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News and views for Subsea 7 people - December 2011

Opportunities around the world Living our values - career development in Subsea 7

People profilesLiving ourvalues

In theirown words

Inside this issue..

News

Safety is the principal factor

Brazilian community action

World-class welding

Communities of Excellence

Our own historical novelist

Diversity on Shell USC

Brazilian project agility

Spirit of brotherhood in Luanda

Country VPs give their personal views on opportunities, challenges and successes in their areas

Fleet roundup

Vessel Support Teams

Recruitment in Ghana

Offshore Seminars

Data matters

2 24/7 December 2011

Living our valuesSafetyA complex multi-disciplinary project to retrieve a 250-tonne cover plate from the Newfoundland seafloor demonstrated a high standard of safety performance, Stephen Henley, Managing Director, Canada............................................................. 06

IntegritySubsea 7’s Brazilian teams - both onshore and offshore - are now taking their community involvement on to a whole new level, Gabriella Coli De Sa, Communications Analyst.

............................................................ 10

InnovationThe Pipeline Production Group is making giant strides forward in the field of automatic welding technologies, Paul Alexander, Managing Director.

............................................................ 20

Performance Subsea 7’s ongoing business success goes hand-in-hand with effective career development throughout the company, Keith Tipson, Executive VP Human Resources............................................................. 24

CollaborationOur new “Communities of Excellence” are taking a fresh approach to technical knowledge-sharing, Claire Royce, Group Engineering Resources Manager............................................................. 32

Front coverPeople development“This approach will encourage people to build their long-term careers with Subsea 7.”

Keith Tipson, Executive VP, HRPages 24-25

Contents

In their own wordsPhil Simons, VP Canada, Mediterranean & Russia“There are no less than 32 different countries in the regions for which I’m responsible.” ............................................................ 07

Stuart Fitzgerald, VP Norway“We have to grow our workforce, and we need our new colleagues to feel welcome and secure.”............................................................ 11

Dick Martin, VP Asia“This is why our clients will buy the Subsea 7 product over newcomers.”............................................................ 13

Bruno Faure, VP AFGOM, Europe“AFGOM Paris is now emerging as a respected specialist in the management of complex, large-scale projects.”............................................................ 17

Ian Cobban, VP GOM“Subsea 7 has the equipment, capabilities and resources to be successful in the growing Mexican market.”............................................................ 21

Olivier Blaringhem, VP Nigeria“Month by month, more and more work is done locally in Nigeria for each discipline.”............................................................ 27

Darren Cormell, VP Australia & New Zealand“Subsea 7 has an unparalleled track record and experience in project delivery in Australia.”............................................................ 29

Bob Dunsmore, VP Renewables“Within the new Offshore Wind Alliance, Subsea 7 takes responsibility for marine operations and offshore construction.”............................................................ 33

Contents continued

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24/7 is produced in-house by Subsea 7 Corporate Communications. Subsea 7 would like to thank all those who contributed words, ideas and images to this issue of 24/7 magazine. If you have any suggestions to make about future issues of 24/7 or any other Subsea 7 internal communication activities please feel free to contact: [email protected], Director of Communications or call +44 (0)1224 526196

www.subsea7.com © Subsea 7, 2011

People profilesIngunn KalveThis ex-aerobic instructor has valuable experience in motivating people to give that little extra!............................................................ 05

Jean-Yves BaudouinThe Captain of the Acergy Polaris recommends another side of the Mediterranean way of living............................................................. 09

Stephen GowMeet Subsea 7’s only (we think!) best-selling historical novelist!.

............................................................ 12

Ian ChappleFor its sheer diversity, the Shell Underwater Services Contract (USC) makes for a stimulating work environment............................................................. 15

Antonio Ferreira (Manolo)The Brazilian Day Rate team specialises in short-term, short-notice workscopes, according to Manolo............................................................. 19

Christy FirthAn “eagle-eyed” American who thrives on her command of detail............................................................. 23

Jose JorgeThis Procurement Assistant appreciates the “spirit of brotherhood and friendship” in the Luanda office. ............................................................ 31

Dimitris SalonikisAn IT Manager who began his career at the Athens Olympics!............................................................ 34

News featuresVIP ROV instructionThe day the Mexican President piloted an i-Tech ROV............................................................. 08

Fleet roundupA Subsea 7 record with the 5,500t load-test of the main crane on board the Seven Borealis............................................................. 14

Pazflor - succeeding togetherA unique consortium approach represents both a landmark African success and a pointer to the future.

............................................................ 16

Opening in ChinaVERIPOS extends its Asia Pacific operations into the biggest market of them all............................................................. 22

Vessel Support Teams“I like to think of VSTs as the grout between the Subsea 7 tiles,” says Stephen Ungvary, Skandi Acergy Vessel Support Manager............................................................. 26

Powers of observation“We are now entering the era of the safety equivalent of speed cameras,” observes Andy Culwell, VP HSE............................................................. 28

Looking localEarlier this year, Subsea 7 ran a highly successful recruitment campaign in Ghana............................................................. 35

A call to actionSubsea 7 held its largest Offshore Seminars for offshore management............................................................. 36

Data mattersKeith Grabham, Data Management Manager, gives insights into new data management technologies............................................................. 38


Jean Cahuzac, Chief Executive Officer

I have been disappointed by our safety results. While we have many examples of outstanding performance, our overall year to-date leading and lagging indicators show that our safety performance is no longer improving. I know that you share my concern and remain confident that – with your commitment - we can change this trend. You can count on my support.

Ten months after we announced the merger, I am very pleased with the progress we have made with our integration plan. This would not have been possible without your continued efforts. Onshore, integration activity is reaching a major milestone with the switch-over on 1 January 2012 of our core business and financial systems to SAP. While recognising this will result in a number of changes to how you work for many of you, I am confident that our robust project planning process will also result in this being a success for the business overall.

Operational performance continues to be good across most parts of the business. As always this could not have been achieved without your continued efforts so I thank you all.

In Subsea 7 we have a wide diversity of people and cultures, with over 70 different nationalities represented. Within this we have a lot of impressive people operating in all kinds of roles; we have individuals who are also great team players, strategic thinkers and

doers, acknowledged experts, real industry “characters” and a great many people with a healthy sense of humour.

What really make us different, though is how we live our values. Safety, Integrity, Innovation, Performance and Collaboration – these are the core values that count for everything in Subsea 7. When we focus on them, live by them and develop an acknowledged reputation for them, we will, in the process, establish our company as a distinctive leader in our industry.

I was impressed at the performance of our Canadian team, reported by Stephen Henley, in managing the retrieval, refurbishment and transportation of a 250-tonne cover plate from the sea-floor off Newfoundland (pages 6-7). This was an unusually complex multi-disciplinary project involving 19 different contractors, and its success clearly demonstrates the value we can achieve in Safety performance by focussing on our new Critical Safety Behaviours (CSBs) reporting system (see also article on CSBs from Andy Culwell on pages 28-29).

On pages 10-11, Gabriella Coli De Sa illustrates some of the ways in which our people in Brazil – both offshore and onshore – demonstrate integrity, by explaining how we are making a real difference to improving people’s lives in the community through the voluntary actions of our people.

Paul Alexander heads our Pipeline Production Group, and on page 20 he reports on how we are developing a world-class central technical welding authority in Glasgow, with its enhanced technologies already being rolled out to our fabrication bases. Weld quality is more important than ever in the

deepwater era, and PPG’s innovative reductions in weld repair rates are impressive.

And it is highly appropriate that we continue to recognise that our performance is interlinked with our firm belief that ‘people are central to our success’. On pages 24-25 we hear from Keith Tipson and some of his team about the development programmes we use to encourage our people to plan and manage successful, satisfying careers with Subsea 7; our ambitions for the company and your personal career aspirations have never been so interdependent; this is an era of rare opportunity on both sides.

Another tremendous opportunity we have is to capture, assess and refine the vast technical knowledge that resides in Subsea 7. We have before us a unique opportunity to share and collaborate on this technical experience. On pages 32-33, Claire Royce explains the rationale behind a new support structure – our “Communities of Excellence” - which will help us to do just that.

You will also find within these pages many newsworthy reports of company activities – i-Tech welcoming the President of Mexico into an ROV cabin, London hosting our biggest-ever and most important Offshore Seminars, the story of our landmark Pazflor project, completed as part of a unique consortium in Angola, and insights into the progress of our new Vessel Support Teams.

And you will also read about your colleagues, and get to know new names and faces throughout the organisation – people like Stephen Gow, a long-serving senior contracts manager in Singapore who also has a successful second career as a historical novelist. Subsea 7 people really are our number one asset!

Welcome to the second issue of 24/7

The value of values

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People profile

The Scandinavian perspective“Being humble” is the key to managing the HSE element of a project, says Ingunn Kalve…

What is your current role?

I have worked as a Project Manager in Project & Operations in Norway since 2008.

What is a brief summary of your career to date with Subsea 7?

I started as a Project Engineer in 1999 and have worked on both the technical and commercial side of projects as Technical Manager and Service Manager.

What have you learned during your career to date?

Technical understanding from my engineering background. In my role as Project Engineer, I used to go offshore now and then and that has also helped me to understand the nature of our business.

In my role as Project Service Manager, I gained a good contractual understanding, especially from being involved in tendering negotiations. I also had the time to learn and understand how important both client and subcontractor relations are as a Project Service Manager.

What is the greatest challenge in your job?

When I started as a Project Manager, I wanted to ensure that the HSE aspect of the project execution was robust, and to look at how I could and should make a difference - being able to ask the right questions and make the correct decisions.

I met this challenge by being humble, asking other Project Managers a lot of questions, and having a very good dialogue with the HSE department.

I also came to appreciate that there was a very good HSE framework in place. I feel that I have gained experience and know-how by running projects, and I am working with very professional and skilled people both onshore and offshore who all take safety seriously in everything they do.

What gives you the greatest satisfaction in your job?

The people I work with. I like the positive approach, the drive, the enthusiasm, and the can-do attitude, as well as the professionalism.

What are the most important qualities you need to carry out your job?

I think it is important to be able to make decisions when it is required. It is also important to be proactive, and be able to have a good overview.

Last, but not least, it is important to have time for people, share information with the project team, and have a positive approach as well as a professional one.

Outside work, what are your main interests?

I guess my favourite thing to do is skiing, preferably telemarking in the Alps. I also enjoy all kind of outdoor activities with my family, both winter and summer.

In addition I try to stay in shape with aerobics, which I enjoy very much. I used to be an aerobic instructor for 13 years, so I like to think that I have some experience in motivating people to give that little extra, but two years ago I decided that life was too busy to continue as an instructor!

What have been the personal highlights of your life?

My two boys Storm Mikael (8) and Gard August (4).

What personal characteristics in other people do you most value?

Honesty, a positive approach and humour.

What’s your favourite place?

I love being in the mountains, either skiing or hiking.

Living our values / Safety


In 2005, Canadian energy company Husky Energy submerged and stored a 23m

diameter, 250 tonne steel cover plate for its SeaRose FPSO in a “wet-store” in 83m of water in Mortier Bay, off the Newfoundland town of Marystown.

The giant plate had been used to protect the FPSO’s moonpool during the SeaRose’s initial two-month transit from Korea to Newfoundland.

Seven years later, in preparation for a future off-station programme, a complex operation was launched to lift the giant cover plate from the seafloor, clean and refurbish it, and prepare it to be re-installed on to the bottom of the FPSO.

Subsea 7’s scope of work was to provide the project management and engineering of the retrieval, refurbishment and transportation of the plate to a new storage location in Argentia, in Newfoundland and Labrador.

“This was a very complex multi-disciplinary project which involved mobilising the light intervention vessel Atlantic Osprey while dealing with 19 different contractors over a condensed schedule, so the safety and logistical challenges were substantial,” recalls Stephen Henley, Subsea 7’s Managing Director for Canada.

The project also reunited Subsea 7 with

the appropriately-named Giant 4, a 140-metre heavy-lift semi-submersible salvage barge. “We first worked with the Giant 4 in 2000/1 when Subsea 7 took part in the operation to recover the wreck of the Russian Kursk submarine, which sank following an explosion onboard, in relatively shallow waters in the Barents Sea with the tragic loss of all hands,” says Stephen.

In preparation for the cover plate recovery campaign, the Atlantic Osprey was first sent to the wet-store location in Mortier Bay to perform surveys of potential locations to submerge the Giant 4, as well as to perform a survey of the cover plate.

“All people on the project enhanced the safety of operations in the workplace by actively participating in the CSB observation reporting system.”

An additional scope involved the removal of the rigging that had been used to wet-store the cover plate in 2005. ROVs on board the Osprey were deployed to the cover plate, the shackles on the cover plate pad-eyes disconnected, and the rigging recovered to deck.

As the cover plate could not be lifted directly from the seabed on to a vessel deck, the unusual method proposed by the Subsea 7 project team was to lift the cover plate from the seabed on to the submerged deck of the Giant 4. The barge was then ballasted up with the cover plate on board and then towed to a quayside in Argentia, where a refurbishment scope was performed.

The cover plate was then offloaded from the Giant 4 and transported via large crawlers to its new dry-store location ready for future installation.

