MEET OUR PEOPLE

OUR PEOPLE, OUR CULTURE

At Well-Safe Solutions, our people reflect our culture. Sharing their knowledge and lessons learned to provide a collaborative and open workplace. Over this series, we aim to take a look at some of our Operations Team, showcasing their skills and benefit to not only Well-Safe Solutions but our industry as a whole.

First up we meet Louis Duncan, Rig Manager at Well-Safe Solutions. With an incredible track record in the industry, Louis joined the team with a wealth of knowledge getting stuck in straight away. Seeing the Well-Safe Guardian through its ambitious upgrade schedule and the Well-Safe Protector through a similar schedule Louis has been instrumental in delivering our rig readiness programmes and continues to lead the team as the rigs prepare to head out to work later this year.

Louis Duncan

Louis joined the Well-Safe team in May 2019 as Rig Manager. His passion for the job and his can-do attitude drive forward our vision of an open, collaborative workplace on our assets with safety at the forefront of all operations. Take a read to find out more about Louis’ journey in the Oil & Gas sector and his time here at Well-Safe:

How long have you been in the industry, and what made you pick a career in Oil & Gas?

I have worked in the industry for over 35 years, starting as a Roustabout on the Glomar Moray Firth jack-up, June 1985. Nearly 25 years later, following the roles in the drilling route, I worked my way up to Rig Manager.

With experience in Russia, Asia, Europe and West Africa, including; Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Denmark, Holland, Greece, Angola, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo and Nigeria – I’ve seen my fair share of travel, and that’s only naming a few!

The draw for me was career development and the work schedule. Four weeks off at a time to spend with family and friends and four weeks of concentrated work to focus on the job worked well for me!

How do your previous work experiences help you at Well-Safe Solutions?

Managing a rig is a lot to do with managing and working with people. Spending time overseas with many crews across the globe gives you the patience and communication skills to bring a group of people together to work towards the same end goal.

Having a crew who just want to do the right thing and improve the way things are done is essential in a P&A environment. That’s why on our assets at Well-Safe, I believe the crew’s input has been vital to getting jobs done efficiently and effectively – every person is important.

Since joining Well-Safe, what has been your biggest challenge and achievement? 

Without question, the biggest challenge amid a global pandemic was laying people off without the ability to do that face-to-face. Having that human aspect is hugely important for me when people have committed themselves to work for you. As we come out the other side of this pandemic, it has been great to bring those people back into the team, the first chance we had.

A lesser challenge has been time management, building the competency system, crewing the positions and helping blend personnel from many different companies to buy into the Well-Safe way. I am immensely proud of the culture we have built onboard our assets, with a team of people who care about what they do and bring great ideas to the table every day. I am excited to see that culture continue to grow as we crew up ahead of operations.

A big highlight for me is seeing the collaboration between our units. The crews talk to one another daily and pass on potential learning points and potential hazards. This, for me, is hugely important as it continues our growth of an open working environment and builds our lessons learned knowledge base – one of Well-Safe’s key promises.

How is Well-Safe different for you, from other companies out there?

The obvious one is, Well-Safe are not a drilling rig company. With the focus on P&A, it comes with a different mindset to standard drilling. There is no pot of gold at the end of a P&A project, so efficiencies and cost savings have to be the main focus for our clients.

What has been your biggest career highlight?

There is not one single highlight for me, more a collection! My career has seen me work all over the world, working with fantastic people, overcoming many challenging situations. But, without a doubt, working through those challenges has given me the biggest job satisfaction!

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