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the time it took to develop them and reduce the cost as well.”

It was an aggressive program. Even the process to formu- late this idea was quick– just six weeks working day and night.

Subsea processing technologies, collaboration, networking and bringing people together, but always with a commer- cial eye, have been themes throughout Davies’ career – and maybe not quite the outcome he would have had if he’d taken his initial career choice as a weapons engineer in the

Royal Navy.

Davies was born in Gibraltar and brought up in Malta in a military family: his father was in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.

After being steered away from a career in the forces, he went for a degree in chemical engineering at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.

Heriot-Watt is well-connected within the industry and had an Institute of Offshore Engineering, where Davies ? rst worked upon graduation. This job resulted in numerous connections with the Norwegian industry, but also in Davies helping to set up a water treatment and test facility for Conoco next to Occidental’s Flotta terminal, Orkney. Water treatment was a hot topic at the time, so the project also spawned vari- ous joint industry projects.

The job saw Davies living in Kirkwall, on the Orkney main- land and commuting to work by boat.

But, in 1993, after meeting his future wife, a Norwegian, he moved to Norway, and not long after, he joined Kvaerner

OUR EFFICIENCY

Process Systems Group, overseeing technology development. “I was very lucky there,” he says. “When Aker Solutions and

Kvaerner converged, I ended up coordinating technology

YOUR SAVINGS across those two.” When Davies joined Kvaerner, the seeds of subsea separation and boosting were being sewn. It was an early contact with subsea processing that has kept Davies interested in the ? eld ever since.

At Aker Kvaerner, Davies helped connect the dots, run- ning the technology network within the organization, looking after license agreements, lifting the focus on IP and trademarks.

The next stop was Norsk Hydro, joining a research center in Porsgrunn, Norway, looking at a range of technologies, cul-

Simon Davies. Photo from Statoil. minating in manager for Arctic technologies. However, when

The innovatorin buoyancy,

Hydro merged with Statoil, the Arctic team was split-up and insulation and elastomer products

Davies moved to Shell Technology in Oslo.

Our highly e?cient manufacturing facility is

But, it wasn’t long before Davies was back at Statoil, joining designed to maximise production and minimise in 2009 as a project leader in the subsea and marine technol- interruption – whether your requirement is for day to day buoyancy products or a complex ogy organization. He currently works as a project manager in deepwater hybrid buoyancy/insulation system.

the technology ef? ciency organization.

Customer feedback informs us that we are cost e?ective, resourceful and collaborative. We o?er

For Davies, it’s all about new ideas and working with oth- accredited products, full in-house hydrostatic ers. “Technology is about collaboration. Much of our focus testing, security and stability; as a privately owned company we’re here for the long term.

at the moment is to use technologies that help us save time

Improve your returns by specifying turnkey services and money in Statoil, but it is also important for the suppli- from the industry’s most e?cient provider of buoyancy, insulation and elastomer products.

ers that we work with to have their investment turned into income.”

Technology development and implementation can take

Stand Y28a time. “We have to stay focused on technology development, but we also have to work on the business case for it,” Davies says. “A good business case means that it is worth managing www.balmoralo?shore.com the risk of deploying something different that hasn’t been tried before.” oedigital.com September 2016 | OE 63 062_OE0916_Spotlight.indd 63 8/24/16 2:25 PM