The safety performance during these technically challenging workscopes, which involved many different contractors working on multiple simultaneous operations, was of the very highest standard.

Over 25,000 man hours, 92 site orientations for onshore operations were undertaken, 48 Critical Safety Behaviours (CSBs) observations were recorded, and 51 toolbox talk meetings were held. The project recorded zero lost-time incidents, zero medical treatment cases, zero first-aid cases, zero environmental releases, and only one near-miss and one non-environmental loss of containment.

“Safety should be the principal factor in all our undertakings,” commented Stephen Henley. “I feel we should take safety personally - everyone has mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, spouses, children and even pets who depend on our health and safety daily. When we couple this with our CSB process, it becomes a powerful combination!”

And, despite its unusual nature, the SeaRose Project has firmly put down a marker in terms of successful safety performance. “The cover plate recovery project was an exceptional display of proactive safety management deployed to maintain the highest standards of

safety in our industry while utilising best practices by our full project team,” commented Grant Skinner, HSE Manager for Canada.

“In particular, all people on the project enhanced the safety of operations in the workplace by actively participating in the CSB observation reporting system.

“This complex project clearly demonstrated the practical value of using the CSB system and the benefit when training all people prior to work

Stephen Henley

For centuries the Grand Banks of Newfoundland were one of the richest fishing grounds in the world - but during the summer of 2011 they witnessed Subsea 7 “landing” a rather unusual catch…

Grant Skinner, HSE Manager

Safety is the principal factor

Safety

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In their own words

Phil Simons, Vice President Canada, Mediterranean & Russia

There are no less than 32 different countries in the regions for which I’m responsible. Some are showing great potential, and our growth is dependent on us being able to expand into these new markets.

But this is going to be challenging. Since taking up my role earlier this year, the Mediterranean has become politically unstable in parts, so we have to be doubly careful that we set ourselves up correctly, and have sound security measures in place to protect our people.

The recent sad death of Robert Valk, Managing Director, Mediterranean, in

Cairo, due to natural causes, should remind us how important it is to have reliable support in the countries in which we work. In this particular case, I would like to pay tribute to our in-country agents Transmed, who were invaluable in both dealing with the authorities and assisting Robert’s family.

I’ve been in this industry for 24 years now, firstly in the drilling sector for five years before moving to the subsea sector working in projects and commercial departments. I moved to Subsea 7 in 2004, working as a senior project manager within the UK operations department, and then moving up through the department to UK Operations Director before, post-merger, taking on this new role as VP for Canada, Mediterranean and Russia.

Throughout my career, I’ve been lucky in two ways; to have always enjoyed what I do, and to have been given so many challenging opportunities. The

new Subsea 7 is a fantastic prospect for all our people, and as a company we should appreciate the significant talent that we possess internally. I’m very much of the opinion that we should focus on this talent, help it develop and give it the opportunities to drive the company to greatness.

For two large organisations to merge is a mammoth task, and I don’t envy Robin Davies, VP Integration & Business Improvement and his team in managing it. However, I’ve already seen an inspiring willingness of our people to work together, and remain open to new ideas and ways of working.

I feel we have achieved so much in a short timescale, and with continued enthusiasm and commitment from everyone, I can see us achieving our goal of a truly great company for both our clients and ourselves.

commencing so that we can establish the mindset we require to maintain an incident-free workplace, every day, everywhere even in the harshest of environments.

“I believe the greatest challenge within Subsea 7 to improve safety performance is to close the gap

between management and the remainder of the workforce. We have to instil into all our people the mindset to work safely, and empower them to be accountable for safety.

“CSB in particular goes a long way to countering the dangerous mindset of safety being a chore that’s forced on people.”

And, emphasises Grant, there is an additional satisfaction to being in a position to influence people to think safely both at work and at home. “It’s doubly rewarding when workers tell you how a lesson learned at work, during a safety meeting or presentation, influenced them to work differently at home, and in the process prevented them or a family member from an incident.”

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The Union Wrestler tug takes Giant 4 in tow

News / Feature


Rogelio and two i-Tech colleagues were stationed on the semi-submersible drilling rig “Centenario”, a new state-of-the-art platform which is spearheading Pemex’s move into the exploration of Mexican deepwater subsea reservoirs.

In early summer, the crew were advised of a planned visit to the installation by President Calderón, and on the 14th of June the red carpet was duly rolled out.

“The whole crew had been cleaning and painting for days in advance of the visit, and on the day itself everything felt very different from the usual - the decks were absolutely spotless and there wasn’t a sound of machinery,” Rogelio recalls.

“Then the helicopters started arriving - the Mexican army, PEMEX representatives and a high-level delegation from our client, Grupo R - before the President arrived in person for his tour of the installation.”

As ROV Supervisor, Rogelio, who is one of 25 Mexican engineers employed by i-Tech, had the double honour of making a Presidential speech of welcome in the ROV Control Van and demonstrating the advanced capabilities of i-Tech’s Centurion QX ROV to the honoured guest.

“With the help of some video footage, I talked the President through the advanced functionality of the ROV, and was greatly impressed at his interest in technical detail - he asked a number of very good questions,” says Rogelio.

“And when I offered him the opportunity to operate the five-function manipulator, he jumped at the chance and was soon panning and tilting with great dexterity. He has an excellent sense of humour, and particularly enjoyed practising simulated robot deepwater handshakes!”

i-Tech is now on board three of the four deepwater rigs currently working offshore Mexico.

A marine engineer by profession, Rogelio has been with Subsea 7 for five years and made a point of emphasising the company’s commitment to the human and technical development of its people in his speech to the President. And instructing a Head of State is likely

to remain a personal and professional highlight for the rest of his career - “it really was a day quite unlike any other,” he recalls.

The “Centenario” is designed to operate in water depths up to 10,000 feet and was the first new-build deepwater rig to mobilise to Mexico with an i-Tech Centurion QX ROV system on board. The rig was soon followed by the new-build rig Bicentenario, also operated by Grupo R and with a Quantum ROV system installed.

The most recent new-build deepwater rig to enter the Mexican market is the West Pegasus operated by Seadrill which also has an i-Tech Centurion QX ROV system on board.

i-Tech is therefore now on board three of the four deepwater rigs currently working offshore Mexico, and to support these three long-term deepwater contracts and to position i-Tech for the growing market, a new office will shortly be opening in Veracruz in addition to the company’s current operational base in Ciudad de Carmen.

VIP ROV instruction!On a memorable day in June, i-Tech’s Rogelio Zumaya welcomed a very distinguished ROV trainee on board - Mexican President Felipe Calderón ...

Rogelio Zumaya, ROV Supervisor

President Felipe Calderón launches Centenario (fourth from left)

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People profile

View from the bridgeCaptain Jean-Yves Baudouin is an advocate of keeping calm, being available and showing patience…

What is your current role? I am one of the Captains of the Acergy Polaris.

What is a brief summary of your career to date with Subsea 7? I worked as Chief Officer on the Acergy Polaris from August 2004 to August 2010 and I was recently promoted as Captain on the Acergy Polaris in August of this year.

Before joining Subsea 7, where else did you work? I worked for a few years as 1st Mate on cable ships for a telecom company where I gained experience on dynamic positioning systems.

What are the most important qualities you need to carry out your job? These last few years, I had the opportunity to work with very competent Captains on the Acergy Polaris, and some of their most important qualities I would retain are to keep calm in all situations and to be always available for the job and for the crew.

What piece of advice would you give to someone just starting out on their career with Subsea 7? I would tell them to be patient. It takes time to gain experience in the offshore industry, but then there are good opportunities for career development.

What are your hopes for the new Subsea 7? More stabilisation and retention of new employees in the company. Working and living conditions offshore are hard for new recruits, and we must let them know that it takes time to gain experience.

What have been the highlights of your professional career? At 28 years old, I decided to quit my job as a dental technician and go to the Merchant Marine Officer School. I think that’s because I come from a family of seamen for many generations, and it runs through my veins!

Outside work, what are your main interests? The nice little meals home-cooked by my wife. Travel, sport (especially golf), modern art are some of my other main interests, but I have to share them with someone to really appreciate them.

Who have been the main inspirations to you in your life? My father. He started as an Oiler on Liberty ships when he was 16 and he retired as technical director for a ship company when he was 68. He was constantly setting himself new goals.

What have been the personal highlights of your life? When I met my wife. She is a great support to me and gives me the balance I need.

What personal characteristics in other people do you most value, and why? Honesty, dynamism and humour. That’s a good base on which to work and live together.

What makes you laugh? A dinner with some friends. I know there will be good vibes and good food!

What’s your favourite place? My favourite place is Aix-en-Provence, where I live, in the South of France. It is an old university town with nice pedestrian streets, good restaurants with terraces and it is sunny 80% of the year. I recommend it to you especially if you want to discover another side of the Mediterranean way of living.

Acergy Polaris

Living our values / Integrity

10 24/7 December 2011

A longside its focus on results and business improvement, Subsea 7 Brazil is also

committed to taking an active social responsibility role in community development, in particular through practical initiatives that can really make a difference to the lives of the disadvantaged.

After the merger, the Social Accountability initiatives of both legacy companies were then linked in with the Communications department.

“The main challenge was to understand how both legacy companies worked their social responsibility activities, and get the best out of both, reinforcing a ‘developing’ attitude, rather than just philanthropy,” explains Hariom Cavalcante, the new manager of Communications and Social Accountability.

“In the department, Gabriella Coli, a Communications Analyst located in Macaé, supports our social responsibility initiatives, principally Projeto Esperança (Project Hope), Ilha do Futuro (Future Island), Casa da Árvore (Tree House), Natação no Mar (Swimming in the Sea), and our volunteering programme.”

Project Hope is a 10-year-old project to help poor or at-risk people, such us victims of natural catastrophes like

floods, raising donations to provide essential supplies like water, food and clothing.

In the last three years, a number of equally practical initiatives have been introduced, including Future Island and Tree House, both of which are located in Niterói, in Rio de Janeiro region.

“Ilha do Futuro” (Future Island) is a carefully-planned social accountability programme in the local island community of Ilha da Conceição, in which the company’s Niteroi office is based.

“In this case, Human Resources, which kicked off the initiative, started with a one-year research project into what sort of initiatives the impoverished people of the area would really appreciate, and we then revitalised a number of under-used community facilities to provide suitable free cultural, sporting and educational activities,” explains Gabriella.

“We were looking to run activities which would help children and adults to socialise, learn new skills and improve their health and fitness, and we now have over 300 children taking part in soccer and judo, as well as attending guitar, flute and computer classes.

“In the preliminary study, Subsea 7 identified a lack of computer skills in the area, so we now run popular computer classes which are also attended by adults. In all these cases, the teachers are directly paid for by Subsea 7 through the programme.”

Millions of Brazilian children spend their days playing on the streets, and in Niteroi it is no different. In part this is because of the short school hours, or because parents are out working, but all too often the street children have been abandoned by absent parents.

For several years Subsea 7 has been an active supporter and sponsor of Casa da Árvore (“Tree House”), a pioneering project originally established in Rio de Janeiro to help disadvantaged children and, where possible, their parents. Subsea 7 sponsors the running of Casa da Árvore in Ilha da Conceição,

specialising in providing care for children under ten.

“In this project, we have psychologists and teachers working and playing with the children on activities designed to help them overcome their problems with integration and socialising,” explains Gabriella.

And Subsea 7’s community involvement doesn’t end in the streets. Brazil is famed for its beach life, but there are hazards and risks to be faced even in this idyllic location.

“Volunteers often refer to the satisfaction they get from using their skills and knowledge to improve the lives of others.”“A non-governmental organisation in the municipality of Rio das Ostras, where one of the five worksites of Subsea 7 is located, introduced a progressive project called ‘Natação no Mar’ (Swimming in the Sea) offering swimming classes to people of all ages and to reduce the incidence of beach accidents,” says Gabriella.

“We are one of the main sponsors, and it’s been a very popular initiative, with almost 500 participants ranging from young kids to one intrepid 82-year-old beginner.”

Despite this already impressive record of community involvement, Subsea 7’s Brazilian staff are now aiming to take their social contribution on to a whole new level with the recent launch of the “Ação Voluntária 7” (Voluntary Action 7) initiative, which lists seven good reasons for employees to get involved in voluntary action.

“Our existing volunteers often refer to the satisfaction they get from using their skills and knowledge to improve the lives of others,” explains Gabriella. “And, as well as contributing to our local community, participating in voluntary action also helps build team spirit and qualities of leadership which can in turn

Subsea 7’s Brazilian people are justifiably proud of their hands-on involvement in a host of voluntary and company-promoted initiatives to develop their local communities…

Making the difference

Gabriella Coli De Sa

Hariom Cavalcante

Integrity


benefit our employees’ professional performance in the workplace.”

Through Ação Voluntária 7, employees complete a simple voluntary form which enables Gabriella to match them with the most compatible community institutions available.

This professional pairing of employee and institution is the key to effective community involvement, as i-Tech HSE Engineer Eduardo Camacho confirms.

Eduardo visits INCA, the National Institute of Cancer, in Rio on one or two weekends a month to help entertain child cancer patients.

