review of operations manuals for a supermajor for a large production complex offshore Angola.
Operations Support
1. Operations Management
I was privileged to serve 4 years as a platform manager and Offshore Installation Manager (OIM) on Mobil's Beryl B platform in the UK sector of the North Sea. Besides being responsible for safe operations while offshore, the group of platform managers had profit and loss responsibility for the Beryl field. It wasn't an easy job, but it was extremely rewarding. I worked with some great people and made some good friends. As this was my first job in producing operations, I took the opportunity to learn from these awesome people. This experience has served me well since that time.
2. New Operations Development
I spent 6 years leading a team of oil & gas professionals preparing operations management manuals for a super-major's new country affiliates that were being created around the world. This multi-year project covered both onshore and offshore locations in the United States, West Africa, Europe, and Russia. The types of operations were oil & gas field production, FPSO, pipelines, and LNG terminals. A very broad scope of topics was covered by a suite of some 50 types of operations management manuals.
3. Operations Work Management Systems
While working on new operations developments, I had the opportunity to develop a complete operations work management system, including: Permit To Work Systems, Lock-Out Tag-Out Systems, Instrument Override Permit Systems, etc.
4. Operations Auditing
While serving as an OIM for Mobil, I had the opportunity to lead the first safety management system of Mobil's new gas plant in St. Fergus, Scotland.
While serving as operations director for an engineering contractor in Houston, I assembled a team and created a process for doing an operations audit of a large oil company in Australia.
I have also served on several Pre-Startup Safety Review (PSSR) teams.
5. Professional Engineering Reviews
I have worked on a project to do a PE level review of operations manuals for a supermajor for a large production complex offshore Angola.
Facility Operability
You're Not Building a Facility;
You're Building a Business!
In many organizations in our industry, project goals are not aligned. Bids on lump sum tenders may invite "suboptimal" performance just to "get the contract"—unless you have very comprehensive and tight specifications on scope, quality, and operability.
I worked for 5 years helping one of the supermajors develop a project specification on "operability" for a very large lump sum contract. That operability specification was used in the contracting effort and became the framework for a series of global operability specifications that they developed.
What I Have Learned About Making Facilities Operable:
Field Development Experience
1. Feasibility Engineer
I spent 3 years as a feasibility engineer in Mobil's Upstream Technology Center in Dallas, Texas. During that time, I performed numerous "scoping-level" studies on onshore and offshore exploration and producing prospects around the world. This included estimating: reservoir productivity; drilling and facility development plans, costs, and schedules; operating expenses; and abandonment costs. These studies enabled my clients in Mobil's New Exploration & Producing Ventures (NEPV) group to run economic analyses.
2. Technical Team Lead – Zafiro Discovery, Offshore Equatorial Guinea
During my tenure as a feasibility engineer for Mobil, I was appointed as the team lead for the multi-discipline technical team that was formed to bring the Zafiro prospect from discovery to first oil in 18 months. Disciplines represented in the Zafiro technical team were: geophysics, exploration geology, petrophysics, production geology, reservoir engineering, production engineering, drilling and completions engineering, subsea engineering, facilities engineering, and planning and economics. In just 6 months, the team planned, executed, and interpreted a 3D seismic program; completed a 3 well drilling and testing program using rigs of opportunity; developed a preliminary design for wells, subsea, and facilities; and proved sufficient reserves to justify field development and the creation of a new Equatorial Guinea business unit. During the following 12 months, the new Business Unit executed our plan and achieved first oil only 1 week past the target date.
3. NEPV Peer Review Team
During my tenure as a feasibility engineer for Mobil, I was appointed to sit on a peer review team for Mobil's New Exploration & Producing Ventures group. This was a group of about 10 Mobil managers and technologists who would meet monthly and be briefed on prospects. We served as a "cold eyes" team to ask questions and offer suggestions. Our review team developed a reputation for adding such value in these project reviews that we were eventually sought out by NEPV teams to review their projects.
4. Mobil World Gas Model
As a member of a team charged with developing a "World Gas Model" to help guide decision-making about potential gas opportunities., I developed unit development and operating costs for various reserve levels for all the major gas basins around the world.
5. Development Prospect, Offshore Angola
In 2008, I spent 6 months as a contractor for one of the super-majors serving as the Surface Engineering Team Lead for a development prospect offshore Angola. During that time, we evaluated various field configurations and developed a series of facility cost estimates to allow the economic analysis of development alternatives.
Project Support
I have provided support to oil and gas capital projects in several ways.