Marco works in the Offshore Engineering Department as a senior engineer for the floating structures group. He reviews structural drawings and calculations to decide if they comply with the ABS rules.
Lynnda's work
2002: It's about time I update this page, you would think I
never got anywhere in this company:)
As of September 2001, I became Project Manager for Offshore projects.
I basically coordinate the global efforts going on for a project, talk
to surveyors, the client and ofcourse our engineers (well, make that plead
and beg so they finally finish their work...). Right now I have 4 projects
to manage, all in the Golf of Mexico. They're mainly truss spars and one
semi. It's a tough job now and then, juggling priorities and client's egos.
But it's a lot of fun, I need some challenge.
Interacting with USCG and MMS also is a major part of my job, so I
have expanded my knowledge quite a bit.
I get to travel now and then to check up on progress, I make regular
trips to Veracruz in Mexico and was in Gothenburg, Sweden for a week. Although
you don't have a lot of time to see the scenery, it's mostly fun to go
to new places and see the real steel !
From 1998 till 2001 I worked for the Engineering Services Department
in Houston. My main task was vendor-coordination for several projects.
Now what is vendor-coordination ?
Most projects done by ABS involve a lot of equipment and systems. Whenever
you want to build a new vessel or rig you need a lot of systems for the
operations of for example drilling, air- and water supply, electrical supply
etc. For one project that means involvement of several vendors (I'm talking
more than 50 usually) who all submit the designs for their equipment to
ABS for approval. Needless to say that with about 50 projects going on,
the same vendors submitting equipment for several projects and more importantly
the sub-vendors that are involved this is a major administrative problem.
Some vendors actually don't know for which vessel they submit things. And
then we're not even talking about the problems that arise with technical
issues and last-minute problems.
The client (builder/owner) wants to know the status of the approval
of this equipment on a regular basis. So my task is to talk to the client
about the status, but also talk to vendors about the requirements, updating
of the status and making sure that everybody knows who he/she is working
for.
It's a great job, and i'm surprised at the knowledge of vessels in
general and equipment in particular I have gained over the last 3 years.
It's a dynamic business and very interesting.Since I started we have delivered
a few vessels that I was involved with. For one of them I got invited to
the christening which was very interesting. Unfortunately most of the other
vessels will be christened in far off places like Korea or Finland. If
you would like to see 2 of "my" rigs, click on these thumbnails.These are
2 semi-submersibles from Ensco and R&B Falcon. The Nautilus was delivered
in April 2000, the Ensco 7500 was delivered in October. For the Ensco I
get all the fun-stuff since I'm also overall projectmanager.
In june 2000 I was promoted to Senior Engineer. I still don't know
if that changes my job (except for doing even more projects) but the recognition
is nice. Currently I'm working on a lot of SPAR's, TLP (tension leg platform)
and FPSO's (floating production storage and offloading ). With the oil
prices this high everybody wants to get as much as possible. These projects
are everywhere: Indonesia, West Africa, Gulf of Mexico, Brasil, so I even
get to practive my language skills.