Reaching for the Stars 2

BRAZIL OPERATIONS
GALLERY: Transocean Driller in the shipyard

RESPONSIBILITY
GALLERY: 2009 Beach Cleanup in Galveston

AROUND RIG
GALLERY: Celebrating a Year of “Making a Difference”

Brazil. The Sky's the Limit (page 4)

Sedco707

Sedco 707

And the Brazil team works hard to ensure people are their focus – especially when it comes to nationalizing the workforce. Billy Stewart, Rig Manager, Performance, on the Deepwater Discovery, experienced this first-hand when many Brazilians were hired to staff the rig when it came into the region from West Africa.

“We hired something like 100 brand new guys to the industry and we’re now starting to promote them,” Billy said. “We’ve got Brazilian Assistant Drillers and we’ve got guys almost ready for drilling. We’re really pushing the nationalization.”

Arthur Russi, Rig Manager, Performance, on the GSF Arctic I, began his career with the company in 2001 participating in the REP development program. During the past eight years, he’s quickly progressed through the ranks and is quick to point out that work with Transocean is not just any job.

“This is more than work, it’s a lifestyle,” said Arthur. “The industry gets in your blood. Once you join and get involved in what we do, there’s no going back.”

This is supported by attention to the individual.

“When we say it’s all about people, it is,” said Ricardo Marinho, Sedco 707 Rig Manager Performance. “We make sure we maintain a harmony among teams, and see and understand each individual’s potential.”

Alberto credits Transocean for placing an importance on people’s personality types when it comes to that balance – and a resulting strong performance.

“I remember when we had the seminar where the guys spent three days talking about personalities in order to find out how people interact with each other and how these things really are connected,” he said. “This was the first time that I saw a company spend money to really understand their people. It showed me that when Transocean says it’s important to know your people, they mean it.”

In fact, in June 2009, Transocean management in Brazil instituted “no e-mail Wednesdays,” where no offshore supervisor is expected to check or send e-mails – but IS expected to be outside with their crews, teaching and getting to know their team.

“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care,” said Division QHSE Manager Marcio Martins, quoting an old saying. “Ensuring our people have competency in their tasks and developing them to their full potential requires our supervisors to know their people.”

The knowledge, experience and leadership provided by supervisors leads to the Brazil team’s most important responsibility, Guilherme says: Providing an incident-free workplace.

“The orange hats lack the experience and knowledge to identify hazards,” he said. “When it’s your first time on the rig, you have no idea. The only way to resolve this is to have the supervisors out there on deck.”

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