“You’ve got to have a ‘strong stomach’, as they say, to be able to joke, play and chat with these unfortunate children,” Eduardo says.

“Even with my previous experience, I found it very difficult in the beginning, and you have got to be careful that neither you nor the children are suffering from the emotional impact of this activity.

“But, once you know how to handle the situation, you get a tremendously revitalising feeling through being able to offer practical support to people who are suffering so much.”

Other Subsea 7 Brazilian staff are also engaged in equally uplifting voluntary activities – teaching illiterate children, washing and feeding street beggars, and distributing food and clothing to the needy.

The projects are open to any employee who wants to visit or collaborate - contact Gabriella Coli or Hariom Cavalcante.

In their own words Stuart Fitzgerald, Vice President Norway

Opportunities, challenges and successes. Three words which come to mind regularly when I think about the last nine months and the times ahead of us in Subsea 7 in Norway.

OpportunitiesIt is clear to me that the Subsea 7 created from the merger represents a step change for our company and for what we are able to offer our clients.

The quality and quantity of vessels we now have (and continue to add), the range of technical solutions we are able to offer, and, most significantly, the depth of capability in our workforce, are

all far beyond what either of our heritage companies represented.

Importantly, too, although we often take it for granted, is the fact that this is all underpinned by systems and processes across all our functions which have evolved over many years of successfully delivering complex projects in difficult environments in every corner of the globe.

Every time we present our company to our clients, the feedback is the same - “very impressive”. I agree, and I am proud of the company we have become, and excited by the opportunity this represents.

ChallengesOur activity levels are growing quickly in Norway, as they are elsewhere within the group. We are well placed with assets to deliver this growth, but we will need more people. We have to grow our workforce, and we need our new colleagues to feel welcome and secure, be smoothly integrated, receive the right training, and, most importantly - share

our enthusiasm and motivation in their work.

These are not straightforward tasks and will require much of our attention as managers, leaders and colleagues over the coming year. We are beginning to have some successes but there is still a way to go, and this challenge is at the top of my list.

SuccessesFinally, it is very important to recognise many great achievements since January, both in our integration and in our normal business. With little time to reflect in our busy work lives, these milestones are often overlooked.

From a Norway perspective, our clients have strongly endorsed the merged company with significant new awards through the year, and “business as usual” has been delivered with good performance on the ongoing projects thanks to hard work and skill from many people. I thank them for their dedication and delivery.

Subsea 7 volunteers recently visited a public school in Macae, Brazil to deliver toys which employees donated for Children’s Day


12 24/7 December 2011

People profile

Stephen is a Senior Contract Manager in Singapore who has worked with Subsea 7 for the last seven years. He grew up in Rosyth in Scotland, and started his oil and gas career in 1977 as a fledgling hook-up and commissioning Planning Engineer on the Texaco Tartan Alpha platform, before moving to Indonesia in 1980.

But he is also “Stephen William Gow - successful historical novelist”, with one best-selling novel already published and another two under development. Hardly surprising, then, that Stephen’s responses to our questions were thoughtful, measured…and also lengthy, so we reproduce below a short selection of his stylish thoughts on working by day and writing by night.

But we also pinned down Subsea 7’s only working historical novelist (we assume - apologies to any other writers in the company) to find out how he got into writing in the first place…

“It’s a bit of a roundabout story, you won’t be surprised to learn! I moved out to Indonesia in 1980, and although I loved the lifestyle in Java, I decided to try to do something practical to help the hundreds of orphaned kids and abandoned pets roaming the streets.

From small beginnings, my wife Pauline and I eventually set up an animal sanctuary that now gives a good home to 56 abandoned dogs and numerous other ‘ex-pets’, and also sponsored an orphanage in Jakarta which currently shelters around 200 homeless kids. We are very proud to have made a tangible difference to some lives in a society that doesn’t have the safety nets of the West for less fortunate children and animals.

In my job, however, I was spending a lot of time in hotels, so I decided to start serious writing and came up with the idea for “Danny Boy - Return to Skye”, about a young Scottish boy during World War II who escapes from an orphanage in London and goes back to his roots on the Scottish island of Skye.

As well as drawing on my first-hand experiences with Indonesian orphans, I was also influenced by the memories

of my Scottish grandparents - but, boy, was it a slog! Two thousand nights (nine thousand hours) of research and writing over seven years, mainly in the small hours.

But I’m delighted to say, “Danny Boy - Return to Skye” has now sold over 25,000 copies and has been very favourably reviewed.

And of course success brings its own pressures, and my publishers are now pushing me for a new book every year or so if I can manage that - and thank goodness, you do get quicker after your debut novel! So I plan to have another historical Scottish novel, “Polly”, out next spring, succeeded by the follow-up to “Danny Boy”.

In the words of Stephen William Gow How does your typical day start?

The sun has yet to pop up from behind the Singapore skyline, most mornings flattened like a sideways lemon in the morning haze, and invariably, I find myself at my writing desk, steaming tea in hand, waiting until the greyness of the apartment utterly vanishes.

…and end?

It is of course the end of the day that concerns everyContracts Manager, especially Fridays, when, usually at5.30pm, there is a matter of urgency that cannot wait, when Iwill be racking my brains for the most efficient way to deal withthe concern, but in many cases end up burning the midnightoil.

Why - I even do it with a smile on my face, knowing that I am at the coal-face of something important, and it always makes me feel more significant than I probably am, but all the same, it is that very feeling that motivates me to give my all.

A novel experience Subsea 7 people respond in many different ways to the probing questions posed for 24/7’s personal profiles - but we’ve never had replies quite like Stephen Gow’s…


People profile

What’s the most difficult part of your job?

There can be no doubt that the three-letter acronym was created so that people at work can save time while talking. For example, if I was in discussion with a client about a confidentiality agreement, I’d probably say, ‘are we talking about a two-way CA’?

But it can all get a bit much at times. I was in a technical meeting the other month when the PM was asking the client’s GM about the status of an SDU, and had he decided whether the FIM’s would be delivered FOB or FAS onto the HLV! That’s just all a bit much for PLU (people like us)!

What satisfies you most in your career?

It has to be the challenges that Subsea 7 continues to give me, where I have the chance to learn and practise new skills, and perform in a ‘let’s see how far you can go’ environment, always knowing that I am becoming ever more competent and confident with each year; that appeals to me.

And that is the best part of the Contract Manager’s role - being one of the anchors in both win and execute, one of the ‘guardian angels’ who are ever-present and called upon to protect the best interests of the company. It is always a fascinating journey, filled with challenges, where in many cases in my vivid imagination, I see myself on a mission to achieve the impossible.

I believe in dreaming big, but I am also committed to making dreams come true; by setting realistic goals and putting in place roadmaps for personal developments; by embracing my father’s advice that he drummed into me as a boy, when he insisted ‘never start anything unless you plan to finish it - and finish it well’.

Fans meet the author at a Singapore book store

In their own words

Dick Martin, Vice President Asia

In Asia, we have huge opportunities, riding as we do on the crests of two parallel waves - the increase in global energy demand, allied to the spectacular growth in many Asian economies.

We see many major projects ahead for which Subsea 7 is well positioned, and more will follow as the giant Asian markets develop further. Asia is a great place to be, positioned as we are for a strategic combination of diversified growth and major projects. I am

confident of our success here, and the satisfaction for everyone who plays a part in achieving it.

Through the merger we have brought together two great teams in Singapore to set a firm foundation on which to grow our APME business. Ours is a truly global business, and it is important that we understand what that means for us, and how we need to work hard to be successful in differing cultures and business environments.

Singapore gets us to countries such as China, India, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia - all of which now hold great promise for Subsea 7.

Subsea 7 is built on a heritage of companies with clear and robust business values; something beyond rules and processes - principles and beliefs which govern how we behave. Working for a company with such clear values allows us to operate with great confidence.

There has been a fantastic amount of work done to date on integrating the businesses while keeping the day-to-day work going. I think we need to be fair to ourselves that this process will take some time, and there will still be some turbulence, but we can recognise a clear will to move forward as one company, and can build on this commitment for the future.

I firmly believe that the strength of our new company is in its people - yes, we have many vessels and offices, but what our clients really buy is the unique amalgam of experience (mistakes and successes) and knowledge that have been accumulated by our people in all the companies that make up the special pedigree that is Subsea 7. This is what allows us to deliver projects safely and to our clients’ satisfaction. This is why our clients will buy the Subsea 7 product over newcomers.


Acergy AntaresThe Acergy Antares is a relatively new addition to the fleet, having joined in June 2010. Since then, she has been fitted with a new main line which will enable the barge to lay pipeline in shallow waters (between 5 and 60m). This was a complex workscope which started in Singapore in the summer of that year before the vessel moved (via early service in Nigeria) to Subsea 7’s N’Tchengue yard in Gabon in May 2011, where a team of almost 200 people installed the main line components over the summer.

“Safety was a key issue during all of the design and installation phases. We created a safe environment in the main line with the installation of protective equipment and plenty of space to move around,” reports Ship Operations Manager Clément Fradin.

News / Summary

Fleet news

Borealis 5500t loadtest

Farewell In September, the long-serving Acergy Falcon passed into new ownership as a condition imposed by the UK Office of Fair Trading on the Acergy/Subsea 7 merger. The vessel was given a memorable send-off at a presentation in Hartlepool, UK, by an assembly of current and former “Falconeers”, who paid affectionate tribute to one of the great enabling vessels of the modern subsea pipelay era. Other recent vessel departures from the Subsea 7 fleet include Acergy Hawk (Construction), and Kommandor Subsea (Survey and IMR). We would like to take this opportunity to thank the crews for their hard work, commitment and positive attitude towards safety.

Seven Phoenix In Brazil, nearly 700 employees posted votes for the proposed name change of the Pertinacia, which will be re-named Seven Phoenix early in 2012. The originator of the new name was Construction Manager Bronislaw Olszewski, who was awarded a prize of a weekend at a resort in recognition of his creativity.

Acergy Antares main line station 2

Seven Viking - new IMR vessel Hull pre-fabrication began at Zaliv Yard in Ukraine on 1st July for Seven Viking, Subsea 7’snew dedicated Inspection, Maintenance and Repair (IMR) vessel. Assembly of the hull commenced at the end of October and once complete will be towed to Norway during March 2012. Outfitting will take place at the Ulstein yard in Ulsteinvik, Norway, with fabrication of the bridge and accommodation modules expected to get under way in Vannylven, Norway. The new vessel, to be delivered at the end of 2012, will support a five-year framework agreement contract with Statoil on a full-time basis in the Norwegian Sea and North Sea.

Bronislaw Olszewski

14 24/7 December 2011

Seven BorealisThe headline vessel news is a Subsea 7 record with a successful 5,500t load-test of the main crane on board the Seven Borealis in October, in Singapore. Its electrical power is supplied from the ship’s systems, and the vessel’s ballast, anti-heeling, power management and safety systems are all critical for the safe operation of the giant crane.

The full acceptance testing programme for the crane will continue for the coming weeks, following which the ship will go for sea trials before transiting to Europe to continue with the programme for installation of the S-lay, J-lay systems and work-class ROVs.

People profile

The challenge of service deliveryThe diversity of working on the Shell Underwater Services Contract (USC) makes for a highly stimulating environment, reports Ian Chapple…

In the saddle (3rd from right)


What is your current role? Project Manager for UK Operations. I have been on the Shell USC Contract for the last two years working as the DSV Project Manager.

Can you give us a brief summary of your career to date? Initially I worked as a diver for 13 years, working all over the world through the 1990s, including many trips on the lay barge Polaris operated by ETPM, now known as Acergy Polaris, part of the Subsea 7 fleet. I started with Subsea 7 in 2002 and moved onshore in 2004.

What qualifications have you acquired? First Class Honours Degree from The Open University, with much of it studied in saturation. Association of Project Management Level D, currently studying modules towards an MBA in Oil and Gas with The Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen.

What is the greatest challenge in your job? Working in partnership with the client, the project team and the vessels to ensure service delivery for everyone is challenging at times! I meet this challenge with a smile on my face and open communication. And I always expect the unexpected!

What gives you the greatest satisfaction in your job? Seeing the project team and vessel rise to a challenge and everyone going home safe at the end of a job. A good example of this was the recent leak experienced at Gannet by Shell. The team reacted very well, working together over the weekend, including completing a risk assessment in the office which started at midnight on a Sunday. The client was very appreciative of our support during their period of need.

What are the most important qualities you need to carry out your job? I am lucky enough to have a good team around me which helps. The main qualities are a drive to get things done, a focus on the big picture rather than the issue of the day, and a sense of humour. A willingness to listen is very important.

What have been the highlights of your professional career? The most notable is probably being involved in the recovery of the Kursk submarine. Also my transition from offshore to onshore.

Are there any little-known facts about your area of work that you would like to share with colleagues?Our project team is based in the Shell building at Tullos, in Aberdeen, fully co-located with the client.

In 2011, our engineers have worked on 200 jobs for Shell, delivering a full range of services from air diving on the surface to ROV’s operating at 1200m.

Outside work, what are your main interests? Road cycling and the family.

What have been the personal highlights of your life? Apart from my marriage and children, I would have to say travelling to Australia and the Far East when much younger. It was a wonderful experience, full of great places and people.

