On your marks, get set...............go!

And this is where it all begins!

Me, lived in Aberdeen all my life. The oil industry featured heavily in the city and sometime in the early 80's I had decided that is what I wanted to do with my life. 

And then it began.........

I joined the oil industry in 1989. 28th August to be exact! Fresh faced, straight from school and into an apprenticeship scheme called SETTS (Shell Exploration Technician Training Scheme). I was employed by BP and the scheme had both Shell and BP technicians on it. Having been through the various stages of assessment and interview for both Shell and BP after having applied for both it felt like months of torment to just get out of the starting gate!

Spending the first couple of years in Aberdeen UK, covering a multi-discipline curriculum, then in year 3 specialising in the instrumentation and control side of things. Year 3 was based out of Billingham UK, and spent a few weeks there followed by a few weeks 'on-site' at various locations around the UK. During this 3rd year I had the joys of TIES at Billingham, Spectra-Tek at Malton, British Gas terminal at Barrow-in-Furness and Texaco Refinery at Pembroke. Year 4 is where is all starts to really happen. The offshore adventure begins, 6th November 1992!

Over the next 21 years I spent my working life across the various platforms in the Forties Field, and laterly up in the Beryl Field.

I progressed through the ranks and covered various roles all the way from an apprentice up to the Offshore Installation Manager, with the various operations/maintenance/project supervisor roles  in between and also included a 3 year stint onshore in various roles from onshore support to project manager.

Safe to say it was a very healthy grounding in the industry!

At some point early on in my career I had always considered going overseas, but it never felt the right time. A new project or a promotion and then kicking off a degree and having family always seemed to change my thought processes. I had made my mind up that I was still going to do it and as the family aged and career was well established things were starting to feel right to go for it.

So here we are the start of the overseas journey and hopefully this blog will capture how this story unfolds along the way. No idea how this will turn out.

One thing is for sure........it will be an adventure!

Stay tuned.