Allseas is the benchmark in the offshore pipelaying industry, an innovative company that is successful again and again in pushing back the boundaries of pipelaying. In order to be able to realise this, Allseas has a very advanced fleet of pipelaying vessels, whereby the newest vessel Audacia was put into service in the autumn of 2007. In addition to pipelaying, Allseas is currently expanding its core activities by building the largest ship in the world, Pieter Schelte. This ship has been designed for heavy lifting operations such as the decommissioning and commissioning of offshore platforms and laying heavy pipelines at great water depths.
In the traineeship stage of my Mechanical Engineering studies at TH Rijswijk, I came into contact with Allseas. Due to the large number of diverse internships and graduate trainee assignments in the Innovations Department, I was able to find a suitable traineeship for my graduate specialisation ‘product development’. My research assignment focused on the optimisation of a pipe transfer crane of Solitaire, the largest and most advanced pipelay vessel in the world.
In addition to my own traineeship research assignment, as a team, we regularly looked for improvement possibilities in various areas for Solitaire. The opportunity to work with the best technology in the field of pipelaying in a young and congenial environment with enthusiastic colleagues was a great way to become acquainted with the business, and at the same time provided the motivation for the beginning of my career in the offshore industry.
I started working in the Installation Engineering Department, a department with many young, starting engineers that make installation-technical analyses and draw up procedures for operations on board as a team on a project basis. In this job, I was trained for the position of Field Engineer, an international engineering position whereby you work on board of the vessels and are responsible for the technical part of the pipelaying process. After I had acquired a theoretical foundation in a few months, I went on board Solitaire to see the activities in actual practice. This was a very impressive experience: pipes weighing more than 40 tons a piece and with a diameter of more than 1.1 m, which are prepared in a welding station in five minutes for the next step in the installation process! Just recently I became Field Engineer on Audacia.
For me, the combination of working with advanced offshore technology in theory and in the operational field in a job with an international character is an interesting challenge. Moreover, Allseas is the market leader in this industry, where it is possible for young engineers with the right attitude and commitment to develop and grow in various technological areas.