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Ichthys Innovation, Scale All Par For The Course For Serceau
As a Frenchman heading up a landmark innovative project of a Japanese company in Australia, INPEX's Ichthys project Managing Director Antoine Serceau has a unique perspective on the challenges of progressing a large-scale project in a multicultural environment.
Serceau, born in the wine-making mecca of Bordeaux in the south of France, has been involved in some of the largest and innovative major projects in the world, yet he says that Ichthys is something altogether different.
In an exclusive interview with PESA News Resources, Serceau outlined how, through his experience with Elf and INPEX's Ichthys joint venture partner Total E&P, he sees unique challenges and benefits for the LNG industry in his latest project.
While Serceau graduated in Engineering from the Institut Catholique des Arts et Métiers in Lille in 1973, his interest in mechanics started much earlier. His parents told him that when he was a young boy he liked collecting clocks, taking them apart and putting them back together again, swapping the clocks' parts. He was also quite fond of the famed Meccano model kit which enabled inquisitive and adventurous young minds to build things like cars, trucks, boats and cranes.
It seemed a natural fit, then, when he took up a position as a pipeline engineer with OTP in Paris before joining Elf as an engineer in the E&P Division's Congo Projects group. He then held various engineering management positions on major projects in Norway, Gabon and the Netherlands.
Upon joining Elf he worked for five years on the Heimdal project - one of the company's biggest projects which, "from a technical point of view, was quite challenging", Serceau recalled. It entailed a significant offshore lifting operation which required some unique engineering for the platform as it involved the heaviest tandem lift at the time – in the range of 4000 t, "which is peanuts these days", he said.
He was involved at the very heart of this project, having drawn up the first sketch of the platform and was there for its start-up five years later, which he said was very satisfying and rewarding. The platform had six modules, each of which was nearly self-sufficient.
This was in the days before 3D modelling with computers in the conceptual phase, so the engineers created a sizable model as the real one was being built, "checking that there was no interference or anything wrong". How times have changed. Today, the only model created is a tiny one that's "nice to put in the entrance of the office so you can show people", he said.
"Back then, people were still drafting models with pencils. Now, when you go into an engineering office, there are no drafting boards, only computers", he said. "That was one of my first projects. Since then they have become more complicated."
A posting to Elf's E&P centre in Pau, France as Projects Department Manager preceded a move back to Norway as Project Director of the company's Froy project.
Then, from 1997 to 2002, his operational career was crowned by appointment as Project Director for the showcase Girassol deep water offshore development project, 150 km off the Angola coast. Total's merger with Elf was going through at the same time.
The Girassol project was unique on a number of fronts. Its reservoirs, 1000–1300 m below the seabed, are the product of a highly unusual geological history, formed by the accumulation of enormous amounts of sediment that were rich in organic matter, swept along to the mouth of the Congo River. Forced down to the ocean floor during gigantic avalanches, the sediment was deposited there and driven ever deeper over the millennia.
Total E&P's website describes the mammoth challenge of the project thus: "After appraising the immense field's potential, Total took on the challenge of developing it. Just three-and-a-half years later - a veritable tour de force given the host of technical challenges met in order to manage this extreme production configuration - Girassol produced first oil." This is a testament to Serceau.
The largest ever deep water offshore development at the time, Girassol was hailed as a major event by the oil industry, which recognised Total's technological expertise on the project with an OTC award in 2003.
At such depths, all production equipment, controlled remotely from the surface, had to be designed specifically for the subsea environment to remain on the seabed throughout the field's life of 20 years or more.
Protecting production across the thousands of metres it travels in subsea lines from the extreme cold (4°C) and pressure (140 bar) prevailing at the bottom of the ocean was also a challenge, mainly because plugs of ice [hydrates] could form, paralysing the system. Girassol's R&D met these and other challenges through a number of technological innovations – all of which Serceau oversaw.
Despite all this experience, the Ichthys project is another step up.
"Ichthys is one of the biggest investments Total has ever had; INPEX as well. There are not so many of these kinds of projects. It's much more complicated than the others", Serceau said.
"The project team size is about 1500 people, where as usually you work with 2–300 people. You have to get all those people having the same mindset and the same objective. That's the challenge. You're in a new size of project which is very different from the usual size.