What personal characteristics in other people do you most value? Attitude - with a good one you can achieve anything! Don’t give up!

What makes you laugh? The Aberdeen football result every Saturday (I don’t support them!) and my two young sons.

What’s your favourite place? Cycling up mountains or the sea!

News / Feature

16 24/7 December 2011

Not every project has a souvenir book produced to commemorate its achievements - but then Pazflor is no ordinary project. For 45 months, the project team worked in an innovative consortium with another major player in the industry on a complex, deepwater project offshore Angola which involved vessel upgrades, technical “firsts” and high levels of local fabrication.

On 19 August 2011, Pazflor SURF was duly delivered to client Total E&P Angola without major incident and ahead of schedule, and first oil was performed five days later, also ahead of schedule.

“Our ‘Pazflor story’ book is not just to commemorate a great achievement, and to recognise the huge contributions of the project teams and the multi-disciplinary support,” stresses Project Director Philippe Gleize. “It was also intended as a ‘slice of life’, to help our colleagues and our relatives to understand the huge efforts, the passion and the dedication expended by so many people over a period of nearly four years.”

Philippe started his career in 1987 as a wireline logging engineer before spending a decade in the telecom industry in charge of worldwide submarine and terrestrial fibre network projects. He joined legacy Stolt Offshore/Acergy in 2004, and worked on such high-profile deepwater SURF projects as Bonga for Shell Nigeria and Greater Plutonio for BP-Angola before being appointed Project Director for Pazflor SURF in December 2007.

Located 140km offshore Angola, Pazflor is one of the largest deepwater oil developments in the world, comprising four reservoirs in water depths of up to 1,200m.

“One of the key contributors to Pazflor’s success has been our consortium with another major player in the industry,” explains Philippe. “It’s often challenging to partner with a competitor. However, we worked extremely hard to develop good close interfaces between the two contractors and build on our respective expertise.”

“These interfaces enabled us to deliver a more efficient handover than with a conventional Company Provided Item approach. To give a good example, the 85km of umbilicals were very efficiently delivered by one partner but installed by Subsea 7.”

Other key factors in achieving Pazflor’s early completion were, notes Philippe, anticipation and a willingness to pre-invest in the early stages of the project.

“As an illustration, we decided early on to pre-invest in the development of 3D simulations/animations for specific operations like the subsea separator

units (SSUs), and their respective umbilical and FPSO moorings. Although this level of visualisation was not mandatory, it greatly facilitated a detailed and efficient handover between engineering and operations teams, as well as allowing accurate risk assessments of potential hazards during PHA and HIRA sessions,” he says.

As operator on behalf of Sonangol, Angola’s state-owned oil company, Total E&P Angola requested a high level of local content during fabrication.

The resulting two-year fabrication and load-out programme, performed safely by Sonamet’s Lobito Yard, Angola, delivered more than 7,500t of subsea equipment as well as the on-time load-out of more than 4,000t of rigid flowlines.

“The performance of the Lobito fabrication yard and that of our Luanda-based operational and logistics staff exceeded all client expectations, underlining their importance as invaluable regional assets,” says Philippe.

Following 24 months of pre-engineering, design and fabrication, offshore operations commenced in September 2010, involving the Acergy Polaris, Acergy Eagle, Acergy Legend and Normand Installer.

Critical to the project’s success was the deployment of SSUs, specifically developed by Total and manufactured by FMC Technologies, to separate and pump the heavy oil from the Miocene Field - a world “first” on a full-scale development like Pazflor. These huge structures, each weighing almost 1000

Pazflor: succeeding togetherPreparation, planning and teamwork have been vital to achieve the safe and early delivery of Subsea 7’s $700 million portion of the Pazflor SURF contract awarded by Total E&P Angola to the TEAC Consortium, reports Philippe Gleize...

News / Feature

SSU being deployed


tonnes (including foundations) had to be precisely installed at a depth of 800m in three stages.

“Preparation for this critical installation began with shallow water testing in Norway, where our ROV teams simulated the installation in partnership with FMC Technologies,” explains Philippe. “Once the SSUs had been transported to Luanda we completed post-transportation checks prior to successful installation by the Acergy Polaris.”

The completion of a substantial upgrade of the Acergy Polaris underlined Subsea 7’s Offshore Resources’ in-house expertise to deliver innovative solutions. The installation of friction clamps on the J-Lay tower involved a challenging design engineering phase, dedicated control system development and extensive testing. The resulting innovation was successfully deployed for the first time on Pazflor.

From the project kick-off meeting in January 2008, safety was a major focus for the project teams, in particular on

how work was interfaced between engineering and operations.

“We put great focus on dedicated safety workshops for specific operations, like the SSU load-out (HLV) in Norway, and transfer and post-transportation checks on cargo barges in Luanda Bay, Angola,” says Philippe.

“This focus on safety was not only because of the great height and weight of these large structures, but also to ensure we could effectively manage the interfaces with the HSE processes of other stakeholders, like Total, its other contractor FMC Technologies and various other subcontractors.

“We also took the lead in initiating safety workshops in both Norway and Angola prior to operations to align all stakeholders. This proactive approach ensured an incident-free operation, and the safety animations/workshops were recognised as a key element of HSE success by Total.”

With bigger, ever more complex deepwater SURF projects on the horizon, Pazflor represents both a landmark success and also a pointer to the future.

In their own words Bruno Faure, Vice President

Africa & Gulf of Mexico, Europe

The goals of AFGOM Europe are developing towards the management of large projects, which will provide our collaborators with new development opportunities within the group due to the strengthening of inter-territory relationships.

In 2011, we implemented major EPIC projects which are typical of our scope of activity, including the delivery of Project Pazflor (see previous article) at the beginning of the second half of 2011 - earlier than planned and to the satisfaction of our client, Total. With other current large projects including CLOV, EGP3B, and OSO RE, AFGOM

Paris is now emerging as a respected specialist in the management of complex, large-scale projects. This specific skill and expertise will be used for the group’s benefit in large EPIC contracts, and will lead us to redefine internal synergies.

This time of buoyant activity for AFGOM Paris also saw many organisational changes taking place, so, first and foremost, I would like to thank all our teams for their continued involvement on a daily basis. Ever since 10 January 2011, everyone has been really focused on our new beginning. There is still some way to go, but the initial results are there to see.

We were thus able to implement new functions such as Vessel Support Teams, the Pipeline Production Group and Life-of-Field activities. As part of the global harmonisation, we have also reorganised some of our departments, including Human Resources, IT, Estimating (now located in Tendering),

Cost Control and Contract Management (reporting to the Project Services department) and also the launching of the Engineering Communities of Excellence.

We will also carry out the implementation of common processes and tools that are being deployed worldwide. Successful activities to date include the Microsoft Outlook migration, the Synergi implementation, the new Project Monthly Status Report (PMSR) format and the new tendering process, which is now in line with the rest of the group. We are still actively working on the development of the SAP solution for a go-live on 1 January 2012, which is likely to be one of the major challenges for AFGOM Paris.

It goes without saying that all this development goes hand-in-hand with attention to safety, which is, and will always be, our absolute priority; so, overall, I am optimistic about our future.

“The consortium approach allowed us to mobilise considerable resources without impacting on Subsea 7’s other global projects, and to access an even greater pool of knowledge and expertise therefore limiting our exposure to risk. It’s a model that could be repeated in the future,” concludes Bruno Faure, Vice President AFGOM Europe.


News / summary

18 24/7 December 2011

Subsea 7 in the limelight at first Brazilian OTC

Developing tomorrow’s talentAs part of the company’s commitment to developing tomorrow’s talent, Subsea 7 in Australia has awarded its inaugural Engineering Scholarship valued at $10,000 to one lucky University of Western Australia (UWA) student.

Timothy Blackford was selected as winner of the Subsea 7 Scholarship, presented by Darren Cormell (right), VP Australia and New Zealand, and Marin Abelanet (left), Engineering Director. Timothy is in his final year of study at UWA and is working towards a double Degree in Mechanical Engineering and Commerce.

Timothy was thrilled to be the recipient of the Scholarship. “I anticipate that a career in the offshore construction industry will provide excellent opportunities for professional development and allow me to continually broaden my horizons,” he wrote as part of his Scholarship application.

For the first time, the energy industry’s leading conference, Offshore Technology Conference (OTC), was held outside the United States, in Brazil with a three-day conference and exhibition in Rio de Janeiro in October. OTC Houston is already the biggest oil and gas event in the world, and its new South American sister event reinforces the status of the booming energy industry in Brazil following its impressive Pre-Salt discoveries.

Subsea 7’s stand had an attention-grabbing QX Ultra ROV centre-stage display, and was strategically sited alongside many other leading players in the industry. As well as large numbers of industry delegates, the stand was also visited and manned by company employees during the conference.

Rachid Felix, VP Sales and Marketing commented, “Participating in the first Brazilian OTC Conference gave us an excellent opportunity to interact with the market, clients and suppliers. It was exciting to see how the subsea community views Subsea 7’s important role in this challenging time for our industry.”

“It was very important to the Brazilian market to see such a prominent presence by the company after the merger. Speaking with our visitors, I realised more than ever just how highly regarded Subsea 7 is in this industry,” said Madelon Schamarella, HR manager.

“It was also good to see such a strong presence by our employees, showing their willingness to represent the company at this high-profile event. All in all, an excellent experience!”

During the event, the company held a reception on the stand for 200 clients, suppliers and partners who were thoroughly entertained by a popular jazz duo.

People profile


Brazilian project agilitySubsea 7’s Brazilian Day Rate team specialises in delivering a wide variety of short-term, short-notice workscopes for Petrobras. One of its project engineers tells the story……

What is your name and current role?

I was christened Antonio Emanuel dos Santos Ferreira, but my nickname since childhood has been Manolo, and everyone calls me that. I am a Senior Project Engineer.

What is a brief summary of your career to date?

I was hired in 2007 by Subsea 7 to work on the Roncador Project for Petrobras, where I developed flexible lines installation procedures and worked on board the Normand Seven. When this project finished in 2009, the team and the vessel were included in the Petrobras Day Rate Contract. Before joining Subsea 7, I worked as a Test and Offshore Manager.

What qualifications have you acquired?

BSc Mechanical Engineering, Project Manager Basis, Uniform Project Management based on the Project Management Institute certification, Internal Quality Auditor, Continuous Improvement and NBR ISO 9001/2000.

Would you like to tell us more about the Day Rate contract?

It’s a logistically challenging, long-term contract for Petrobras, where we have to deliver short-term - and sometime short-notice - workscopes for ongoing flexibles lines installation, survey, repair, maintenance, construction and pipelay.

One of the most impressive characteristics of the contract is the agility with which processes for short-term jobs must be developed. The technical engineering support team of approximately 30 people must prepare the procedure for delivery to Petrobras within 15 calendar days of receiving the outline specification of the work to be performed. That is a very rapid response!

As the majority of projects under the contract involve short-term jobs, the onshore engineering team is constantly required to efficiently turn round the analyses of these new requests.

Despite this flexibility, we are still proud to maintain very high standards in both safety and operational performance on the six vessels deployed on the contract - the Kommandor 3000, Lochnagar, Normand Seven, Acergy Condor, Pertinacia and Seven Mar.

What has given you the greatest satisfaction in your job?

Developing the flexible installation procedures for Roncador Project, and verifying that the installation was successful.


Synergy, proactivity and organisation are important qualities so that I can develop my job in the best way.

What piece of advice would you give to someone just starting out on their career with Subsea 7?

Be humble and enjoy the learning opportunities through exchanging experience with other professionals, allied to using the career development tools available at Subsea 7. That is already a great start!


My family, sport and music are my passions.

Who has been an inspiration to you in your life so far?

The people who taught me to be who I am. My parents and my wife.

Have you any hidden personal talents which your work colleagues don’t know you possess?

I don’t know if it’s true but my wife says I do a great barbecue.

What personal characteristics in other people do you most value?

Honesty is the cornerstone for character building.

What makes you laugh, and why?

My friends. They know how to make me laugh.

What’s your favourite place? Any place is my favourite when my loved ones are around.

Living our values / Innovation

20 24/7 December 2011

After his impressive career in project management, PPG’s managing director is a

classic example of a poacher turned gamekeeper. Formerly a VP and Operations Director with Subsea 7, the Aberdonian returned to project management in 2007 running the major BC-10 contract for Shell in Brazil. During the course of that challenging deepwater project, he came to realise that Subsea 7 could benefit from accelerating its investment in subsea pipeline welding technology.

“Having a progressive, in-house welding enabling capability is a kind of Holy Grail for subsea pipeline constructors,” he says. “Our clients are looking for greater life expectancy for their pipelines, and that means being able to produce higher quality of welds which are able to withstand the strains of deepwater installation and operation.

“But these welding enhancements are often most effectively developed in parallel with other pipeline technologies, and that is the tremendous opportunity that we now have with PPG. I worked with some very good welding technologies on BC-10, but I could see they weren’t truly integrated into global Subsea 7 operations.”

Paul presented these thoughts to Subsea 7 management and found a receptive audience. “The three years from 2006-9 had seen phenomenal growth in the company, with huge parallel investments in vessels and spoolbases, and I believed the time

was right to take a similar stride forward in the field of welding technology,” he recalls.

