The Team

Summary

• Highly experienced in the offshore Oil and Gas Industry with over 25 years’ experience of electrical and control systems. Working in the Engineering office and on site both onshore and offshore in a supervisory role, recently Operational support engineering but with extensive installation, hook-up and commissioning experience. Simon has made a pro-active and profitable contribution to the formulation and implementation of new and existing Brownfield modifications to existing installations and Operations Support. He has substantial overseas experience and have played an active part in coaching multi-national and multi-disciplinary teams. He has been valued member of the Operations Support Team and accredit this to my ability to communicate ideas and technical issues in ‘lay mans’ terms. Simon has supported the delivery of safe, innovative and efficient electrical scope solutions to Turnarounds and projects and has overseen effective planning and execution.

Qualifications

• BSc (Hons) Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Professional Associations

• Corporate Member institution of Electrical Engineers (No 17773116)
• Chartered Engineer (Reg. No 442855)
• Member of the Institute of Energy (No 6370)

Professional Associations

May 2018 - 2020 BP Azerbaijan, Baku : Senior Electrical Engineer

• Senior Electrical Engineer for onshore support of the ACG offshore platforms in Azerbaijan. Taking the lead for the Electrical Obsolescence Strategy and the Maintenance Build for all offshore platforms.
• Obsolescence includes a review of all the electrical packages to identify obsolete and near obsolete components and recommending the strategy to deal with them.
• The Maintenance Build is to completely renovate the existing Maintenance Strategy to bring it into line with the Corporate policy of maintenance being generic rather than equipment specific. This also involved a large exercise in allocating equipment locations to individual Maintenance Routines, some 55,000 assignments were made.
• I also reviewed the Ex Register for all the offshore installations (some 120,000 line items). This involved cross referencing the certificate numbers and their ATEX attributes and bringing them into line. I also spent a considerable amount of time finding missing ATEX certificates.
• I bring my experience to the investigation of troublesome electrical issues and incidents that occur offshore. In particular the failure of an ATEX water jacket heater on a firewater pump engine and the failure of a spot weld on a contactor that had been incorrectly installed.
• I also act as the Contract Account Manager for the Electrical Condition Monitoring contract across BP both offshore and onshore in Azerbaijan and Georgia.
• A large part of my duty includes coaching and development of National Staff. To date, with my help, three of my colleagues have achieved Chartered Membership of the IET. I also contribute fully in helping the National Staff improve their English language skills.

Feb 2011 – April 2018 BP Angola, Luanda: Senior Electrical Engineer

• Senior Electrical Engineer for onshore support of the Greater Plutonio and PSVM FPSO’s working with and mentoring 3 Junior National Engineers and two UK based graduate engineers. Projects undertaken include identification and remediation of Electrical Network control problems (RR RB-211 generators, S&I switchgear, Brush Prismic PMS and Emerson Delta V ICSS system). This resulted in a ~ £1MM project for remediation and upgrade that includes installation of time stamping to the systems for investigation of fault events. Review of Ex Maintenance and recommendations (with supporting information) to move to a Risk Based maintenance programme, this is moving into the implementation phase. Incident investigations for equipment failures; recommendations for plant modifications; assessment and authorisation of REP’s and SAEP’s; development of electrical procedures for use across the Region. Review of critical spares and identification of contingency spares. Application of renewable energy into the FPSO for power generation. Instrumental in setting up Condition Monitoring philosophy for the electrical equipment on the installation. Also responsible for arranging the design and implementation of HVAC modifications.
• I am the Senior Electrical Engineer for the Region and take responsibility for the technical development of 4 National Engineers in other functions and one engineer based in Sunbury. I also take a close interest in the health of the electrical technicians offshore.  I am also part of the BP Corporate Senior Electrical Engineering community.  I am an IET mentor.  

Dec 2003 - Jan 2011 BP Azerbaijan, Baku : Senior Electrical Engineer

• Senior Electrical Engineer for onshore support of the ACG offshore platforms in Azerbaijan with up to 6 electrical engineers working under me. Projects undertaken included upgrade of switchgear (11, 3.3 and 0.4 kV rating) for safety and operational reasons. Investigation and rectification following catastrophic failures of 40 MVA alternators and 11 kV switchgear. Ex equipment review and associated maintenance requirements. Troubleshooting for 33 kV submarine cable transformers and control systems. Review of contingency stock requirement and critical electrical spares. Significant contributions made to setting up of business critical contracts with both OEM’s (Switchgear and load Management System) and service providers (UPS, Ex, general electrical contracting). Providing ongoing daily support to Operations including EQ’s and MOC’s. Assessment and Authorisation of SAEP’s and REP’s. Review of maintenance requirement and operational procedures. Also responsible for implementing HVAC modifications.
• Electrical Technical Authority for the BP Operation in Azerbaijan and Georgia. The Business Unit at the time comprised two offshore platforms (250,000 BOPD), an onshore reception terminal (sized for 1 MM BOPD) and three oil export pipelines with associated pumping stations. Responsibilities included system improvements including electrical optimisation as well as larger operational issues not requiring a full project to address. Responsible for approval of electrical changes under the MOC system and Authorisation of SAEP’s and REP’s under the BP Safe Systems of Work. Setting up of HV/LV Training School.
• Projects undertaken included Offshore Production Enhancement Project (increasing system throughput by installation of new booster and export MOL pumps including VSD’s) and interconnection of existing terminal power generation system (2 * 3 MW Solar Taurus generators) to new power generation provided by a major terminal upgrade (6 * RB-211 generator sets plus two 110 kV grid interconnectors).

