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A sad day for team Serevena
I am sad to say that my father called at 0700hrs UK time to inform me that my oldest St Bernard Jackson had collapsed at home and the vet called for. His weak heart was finally giving up and fluid had begun to build up in there. After consulting with the vet by Skype we made the heartbraking decision for him to be put to sleep. It was not unexpected, but still a very sad day.
For those that knew him and had the pleasure of either his drool, slime, tufts of hair or just squashing your legs and feet whilst waiting for a fuss, below is a picture of him in his prime which is how I will always remember him, lounging over the chaise; a 100kg monster, proud as punch with himself for just being what he always was, a big softy!
Being well looked after
See below…need I say more!
mmm, mmm, mmm, lunch!
APMP…
Kenny found my results in the Mess pigeion hole, seems I got a high of 100% for question nine, low of 48% for question four and an average of 63%. Seems that leaving the KGV at midnight (following Geek Club) paid off. How did everyone else do?
Week 2. 11th – 13th April 2012
Week 2: 11th – 13th April 2012
A short week with Bank Holiday Monday and Tuesday off (Liz’s birthday) to make up for Good Friday. The office is still very quiet but I have at least got a project firmly on my list, and that will start moving with time. Which leads me to some observations…
Pace of life here is slow. There is little sense of urgency anywhere, with most people thinning out around 4 pm – although admittedly they may get here before my usual 8am start. This may be a symptom of the Easter holidays (fair enough), or maybe just that contractors receive a daily rate and can get away with it…
Meetings tend to “go on”. I had 2 meetings on Thursday, both on Ish’s projects which will become mine as he is away for Phase 4 and departs after Phase 5. The first was a weekly update meeting on the Low Pressure Booster Compressor (LPBC) stack change around on Magnus. 13 people were around the table and the meeting lasted over an hour, most of which was a heads up on the tail-chasing that is project management – who’s done what, where sew-and-sew is with the other etc. OK, there were a few people ‘doubling up’ (myself included) but lots of the meeting was re-hashing old conversations and could have been done ‘in the margins’. – I’d better add that it wasn’t Ish that chaired the meeting, but one of the WGPSN Job Responsible Engineers (JREs) – effectively Ish’s oppo.
The second meeting was quite an impromptu chat with Tim Eley, the Business Developer for Linjebygg Offshore (LJB) who specialise in alternative crane solutions. He was bought in to offer a third solution to Ish’s big crane-change project on Magnus that has been put on hold, and may offer a better solution than the current plan which is to use a Heavy Lifting Vessel (HLV) (<$1m per day), and boy did he go on! He made some good suggestions and suggested a way forward, but then bored us by covering the same ground again and giving us more (irrelevant but impressive) examples of LBO’s previous jobs. If I was Ish I would have cut the meeting short after 30 mins rather than letting him go on for over an hour, but maybe I’m missing something…
Other things
Townhalls. I like these. These are BP’s open briefings, held at all levels, where teams are encouraged to get together for the lead and a guest presenter to bring people up to speed on what is going on. I attended my first of the fortnightly Engineering Services Townhalls on Thursday, presented by Tom Macartney (Team Leader) with a second speaker from another department. Although I didn’t stay for the whole meeting, it was good to get fed the information from the top, and he was open to comments from the floor (of which there were a few). The main part for me was the ‘blueprinting’, or standardisation of the different divisions (ours being the North Sea (NS)) so as to catch the ‘best practice’ – one of the buzzwords I liked as Ops Offr at Minley, sharing Best Practice with 1 RSME and Holdfast. For us, this means a few additions to the NS Engineering Services Team but there were no real surprises; probably because it was Tom that helper write the Global blueprint!
Jobs – my role. It is now confirmed that I will be the SPA for the bearing inspection platforms on Bruce, so next week I’ll be chatting to the Senior Structural Engineer, Colin Wilson, to discuss exactly what this might entail before having a free-for-all meeting with the main stakeholders and SMEs. Looking at the internal BP SOR, it was Colin who instigated the job so I’m sure he’ll have some suggestions!
After a few hours of IT support, I finally got onto the computer modelling programme so can now see Bruce in 3D and yes, these rigs are complex beasties (Fig. 1)! It’s so easy to simplify something in your head, but as soon as you look at what exactly is going on, it gets a lot more interesting! I’m now really looking forward to meeting with Colin on Monday to discuss how to tackle this, and I’ll let you know how it goes. Clearly what I really need is a recce, so hopefully I’ll be getting onto site soon – but not until I’ve done a week’s worth of courses – with any luck these will be the week after next. Watch this space!
Figure 1. Screenshot of image of one the bridge linkages on Bruce. From what I hear, the hydrocarbon pipes going 1/3 up the height of the bridge are around the same height of a person.
Figure 1. Screenshot of image of one the bridge linkages on Bruce. From what I hear, the hydrocarbon pipes going 1/3 up the height of the bridge are around the same height of a person.