In August of that year, Paul was duly tasked with integrating the Pipeline Production Group (PPG) into the Subsea 7 fold. The plan was to look at how a programme of cutting-edge welding enhancements could be developed from a central technical authority and then rolled out globally to all Subsea 7 fabrication bases.

The new management team could see the potential gains from this approach, and worked to produce a technology roadmap exploring the best route for capitalising on the demand for higher-quality pipeline welding. “We soon agreed that organic growth in the existing format was likely to prove too slow, so we went looking internationally for a suitable technical partner,” recalls Paul.

After extensive reviews, PPG approached CRC-Evans Pipeline International, a large US-based pipeline construction company which has developed one of the world’s most widely used automatic welding systems for pipeline construction.

“I’d actually worked with CRC-Evans on BC-10, and we could see they formed a very good contracting model with ourselves,” explains Paul. “On their part, they were very keen to expand beyond their traditional US-centred land-based markets further into global offshore markets.”

Automatic welding is a technology where modern computing power can now be used much more accurately

to model the strains that a weld has to withstand during its installation and operational life, and the benefits of the PPG/CRC-Evans technology are already being seen.

“We are now getting weld repair rates down to about 0.5%, which is almost a tenth of what they could be with previous technologies,” says Paul. “And this superior performance is being delivered with no deterioration in productivity.”

“One of our first applications of the new technology was at our Vigra spoolbase in Norway, where we successfully deployed the new CRC-Evans automatic welding technology and realised major improvements in the welding cycle time. These improvements stimulated similar advances in our NDT and coating performance at the base.”

The benefits of the PPG/CRC-Evans technology are already being seen.“Within two weeks, a level of quality was being achieved at Vigra that would satisfy all 2011 workscopes at the base. Now that we have demonstrated the capability of CRC-Evans welding technology, the next milestone for the partnership is to develop bespoke enhancements of the welding equipment and processes to specifically suit the wide range of Subsea 7 pipeline products. We are the only contractor with the capability to provide J-lay, Reel-Lay, S-lay and bundled rigid pipelines, and each of these requires a specific welding capability.”

In the new era of deepwater subsea installation, weld quality is more important than ever, as Paul Alexander, Managing Director of Subsea 7’s Pipeline Production Group (PPG) explains…

World-class welding in the pipeline

Artist’s impression of new PPG facility in Glasgow, Scotland

Paul Alexander

Innovation


Subsea 7 is investing in creating a Subsea 7 Global Welding Development Centre in Glasgow, due to open in 2012. From this new Centre, welding technologies will be developed and enhanced by PPG for global deployment by Subsea 7.

At the same time, the PPG organisation is also expanding within Subsea 7 in AFGOM and Brazil.

“But Glasgow will be the global home for Subsea 7 welding development and will operate as our central technical authority in this area,” says Paul.

“We have a young team of 75 people here, many of whom joined us around five years ago shortly after graduating, so they are now very reliable, committed and eager to shoulder responsibility.

“Glasgow has a great engineering tradition, although it doesn’t have much oil and gas service activity.

“I am particularly pleased that we are being recognised by the Scottish economic development agencies as playing an important strategic role in growing and developing a new generation of top-class local technological talent.

“With the financial support of Scottish Enterprise, the major Scottish economic development agency, we will be trebling the number of welding bays at the centre to 18, and from this base can deliver recognised best-in-class automatic pipeline welding which is firmly targeted at the international market.

“With this unrivalled development resource, and having so much recognised market-leading technological welding expertise on board, I am confident that we can deliver what our global clients will value as genuinely superior welding technologies.”

In their own words

Ian Cobban, Vice President Gulf of Mexico

2011 has been very much a year of transition, not only for Subsea 7 but also, from an overall business perspective, in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) itself.

The GOM offshore market is still very much in recovery mode after the Macondo oil spill disaster. Many oil companies are only now recommencing drilling after eighteen months of ensuring that all necessary equipment, procedures, training and legislation were reviewed and upgraded to prevent any repeat of that tragic event.

This delay in drilling activities has had a knock-on effect on the number of traditional subsea construction projects coming to market, but at the same time it has also increased the volume of Life-of-Field activity in the GOM.

Subsea 7 is well placed to capitalise on this opportunity as we continue to strengthen our relationship with locally based US-flagged vessel owners. As I write this, Subsea 7 GOM has three vessels actively engaged in the Life-of-Field market, as well as the Skandi Neptune and Seven Oceans working on subsea construction projects.

Subsea 7 GOM is also actively pursuing work in Mexico, and with that country’s huge planned expenditure in new platforms and associated pipelines, I am confident that Subsea 7 has the equipment, capabilities and resources to be successful in this growing market.

The Macondo incident has also had a direct influence on safety performance

in the GOM. I am very passionate about this subject, and am heartened that our GOM clients share our focus on overall contractor safety performance. But, as a direct consequence of the Macondo incident, our clients are now also very focused on marine and equipment safety assurance, an area in which we can positively differentiate Subsea 7 from the competition.

On the same theme, I am pleased to report that all vessels and onshore sites in the GOM are now operating with the Subsea 7 new observation and intervention systems, with encouraging engagement from all work teams reflected in our excellent local safety performance.

To sum up - a very busy 2011 with a great many changes, and I feel distinctly honoured to lead our enthusiastic and motivated team in GOM.


Weld procedure development at PPG

News / Feature

VERIPOS has extended its Asia Pacific operations with the opening of new office facilities in Tianjin, China, in association with Tianjin YaXi Offshore Oilfield Technical Services Co Ltd.

The facilities will oversee continuing development of VERIPOS’s range of globalised high-precision positioning services for the Chinese offshore market covering Dynamic Positioning, DP Drilling, Seismic Exploration, Survey and Construction applications.

Services include the company’s latest Apex and Ultra Precise Point Positioning capabilities for decimetre-level accuracies together with proprietary hardware and software supported by a series of dedicated reference stations in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Tanggu.

Among current domestic users of VERIPOS’s wide-range positioning services is BGP, a subsidiary of the state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation and one of the country’s largest seismic survey companies.

The Tianjin facilities are headed by Wang Yong Chun as China Country Manager and Hing Tong Khoon as Technical Manager with responsibility for further development of VERIPOS’s nationwide activities.

Commenting on the development, Walter Steedman, Managing Director of VERIPOS, said: “It represents a natural progression of our worldwide positioning operations for which there is now increasing demand from exploration and production organisations throughout mainland China.”

In Singapore, VERIPOS has recently moved to larger premises incorporating a more sizeable office/workshop and Data Network Control Centre in Changi North Industrial Area, to support the division’s planned growth in the Asia Pacific region.

The new VERIPOS Singapore facilities are headed by Raymond Wong, VERIPOS Regional Manager for Asia Pacific with a team of two Business Development Managers, three Technical/Operations/Project Managers, eight GNSS technicians and four administrator/accountants.

The facilities will oversee continuing development of VERIPOS’s range of globalised high-precision positioning services for the Asia Pacific offshore market covering Dynamic Positioning, DP Drilling, Seismic Exploration, Survey and Construction applications.

Positioned for growth in Asia Pacific

VERIPOS Singapore Office

VERIPOS Singapore group photo from Left: Crispin Casipit, Wilson Phoo, Marco Togade, Rostam Rosli, Muhd Rozaiman, Raymond Wong, Barry Hawkins, Ommar Moe, Rowena Sotiangco, Siti Syamsirah, Kalaivaani, Chng Wui Huan

VERIPOS China Office

22 24/7 December 2011

People profile

Subsea 7 Houston office


What is your current role? I am the Lead Document Controller for the AFGOM Houston office. I work for the Gulf of Mexico Project Services department which supports projects in the areas of document control, planning, cost control, risk and opportunity and contracts management.

What is a brief summary of your career to date with Subsea 7? I started with the company in 2002 as a Project Administrative Assistant and then moved to the Operations/Survey department. I was then transferred to Document Control.

At that time, the region wasn’t utilising the document control system to its full capabilities. Now the project teams can see the value with document control and in the system, having all the current project documentation in one place. I also helped initiate a new review process using pdf’s, instead of handwritten comments.

What qualifications have you acquired? Various computer programming languages, AutoCAD, and accounting.

What gives you the greatest satisfaction in your job?Training and assisting employees through the document control processes because once they understand it, then they begin to realise the value of what document control does. The proof is in the pudding - once the Project Management Team follows the document control processes, the results will make their jobs easier.

What are the most important qualities you need to carry out your job? I believe that in document control, a big part of what we do could be considered ‘customer service’, whether that is working with other employees, clients or subcontractors.

The document control process can take some time, but if you have the right attitude with people, they will be more patient and in the end see the results.

Also, attention to details…I’ve sometimes been called ‘Eagle Eye’, because I catch everything!

American accuracy“Eagle-eyed” Christy Firth thrives on her command of detail…both in document control and in speed-solving giant jigsaws…

Would you like to share any little-known facts about your area of work? With the proper Electronic Document Management System (EDMS), document control can run, along with the Master Document Register (MDR), various types of reporting based on the needs of the project team.

There are overdue reports (internal or external), forecasting reports (which can assist the project team by noting what future documentation is required based on the MDR dates), reports run by different categories (discipline, doc type, etc), transmittal reports, etc.

Also, we can export documentation from the EDMS that is needed with a very quick turnaround. For example, we are frequently requested, at short notice, to export hundreds of documents to an external drive, to enable an engineer to take offshore.

What’s your favourite place? Home is where the heart is…

Outside work, what are your main interests? My family (including my four-legged ones), camping, canoeing, and jigsaw puzzles.

Have you any hidden personal talents? I can complete a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle in one day! Here’s where the ‘Eagle Eye’ nickname comes in again.

Who have been the biggest influences on your life? My father, for instilling his good work ethic and my mother, for encouraging me to dream. Having parents that were different gave me the best of both worlds.

Living our values / Performance

24 24/7 December 2011

Our new beginning has given the company an outstanding opportunity to establish

itself as the leading strategic partner in seabed-to-surface engineering, construction and services.

This is both an exciting proposition for stakeholders, and also an exceptional prospect for Subsea 7 people to thrive on a new wave of stimulating, challenging work in a global company with state-of-the-art technologies.

“We have the client base, the enabling assets, the financial structure and the geographical spread to lead the market,” says Keith Tipson, Executive VP Human Resources. “However, whether or not we are able to achieve our growth aspirations will ultimately be determined by our people, and how successfully they apply their expertise and energy every day in pursuit of their goals.

“So, throughout 2011, our HR teams have been working hard to align our ‘people practices’ and build new approaches where needed. Through our two Learning & Development centres of expertise - Subsea 7 Academy and Talent Development - and our network of local Learning and Development professionals, we will ensure that our people have better access than ever before to training and development opportunities, and that attractive, achievable career options are widely available.

“I believe this approach will encourage people to build their long-term careers with Subsea 7, and that we will continue to attract high-quality people who want to be part of our success story.”

Every function will have its own Development scheme enabling clear visibility for training requirement, career planning and development. These Development schemes will operate under the umbrella of our Academy, building on our existing know-how and, once aligned, will be rolled out within the functions during 2012.

Personal development may be delivered in many ways and a key cornerstone of our philosophy is to encourage “learning through actions”, which is predominantly achieved through

experience in the workplace. We will build tailored training with some external organisations and, where we do so, we will work with partners of excellence. One such example will be the Engineering Management Development Programme which will be organised through the Cranfield University - School of Management.

Two Learning and Development initiatives in particular are already playing an important part in the drive for more effective people development both offshore and onshore - the performance management reviews (PMR) and our Global Explorer Programme.

Performance Management Reviews

A critical element of our People Development approach is the Performance Management Review (PMR) process which has been harmonised, based upon the existing SAP toolkit.

“We are moving towards standardising on one common PMR process, but even using the current company-specific versions, this is a hugely important process and requires high levels of compliance from all our people,” says Head of Talent Development Toni Wilks.

“We are currently in transition to our new IT systems for logging the outputs of the Performance Management Process and this will continue throughout 2012.

“Although this will require varying degrees of change for everyone, we must remember that the most important element of PMR is the quality of the discussion that takes place, and not the IT system in which the output is recorded.

“A key component in developing people is to ensure they receive an honest and realistic assessment of their performance and delivery of objectives - and these include learning as well as business objectives.

“PMR discussions are two-way, and it is important that both parties are

Keith TipsonSubsea 7 offers a rare chance to combine the realisation of company business ambitions and personal career development…

People development

Participants during the first leg of this year’s Global Explorer programme that took place in Scotland

Performance


well prepared for it. The PMR links everyone’s personal annual objectives to Subsea 7’s business goals, and it is the ideal opportunity to clarify and agree key development goals for performance improvement and to discuss longer-term career aspirations. The key to a successful PMR is preparation,” says Toni.

Global Explorer

In September, Logistics Coordinator Ernani Teixeira found himself thousands of miles from his native Brazil hill-walking in Scotland’s remote Cairngorm mountains in the company of 29 colleagues from every corner of the Subsea 7 organisation.

