Commissioning and Start-Up Engineer
Learn more about me and why I joined ConocoPhillips:
I started with the company through the engineering summer student programme in Aberdeen. In the first week of the placement we did our offshore survival training. I worked in the drilling group on three projects throughout the summer, the largest of which was concerned with well abandonment. All engineering summer students are guaranteed some offshore experience – I spent a total of 12 days on two drilling rigs in the central North Sea.
A month after the end of my placement when I was back at university for my final year, I was offered a full-time job starting the following October. There were no more further interviews or tests. After a three month placement, the company knew me well enough.
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During their first year of employment, engineers work rotational placements through different departments to gain a broad base of experience and to help them decide where they would like to work in the long-term. I worked in production and operations (helping to operate and maintain platforms), HSEQ (health, safety, environment and quality assurance) and am now working in capital projects (building a new platform).
My work as a commissioning engineer involves testing and calibrating equipment and instrumentation offshore. As a start-up engineer it involves lining up valves, pressurising and de-isolating systems in preparation for oil and gas production. Some of the work is ‘nuts and bolts’ engineering but there is also significant focus on ‘big picture’ engineering.
In the time I have been with the company, my work has taken me to two gas terminals, a platform construction yard and a ministry of defence testing range, a jacket (platform legs) construction yard in Holland, the ConocoPhillips Norway office, offshore (North Sea) and corporate headquarters in Houston, Texas.
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I have had a great variety of contributory and challenging tasks to tackle since starting with the company, but at the same time I have had close support and supervision where needed. I enjoy working with the friendly, helpful people you meet, and there is always something going on outside the office to get involved with, be it sports or social activities.
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Our new platform is due to be started in 2008, and I intend to stay with the project until it is operational. My next move will be into well intervention (fixing wells) and then to the drilling group, with the possibility of some months in Stavanger, where we have significant operations. Three or four years after starting with the company, GRAD (the global recruitment and development scheme) offers the chance to work for a year in one of our overseas locations. With nearly 40 countries to choose from, I definitely intend to do this.
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