Category Archives for News & Media
Get WISER November: Challenging the Status Quo
Spool Connection Assembly (SCA)
Wenwen Shen presented on an Innovative Spool Connection Assembly concept, introducing the opportunity to avoid long single spools, and thereby minimising risks and cost associated with heavy lifts. A couple of concepts were considered, including pre-installed foundation with subsequent tie in, as well as integrated foundation with subsequent laydown. In the shallow water case study presented, the former option was adopted as it offered more stability and higher reliability in the wave dominated loading environment. Various guide options were also considered to facilitate tie-in operation as well as to optimise the interface loads at the connection structure. A good understanding of the relevant industry codes and standards allowed to adjust and relax the stability design requirements of low consequence foundation structures which serve as installation aids for this particular project application.
Subsea Equipment Australian Reliability (SEAR) Joint Industry Project (JIP)
Adriana Botto gave an overview and update of the ongoing SEAR JIP. Adriana highlighted the challenges associated with subsea equipment that is failing prematurely in Australia waters that sparked the JIP initiative in 2014. Now delivering phase 6, the JIP primarily focused on marine fouling intervention and umbilical challenges. SCMs and EFLs were presented as some of the equipment most prone to failure, most often significantly earlier than their intended design life. Living laboratories in the form of material samples attached to subsea structures have been deployed to identify game changing technologies that will enable better performing material options. Next, the focus will be on umbilicals and the issues associated with unwanted gas in umbilicals, which is exacerbated in the warm waters in Northern Australian. The long-term effects of gas presence on performance is poorly understood and will be investigated by the JIP. Results of the SEAR JIP will be communicated through an industry best practice guideline intended to reduce operating cost for existing and future projects, while identifying solutions that are uniquely suited to Australian Waters.
Get Wiser October: Be Your Own Ally – Self Care and Emotional Resilience
“How to be your own ally: Self-care and emotional resilience” was the topic of discussion in the October Get Wiser by Elise Duncan, a Clinical Psychologist and hosted by Chevron Australia.
Elise said that mental health issues often arise from pushing too hard for too long or having unrealistic expectations of oneself. She talked about the different information processed in three levels of the brain (Thinking Brain, Emotion Brain and Survival Brain) and what happens when we become tressed. She highlighted the importance of recognising whether ones nervous system activation is too high (hyper-arousal), too low (hypo- arousal) or in the optimal zone (Window of tolerance).
Even when not under threat, our minds wander to negative thoughts because of the brain’s Default Mode Network which focuses on the negative as a means of protection. We build expectations based on past experiences. Although these “Mental shortcuts” save energy, they can be unhelpful if left unchecked.
Including frequent mindful breaks in your day, consciously taking in the good, and bringing conscious awareness to things you do on autopilot can help tame the mind. Understanding the mind and body are not out to get you can help you decide when to be guided by their signals and when to just let them pass.
Get WISER September: Flow Assurance Revealed by Jeannie Wong (Woodside)
Another full-house and successful Get WISER Tech was held in September. Jeannie Wong from Woodside gave us a very comprehensive overview of the flow assurance world.
Jeannie covered the asset’s life from design to operation, and showed the importance of flow assurance considerations throughout the life of the field.
Many interesting topics were addressed including line sizing considerations, the importance of using detailed bathymetry data and the transient nature of multiphase flow, just to name a few.She also pointed out the various strategies (avoid, manage, ignore) to deal with wax, scale and hydrate formation.
The number of questions at the end of the presentation showed the level of engagement and interest from the attendees, a true testimony of the quality of this session.
Get Wiser July: Subsea Installation Awareness
This month’s SOLD OUT Technical ‘Get Wiser’ was held in the new Atteris office. Gillian Stone, a Project Engineering Manager at Subsea 7, provided the audience with a highly informative overview of the HUGE topic of Subsea Installation which was quite a challenge in under an hour!