Over the next three days, the group took part in a whole range of challenging activities organised by outdoor specialists Adventure Scotland, with a more serious purpose than simply testing the participants’ physical endurance.

“This was the first leg of our Global Explorer Programme (GEP), designed to take our nominated participants from both onshore and offshore out of their normal workplaces and into safe, informal learning environments where they gain fresh insights into their colleagues and themselves,” explains Jose Franca, Senior Development Specialist and the facilitator of the event.

“Global Explorer is an 18-month personal development journey, based on self-awareness, self-development and career planning. Participants learn about themselves through group sessions, a variety of assessments and feedback from peers, facilitators and other colleagues in the programme.

“safe, informal learning environments”

“On Global Explorer, we replace the traditional classroom with safe, informal learning environments where participants are challenged both emotionally and physically by the situations, by themselves and by each other,” explains Jose.

For Ernani, a Logistics Coordinator in Niteroi with eleven years’ company experience, inclusion on the programme has been a revelation. “This is a programme unlike anything else I’ve ever seen,” he enthuses. “As well as being very well organised, the opportunity to exchange experiences and share perspectives on daily life in the company with colleagues from other regions is…sensational.”

Jasmina Demel, a Croatian Pipeline Design Lead Engineer at Suresnes, was equally positive at the benefits of taking part.

“You are working to achieve a common goal with people you’ve never met before; you are put in what are sometimes uncomfortable situations, and challenged both physically and emotionally.”

Graeme Russell, a Senior Project Engineer, felt privileged to participate in the programme.

“In my five years with the company, I have come through the Graduate Engineering Development Scheme and worked in Aberdeen and Denmark before moving to Perth, Australia.

“During this time I have had offshore experience in the North Sea and Tunisia working on DSVs, pipelay vessels and platforms, and have worked on large EPIC projects and tenders.

“This has enabled me to gain both cultural and practical experience which I’m sure I will continue to develop through the course of the programme as well as learning more about myself.”

PMR discussions are two-way

Visit 7ONLINE to find out more on:

• Internal vacancies• Subsea 7 Academy• Talent Development• Training Courses

News / Feature

26 24/7 December 2011

At the Offshore Seminar in London in September, a number of powerful statements were repeatedly made about the safety challenge facing Subsea 7, including the seminar concluding remarks by Gael Cailleaux, VP Offshore Resources. Safety, he emphasised, means absolutely no compromise - all procedures should be followed and adhered to at all times.

The message had a special resonance for one delegate in particular, Stephen Ungvary, Vessel Support Manager of the Skandi Acergy, who has a spectacularly diverse 37-year offshore career behind him.

“Apart from marine bridge and engine officer, there’s hardly a position I haven’t held at some time or another on diving support or construction vessels - you name it, I’ve done it. Galley, deck mechanic, welder, seaman, foreman, diver, diving supervisor, diving superintendent, offshore manager, engineer. Since I finally came ashore in 2003 for good, I have been involved

in ship operations management including safety administration, of which four years were spent working as the regional operations manager for Northern Europe and Canada.

“And now here I am in one of Subsea 7’s new VSTs. I like to think of VSTs as the ‘grout’ between all the Subsea 7 tiles - safety, engineering, tendering and all the rest - providing a smooth and seamless support in the delivery of all of these elements to both the project and the vessel teams.”

“I believe we represent a step change in the quality of support we will deliver to our stakeholders.”

VSTs have now been set up for five of the global enabling vessels in the fleet, including the Skandi Acergy, with plans under way for another five vessels to follow.

The teams comprise engineers, installation analysts, vessel supervisors, equipment support teams and other specialists, tasked with providing full-scope vessel service from tender support, mobilisation and product collection through to safe offshore installation.

Although Stephen has lived most of his life in Norway, he comes from a cosmopolitan background - born in the USA to a Hungarian father and an Irish mother. Hardly surprisingly, then, he has a lively way with words!

So he is very clear on the role the VSTs will play in enhancing safety and operational performance in particular.

“The simple reason I believe in the VST concept is that it will deliver more consistency on the procedures arriving on the deck, and will give us a far better chance of getting it right first time every time.

“That’s particularly important with our global enabling vessels - we already provide high levels of consistency on the Skandi Acergy for Norwegian and UK projects - but what happens when, as is due to happen next year, we have to run projects out of Brazil, Singapore or Perth?

“We ourselves in the VSTs are also key enablers in our own way, designed to cut out historical interfaces, and I believe we represent a step change in the quality of support we will deliver to our stakeholders - the operations and project teams.

“In particular, as a Vessel Support Manager I personally act as a focal point for the vessel management team. I’m there to soak up and take away as much of their aggro as possible, bring their issues to the right people, and let them keep their focus on delivering safe operations on deck.

“My diverse experience has shown me that what really counts is to get your goals and expectations firmly on the table.

“We have excellent standard baseline procedures here, what we do subsea is not innovative rocket science in that regard, so it’s all down to establishing

The extra “plus” factorNew Vessel Support Teams (VSTs) are being set up in the Subsea 7 fleet to deliver even higher standards of operational and safety performance, says Stephen Ungvary...

News / Feature


In their own words

Olivier Blaringhem, Vice President Nigeria

2011 has been another year of profound change for Subsea 7 in Nigeria.

We have continued to increase our share of our two traditional markets in this country; the hook-up/revamping of ageing platforms, and the installation of new platforms/pipelines in shallow water fields.

One of the reasons behind this commercial success is that our clients now appreciate and understand how serious we are about developing a

sustainable activity in Nigeria, following our strategic decision in 2009 to start basing our project management teams in-country, thus developing local human capacity and expertise.

Month by month, more and more work is done locally in Nigeria for each discipline - finance, supply chain management, human resources, operations, project services, and tendering.

HSEQ is where our effort to re-structure the organisation has been the most important. A genuine safety culture is now gaining momentum in our offices, fabrication yard and vessels.

Looking ahead, there is still a lot to be done; our performance can, and has to, improve, and I wish to thank here our colleagues in the territory for the invaluable support they are providing to us. We need to persevere and achieve our targets and goals.

The merger of Subsea 7 is a valuable opportunity for us to gain new or upgraded systems and work-tools, and through these to improve our efficiency in line with the group’s targets. I can already see a healthy appetite for using these tools in Nigeria.

Our next phase of real growth in Nigeria is linked to the SURF deepwater market.

It is to capture this market that Subsea 7 has created NigerStar 7, a new joint venture with Jagal Group. This partnership gives us the critical size in terms of fabrication that is required to win such large and complex deepwater projects.

I believe that, if we continue to invest in the development of our people, as we are doing today, if we are disciplined and live by our five core values, we will reach the level of excellence required to win and execute these projects successfully.

a resilient structure that delivers consistent repeatable actions - and that’s what, in turn, brings even higher standards of safety.”

Stephen is equally forthright on the subject of the merger. “The new company really does represent the best of both worlds.

“Both companies have always been very good at execution and innovation - the outer shell of the organisation may be changing, but the flesh and blood below is still the same!”

Stephen attended both London Offshore Seminars as an informal VST ambassador, and, as well as arguing his case (“there are a lot of strong personalities in this company!”) he also launched his own recruitment strategy - “engineers - work in VSTs and get five years’ experience in half the time!”

And, strangely for such a persuasive talker, he admits to one area of personal failure.

“I wish I was as good a communicator at home as I am at work - but I have five kids to manage!

“Our kids are heavily into a variety of activities - football, motocross and ice hockey - and I seem to have ended up coaching or managing most of their teams. I’m not quite sure how that happened, but at least it means I see plenty of them, and know what they are doing most of the time.

“Communications with teenagers - and slightly older - is quite a challenge. My wife says it’s not what I say, it’s how I say it! Apparently you’ve got to trick them into doing things you want, you can’t just tell them!

“But, despite these family shortcomings, I’ve often said that if I were to win the pools I’d apply to work in mentoring in Subsea 7! I sometimes think of my career as a range of hills - when you are young, you just want to get to the top of the first peak you see, then when you are up there, you realise there are all these other hills around you to be scaled as well.

“Mentoring, passing on the fruits of all my experience to the next generation - I guess that would be my ideal next hill to climb!”

Skandi Acergy


News / Feature

28 24/7 December 2011

“There is one simple message that I really want to put out to our readers throughout the organisation, and I think it can be most effectively made by comparing our new safety management tools to road speed controls.

After years of relying on the safety equivalent of speed warning signs, we are now entering the era of speed cameras - and we all know which of these two technologies is the more effective in getting results.

Post-merger, we now have in place a number of powerful safety tools which can enable us to transform our safety performance - these are our new generation of speed cameras which in real terms amount to safety leadership, observation and intervention in applying Critical Safety Behaviours (CSBs), with tracking in the Synergi database.

Our key approach is based on the use of CSBs, where behaviour is defined as an “observable act”. Analysis shows that 90% of all injuries take place in

what are defined as “safe environments” - in other words, they are caused by behaviour, by how people act, prepare for their tasks (or not, as the case may be), position themselves, use their tools, and so on.

In practice, CSB uses three formal reporting mechanisms - Observation, Intervention and Incidents. We need everyone to participate in making observations of at-risk behaviours - some crews are already well ahead in this, and they are getting improved results.

“This is a system designed to enable us to overcome human inhibitions.”

Making regular observations engages you in pro-actively thinking about site conditions and at-risk behaviours.

The worker making the observation owns it as he writes and submits it, captures it in the safety meetings and toolbox talks, and in the end he benefits the most by making safety a personal “state of mind”.

Intervention cards take things one stage further and are used to record a conversation about safe or at-risk behaviours. This is a system which, among other things, is designed to enable us to overcome human inhibitions and hold safety “conversations”. We often see the real importance of a missed intervention too late, after the accident.

The intervention card gives us a mechanism to record our conversation, where we ensure that identified at-risk practices are effectively minimised or where we can reinforce safe behaviour by acknowledgement.

It is important that, when we do have an incident with a behavioural influence, we record and discuss the behaviour that is applicable. Synergi can report weekly, monthly and annually what CSBs have been recorded separately for all incidents, observations, and interventions on any of our major worksites.

CSB is a cutting-edge behaviour programme designed specifically for our application as a seabed-to-surface contractor. The legacy Acergy worksites were able to reduce their injuries by 50% during the first 12 months of the CSB launch. Given that 96% of Subsea 7 injuries have been shown in our May 2011 study to originate with at-risk behaviour, it is a critical tool in our toolbox that must be diligently used.

But, to maximise the benefit of CSB, we also have to be sensitive to our cultural differences. Interventions are not meant to be a negative experience, but, even so, some cultures may still not be comfortable with the idea of intervening or quick to embrace the CSB principles.

The power of observationAndy Culwell, Vice President HSE, explains how our management of Critical Safety Behaviours is the key to superior safety performance..

News / Feature


Sometimes, despite our best efforts, the message just doesn’t get across to everybody. A while back I was on a pipelay vessel where we could see that safety briefings simply weren’t getting the message across. So we tried using a more hands-on communication medium - role play - and that got the whole crew successfully engaged. We have to think outside the box and find ways that will engage the workforce and deal with a wide range of language skills, education and cultural influences.

Finally, I would like to touch on that most serious safety subject of all – fatalities. Recent industry studies have shown that, although strong proactive safety management can greatly reduce injuries, fatalities do not decrease in proportion. Fatalities can still happen at any time on sites that are considered to be “safe”.

For that reason, any potentially fatal incident is reviewed by senior management to be sure that the risk of recurrence has been mitigated. Looking back at the industry’s “ways of working” during the 1970s, I can see a dramatic change in thinking, preparation, attitude and safety culture - and yes, we have come a long way since then, but we still have a long way

to go. What will our industry think of us in 2011 as they look back from a perspective far in the future?

We all have to remember that safety is essentially a state of mind. When we stop thinking about the risk and safety process, people end up getting hurt, which is why we must use CSBs as vigorously as possible to instil the highest safety consciousness. For self-evident reasons, we have introduced CSB first on our worksites, but they can and will be applied to our

offices as well. Icy office car parks, to take one simple example, represent a serious hazard to our office workers in cold climates every winter, and our behaviour and management around these risks must be part of our daily safety state of mind.

Observe what is going on around you and intervene when you see at-risk behaviour - that’s the clear message that we have to cascade down to all of our 12,000 people, as well as our subcontractors, suppliers and clients.”

In their own words Darren Cormell,

Vice President Australia and New Zealand

The market outlook in Australia is very strong and is influenced by a significant investment in LNG projects which is underpinned by the increasing energy demands of Asia. With Pluto and Gorgon projects under construction and a number of other prospects due to achieve final investment decisions this year, projections for growth look real and immediate.

The strong growth projected will provide us with great opportunities and also

some significant challenges. The market continues to attract competition from traditional sources and we also see a number of new players emerging in the region with new assets and a focus on gaining market share.

Meanwhile the growth is placing, and will continue to place, demands on skills and resources - something that is compounded by the heavy investment and demand from the mining industry. We also see an increasing focus on the management of safety and the environment, and continued challenges in employee and industrial relations.

Against the backdrop of these challenges, Subsea 7 has an unparalleled track record and experience in project delivery in Australia, having been involved in almost every major development of recent years. The combined strength of the new company in terms of

our assets, experience and, most importantly, our people positions us well for the future.

