Page 116: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Sep/Oct 2014)

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Pro? le Faces of the Industry Faces of the Industry Faces of the Industry

By Kelli Lauletta

This month’s Faces of the and remote diving bell and

Industry turns to the sub- “end effector” technology,

Featuring the best of advanced commercial diving sea sector. Over the course (the SPS was in a whopping of Brian Skeels’ illustrious

ALL THE ROCKSTARS 170ft of water off Grand Isle), career, he has notched a num- subsea pumping and level ber of ? rsts: ? rst producing separator processing, through guidelineless tree, ROV panel ? owline (TFL), pipeline pull development on trees, and in and connection techniques. the ? rst 10,000psi subsea tree

All of this was when subsea in the Gulf of Mexico. Skeels’ was still in its infancy (or tod- career has seen him playing dler stage). the roles of deepwater pioneer,

As luck would have it, an

EXPLORERS teacher, mentor, detective and engineer at FMC Technologies aspiring “renaissance man.” was transferring to Brazil to

AND GAMECHANGERS

He was hooked by the sea at be an in-house liaison with a very early age, and has an a licensee company that was

Driving our Industry, today.

innate curiosity in ? guring out building a reputation with how things work. Skeels never

Petrobras and the Houston

OIL

ONLINE looked back as he dove into a of? ce was looking for a

Connecting people with opportunity subsea career.

replacement engineer. I know most folks tend to go from a while I settled in on mechani- that I had seen on TV) to do ilOnline recently supplier or contractor to an cal engineering. the abandonment and removal

O While in college, I started sat down with Brian oil company along their career of the SPS. I’ve been living in seeing commercials from Exxon

Skeels, Director of Emerging path, and I was headed in the

Houston ever since.

launching their SPS template

Technologies at FMC other direction. It was a chance Were there any career in the Gulf of Mexico and won-

Technologies, at his home with to get back to my comfort turning points?

dering how cool it would be his rescue dog of ten years, zone with hands-on problem to apply mechanical engineer-

Pops, close by his side. Skeels’ I have had a bunch of twists solving, machine design, and ing to submarines and boats. face lit up as he talked about and turns along the way, offshore installation in a whole

This and a very depressed his entry into oil and gas, his both good and not so good. new offshore theater, Brazil, in job market awaiting me after career highs, and his take on My biggest break was going the Campos Basin.

Right away, the licensee graduation persuaded me to get what life has to offer and what offshore right off the bat. I company, CBV, and their a master’s degree. A fraternity he wants to offer back. was working with my hands, oil company benefactor, reading the newly minted text brother’s dad was a pharmacy

How did you get into

Petrobras took to me and my that the original SPS team was professor at the University of oil and gas? “crazy gringo” ideas to solve feverishly writing to preserve

Rhode Island (URI), and he

From an early age, I knew I all kinds of issues. Petrobras the technology they had persuaded me to take a road had an af? nity for science. was a “let’s do it” kind of wrought (led by Joe Burkhardt, trip from upstate New York to

In my adolescent years, my company. It turned out to be

Tom Childers, Bil Loth, Dan

Rhode Island to look around. family got into boating with Driving into Narragansett, a great motivator to me, never

Tidwell, Pat Rickey, and Al a second-hand cabin cruiser the Atlantic Ocean opened up wanting to let them down

Butler – to name but a few of that my dad refurbished. I before us at land’s end. I was for any reason until the job the pioneers of subsea). They built my ? rst Heathkit, a gas de? nitely hooked. The next was done and done right. My would sometime make surprise fume detector to make sure 2.5 years were spent getting an Brazilian connection pushed visits offshore to see how we the engine hold was clear ocean engineering degree at my career to the next level, neophytes were getting along and safe before starting the URI. Then along came Exxon. giving me to opportunity trying to dismantle all the engine. I was hooked with the I started at EPR and within a to work on several “? rsts” hardware they had put in. sea. From there, I cox’ed for week I was shipped off to New As it turned out, I was including the ? rst producing

Cornell’s rowing team to con- Orleans and started learning exposed to many more of the guidelineless tree, ROV panel tinue my stint with the water; about the SPS (the very thing pioneers that developed ROV development on trees, the ? rst

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