Reaching for the Stars

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 3)

ReachingForStars

The biggest challenge
in Brazil has been finding enough talent to fulfill the growing need for deepwater drilling and associated technical expertise.

It’s a great challenge to have when it comes to all of the employment and development opportunities that exist in the region.

“When new employees first come to the training center in Brazil, everybody’s told that the sky is the limit,” said Adriana Souza, SAM HR Manager. “You make your way up, but the company gives you the training, experience and opportunity you need to succeed and reach your very highest potential.”

But with highly experienced people hard to come by, Transocean rigs are full of “orange hats” (newcomers) that, naturally, have to get familiar with rig operations.

“You have a learning curve where people are going to make mistakes and there are costs associated with that,” said Alberto. “You see history repeat itself. It’s like new faces in an old movie.”

That’s where the Macaé Training Center, located about three hours north of Rio - comes in. With currently more than 100 employees being trained per week and an employee population that’s grown 80 percent over the past year, Brazil’s little training center is busting at the seams - and plans are currently being evaluated to potentially provide a major expansion and upgrade. When it’s all said and done the training facility, led by Fernanda Azevedo, would be on par with Transocean’s key training locations in Aberdeen, Houston and Singapore.

Training center classes are supported with constant training out on the rigs. Adriano Pereira, Roustabout on the Sedco 710, says that it’s this culture of education that allows employees to advance their careers.

“Transocean is a company that offers various opportunities,” he said. “You may start as a roustabout and grow up to OIM or also you can move to another department.”

Hugh Barroll, OIM on the Sedco 707 (as of press time Hugh had transferred to the Deepwater Discovery), says that although it’s a challenge to have many new people, there’s an upside as well.

“We can easily train the people who are just starting out on deck, and in fact it’s nice when we do get fresh faces because we can train them the way we want to. They don’t have any bad habits.”

The training Transocean offers is top quality. So good, in fact, that it poses another problem. Other companies want our people! The company combats this industry poaching by showing people that they work for a company with strong values that “walks the talk.”

RolandoBarbosa

Rolando Barbosa, a Roustabout on the Sedco 706, has spent 18 months in training to become an RSTC on the rig. He’s part of a unique program the Brazil training center developed to train up RSTCs. Modeled after the Accelerated Rig Training (ART) Program, participants go thorough a specific set of tasks, such as learning how to present safety statistics, to become qualified for an RSTC role.

So now, in addition to Rolando’s regular duties on the 706, he takes English lessons and works with one of the RSTCs every day on his shift to learn what he needs to know to perform the position. He’s supported along the way by many co-workers who want to ensure he moves up and achieves his career goals with Tranoscean.

“That’s the way it has to go,” said Phillip De Rousselle, RSTC on the rig. “I know I’ll train him and move on, and then he’ll turn around and bring up the next guy. It’s the circle of life.”

“Transocean is different than other companies,” said Alberto. “For instance, when we say that you are in power to shut down an operation, we really mean that. It’s the walk the talk concept, and we see a lot of people who leave the company who end up coming right back because of it.”

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