Gillian challenged the designers in the room to think about the actual installation requirements and conditions faced offshore when at the design stage and how, by considering these issues, could assist the installation process to go much smoother. Typical issues to consider: – Structure weights required for the cranes and lifting requirements – Tag lines – there are often not designed into the structure but really important for ensuring safe over boarding – How the equipment is laid out on a deck and what connections are to be made onshore first for practicality and efficiency – Unclear design requirements can cause ‘assumptions’ to be made by and can result in a design fail and add $$$ to the cost of installation.
The session was very interactive with lots of questions being asked which was great to see and was also great to see an almost 50/50 female/male ratio, although from the photos you can’t see this as most of the men were hiding at the back of the room! This event was a sell out so make sure you get in early for next month’s Get Wiser session which will be a Professional Development held on the 21st August. Further details to follow soon!
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Girls Shine in our Future Engineers Program
The second week of the Western Australian September school holidays saw 30 lucky girls take part in the inaugural Future Engineers program. Organised by WISE (Women in Subsea Engineering) the program ran over the course of five days and included an absolute treasure trove of experiences for the girls.
Through the support of partners, sponsors and volunteers, the girls spent time at numerous facilities and had visiting experts who gave them a wealth of knowledge and inspired them to consider careers in a STEM field. The information the girls received didn’t stop at technical career based advice. They also spent time developing their public speaking skills, their confidence through body language and their ability to succeed and thrive in what is traditionally a male dominated industry. Of particular value and inspiration was the number of female volunteers generously giving up their time to demonstrate and encourage the next generation of women into oil and gas careers.
The program culminated with an awards and presentation evening on the Friday. All of the girls presented on what they had learned during the week, with much insight, creativity and humour. The expressions on the participant’s faces was electric and their energy for the sector was tangible.
Feedback from the participants, their parents and professionals involved with the program has been outstanding and we hope to run an even bigger program next year. WISE are seeking expressions of interest for program supporters for the 2019 program. If you can help out, please get in touch via our website here.
WISE would like to thank the following people and companies, without whom the program couldn’t have been such a success;
Major Sponsors: WISE, Subsea Energy Australia, BHP and Engineers Australia
Program Partners: Petroleum Club of Western Australia, Scitech, Greenlight Environmental, Atteris, CSA Oceans, NEXXIS, TechnipFMC, BHP, Schlumberger, Indian Ocean Marine Research Centre (IOMRC), NGI, Genesis, Pressure Dynamics, IFAP, ACA Foundation, Woodside, Sonomatic, Vertech and CORE Innovation Hub
Volunteers: Allison Selman, Yan Mei Ng, Lina Velosa, Mhairi Glover, Rodney Silberstein, Tjedza Masola, Bruna Rocha, Sarah Watson, Polly Mahaptra, Lucy Henderson, Jess Silva, Steve Fogarty, Petrina Raitt, Sarah Watson, Krista Lewis, Ashlin McCamish, Alex Gravestock, Andrew Angus, Anna Cresswell, Armity Saljooghi, Brian Guest, Ci Wang, Claudia Ku, Christina Cantillo, Dann Marian, Dilupa Konara, Evelene Raj, Gail Milne, Himasha Walgama, Hoda Ehsani, Jarren Asquith, Julie Morgan, Katerina Lepkova, Katherine Cure, Katherine Lundy, Kirsty Freeman, Laura Machuca Suarez, Luke Ellery, Madeline Brick, Madeline Hardy, Madeline Hermawan, Maegan Tan, Mahinder Nayar, Marcus Sasson, Mark Williams, Mia Savic, Michael Blackburn, Nicole Fiumana, Noel Boylan, Paul Henderson, Petrina Raitt, Ruth Thomas, Rebecca Murphy, Sarah Harloe, Shiao Huey Chow, Stefanie Sala, Thunyaluk (Kod) Pojtanabuntoeng, Tina Turner, Tina Zhang, Wendy Mitchell
Organised by WISE Committee Members Allison Selman, Chien Foo, Evelene Raj, Yan Mei Ng
Support of Engineers Australia WA Division and Subsea Energy Australia Staff 
Women in Subsea Engineering – Establishing the Baseline
Recently WISE initiated a study in order to gain further insight into the status of women working in the subsea sector. Prepared by Professor Linley Lord, Dr. Melissa Marinelli and Ms Danielle Leotta the report aims to establish a gender profile with a particular focus on women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, maths) professions in order to identify barriers and which are limiting participation and develop strategies to address this.
