OUR GREAT MINDS

    by Rick Tiller

    Hebron

    The Next Great Opportunity For Consulting Engineers

    Rick Tiller, president and CEO of St. John’s, Newfoundland-based, Tiller Engineering Inc., has proudly been involved in Newfoundland and Labrador’s oil and gas sector since its ­inception and has seen the opportunities for consulting ­engineers evolve over the years.

    “The nature of the opportunities has changed as the industry has ­matured,” says ­Tiller, ­“Consulting engineers have played an ­important role and this will continue.” As a ­junior structural engineer in 1994, Tiller ­recalls that “the engineering community wasn’t ­really ready” when the offshore industry first began. Some groups were smart enough to make alliances in advance—most stood by and watched.”

    When the Terra Nova project began to ramp up in mid-1997, Petro-­Canada decided to build Canada’s first East Coast floating ­production storage and offloading (FPSO). Brown and Root completed much of the ­engineering work in Leatherhead in the U.K. Approximately 30 ­Newfoundland and ­Labrador engineers who had worked on Hibernia were recruited to the U.K. to work on the project in order to facilitate technology transfer.

    “The local consulting community was ­disappointed,” Tiller says. “It was good for Rick Tiller and the others who went over there, but it wasn’t good for the local consulting industry. There was very strong ­opposition. Leatherhead was a bad word.” However, he notes, many of the ­engineers who were in the U.K. went on to become ­industry leaders in the ­Newfoundland oil and gas industry afterwards.

    At that time, the local business community and the province vowed that the engineering work on all future offshore projects would be ­performed locally in Newfoundland and Labrador. When Husky ­Energy’s White Rose project began to ramp up in 2002, a green ­engineering office was set up in St. John’s, and Tiller recalls that ­approximately one-third of the engineers hired were Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. Tiller was instrumental in establishing a local firm to provide technical staff for the offshore industry during this period.

    Now that the Hebron project is started, Tiller says the opportunity is for niche independent consulting engineering firms such as ­Tiller ­Engineering Inc. to apply specialized resources to support the teams of international vendors and national firms that are bidding on work. He adds that “the local consulting engineering firms that will ­succeed are the ones that are specialized, adaptable, and are willing to ­collaborate with other firms or as partners in EPC joint ventures.” ­Tiller says, “The ­consulting engineering firms that will thrive are the ones that are ­adaptable high performance firms open to collaboration with ­similar-minded partners to deliver efficient, cost-effective projects for the client. Tiller Engineering’s strategic plan involves the ­development of a Newfoundland and Labrador engineering consulting firm that is here now for meaningful participation, but is more importantly here for the long term offering local support and solutions.”

    Rick Tiller

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