Feb 2001 – Dec 2003 Granherne & Co LLC, Oman :Lead Electrical Engineer/Project Manager

• Responsible to Granherne Project Manager and OXY Facilities Manager for all electrical activities carried out for an onshore $25 million, 200,000 barrel of water per day water flood facility from FEED through detail design to implementation. Position based at site, on rotation. OXY required a 25 MW power station together with 30 km of 33 kV overhead line power distribution system. The system had to be designed to cater for future (unspecified) power requirements over an area of 200 square kilometres. Construction and commissioning activities were also undertaken on the new 4 * 7MW gas turbine power station, 11 kV switchboard and 33 kV switching yard.
• A very aggressive project schedule was required and many contingency plans had to be made, including the provision of two levels of temporary power generation and distribution equipment to support initial water injection.
• The project progressed to extend the 33 kV distribution system to another OXY location 60 km away and installation of a further power generation facility with two 7 MW gas turbine generators. The design work was undertaken on site with my responsibility including the provision of all services, using discipline specialists for the implementation of the requirements.
• In addition to the above base scope of work my responsibilities also included the preparation of Electrical Safety Rules and other Safety Documentation, incident reporting and ongoing smaller production enhancements and system improvements.
• Phillips Petroleum, Co Ltd, Qatar Consultant Electrical Engineer
• Electrical design review of Q-Chem Polyethylene manufacturing facilities supplied from national grid supply. Construction of the facility was nearing completion and it was required that the electrical design was assessed and reviewed. Specific areas of the design reviewed were Hazardous Areas (resolution of conflicts between NEC and IEC design), large motor starting and discrimination.

2000 – 2001 Granherne International Limited, Qatar : Lead Electrical Engineer and Project Manager

• Responsible to General Manager for all electrical work carried out by company for all clients. Responsible to client and management for schedule and cost. Provide detail design for connection of OXY South Dome development to the existing North Dome Power generation plant via a 22 km submarine power cable and 3 MVA power transformers. Ultimate capacity of system approximately 30 MVA. Power system studies carried out by ETAP and Captor. Assisted offshore with commissioning of all electrical plant. Participated in associated HAZOP’s.
• Review and recommendations made for additional power generation systems for both stand alone and integrated options. Preparation of detailed front end engineering requirements for extensive power system analysis of an onshore gas plant to be carried out by specialist contractor.
• Investigation into upgrade capabilities of existing compressor driver without replacement of motor driver or cabling infrastructure. Acted as Technical Authority and Operations Support Electrical Engineer for all field operations, which included the preparation of Electrical Safety Rules and other Safety Documentation, incident reporting and ongoing smaller production enhancements and system improvements.

1999 - 2000 Aker Maritime, Qatar: Lead Electrical Engineer / Engineering Co-ordinator

• Responsible to General Manager for all electrical work carried out by company for all clients including responsibility for co-ordination of multi-disciplinary design team to ensure requirements of schedule, cost and quality were met.
• Contractors Representative and Electrical Design Engineer for OXY South Dome Project. Project required installation of 7 variable speed driven ESP’s onto 2 unmanned wellhead jackets. Power requirement of 2.4 MW supplied initially from drilling rig then via a total of 25 km of submarine power cables. Responsible for complete electrical design and co-ordination of multi-discipline design team. Power system studies carried out by Captor.
• Contractors Representative and Electrical Design Engineer for OXY North Dome ESP Project. Project required installation of 4 variable speed driven ESP’s onto 4 unmanned wellhead jackets. Power requirement of 1 MW each supplied from main complex generation system via HV submarine cables and step down transformers. Responsible for complete electrical design and co-ordination of multi-discipline design team. Power system studies carried out by IPSA and Captor.

1996-1998 McDermott Engineering / Aker Maritime, Qatar : Lead Electrical Engineer

• Responsible to engineering manager on multi-million dollar refurbishment project on Arabian Gulf offshore oil and gas platform. Technical responsibility for all electrical work designed and installed on platform. Control of all technical aspects of Electrical Section both in Doha office and in Aberdeen support office. Focal point for dealings with client electrical engineer.
• Project Engineering for multi-discipline design of submarine power cable installation and associated HV electrical distribution system modifications. Design, procurement & installation of HV submarine cable systems. Study to increase power generation from 10 MW installed capacity to 26 MW including fault level analysis, protection arrangements, etc.
• Provision of 1 MW temporary generators on remote unmanned jackets. Design work associated with installation of 1 MW variable speed drive systems. Provision of power to 8 remote wellhead platforms through submarine cables. Refurbishment of HV motor and transformer starters and replacement of generator set protection relays. Installation of new 650 kW oil export pump motors. On site commissioning of generator protection relays and HV transformers. Proposals for production and electrical system upgrades. Proposals to incorporate 18 MW of variable speed driven down-hole pumps into existing generation system. Power to be transmitted 25 km via submarine cables.