"The difference with Ichthys compared to Girassol or Heimdal is that in Ichthys you have three projects in one: there is the offshore component, which includes two floating structures which are huge, the subsea wells, risers, flowline etc; the 890 km pipeline; and thirdly there is the onshore component. In total, you have a substantial amount of capital investment - $34 B.
"I know that, for myself, I've never had a project of such a size."
Needless to say, managability becomes a challenge. He calculated that it will entail some 150 MM man hours, which presents a safety challenge all of its own.
"OGP [the international association of Oil and Gas Producers] says that for 100 MM man hours you'll have three fatalities, statistically. We recently had a session dedicated to safety with all our contractors", he said. "Our question to them was 'can we accept three or four fatalities?'
The answer, of course, was no. "Safety is very important for us, especially in this regard and we know we have to do things differently to ensure we will not have any fatality in the course of the project. This is one of the major challenges", he added.
To successfully manage the project, INPEX and Total have divided the Ichthys project into onshore and offshore components [the pipeline is included in the offshore], with a project director for each and a Managing Director at the top, accountable for the overall project - Serceau.
"By dividing them into onshore and offshore components, and again into packages, we can keep the project under control", Serceau said.
Other LNG projects in the region competing for the same talent is also a major challenge, but one that INPEX and Total are finding is driving local industry forward in the pursuit of taking part in such a landmark project.
"We first started to have an eye on the challenge resource availability when we commenced our bidding process, looking at things like 'do we have space in the fabrication facilities?' and 'will the people be interested in our project?' So far, they have been very, very interested in our project, so they have been competing very fiercely", Serceau said.
"With so many LNG projects competing for the same skills, you have to be attractive as a project - and I think Ichthys is pretty attractive. We have a project that is interesting and challenging, with various cultures - Japanese, French and Australian. From what we see so far, the life in Ichthys is quite agreeable as we have had good feedback that people are enthusiastic to come and join us."
Life on Ichthys is "agreeable", he said, due to the very fact that it's multicultural, because of the management of the company and because of the scope of the project itself.
"When you listen to the talk around our industry, it's known that we have a project people like to be involved with. We are clearly one of the well-known ones now. The way a project is managed has a direct influence on the perception and the appreciation of the project team. And management has obviously a significant influence on the kind of reputation the project is getting. Having said that, we are just at the start of building up the team", he said.
Onshore, the technology used – two 4.2 MM tpa trains - is quite standard for LNG projects today. What is unusual onshore is the issue of using combine cycle power plants.
"Usually in the LNG industry you have gas turbines. Here, we have something which is more efficient from an energy point of view, and having less CO2 emissions, but is more complicated. Having said that, when you discuss the complexity of this with the guy in charge of that he will tell you 'no, that's very simple'. The only problem is just to start it, then it's all downhill from there", Serceau said.
The main challenges, however, are offshore.
The central processing facility (CPF) will be the biggest of its kind, though one of BP's in the Gulf of Mexico comes close.
The project also lies in a cyclone zone, so there is a particular engineering challenge building the offshore semi-submersible platform and the FPSO to withstand cyclones, as they must to remain there during the cyclone and the people are meant to stay on board.
"It will be tough. It also needs a 40-year design life - twice the usual 20 years", he said.
As a mechanical engineer, Serceau can see how engineers see all this as a great challenge to conquer, and this factor is manifesting itself throughout the project.
"Everybody within the team takes ownership and accountability - that's how you can get people wanting to come into the project, because they know they will be given great responsibility; they know they will be rewarded, so all that helps people to like working on the project", he said.
The design of these systems also takes the future into account. For example, future fields can be connected into the pipeline as there are numerous tapping points, and in the middle of the pipeline there is the possibility of installing a pressure platform if there is a need to expand the capacity of the pipeline.
For the onshore component, there is also the space for two or even four additional trains, which would bring the production up to a whopping 24 MM tpa.
The challenges of gaining the human resources to make all this happen is not unique to Ichthys or to Australia.
"In the various projects in which I've been working, local content has been on the table as an important issue for the project partners to address. We worked to create yards in Angola using Angolan firms, which at the time had the added challenge because it was still in a civil war. So we [Total] are used to taking these things into account in our strategy and execution", Serceau said.
