Baker Hughes Names Integrated Operations President

- Baker Hughes Names Integrated Operations President

Thursday, August 18, 2011
Baker Hughes Inc.

Baker Hughes announced that Darrell C. Howard has joined the company as President of the Integrated Operations organization. Howard joins Baker Hughes from VICO Indonesia, where he served as Vice President, Technical Support for the BP-Eni joint venture.

"Darrell's combination of technical expertise, project management capabilities, international business experience, and leadership qualities make him the ideal candidate to lead our integrated operations business," said Derek Mathieson, president of product lines and technology for Baker Hughes. "In this role, Darrell will apply his in-depth knowledge of the entire oil and gas asset lifecycle to expand Baker Hughes' position in the fast-growing integrated project management market. This is a critical business for our company and I look forward to working closely with Darrell to enhance Baker Hughes' top-tier integrated project management capabilities."

Howard joined Amoco Corp. following his graduation from the University of Colorado in 1978. During his career with Amoco he held a variety of drilling, completion, and production engineering and management roles. Howard has extensive international experience, including assignments where he worked closely with governments, national oil companies and third-party organizations in the United Kingdom, Norway, the Republic of Congo and Egypt. Immediately prior to his appointment with VICO Indonesia, he spent seven years in various roles with BP in Baku, Azerbaijan and with TNK-BP in Moscow, including Exploration Drilling Manager for the Shah Deniz Caspian gas project.

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ConOps Service Launched to Reduce Integrated Control System Risk

- ConOps Service Launched to Reduce Integrated Control System Risk

Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Rigzone Staff

Houston-based Athens Group, a provider of risk reduction services for control systems software on high-specification offshore assets, today unveiled its new Concept of Operations (ConOps) service.

Output from this service, a ConOps document, helps reduce integrated control system-related risks, such as non-productive time (NPT), health, safety and environmental incidents, from the very beginning of newbuild and refurbishment projects.

A ConOps document, or text document, defines from the owner's perspective performance, quality, health, safety and environmental (PQHSE) expectations; validation and verification requirements by project phase; and contractual requirements for the owner to sign by project phase.

Most offshore assets are now built or refurbished through turnkey, builder furnished equipment contracts. This procurement model makes it challenging for the asset owner to exercise the level of oversight and control needed to hold their vendors accountable for delivering a safe, reliable, and fit-for-purpose asset, the company said.

In Athens Group's recent industry survey, The State of NPT on High-Specification Offshore Assets: Third Annual Benchmarking Report, 89 percent of drilling contractors and operators identified the development of a software-specific risk mitigation plan as an opportunity the reduce NPT. Implementing a ConOps phase is the critical first step in mitigating software risk throughout the offset asset life-cycle, Athens Group said in a statement.

"Many of the project delays and much of the NPT we've seen could have been prevented if risk reduction planning had started earlier in the project life-cycle," said Athens Group CEO Mike Haney, noting that other industries that rely on large, one-of-a-kind systems integration projects have significantly reduced risk by starting each project with a Concept of Operations document.

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