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Week One 2-6 April 2012 – take two

06/04/2012 1 comment

Not sure what happened to the first version so here is take 2…

Week One: 2nd – 6th April 2012

Well, it’s good to see that BP operates in a similar way to the Army, by which I mean the following:

  1. It takes a while to get your IT sorted
  2. Everyone goes on leave at the same time leaving a few people covering all the desks
  3. Bank holidays are as sacrosanct as Wednesday sports afternoons

and all is going well.  Having popped into the office last week to meet the Projects and Modifications Team Leader, Paul Mullan, it was good to arrive fresh faced on Monday morning to see that people did know I was arriving, even if there was no computer terminal.  And the printers were down.  But before long, the necessary inductions were done and I had a few documents to peruse through, an SON to have a look at (an access platform for the bridge bearings on Bruce) and I knew where the coffee machine was.  And that was Monday really!

Figure 1. Close up of the P60 bridge on Bruce. A permanent platform would allow access to check the bridge bearings, rather than the current practice of temporarily placing scaffolding outside the structure twice yearly.

The week progressed well though, with my time spent on further inductions; off-shore medicals; sitting in on some of Ish’s meetings; a Projects and Mods Team meeting; and delving into the world of BP’s North Sea Intranet to find out their methods of working.  I also had a good chat with the Engineering Services Manager, Tom Macartney in a chance-meeting.  A quiet start, but the work will arrive after the Easter break I am certain!

Phase 2/3 role

Throughout this placement I will be based in the Focus Office where Projects and Mods, its contracted engineers and its main contractor of Wood Group PSN (WG PSN) all work.  I’m still not 100% sure of the relationship between BP and WG PSN so shall explain it better at some point in the future.

Once I’ve ticked off the various sea-survival courses I’ll be able to get onto the platforms, although this will be a rarity due to their limit of personnel on board (PoB).

I am working as a Project Engineer in the Projects and Mods Branch of Engineering Services.  Engineering Services is part of the Operations sector within the North Sea area.  At this stage I will naïvely say that this covers topside (above-sea) alterations to existing platforms up to a value of $15m (BP net value).  I might be getting involved with the following:

  1. Bruce P60 Bridge Access Platform.  This is to engineer, procure and install access platforms to provide access and maintenance of the support bearings for the Bruce P60 bridge (Fig. 1).
  2.  ETAP Accommodation Fit.  I’ve not seen an SON yet but this might be the physical accommodation “bolted” onto the side of an existing platform with its building services and everything else that goes with it.  I am already aware, however, that during the Appraise part of the Common Value Process (CVP), it may transpire that a better option is the use of a floating hotel, or “floatel” as they are commonly known.  For the sake of adding some more pictures, ETAP itself can be seen at Figure 2.
  3. All of Ish’s stuff, more of which in a later blog I’m sure, but essentially replacing an existing turbine chimney.  I will be covering Ish while he is on Phase 4, and taking over what projects are outstanding when he finishes Phase 5.
Figure 2. ETAP platform

Site Description

Throughout this placement I will be based in the Focus offices where BP, its contracted engineers and its ‘main contractor’ of Wood Group PSN (WG PSN) work.  Physically, this is a two-story building just over the road from the (much larger and more impressive) BP North Sea HQ (NSHQ).

Getting Chartered

I had initial reservations about the amount of in-depth technical work and site experience I might gain from this attachment, but this has been somewhat alleviated having spoken to our Project Services Lead, Martin Fragell.  Martin (covering for Paul this week) is very much involved with getting two of their “Challengers” (graduate training scheme) through a programme that will eventually see them chartered, and we’ve already had a chat about ensuring I can do the right amount of A and B to qualify myself.

To follow

With Paul and more of his Programme Leads back in next week, I’m hoping they’ll decide which job to give me and let me roll with it!

Categories: Chris Warner, Journal

A Good Friday to Blog…

06/04/2012 Leave a comment

3-6 Apr 12

So – we don’t appear to recognise religious holidays over here, but never mind, we’ll make up for it.

Progress has now been made with log on details for the CAC and I now have access to an official e-mail address and some of the compulsory training.

Further progress has been made on the driver’s licence front. My wife, as she is German, has no need to take her test due to a reciprocal agreement between states…..and even though I did my test in Germany – muggins here has retake it anyway. I attended a compulsory 3 HOUR class on drug and alcohol awareness and let’s just say it was a good job I’d already had the suicide prevention training at work! The test is booked for 18 April in Annapolis (about an hour and a half drive away.)

I bumped into some of the sub-contractors for the Solar-wall project during lunch break and after the initial ‘oh crap – it’s the Client!’ sort of introductions they finally opened up a little to just chat about projects and work for the Government. I discovered that having just got my head around the whole ‘let’s spend $3.5M in the name of science to see if this stuff works.’ it now turns out there is another existing building with this system already installed. Upon asking why we aren’t just measuring energy usage from this building compared to an equivalent sized building on the base, nobody could say….and I’m now asking again why we’re spending so much money making sure the national debt is kept up to world expectations. I’m probably going to get punched soon for pointing this stuff out all the time.

We had our first RFI’s in on the solar-wall project relating to the construction of the internal racking system which actually forms the structural support for the roof itself. The structural engineer needs to prove that the existing walls and structure can hold the proposed solar-wall and needs certain ‘as built’ info. I have done some digging around and it turns out that the whole roof is to be completely replaced in the near future….so now I’m concerned as to whether or not the structural engineer needs to be worrying about this at all and if it would be better to get the structural engineer from the solar-wall project and the structural engineer from the roof project to liaise directly to save on potential cross-purposes and wasted effort. The issue arises because for maintenance contracts, the Defence Logistics Agency runs and manages it’s own projects, no matter how expensive, but for new works projects of over $750K they have to use USACE for the contract administration and quality assurance and quality control and hence the oversights. Hence we have two projects on the same building that involve different organisations. I have since booked in a meeting with the engineers at DLA to further orientate myself with the local procedures and will also go and see the overall project manager from the DLA for the solar-wall project to iron out these RFI’s in a sensible manner. I am sure that all of this has been considered and thought through and it’s now just a case of making sure communication channels are established.

Have booked in to go on an Officer Training Day with the Corps next month looking at how they clear and maintain the bays as well as some media training.

Child number 2 has arrived safely. Now trying to find non-expensive ways of entertaining the damn thing. (We love him really).

Enjoy the Easter break guys and gals!

McFry

Categories: Mat McFry, Uncategorized