In 2016, Australia’s Chief Scientist released the report Busting the Myths about Women in STEM (Prinsley, Beavis, & Clifford-Hordacre, 2016) highlighting the persistent lack of women in STEM professions and the need for ongoing support and intervention to increase their workforce participation in these fields. Further research (Catalyst, 2016, Lord, Eastham, Jefferson & Wardale, 2014, The Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia, 2015, 2017) indicates that women continue to be underrepresented in the Australian resources industry, including the oil and gas extraction sector.
So, what does ‘Women in Subsea Engineering – Establishing the Baseline’ tell us?
A key finding is the lack of data specifically related to women in the subsea sector. There is information available about women in resources, however this appears to be collected too infrequently to enable accurate measurement of industry-led initiatives.
Despite this lack of data, the focus groups revealed women see the sector as exciting, challenging and innovative, offering diverse career opportunities. Visibility of the sector continues to require improvement.
Many issues faced by women in the subsea sector are common to those in related industries, for example difficulty establishing credibility, difficulty accessing formal and informal networks and mentorship opportunities, challenges utilising flexible working arrangements, negative perceptions around women as mothers and a lack of understanding of the value of diversity within organisations.
Clearly, we need to continue to work on increasing the awareness of the subsea sector, especially to university students. We also need to consider attracting women to the industry later in their careers. This might include financial support for further training, flexible work arrangements, and educating managers on the value of diverse teams.
We hope you’ll join us to hear the full findings of ‘Women in Subsea Engineering – Establishing the Baseline’ presented by Professor Linley Lord on Wednesday, September 12 at Curtin St Georges Terrace.
Please register to the event here as places are limited.
EXCELerate: Value-Driven Leadership
In the past days, WISE organised a valuable coaching session conducted by Eva and Sam from Approach Services. Through different activities, we could identify our core values and natural leadership style, and also how they impact the people surrounding us.
The discussion started with the definition of “Leadership”. By rolling dices, the participants gave their opinions and perspectives of effective leaders and leadership. A global conclusion stated that a leader is a person who inspires, guides and provides a clear direction, and inspires other people to follow them. Furthermore, a leader is not limited to a specific space or environment, a leader performs as a role model at any place. A good leader should empower others, be confident, be innovative, always look for a positive outcome, and encourage a team to grow and work at its best.
Identification of our core values was done by selecting the three most significant values that identify our personality, and seven significant values. This exercise was particularly difficult due to the complexity of defining yourself in just three main values.
There are different types of leadership. In this scenario leadership styles were categorised in four groups. The leaders in the red category, which are people who are very competitive, demanding, and determined, and love delegating tasks. Then, the leaders in the blue category, those who are cautious and introverted. They like working with numbers, graphs, but might have issues delegating tasks. The next category is the green leaders, those who are relaxed, patient, protective, and good listeners, but find it very difficult to delegate tasks. Finally, the yellow leaders, those who are very sociable, dynamic, and enthusiastic but get distracted by different tasks at the same time, so they delegate quickly.
We might feel naturally identified in one of the previous leadership categories. However, in response to different situations and scenarios, we can perform and apply completely different leadership styles. This means, leadership is also situational and adaptative and can be learnt or developed in accordance with particular requirements when performing in a team.
Our core values and behaviors intersect to form our leadership shadow. In the case our behavior and decisions are not aligned with our values, we should start working on and sharpening them to avoid sending mixed or contradictory messages to people; this is one of the main reasons why leadership fails.
The best leaders, the value-driven leaders, adapt to situations by expanding their skills and learning from experience during teamwork, diversity of tasks involved and organisational environments. But, to make this effective, leaders must be aware of their own natural or preferred leadership style.
