Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

All Change in the Aberdeen Office

Well, a month back and there’s a good amount of stuff going down in the Dyce office.

Staff changes

Promotions all round in my department which his good, as my Programme Lead (1-up), Eugene is keen to iron out those things that frustrated him when he was an SPA.  (He’s replaced Hugh, who was a little bit “wet” at times).  Similarly, Pete Neilson has taken over as Team Leader (2-up) and he’s pulling no punches in holding WG PSN to account.  A few of their management have been “moved on” since his promotion and he’s bought in new staff to oversee their methods of working.  Pete is taking a much keener look at the individual projects and our management and initiation of them.  His predecessor, Paul Mullan, was good but never seemed to be around, basing himself in the main BP office rather than our separate office.  This may have been good for him personally, but I think the leadership of the team suffered for it.

At my level, we have a new SPA who I am handing over the B Crane changeout to.  While this is a shame as it was a good job to be running with, it will eventually give me time to get stuck into some discipline engineering.  This is something that has been amiss on my placement but I’ve just came away from a chat with WG PSN’s engineering manager (a Fellow of the IMechE who sits on the interview panel) who is reading through my Personal Competence Statements in order to find the best projects to get me through Review.

It may transpire that I actually hand over all my jobs, which would be a big shame as they’re not due for offshore execution til July and I’d like to get them there!  Still, no time for sentiments when I’ve got a thesis to write and A and B competencies to develop.

Contractor Changes

Such is the nature of this kind of work there’s been a good few chaps from the office move on over recent weeks.  As well as being paid anywhere from £60-100+ an hour, contractors are on 1-weeks’ notice (either way).  This means that if a new job comes along they are more than happy to move on within that length of time; regardless of a successor being lined up or not.  With some drama, our lead process engineer was told to clear his desk then and there, whilst one of the construction planners sat next to me managed his full 5-days before moving on to better and brighter things.  With one of the SPAs off at the end of March and the BP planner away at the end of February, there are more and more empty desks by the minute.  This is causing some problems already; our cost estimator left in November and still hasn’t been replaced.  The comment of there being far more jobs than “qualified” people in Aberdeen has never been truer.

My jobs

These are all progressing well with one notable omission, that of the Cold Boot upgrade…

This has massively stalled due to two main factors: the postponement of the Controls Improvement Project (CIP) and the realisation that there is no suitable pump to empty the boot (a vital part of the project).  Being located at the bottom of the platform, already having a low NPSH, potentially having muds within the “fluid” and being at low temperature (JT effect kicking in there too) there really is nothing on the market that can cope.  Separately, the postponement of the CIP means that any tie ins to the ESDVs will have to be through old-school “manual” logic gates cards – literally hardwired AND/OR gates that slot in to the old control panels (Ben would love it).  So, while I can still get most of the TAR work completed, I am redefining the complete scope to use a N₂ blow-down system instead; something that is so very different it will need a new HAZOP and LOPA to be done to ensure it is safe.  Furthermore, when we re-connect the ESDVs we may need a gas outage to allow for them to be programmed; this is where it will get painful…

While this is a motherfudger of a change, I am thankfully not entirely responsible having inherited it midway through Define (plus, the CIP project only got postponed in December).  Still, it is a bit of a nightmare and something I want to get back on the straight and narrow before handing it on.  To be fair, having HAZOP’d the old (pump) system we are in a far better place for getting this N₂ system right after a good Define.

On the plus side, it also looks like a much better solution that might be fully ETP compliant and so a permanent modification, rather than the pump system which was only a temporary solution until 2016.

Extracurricular Activities

How are you all getting on with CPD?  The IMechE meetings here are at the opposite end of town, so I’ve only gone to one so far (it took 90 mins to get through the traffic and then it was really boring anyway).  Still, BP are hosting one later this month so that will just be a trip to the other office.  As for now, I’m just about to head into town so I can get stuck into some fun with the Young Members’ Panel; what better way to spend a Tuesday night?