Week 5 – 11-13 Apr 12
Another short week following the Easter R&R period has been jam-packed with activity as the package leader is heading home to Ireland on Saturday for a 2 week break which means we’ve been thrashing ourselves to tie up all the loose ends. Having just been in the handover meeting I’ve ended up with a fair amount of responsibility in his absence, particularly chairing the weekly meetings and liaison with the design team. This should not be an overly onerous task and the extra responsibility will be good for raising my profile a bit with the key players.
My main effort has been finalising a contract for the pile cut off platforms which is going to end up in the region of $110,000 and the enabling works for the project site which is about $250,000 all up. I’ve also been investing time in the junior engineers, sweeping up their basic skills such as the production of meeting minutes through to formatting documents and improving the general professionalism of our products.
A new task this week has been investigating, researching and selecting the method for abrasive blasting over the water as well as the painting of the welded areas of the Jetty structural. This will probably be the subject area for my first TMR and will therefore leave the meat of the detail for that. What I will say though is that convincing people that the ecological/environmental benefits outweigh the financial is a very difficult task to which there is significant friction!
The plan for next week sees our team halved for the first part whilst the PL is on leave and our graduate engineer on a JH trg package for 3 days (opportunity to have some beers on the company is the basic aim) so I’ll be fairly busy. When this is combined to the fact that Lisa is going to be pushing towards 39 weeks pregnant it will be a tough balancing act. We’re all set though with friends appointed to take the kids during the birth and an escape plan hatched to get me off the island when the time comes!
The latest news I have had for a start date is that we won’t commence until 25 June 12. Whether this includes the enabling works is uncertain but I will keep PEW updated and the review of DOs due on 21 May should give a decent perspective of where I’m at. Not an issue yet at least.
So overall, things are ticking along. The long days are taking their toll but it makes the day off on the weekend very much appreciated and the management here are allowing me the time to undertake my coursework as and when required which means that the time off is largely dedicated to the family.
Until next week, Au Revoir!
Week 4: Edges and Arguements
Period Covered 10 – 12 April 12
Summary: Edges and Arguments
At last I have been on site for a continuous period of time and as a result feel like I am now bedding in and understanding the daily rhythm on site and getting to grips with the detail. Though my role has not altered, my responsibilities have grown – as a result of knowing a little bit more but mainly covering people who are away on Easter Leave.
During this period I have completed the following:
- Supervision of GMF ground work contractors – bulk & detailed excavation and pile cropping
- Application of SQE RM Course – Completed Task Risk Assessments for elevated work
- Review of drawings – answering Sub Contractor queries
- Concrete Pour Quantities and ordering deliveries for site
- Safety Supervision
- Programme co-ordination meetings
Work on site. Work is frantic at the moment with a big push to complete the service tunnel which as I mentioned before is the first milestone for the project and will be how the State judges John Holland. The good news is that there seems to be a real sense from the sub contractors that they will do what it takes to get it done for the handover (first section of tunnel to be handed on 28 Apr) however I have a feeling real life (Murphy’s Law) and a fundamental procurement problem with the waterproofing solution (more to follow) will mean we may miss the deadline.
Issues/observations. I have picked out three things that have interested me in the last couple of days:
a. When is a fall from height a fall from height. The rules at working at height have recently change in WA and from an arbitrary 2m, the rule now states that it is when the risk is felt to be too great. I have been giving this some thought and it is a very subjective view on what constitutes working at height and more pertinent to the groundworks when is an edge an edge and require a barricade: And then when a barricade is required is it a soft barricade (bunting/Mesh) or a hard barricade (Water barrier, Earth Bund). The photos below hopefully illustrate this a bit better…but all of this means on site plenty of discussion from subcontracors before they do what we tell them.
b. Safety v Relations with Subcontractors. Having just come out of a safety meeting which had specifically directed that steel fixers walking on 1.2m high reinforcement cages was not to be tolerated, I felt on pretty safe ground when on my safety walk around I saw two fixers doing exactly this. What I was not prepared for when I told the supervisor this was not to happen was a heat exchange about what did I Fxxxking know and to shut the f**k up. Moral courage tested but not broken I stood my ground and expected him to see the error of his ways, what really happened was that he collected his team and tools and walked off site!!! This left me thinking momentarily if I really had done the right thing.
Thankfully a radio call to the site manager headed them off and after another heated debate a safe solution was found – so though the end result ended in the work being done safely. I have reflected that I still need to work on how I talk to Sub Contractors.
As an after thought a lesson for when I design – it was obvious whoever had designed these capping beams had not considered a safe method of work for the steel fixers to construct the reinforcement cage.
c Programme Changes. A weekly team and subcontractor programme meeting occurs, however the programme changes on an hourly basis. This is being mainly driven by the site manager who is keen to capitalise on any opportunity to “speed” up the programme. In some cases the benefits are massive but I am concerned that by constant, spur of the moment programmes changes this unsettles the sub contractors and at worse is not communicated to all on site, leading to an eventual delay!
My Experience. It is been a busy few days since Easter but it’s been great to get some consecutive days on site. Responsibilities and experience are growing steadily but I still have loads to learn to ensure this progress.