Wavemakers – We #Press for Progress
In March this year, on International Women’s Day, Women in Subsea Engineering (WISE) officially launched the Wavemakers Program. Our aim is to deliver role models to inspire girls to pursue STEM subjects, and ultimately consider a career in the subsea industry.
Watch short video of International Women’s Day Wavemakers Launch.
Watch long video of International Women’s Day Wavemakers Launch (with speeches).
Our Wavemakers have all had career success via STEM in Subsea careers and are actively championing this as a career path.
Our aim is for gender parity in our industry, however we also know that there is a decline in girls studying STEM subjects. As the mantra says, ‘you can’t be what you can’t see (Marian Wright Edelman)’, so the Wavemakers campaign is working to raise visibility where ever possible, and particularly in schools.
Our Wavemaker comic book tells the stories of these 12 women, demonstrating real life scenarios with real subsea technologies. If you’re interested in a copy of this book, you can pre-order here, and at the same time you’ll be donating an additional copy to an Australian school library to help inspire Wavemakers of the future to continue to #PressforProgress.
TOP FIVE TIPS TO BUILD MEANINGFUL NETWORKS
Recently, the WISE development team hosted a session addressing one of the most important skills we as professionals need to develop to achieve success in their careers, networking. Networking is often daunting, however it’s incredibly important for both professional achievement and satisfaction. The session was led by Ron Gibson, who is a leader in business and career networking. Ron provided the group with valuable advice on how to build honest, lasting and generous relationships.
According to Ron skills, experience and knowledge account for just 50% of our professional success. Networks, friends and relationships make up the balance – failure to nurture theses really is detrimental to our careers in the long term.
An interesting exercise we all participated in (and you can do right now) was to go through our contacts in our mobile phones. How many of them are honest relationships who might provide us professional or personal growth opportunities? How many of them can we provide growth opportunities to? Do we really maintain an active relationship with them? Perhaps some of our contacts have ‘dropped off’ because we get busy, we don’t keep in touch and life goes on. Unfortunately, this leads to a loss of potential opportunities for us professionally and personally that might come from those contacts where we’re just not front of mind anymore.
Ron gave us some great tips we can all use to help keep our networks growing, and more importantly, thriving. The top five tips for building honest relationships and nurturing our networks include:
1. Always have something to invite people to.
By giving we provide effective relationships, we provide value. It is important to invite someone who might be benefited from a special event, conference, development session, etc. The more you give, the more you receive. Simple.
2. Always have something to send them.
For example, emails, podcasts, videos or invitations. This will feed the relationship and keep relationships alive. You’ll continue to be front of mind. Again, the psychology of giving brings a higher level of engagement and learning.
3. Introduce people to each other.
By bringing people together they are likely to benefit mutually from a new relationship. Networking is inevitably reciprocal, and by taking the initiative to start this happening, we are much more likely to expand our own professional networks.
4. When we are networking and it’s not going as expected, then we are not always giving or helping in a meaningful way.
Take time to identify those who are uncomfortable. Networking is often overwhelming so spending a few minutes chatting to someone is a meaningful way to contribute.
5. Be genuine.
Establish meaningful conversations in which both parties enjoy and feel comfortable. In a room full of professional at a networking function, there is always some common topic of conversation. The speaker, the venue, follow up events, etc. are all fairly safe areas. It’s also important to remember some detail about contacts (when you can, although granted we’re not all human filing systems!), their football team, or holiday destination, an interesting project they’ve been working on for example. We should recognise networking as a process, and something we need to continue to work on. The more time and energy we invest in constructing a relationship, the more meaningful and mutually valuable it will be.
Networking is a continuous process, and the moment we stop investing our time and energy into it is the moment it starts to deteriorate. We need to keep meeting people and establish new relationships, while continuing to nurture and develop those we have. Get involved with organisations, accept leadership positions, write blogs, give speeches, and actively do the things which lead to a wider network.