In terms of the integration, I think we are making great progress overall and I believe a continued focus on our people through the process will allow us to deliver on the great potential of the new Subsea 7.

The recent award of the two major Gorgon contracts is a strong start for the new business in Australia, and gives us the opportunity to build on that success and provide a platform for sustained growth.

I am looking forward to the support of the territory, group and our dedicated local team here in Australia to contribute strongly to the company performance in the years ahead.

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30 24/7 December 2011

It’s printing, but not as we know it!Although 3D printing may sound hugely futuristic, the technology is already up and working in Subsea 7’s Houston office, and has been for the last two years. Before too many readers’ minds are boggled at the concept, a few explanatory words on how the printers work…

“3D printing is an additive manufacturing process which converts CAD (Computer Aided Design) models into working prototypes,” explains Subsea 7 engineer Andrew Bohlin. “Our office printer can create even complex shapes like a subsea structure by adding successive layers of coloured, durable ABS plastic.

“The models can have any number of moving parts, and in most cases can be printed overnight with no supervision.”

Subsea 7-created plastic 3D models have been displayed to great effect on the company’s stand at the last two OTC shows, and the Houston office is increasingly involved in producing models for other regions.

“These models are highly cost-effective, and can give us a competitive advantage in many areas of our business, from concept development through fabrication reviews to training and education,” says Andrew.

“Clients who have been exposed to this highly effective communications technology are now requesting it as part of the deliverables package.”

Because 3D printing produces one single model for a price previously only possible through mass-manufacturing, economic commentators agree that it is likely to make a huge impact in many industries around the world in the near future.

Andrew Bohlin ([email protected]) and colleague Steve Louis ([email protected]) will be happy to supply more information on this technology or discuss requests to produce a 3D model for company projects.

News / summary

Support mounts for Wick riding schoolAs part of both companies’ ongoing commitment to community engagement, representatives from BP and Subsea 7 recently presented the Caithness-based “Riding for the Disabled Association” (RDA) in North Scotland with £12,000 to fund new riding school facilities.

The funding will support RDA’s ‘Ride in the Country’ project, where an area of rough ground behind its indoor school has been converted into a safe and interesting countryside ride for the disabled and disadvantaged children who use the facilities.

Subsea 7 in the UK is currently building a 28km pipeline bundle system for the BP Andrew Project, which will be the longest bundle system produced and installed by Subsea 7 to date. Two bundles have already been safely launched from the fabrication site, with the launch of a further two expected by the end of the year.

Keith Williams, BP Project Manager said “supporting RDA has been a fantastic way for us to give something back to the local Caithness community, while also recognising Subsea 7’s excellent safety performance at the Wick fabrication site.”

Subsea 7 3D Printer in action

Awaiting Photo


People profile

What is your current role?

I am a Procurement Assistant in the Supply Chain Management department in the Luanda office in Angola.

What is a brief summary of your career to date with Subsea 7?

It’s a humble career that began recently, in July 2010, and more than ever I am sure that it was the best choice I’ve made professionally, not only in terms of career opportunity, but also in what I learn in my day-to-day dealings with colleagues and managers.

Before joining Subsea 7, where else did you work and in what sort of roles?

Before joining Subsea 7 last year, I worked for a leading Angolan mobile phone company as an assistant in the materials management department.

What qualifications have you acquired?

I am now finishing my degree in Economics, and I have also gained knowledge about business management and investment analysis.

What is the greatest challenge in your job?

To find out and purchase everything requested by the projects people, and see them gratified at taking possession of the materials in good time, and in the best conditions of quality, delivery and payment! I try to work with calmness and wisdom, and above all with a firmness that any problem will be solved!

What gives you the greatest satisfaction in your job?

The people around me - starting with my managers to whom I take the time to address my appreciation, affection and thanks for believing in me and making me feel useful to the company. The spirit of brotherhood and friendship that characterises the people in the office helped me a lot in my rapid integration and adoption into the company.

My humble career“They bet everything on me” says a grateful José Jorge (also known as “Jota”) of his Angolan parents…


Calmness and sincerity. In my work you cannot make hasty decisions, it is necessary to be measured in making purchasing decisions, and ensure that this process is fully transparent, with the supplier, the requester and workgroup.

What is the most recent project that you have worked on in Subsea 7?

I don’t work directly for any single project, my day-to-day work is linked to all the projects being performed by Subsea 7 in Angola, buying materials that can be acquired locally in the country.

What have been the highlights of your professional career?

Every moment is unique and singular. One highlight was the first time I raised a Purchase Order (PO) on SAP in Subsea 7 - I was so worried I’d get it wrong that I took about thirty minutes to save the PO and print it out! Another was my first business trip to Lobito with my supervisor Chris Martin.


Being with family, reading, and - now - writing my thesis.

Who have been the biggest influences on your life?

My parents – all the virtues I carry in my life came from the way they taught me. They bet everything they had on me, and offered me the best education they could, in the expectation I could be a model for my brothers, and an example for them.

What’s your favourite place?

Whenever I can, I go for my vacation to Kwanza-Sul province in my country, where I’m starting an agricultural business.

José following a recent Subsea 7 football match at Cidadela National Stadium, Luanda

Living our values / Collaboration

32 24/7 December 2011

Since the merger at the beginning of 2011, Claire has been working on setting up a

new expert network within Subsea 7 which will give ready access from anywhere within the company to high-level global engineering technical support.

The new network is called “Communities of Excellence” (COEs), and, says Claire, there is a huge clue in the name about the fundamental difference in approach between this initiative and previous support networks.

“Legacy Subsea 7 had its engineering ‘Centres of Excellence’, which undoubtedly made outstanding technical support widely available - but its expertise was, as the name suggests, centred on small numbers of extremely knowledgeable experts located in specific offices.

“So these Centres were often viewed as fire-fighting resources which could be accessed when you had a problem, but they were not fully integrated into the daily business of sharing and enhancing our understanding of engineering technologies.

“Legacy Acergy already had an excellent system of regular technical seminars for its experts and senior engineering people, and we are building on this foundation,” she explains.

“Our new Communities of Excellence are structured on the simple premise that it is more effective to minimise technical problems at their source than

to have small numbers of experts going round the world solving them.”

As Group Engineering Resources Manager, Claire is working with the Group Engineering Steering Committee to establish this new “Communities” approach.

The aim of the new COEs is to draw on the best of both legacy knowledge management resources to establish a series of technical reference, knowledge-sharing and engineering support mechanisms. As Claire observes, the merger has provided a unique opportunity to develop a truly global organisation in terms of shared technical experience.

“One of our first activities earlier this year was to review the engineering design documentation that existed within both legacy companies - best practice documents, guidelines, calculation examples and many other works of reference.

“It was a fascinating insight into how two different, highly technically competent organisations approached the challenges of enhancing engineering design in their own individual ways. Now we can start to adopt the best of both systems, and know we have a truly world-class technical resource in place.

“Even the process of reviewing the two systems was stimulating in itself - it is always very interesting for an engineer from one legacy organisation to find out how their counterpart was doing things.”

As a result of this first-pass review, a library of 350 guideline documents has

been compiled called “Subsea 7 Engineering Standards”, which is undoubtedly a world-class reference resource.

But knowledge-sharing is not only about recorded information, Claire stresses. It’s also about knowing who to go to within this large global organisation if you want to compare first-hand experiences, share a technical problem or improve your overall understanding of an engineering issue.

“Personal accessibility is going to be a key quality within the COEs.”

“For the initial Engineering Standards review, we brought together around 100 high-level technical people in a series of seminars in Aberdeen and Suresnes, and we aim to repeat these every six months or so.

“As well as enabling us to concentrate our expert resources on the challenge of structuring the COE and its planned workscope, the seminars are also an excellent way for technical experts and engineers throughout the company to get to know each other and build up a working knowledge of exactly ‘who knows what’.”

Personal accessibility is going to be a key quality within the COEs. Initially, there are planned to be eight different COE networks, each one dedicated to a different engineering discipline or, in some cases, groups of related disciplines. (The COEs at this stage are designed only for ‘pure’ engineering

Claire RoyceKnowledge sharing, in its broadest sense, is “the absolute key” to attaining market-leading technical excellence, says Claire Royce.

A sense of community…

Drawing Services COE Seminar, Aberdeen

Collaboration


The initial Communities of Excellence:

• Dynamic Riser Design

• Flexibles, Umbilicals, Controls and Moorings

• Geotechnics

• Pre-commissioning, Flow Assurance, Valves, Connectors and Topsides

• Rigid Pipelines and Bundles

• Corrosion, Coating and Field- joint Coating

• Structures, Naval Architecture, Lifting and Rigging Analysis

• Drafting Services

In their own words

Bob Dunsmore, Vice President Renewables

I’m delighted to have the opportunity to report back on the progress of the newly established Renewables business within Subsea 7. The team was set up in January this year, and since then we have been busy developing plans for the future shape of the business and getting our first key contract up and running with Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE).

We signed a Memorandum Of Understanding with SSE in December of last year and have subsequently entered into an Alliance arrangement with SSE and other key partners for the

development of SSE’s future offshore wind farms.

This group is called the Offshore Wind Alliance and consists of Siemens Wind, Siemens Transmission and Distribution, Burntisland Fabrications and Atkins, as well as Subsea 7 and SSE.

This is intended to be a long-term relationship between the parties to jointly work on SSE’s future offshore wind farm portfolio of projects, and within this Alliance Subsea 7 takes responsibility for marine operations and offshore construction. We now have a team working in the SSE offices in Glasgow along with the other Alliance partners on the preliminary engineering for the first of these projects.

It has been very interesting to go and talk to a new set of clients in the renewables business, many of whom we have not worked with before in our oil and gas contracts. The offshore wind business has gone through a pretty

difficult time in the last few years as many projects have not been delivered on time or to budget, and have experienced safety issues.

The industry and major developers are now realising that there is a different level of project management, engineering, safety and risk management required as the industry moves to larger and more complex projects typically of around $2.5bn Capex, with $500m of that being in the offshore marine scope.

This has highlighted to me how important our project management and engineering skills are in differentiating us in a market where there are a lot of people who can provide vessels, but do not have the experience or culture to bring it all together in a safe and efficient manner. I believe that continually developing and improving on these skills will be the key to our success in the future.

disciplines, but there are plans to extend the concept into adjacent technical areas such as Offshore Resources, Pipeline Production Group and Life-of-Field.)

Each COE comprises between six and twelve members drawn from all parts of the organisation. As well as collaborating on formal COE activities, they will also function as local representatives and, as such, the first point of contact for specialist technical engineering queries.

It is also planned that the COEs will extend their objectives beyond developing technical in-house authority, and will work in close support of R&D, Supply Chain Management, project tendering and internal training functions when their technical input is required. In external terms, they will also represent the company on technical industry committees at national and international levels.

Claire has been heavily involved in running previous development programmes with Subsea 7, most notably graduate engineer and conversion initiatives, and she sees

clear benefits to encouraging people from all the territories to share their common technical experiences at first hand.

“I believe the key watchwords for the COEs have to be - to catch things early, avoid fire-fighting and look to developing the best possible technical solutions to challenges at the optimum time,” stresses Claire.

“In that sense, knowledge management is a much broader approach than conventional ‘lessons learned’, for example.

“With proactive knowledge sharing, we will continue to scrutinise every single lesson learned - and there are hundreds already on our databases - to close out the loop and also identify what actions we should take - and when - in the light of these lessons.

“I have no doubt that Subsea 7’s Communities of Excellence will go on to be recognised, not just throughout the company, but also with suppliers, clients and certification authorities as a truly world-class technical subsea authority.”


34 24/7 December 2011

What is your current role? Local IT Manager, based at Hammersmith Corporate office.

What is a brief summary of your career to date with Subsea 7? I joined Subsea 7 in March 2010 as an IMS Operations Team Leader.

Before joining Subsea 7, where else did you work and in what sort of roles? I started my working career in the Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (Athens 2004) back in Greece! Upon the completion of that contract, I decided to emigrate to the UK where I completed my Masters degree and moved permanently to London. Unfortunately I had to start from the beginning as my work experience overseas wasn’t recognised in the UK. I therefore started as an analyst in the hospitality industry, and soon moved to a senior analyst and infrastructure support role before being given the opportunity to lead a team and take up my current position with Subsea 7.

What qualifications have you acquired? BSc in Business Information Systems and MSc in Distributed Systems and Networks.

What is the most recent project that you have worked on in Subsea 7? Setting up a common wireless environment for both Hammersmith offices for guests and staff.

What is the greatest challenge in your job? Every day is never the same, and it’s always filled with challenges, decisions that need to be made and demanding clients.

What gives you the greatest satisfaction in your job? To resolve issues in a timely and efficient manner and provide the best customer service possible.

A career in supportDimitris Salonikis’ ambitions have taken him all the way from the Athens Olympics to Subsea 7’s Hammersmith office…

People profile

What are the most important qualities you need to carry out your job? Honesty, attention to detail and following up issues through to completion in a professional and timely manner.

What piece of advice would you give to someone just starting out on their career with Subsea 7? Be focused on your role and responsibilities, and your dedication and commitment will be recognised.

