The long and short of it

This September, Construction Manager Nisar Hassan marks 30 years at Petrofac. Nisar, who is from Pakistan, is currently working on the Ain Tsila project in Algeria.

I joined in September 1992 as a supervisor on a greenfield project in Azerbaijan. I’ve been a construction manager for the last 15 years and worked on megaprojects across the world, including in Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, Bahrain, Oman, Algeria, UAE and Qatar.

“One of my proudest moments was helping to deliver one of Petrofac’s biggest ever projects: the Galkynysh gas field project in Turkmenistan. I love completing the hook-up between the pipeline, wells and export system onsite; that’s my target and people look to me share my experience and lessons learned. I’m thankful to my colleagues who have encouraged me over the years; I’ve had tremendous support and the people here are like family. It’s an honour to work for Petrofac; I’ve had many opportunities to grow and I’ve been mobilised on so many projects.”

Aberdeen-based Henry Fern, who is a Technical Authority for Instrumentation and Controls, marked 25 years at Petrofac in February.     

I joined the company working on the new-build Britannia project in an offshore role. I had the opportunity to work onshore and enjoyed this, so I moved from Teesside to Moray and then Aberdeen, and I’ve lived a completely different life because of it. I started as an operations technician and have had a variety of technical and managerial roles, which has ultimately led to where I am now as a Technical Authority. Strangely enough it’s not where I thought my career would go. With Petrofac if you are capable and interested, you can go off on different tangents. That’s one of the reasons I enjoy working here, the company is quite organic.

“One of my proudest moments was developing a management system for small bore tubing with a colleague, which was praised by the UK regulator and then was also used on major client assets. It gave us an income stream and reputational value which hadn’t been the original intention; it was just a fix to a problem that we had to deal with. Another proud moment was supporting a client in Germany on the development of HVDC windfarms. I initially went to Hannover for one week and ended up working with them for 18 months. Sharing how we do things in an offshore environment and explaining the fundamentals of why legislation was developed, helped them to consider their own framework and learn from another industry. I was able to pull on my experience from the whole of my working life and give it to a new industry.”

Aberdeen-based Kathryn McIntosh joined Petrofac in 1993 when it was known as Atlantic Power and Gas, fresh from university.     

It’s been fantastic to see the company grow from where it was when I first joined to where it is now with the breadth of services it offers. I’ve seen the company adapt and evolve, and embrace the changes that have come along in the industry.

“I joined as a commercial administrator from university and have remained in the commercial area of the business. I now primarily look after commercial aspects of Atlantic resourcing; there’s never a dull moment! I’ve made some really good friends over the years, and there’s so many opportunities to work with personnel and teams globally, from Chennai to Sharjah. If I could give one piece of advice, it would be to make the most of opportunities when they arise. Don’t be scared to get involved and put your hand up.”

Group Head – Engineering, Senior Vice President of Technical Services Haresh Sharma, joined Petrofac in 1996 as a Lead Engineer. While the last few years have been difficult for the business, he is looking forward to the future with renewed enthusiasm and positivity.

I would describe my career in Petrofac as a gratifying journey from ‘nothing to everything’. In 26 years, Petrofac has provided me with many opportunities, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed performing various roles. I consider being at the right place at the right time for the challenges that were presented, and I accepted those challenges with the willingness to learn and always do better. When I look back, among the most significant and challenging parts of my career was my stint as Director of Engineering Proposals. This phase provided the accelerated learning and exposure to the multi-discipline and multi-function nature of the EPC business with a clear focus on winning.

“I believe Petrofac is an organisation that provides an environment which supports innovation, knowledge sharing and creates limitless opportunities. You feel surrounded by highly experienced and knowledgeable people, from whom you can always learn and improve. Some of the attributes that have helped me in my career are – take ownership, live your values at all times, be passionate and take pride in what you do. I consider teamwork, collaboration, open communication and being receptive to different ideas as my way of life. I always believe in explaining the ‘WHY’ to our teams (thanks to Simon Sinek and LBS); this helps to leverage their intelligence and understanding to achieve shared success. It fosters an environment of trust through improved performance and aligned objectives. Last but not least, stay focused on leaving a legacy that you believe in – embed coaching and mentoring in your way of working. I’ve always invested in relationship-building and people remain at the core of my actions. I simply subscribe to the mantra of: “As is the Belief, so is the Behaviour, so is the Business” (thanks to Devdutt Pattanaik).”

