New job !

So I start my new job tomorrow, at Santos which is an Australian energy company. They mainly work in the oil and gas area at the moment, but are very focussed on the transition to green energy solutions. I don’t know how my Masters will align with the company, however they are well aware of my study and supportive generally. It feels like the right time to start work again, having this 6 months off has been great but I now need to get used to being back at work again, feeling part of professional life and re-affirming my identity as an engineer.

The job itself is supporting an ageing FPSO, that’s a Floating Production, Storage and Offloading facility. Basically it’s a big ship which takes the oil and gas from the seabed, processes it, then sends it off on other ships to various countries around the world who burn the gas to produce electricity, or turn the oil into petrol and similar products.

I’ve thought through the ethics of continuing to work in the fossil fuels industry. However, while our future has to be in the renewables space and with green forms of energy, there is a transition needed as the change in living standards to suddenly go green would not be sustainable or in any way acceptable to most of the world.

So I can do more good in the industry, assisting with the transition from fossil fuels. Also, all these oil and gas platforms and vessels need to be closed down safely and cleaned; that’s an area in which there is very valuable work to be done.

I went back to my post from 1 year ago, it’s here. Last year, I paddled to Zephyr’s which is around 9km, very tired and needed lots of breaks but happy to make the trip. Yesterday, after 6 months off work and with lots of time to exercise and rest, the paddle seemed relatively easy. I was very tired yesterday evening, but that might have been due to the serious weeding afternoon then going out for dinner.

While I am very happy to be going back to work, the next challenge is going to be balancing work 5 days a week, with rehab exercise, good food and enough rest. Some photographs from various places I’ve been, offshore in my industry, over the years. I didn’t think I’d get back offshore again.