"Australia is far different from a developing country, and we are working very hard at having a very good look at local content. First we looked at ICN (the Industry Capability Network), which encourages local contractors to register and we look into them: we call them, check if they are able to do it and can meet the requirements, then they are included in the call for tender.
"As a result, if we look at what we have achieved so far, on the onshore we have the civil works, accommodation village and the jetty being built by companies like John Holland and McMahon's, Laing O'Rourke. Recently we awarded a contract to McDermott for the subsea EPC contract. McDermott just signed a contract with Australian company Intecsea, which will perform the engineering of the flowlines and risers and Clough Doris has been awarded a project management contract to help us staff the management team."
Sometimes, however, local content just doesn't work out, despite the best of intentions and actions from Ichthys management at the highest levels.
"We definitely take into account the local content. On the other hand, it's very well known that a semi-submersible will not be built in Australia. There are only three yards who can build it – in Korea – there is no way to motivate an Australian contractor to build a yard to be able to build a semi-submersible", Serceau said.
"We use and give all the opportunities to the local contractors and we continue to in the onshore project. We have tried to get modules locally. With some of them, there is simply no yard that can cater for that. A small part of the plant could have been built in Australian yards, but most of them declined because they didn't want to spend money competing with other yards, as they knew they will be substantially more expensive.
"I involve myself in some of those call for tenders to ensure that local contractors are given opportunities. Despite that, we didn't manage to get any modules built in Australia."
Serceau said that, in the long term, the best opportunities for the contractors lie on the operations side, where Ichthys will need contractors all throughout the life of the field – to make modifications and to carry out maintenance.
All this keeps Serceau very busy. Then again, he has always been one to heavily weigh his work-life balance towards the work side because he loves his work so much. It's a good thing he has such an understanding wife, who flies back and forth from France, spending months at a time there to spend time with their grandson in Paris.
"My work life balance is not really balanced", he related. "If you ask my wife she would definitely say it's not balanced at all. It definitely leans towards the job", he said.
"I never went to work on a day thinking I don't want to ... every day, from the start of my career to now, I've been very pleased with the job I had, and that's not just because I have to say it. It's my belief.
"Before coming to Perth, I was in charge of all Total's projects and recruitment of young engineers and I told them 'you are very lucky - you have chosen, and you have been chosen, to join the oil industry. You have a superb opportunity, you have a fascinating job, you can really take pleasure in your job, and if you stop taking pleasure in working, well, change your job."
When he does manage to tear himself away from his work, he likes to play golf, leaving his other passion – sailing – back in France. He still owns a sailing boat in Arcachon in the southwest of France.
In a conscious effort to immerse himself in Australian culture, he stays away from French wines, which is tough having been born in Bordeaux in a very well-known place called Pessac-Léognan, "so it is quite challenging for me when I'm asked what I think of Australian wine ... my first answer is 'I'm learning'", he stated, smiling broadly.
"I never drink any French wine now - not because it's expensive: Australian wine is tremendously expensive when I compare the wine I can get in France for the same price. So I've started learning. I started experiencing Shiraz, which I have tasted a few times and it's too strong for me, so I don't drink it any more. I've experienced some good Cabernet Sauvignon, but I've not found it to my taste on a regular basis", was his diplomatic response to what he thinks of Australian wines.
"I'm very fond of Pinot Noir from Tasmania. That's quite nice. I drink it regularly. There is some similarity with the Vin de Bourgogne, it tastes quite similar. However, I do prefer French champagne."
He hasn't made the trek to Perth's Swan Valley yet, but has seen Margaret River – just not its vineyards.
While he still reminisces about the good French wines he misses, he manages to distract himself from such things as English is the working language of the Ichthys project.
He admitted that, despite his considerable experience on major, innovative major projects with Elf and Total, he had his hesitations and self-doubts when asked to head up Ichthys.
"You ask yourself 'will I manage', because my last project in Africa was 2001. Since then I have been working on overlooking all Total's projects, so that was not exactly 'hands on the steering wheel'. So when I came to Australia, it was with some apprehension", he said.
However, with the camaraderie of those involved in the Ichthys project and the various nationalities working as one cohesive unit, it's just like the good old days.