Charlie Souter joined Petrofac in 1996 as an onshore planning and site coordinator, before he says his career took a bit of a turn.

I was given the opportunity to join a new rotating equipment support function in 2002; as part of my development Petrofac sponsored me through my practical and mechanical engineering qualifications which allowed me to apply my skills working offshore maintaining various rotating equipment packages. In 2009 I transferred to the Kittiwake duty holder contract, providing onshore and offshore technical support for the assets rotating equipment packages; then in 2013 I was offered the position of Facilities Engineer responsible for all brownfield modification and upgrade projects. In 2016 I assumed the role of Operations Superintendent responsible for the delivery of safe and efficient production operations, this included supervision of an onshore multi-discipline support team. This was probably the most challenging, and most rewarding, of all roles in my 13 years association with Kittiwake.

“Latterly I have been responsible for coordination of this year’s shutdown which has provided me with further development opportunities utilising the maintenance and operations experience gained during my time with the asset. Looking back retraining myself, attending night classes whilst juggling work and family life was quite challenging but everyone was very supportive. I never imagined my career would take the road it has, but it would not have been possible without the support and encouragement of my line managers at the time and of course my wife Sarah and our two children Charlie and Hannah.”

I can remember my first day at Petrofac: the driver took me directly from the airport to the office. The office had two engineering services rooms and there were only about 10 or 12 people. As the company was small, we’d work on projects from the start of engineering until the commissioning end of the job, and we’d go to site to support the construction team during the execution phase. So, I got the opportunity to work on oil and gas fields and I learned a lot that you can’t learn from paper. I was Lead Piping Engineer for bp Ghazeer, one of the best projects we’ve executed in the company in my opinion. What was evident in this project was the commitment of the people at Petrofac. I’d encourage graduates now to go to site, as it’s such an important experience. I might also be the only person in Petrofac who has experienced 60˚C in the Sahara and -50˚C in Russia.

“I love to work under pressure, that’s when I perform at my best. And, I’m still learning – the learning process never stops. There will be challenges to anything you start in life. I always tell my kids that it’s only hard work that will pay back. If you have potential, no one can stop you.”

Akhlaq Sadiq is based in the UAE and joined Petrofac 25 years ago as a designer in the piping department. Now a Principal Designer, he’s currently working on proposals for new projects.

Roddy McKnight, Senior Vice President of New Energy Services, is based in Aberdeen. A chartered surveyor by training, he joined Atlantic Power and Gas in 1996.

As Petrofac has evolved and created new areas of business, I’ve been asked to get involved in developing a number of them – I didn’t have any preconceptions of where my career was going to go. I’ve been really fortunate to meet lots of people from different cultures and travel the world.

“My claim to fame is that I developed the terms for the first ever duty holder contract in the North Sea. In 2002, we won three major duty holder contracts, which I negotiated on behalf of the company and which formed the bedrock of the Petrofac business in the North Sea for years to come – we are still working on two of these. We wanted to take this model and export it, so I moved to the Middle East in 2005 for two years and was part of the team which secured the contract to operate the O&G assets owned by the government of Dubai. Building on the services developed for Duty Holder in the North Sea and the operation of the assets in Dubai, Petrofac created a new division called Petrofac Production Solutions, of which I was Vice President of Commercial – looking at commercial models around improving the production of older oil fields. What I would consider to be my greatest achievement in Petrofac to date was being part of the management team which between 2003 and 2008 grew PFML from a $200m pa to a $1bn per year business. In 2010, I moved into a strategy and risk role for OPO, which was a precursor to EPS. Between 2011 and 2016 I worked initially on the SEPAT MUPO Project in Malaysia and for a three-year period the FPF1 project based in Gdansk, Poland, before moving back into a senior functional commercial role in EPS.

“Now being part of the New Energy Services team is an exciting new chapter to what has been a varied career to date. Energy transition is touching everyone’s lives. It’s exciting to see that the work we’ve done in the oil and gas industry can be readily repurposed. The skills we’ve developed over the last 40 years in this environment are all absolutely relevant to the energy transition. It’s also exciting to be helping shape the direction of travel in this area for the business’s future growth.”

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