“Working in different environments, different departments and different continents”
Like many Naval Architecture students in the Netherlands, I was given the opportunity to write my thesis for Allseas. I therefore became part of the R&D Department which, like today, consisted of many young engineers. Emphasis in the R&D work was on developing the famous Pieter Schelte platform installation / removal and pipelay vessel. After my graduation, I was offered a job within the same department, which I gladly accepted. Besides design and engineering, the team members were heavily involved in PR (exhibitions) and industry discussions on platform removal around the North Sea.
After about four years – having in the meantime moved to the Excalibur neighbour – it became evident that the Pieter Schelte project would be postponed, so I decided to move to the Pipelay Installation Department where I and learnt the ins and outs of pipelaying on several North Sea projects.
In 2003, I was sent to the Houston project office and was involved in several projects in the Gulf of Mexico, including assisting in the operations offshore on board Lorelay and Solitaire. In 2004, having returned to the Netherlands, I was Lead Engineer on the exciting Snøhvit project, the first project by Allseas in the Barents Sea, above the Polar Circle.
When word came that Allseas had plans to build another pipelay vessel, I moved back to design, being part of the engineering and construction team that developed the new vessel Audacia, both in the Delft office and during construction at the Keppel Verolme Yard in Rotterdam. We designed and built this vessel in a record-breaking two years!
When Audacia was nearly finished, I was sent to the other side of the world, to a place I was really keen on moving to with my wife and kids: Perth, Western Australia. The move coincided with the 2009 Woodside Pluto LNG pipeline project, Allseas’ biggest project in that part of the world at the time.
In Australia, I joined the Project Management Department as Assistant Project Manager, focusing on subcontractor management, client interfacing and vessel / operation management. Having left the number crunching to the new engineers, my engineering background is of great value and is essential when working as a manager in the offshore contracting business. I am currently Assistant Project Manager on the Gorgon and Jansz Upstream project.
What’s kept me interested in working for Allseas all these years is illustrated above: being able to work indifferent environments, different departments and different continents, representing a company that is leading in the pipelaying business.