The site has recently been delivered site radios so I having been teaching everyone voice procedure… we’re not quite up to SOC 4, obstacle crossing yet but we’ll get there….so now even my armoured engineering experience has been useful!!
Further Work
- BIM Meeting tomorrow with AEC systems as part of TMR research
- Thesis Topic – I am starting to research into a pile thesis, I have discovered that the service tunnel and the hospital have been designed as separate structures and have different load profiles, as they will be connected I have been informed that the piles have been designed separately to ensure settlement occurs equally and differential settlement is avoided. The settlements will be monitored so this can be compared to the design values (A phone call to JM to follow very soon)
- Consolidate work on site
Week 4 – 2-7 Apr 12
This week was a short one with the project (all GLNG works on Curtis Island) being stood down for 6 days after cease works on Wednesday. In typical army fashion, this meant that everyone started to close down from about mid day on Tuesday and thus next to nothing seemed to be achieved. That said, work carried on for the Jetty team with the production of more reams of paperwork, safety plans and activity method statements! I also continued to plough on with my contractor negotiations for some enabling works which are almost sorted now…they just need to sharpen their pencils a touch more and we’ll then sign a contract for $225k.
Most importantly however was 1430hrs on Wednesday when we were stood down for R&R. For team Serevena this meant jumping in the car early doors of Thursday morning for a drive to the Sunshine Coast for a bit of sun, sea, sand and SCUBA DIVING!!!!! So we were away for all of Easter at Noosa, which was very nice, and had some quality family time prior to the arrival of youngling number 3 in the next 2-3 weeks (touch wood). So to compensate for the fact that there are no site pictures as yet (mainly due to the fact that we still haven’t got access to the site!) I have added some gratuitous underwater shots of me below on the wreck of the HMAS Brisbane from Good Friday. Enjoy!
Last couple of Admin Weeks and First Day at work
The First Blog
Having now completed my first day in work it seems appropriate to add a blog update for the past couple of weeks of Admin fun.
Having arrived in Washington, we set things in motion to avoid the bear traps that Matt was carefully marking for us, and so rapidly set up a Bank account and mobile phones (my phone number is +1 202 415 0907).
We received the embassy brief on Monday the 26th March, which for the most part was swept up and beneficial. Matt had prearranged for the majority of the Common Access Card admin to be ready for us so this made life easy, and we managed to have these ID’s issued to us very quickly (in comparison to what might have been, so thank you Matt.)
Once we arrived in Frederick things became a little more fun, trying to get a suitable house was interesting due to the bidding system here, that means that several people effectively give closed bids on a property, and are then informed several days later whether they have been successful, this coupled with a sporadic rental market meant that with two rejections we were running very short of time. We did however manage to get a fine property and moved in over the weekend just past (Easter Weekend).
The Americans also seem to love bureaucracy, those people who work in the Social Security and Vehicle Licensing Office more than most. So a few days have been spent in their various offices, waiting in lines, with only a butchers slip booking. It really vexes me why they can’t manage something a little more advanced…
I now have:
A vehicle – Jeep Grand Cherokee which manages 20MPG, making it cost the same per mile out here as my little 50MPG back in the UK, and it handles very similarly too!
A Social Security Number, which now allows Utilities and Broadband to be connected to my house.
A house – walking distance from the Camp – this really confuses the Americans – “walking”
Insurance
I still need:
Maryland state driver’s license
Internet connection
A lawn mower
A hunting bow
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Some Brief Background
The USAMRID project is classified as a Partnering project
It is currently about 50% of the way through, with 60% of pay given to the contractors
First Day at Work
Having tried to get an IT account for a couple of hours this morning I was then due in the Monday morning staff meeting, discussing the key issues of the week and progress expected.
Most of the discussion today hinged around the program of works. Part of the problem appears to be the management of snagging lists (“deficiencies”) The contractor is pushing (successfully) for the line items on the program to be declared complete when they are only at 95% or so. They have the work that actually needs to be done added to the deficiencies list. This maintains cash flow for them, and means that they don’t actually need to complete the task before they get the payment – very convenient!
However the deficiencies list has now gotten too large to be able to track effectively, and so contractors appear to be able to get away from actually finishing the work…
How to get the project back on track is a political issue as the project has been reported more complete than it truly is, and the money has already been spent. It is also a very large organisation that has significant momentum.
This is only my first day’s impression, so I am sure that there will be much more depth to the situation than this…
We had a meeting with a contractor in the afternoon. This showed a more healthy side of the “partnering spirit” as cost effective solutions to problems were discussed, and the contractor was flagging up problems he had foreseen, and suggesting possible solutions.
Tomorrow I will be observing part of the testing and commissioning of the steam sterilisation plant, which has been caught by several problems over the past few weeks, but when you see the complexity of the plant it is hardly surprising.
Valuable lesson learned over the weekend…
Week One 2-6 April 2012 – take two
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:
- It takes a while to get your IT sorted
- Everyone goes on leave at the same time leaving a few people covering all the desks
- 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:
- 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).
- 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.
- 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!
Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog 