Profile: Experienced Professional

Ian

Senior Cost Engineer / Senior Quantity Surveyor

Altrincham

Please describe an ‘average’ day in your current job.

I am currently on a five month assignment in Europort, Rotterdam, Netherlands working on Kuwait Petroleum’s oil refinery. We are in the second week of a five week turnaround. A turnaround is like a service on a car, only a lot bigger. This turnaround is expected to top 18 million Euros. Most days we walk the plants with our contractors checking what is completed. I have a German contractor called M.C.E. who are overhauling all the valves and drums on site. I also look after a piping project called Tetris which is being built by Deutsche Babcock, also German.

What do you like most about your role?

Being on a busy site with hundreds of tradesmen going about their business. Every day is different. I am responsible for producing cost reports for three contracts on a daily basis for the turnaround manager. I enjoy the quantity surveying aspect as we are expected to agree all extra works on a daily basis with the contractors.

What qualifications do you have?

ONC in Mechanical and Production Engineering. I have thirteen years’ experience in quantity surveying with a mechanical contractor.

What got you interested in your specialist field?

Engineering mainly. My father was an Engineer with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in the army and my interest followed from him. I found I had an aptitude for the commercial side of engineering. I find that shutdown work keeps you on your toes and is very rewarding when the refinery goes back to producing fuel on time and within budget.

What interesting projects have you been involved in while at Faithful+Gould?

I have had a three year spell at BNFL with a year spent on site at Sellafield. I was involved in several projects including zinc bromide removal and Separation Area Rollback where the footprint of the live areas on site were reduced, saving millions of pounds in rates charges. I worked for several years at Shell Stanlow and Shellhaven Essex sites. I was a cost engineer for shutdowns that were part of the Shell 5 year plan. The block 1 shutdown was my biggest shutdown with all eight production units down at once. This successful £24.4 million shutdown was completed in five weeks. While working on European Vinyls Corporation (EVC) sites at ICI Merseyside and Fleetwood, I completed several shutdowns and a VC4 plant demolition project. At EVC I was controlling term maintenance, shutdowns and project work.