ROY NASR, PRINCIPAL ENGINEER, CONSTRUCTION Roy leads on all aspects of construction activity, from planning to completion, with main responsibility for the Topside. He coordinates with E&I (electrical and instrumentation), Mechanical, Piping, HVAC (heating venting and air conditioning) and Commissioning to ensure everything is carried out to schedule while maintaining quality and safety.

This project is my first at a fabrication yard… It meant there was a lot to learn when I joined in June 2020, but it was also a new and exciting challenge. I have been with Petrofac permanently for almost 10 years, having joined as a graduate after two years as an intern. After completing graduate training at the Petrofac Academy, my first deployment was in Kuwait before working mainly on the UZ750 offshore project in Abu Dhabi. I learned a lot from those years.

Of the many skills I’ve brought from my previous projects, communication is the main one… Everything you need to know in my role begins with communicating with the people delivering work on the ground. The first thing I did when I arrived here was walk the factory and workshop and learn from the people, getting an understanding of every level of the process. That’s how you make sure you can plan and coordinate effectively.

The Topside is very complex... Eight or nine divisions are working hand in hand and it’s my role to make sure that runs smoothly, safely, and to a challenging schedule. Every time there’s a major lift, it’s an incredibly tense moment but also very satisfying. You get a real rush as you see everything you’ve been working on becoming a whole structure. Knowing what we are building is providing clean energy to light up cities also makes me feel proud.    

Good mentors at Petrofac really help you move forwards… I learned from some of Petrofac’s most experienced engineers earlier in my career and more recently from Ammar Al Msallakh, the site manager on this project. I currently mentor Asmaa Al Dhanhani, one of our young graduates. She’s ambitious, dedicated to her work and wants to learn about every aspect of the project. I really enjoy sharing my knowledge with her and seeing her develop. And she’s not afraid to point out if there’s something I could do better!

Asmaa reminds me of myself when I was a graduate... I was always told if you don’t know, ask – there’s no such thing as a stupid question. That’s advice I give to young engineers now – never pretend to know something if you don’t, and there’s never a time when the learning stops!  

Meet the people behind the project