#BUMOOC

My Company got a Mechanical Contract with the biggest oil firm in my Country to repair a licking 12’’ crude oil delivery Pipeline. As the Human Resource Manager/Head of Administration, my task requires me to plan for the execution of the entire project from start to finish: ranging from mobilization of equipment and Personnel to demobilization of same.

FIRST: We carried out site visit assessment during which it was discovered that the site can only be assessed through the sea, which required the use of vehicles, barges and boats. I made arrangement for the vehicles that will convey the equipment and Personnel to the waterfront. I made arrangement also for the barge that will convey the equipment to the work site through the sea and a twin-engine Personnel boat to convey Personnel to the site. On the day of mobilization, all equipment and Personnel were effectively mobilized from office to waterfront and materials were also loaded into the barge. As I stood at the waterfront watching the Personnel boat and the barge carrying equipment worth thousands of dollars sail on, I prayed that no sea pirate would come close to them, not a boat mishap nor even a force-majeure to disrupt our operations thereby, causing any form of delay because our client gave us 7 days but we plan the work for 5 day to enable us make more profit. It was an hour sail from the waterfront to the work site. This very project was successfully executed as planned. Then, on the day of demobilization, my client called to inform me of an emergency crude oil spill at a nearby location. I called the project engineer and instructed him to sail to the new project site immediately but first, he had to wait for the Military escort team to arrive with their boat because the new area was RED marked. The military escort team arrived on time though, but little did we know that the captain of their boat who of course is a military Personnel wasn’t well experienced. My Personnel, accompanied by the military escort, sailed towards the new site which was 40 minutes from the former. Mid way into the sea, there was a wave which caused the military escort boat to begin to sink. Now, all my personnel on-board had their life-saving jackets on, including 2 certified divers I had always put on standby for sea contracts but the military escort team had only 3 life saving jackets against 7 military personnel that were on-board the sinking boat. Immediately I got the information, I stopped the journey and I activated immediately the emergency safety procedure, and with of course the help of the divers, we were able to rescue  ALL personnel on-board the military escort sinking boat, and their firearms(GUNS) that were already sleeping at the bottom of the troubled sea. This rescue mission took about 2 hours and afterwards, the journey to the new site continued and was completed same day. Demobilization back to waterfront and to base(Cooperate Office) was same day and all a huge success. I actually got an award for excellence in planning and effective management from our client.

On what I did to set myself up for that successful performance was first, the knowledge of going along with the 2 divers on standby, immediately putting into action all life-saving rules as application to sea operations and most importantly, being at the top of the situation(taking charge without distraction or confusion). I belief that this was also achieved due to regular in-house training, and, Health, Safety and Environment training and regular work site experiences. The opportunity came for knowledge, skill, talent and ability to be put to test and I was available and made maximum use of it.