What are your hopes for the new Subsea 7? In two years’ time, I would like to see Subsea 7 completing all integration processes successfully and strengthening even more internally, and in the process being recognised as a major competitor in the oil and gas and subsea construction industries.

Outside work, what are your main interests? Music, swimming, walking, cinema and attending IT exhibitions!

Have you any hidden personal talents which your colleagues don’t know you possess? Yes although some of my colleagues do actually know about this… I have had music training since I was young, and during the past five years I regularly play the piano to entertain my friends.

Are there any personal skills which you would like to improve? Being better at sports!

Who have been the biggest influences on your life? One of the biggest influences in my life has to be completing my military duties as part of the Greek armed forces. My army experience changed me significantly as a person, and made me realise and appreciate several things that I had been taking for granted. What personal characteristics in other people do you most value? Honesty, integrity, being straightforward and, where possible, having a good sense of humour!

News / Feature


Looking local

Subsea 7 ran its first major in-country recruitment campaign over the summer in Ghana, to attract ambitious local technicians to re-train as ROV pilots for deployment across our fleet.

“i-Tech successfully recruited six Ghanaian trainees last summer, so we decided to use that model to run a bigger campaign this year,” explains Andrea Paterson, Senior Recruiter for Offshore Resources, who went out to Accra for five days to manage the campaign.

“We started off with over 400 applicants whose CVs were screened to ensure they had the desired level of technical qualifications and work experience. We then held a week-long recruitment event in Ghana where we invited 150 people to attend a rigorous technical assessment centre based over two days.

“This included a very demanding test paper which assessed their mechanical, electrical and electronic knowledge. From there, 40 applicants were short-listed to attend technical

and competency interviews. We made job offers based on the interviews and assessments to 21 candidates, the first 11 of whom came over to Aberdeen in October to commence their intensive six-week in-company training programme.”

The new recruits come from a variety of backgrounds, including mining, heavy plant and recent graduates, and all are highly motivated to work in our industry.

Electrical engineering graduate Stephen Ahuma Kanor-Kudaya joined straight from a one-year period of national service. He has particular ambitions to work globally in the renewable energy sector, and is looking ahead to a long subsea future - “Subsea 7 is my first employer - hopefully it will be my only one!” he says.

Senior Radio and Transmission Maintenance Technician Joseph Arhinsah was also impressed by “the company’s preparedness to go the

extra mile to achieve safety, operational and business successes - this is the challenge I want to be part of the team to solve!

“I thought the recruitment process was well organised, very effective and above all fair.”

Andrea was equally impressed at the calibre of the applicants, and believes that targeted recruitment drives like this can go a long way to sourcing fresh talent for the company.

“Going out to Africa and running local in-country campaigns in these emerging markets is a logistical challenge, but there are high-quality trainees to be found who are extremely motivated to work globally for a highly-respected company like Subsea 7,” she says.

“These trainees, and others like them, will go on to become very valuable assets for us in our highly specialised markets.”

2011 saw Subsea 7 enter a new recruitment market in its search for fresh talent, explains Andrea Paterson, OPL Recruitment Lead....

Training commences in Aberdeen for the first Ghanaian recruits

News / Feature

Andy Woolgar (left) and Gael Cailleaux (right)

36 24/7 December 2011

in the presence of senior onshore management.

“It is encouraging to see the highest management get so involved in helping us face our grass-root problems,” reported Juha Lehtonen, a Finnish-born Captain in the Subsea 7 fleet.

“I’m one of the old-time sailors who, to be honest, generally try to avoid formal onshore meetings as far as possible, but this event is different - it is practical to be able to exchange views and solutions with my peers about the issues that everyone is facing.”

Juha is a highly experienced Captain who started his career as a naval diver before becoming a master of marine research deep-diving vessels in the early 1980s. After a decade piloting deep-diving submersibles, he returned to shipping on DP vessels in the 1990s.

“ I hadn’t really appreciated the size and complexity of our new company until I attended the seminar.”

Even with his extensive company background, however, he had his own “light-bulb moment” during Jim McConnell’s presentation on offshore staffing - “It was the very first time I had ever seen the entire organisational structure laid out in that visual format,” he says.

Offshore Manager Paul McBurnie also found that he gained a whole new

Over 250 people, including Captains, Chief Engineers and Offshore Managers from right across the Subsea 7 fleet came together in London for the first Offshore Seminars to be held by the merged company.

The first seminar was held in June for half the offshore management teams, with a second identical seminar run in September for their respective “back to backs”. The seminars were based on similar previous events, but their size and strategic post-merger relevance made them an entirely new experience for the assembled managers.

Following the theme “Our new beginning - a way forward”, the delegates took part in a series of hands-on presentations and workshops with senior management on topics ranging from the safety roadmap to market analysis, and from company health reports to first-person territory analysis by four Executive VPs.

Equally importantly, the offshore management seminar participants were also able to break out into discussion seminars where important offshore issues could be aired and tackled

perspective on the merger process. “I’ve worked through many company mergers over the years, and it has been a real career highlight to witness the company growing from a small ROV/diving business into a global player in the offshore construction industry.

“Despite this, I hadn’t really appreciated the size and complexity of our new company until I attended the seminar. To be honest, I had felt that the information flow from the beach to offshore had been slow initially. But the seminar made it very clear to me that a vast amount of time and effort has been spent defining our new company structure to ensure that we can start to move ahead again, with all of us pulling in the same direction.”

(Paul describes his own career progression - “I spent my initial years working on survey support vessels, trying to take care of the endless needs of numerous pipelay vessels. Now I am working on the Seven Oceans trying to take care of the endless needs of numerous survey support vessels - as well as lay some pipe!”)

Two major issues emerged during the seminar proceedings, however - the challenges of recruiting, training and retaining high-quality offshore crews, and the process of offshore harmonisation of the two legacy fleets.

A call to actionOn two different occasions this year, Subsea 7 organised the largest meetings of offshore management ever held in the company...

Paul McBurnie, Offshore Manager

News / Feature


“Bringing two fleets together, each with their own established protocols, is quite a challenge - it’s a bit like merging two big successful airlines in that respect,” says Andy Woolgar, VP Projects and Operations. “The beauty of running these seminars at this stage in the process is in the timing - 6-9 months after the merger, we do now know who we are, as a company, and we know where we are going.

“So these seminars are really a call to action, a mobilisation of several hundred key managers. And we will all have to manage this process together, which is why there is no substitute for getting these people from both legacy companies together with senior management to look at the way forward.

“So it’s also all about forging new relationships, letting the offshore people get to know who are the ‘go-to’ people in our new structure - the people who can give them answers when they really need them.

“And it was fascinating watching Offshore Managers from the different legacy companies compare experiences and get to know their opposite numbers. There is no better way of enforcing mutual respect right across the fleet than by bringing these people together in an intensive, structured format like this.”

Certainly Chief Engineer Gertjan Wuis of Rockwater 1 appreciated the way the seminar united resources to tackle the

important post-merger issues. “Although I have been to previous offshore seminars, I wasn’t sure that the Onshore Management teams were really aware of the situation on board as we face fleet harmonisation.

“But I now understand all the complexities of terms and conditions, and can understand the course of action we will jointly have to take to implement the new offshore structure.

“And the format was very good this year - shorter, more focused than previous four-day seminars, and with a welcome chance to meet new faces, not just the same colleagues you meet every year.”

Summing up at the end of an exhausting but energising event, Gael Cailleaux, VP Offshore Resources, stressed that the seminars were an integral part in managing the process of change in the new organisation.

“The people taking part here are, by definition, direct people, and hot issues

have come out - and that’s what we want. We also have the biggest-ever representation of senior management at an event like this, including our CEO, four Executive VPs plus the executive team, and I know that issues which have been tabled here today are being readied for action literally the next day.

“These seminars are an important starting point for our offshore managers to take these key messages out to their teams. The Offshore Management Teams are the most important stakeholders in the offshore population engagement process, and we aim to provide them with all the information they need to support the change plan.”

Gael concluded by touching on Subsea 7’s five core values, stressing that our values are, above all, an important strategic differentiator in a competitive market place.

“At the end of the day, we employ many of the same type of people as our competitors do,” he stressed. “The key difference is in how they work together in this company, and that’s why we must all ensure that we understand and believe in the importance of these central organisational values which guide and inform how we work together.”

Jean Cahuzac, Chief Executive Officer, addresses participants at the Seminar in September

Gertjan Wuis, Chief Engineer

38 24/7 December 2011

New data management technologies are the key to realising Life-of-Field project value, but the sheer volume of data presents a challenge, says Keith Grabham.

Earlier this year, Acergy Petrel was mobilised to collect high definition (HD) video and survey data over 2600km of pipelines off the coast of Brazil for Petrobras - the first major mobilisation with the new Life-of-Field teams in the merged Subsea 7.

“We have taken the best solutions from our combined workforce to tune our data collection and processing systems,” explains Keith Grabham, Data Management Manager for Life-of-Field.

“The data generated by this project will be of significant volume, with estimates of around 90 Terabytes. Life-of-Field will collect, secure, process and deliver this data to the client using the best technologies and people currently available.

“We have experienced a dramatic growth in data, both visual and sensor, over the last years. This trend will only accelerate with HD video and other client drivers in the future. Life-of-Field is taking the lead in developing a long-

Data matters

News / Feature

term, sustainable and scalable data management strategy.”

Keith is currently working on establishing a group policy for the management of Life-of-Field data. This includes the development, design and integration of systems and software used by Survey, Inspection, Integrity Management and IAS (Intervention and Autonomous Systems) functions for Subsea 7 globally.

He is greatly energised by the challenge of realising the value of Subsea 7’s Life-of-Field data.

“Data is extremely important to many people within Subsea 7,” he says.

“How data is managed affects different groups and individuals in different ways. Accessibility of data or the quality of data impacts on people’s work and how effective they can be. Understanding how clients access and use their data at each stage of its ‘useful life’ is critical to delivering appropriate solutions.

“We can utilise what we have more effectively to the benefit of the company.”

“Data that is well-managed and secure gives Subsea 7 and its clients many advantages, such as informed and timely decision-making, quality of decision-making, timeliness of

accessibility of data, single access point for data, and so on. The increasing data requirement we are experiencing and predict for the future means we must plan for and react early to deliver competitive and cost-effective solutions to manage this growth effectively.

“These challenges are met by implementing effective processes, procedures and technologies which maintain a core standard but are flexible enough to accommodate project-specific requirements, and also by having a good team of people to perform the work.”

Prior to taking up his current post early in 2011, Keith was employed by Survey and Inspection in 2007 to act as an enabler by providing an interface with the IT department.

His first year in post has already realised a career ambition. “My newest opportunity, to develop a global data management structure and supporting systems, represents a real career highlight for me. It is a very interesting time for data management and how we can utilise what we have more effectively to the benefit of the company.

“Through visualisation, internet-based access, portable devices, GIS and other opportunities we can harness the value and deliver in a way people want to consume the data. Life-of-Field can support and manage Subsea 7 project data effectively and release its value for the company.”

Acergy Petrel

News / summary


Getting the most out of 7ONLINE7ONLINE is the single point of entry for our core business applications, management information and internal communication streams. It is key in delivering effective communications within the new Subsea 7, enabling us all to work closer together around the world through improved communication and knowledge-sharing.

Whether it’s your applications, news, reports, classifieds or my site details, make sure you get the most from your 7ONLINE.

My News

A new feature to 7ONLINE is your ability to see news for your location and business area on your homepage. This means you can see and launch relevant new items without having to drill down to your local pages for the most up-to-date news. To start receiving targeted news, local directory information and applications where you can choose and change your own settings, all you need to do is update your profile.

“How to” guides

Information on how to update your profile for targeted news and a variety of other useful ‘how to’ guides to help you become more familiar with, and get the most from 7ONLINE is available in the 7ONLINE toolkit that can be accessed from the homepage.

Subsea 7 engineers took the plaudits at this year’s Deep Offshore Technology conference in New Orleans.

Tore Jacobsen and Tor-Bjørn Idsøe Næss’ paper on Lifting Operations was awarded Best Paper in its division. Daniel Karunakaran, Heidi Aasen and Rolf Baarholm’s paper on a ‘new un-coupled riser concept called Catenary Offset Buoyant Riser Assembly’ was Highly Commended in its division.

This year’s conference reflected the industry’s increasing demand for new technology and services to safely and efficiently grow and manage global reserves for deepwater oil and gas. Out of a total of 54 papers delivered at the three- day conference, Subsea 7 was well represented in putting forward engineering developments to address the industry’s pressing and changing challenges.

Industry recognition for engineers

Small screen,big impact...


Paul Alexander, Pipeline Production Group (PPG) Managing Director (left) presents the 2011 Scott Buchanan Memorial plaque in Glasgow to PPG SST Infrastructure Engineer Barry Connelly. This annual award in recognition of an “outstanding

or exceptional contribution by an individual” was introduced in 2007 in memory of Field Welding Engineer Scott Buchanan, who was tragically killed in a road accident in Brazil in 2006. This year’s award recognised Barry’s excellent performance in the delivery of the Capex investments in the Vigra spoolbase in Norway.

Performance award at PPG

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