Andy Powell

Hello, my name is Andy Powell and I work as an offshore geologist. I'm currently based in Norwich, in England. England.

So, my job is split really between two things.

So, part of my job is to work offshore, which I mainly work on drill ships or drill rigs all over the world, from off the coast of South America, off the coast of Africa, to closer to home in the North Sea.

And then the other part of my job is to work in the office when I come back and we have to do paperwork and compile reports and other such things.

A typical day in the office would be sort of arriving, talking with colleagues, sort of learning what jobs are coming up next and everyone's trying to sort of get on the most glamorous jobs. Sort of doing a sort of liaising with colleagues.

So visiting the operators and the engineers in the workshop, looking at the equipment, looking at the drilling equipment, making sure everything's working for a job that's coming up, checking equipment, but also looking through client expectations, client data, and just making sure that we are able to deliver what they require.

Because once we get on offshore and we've mobilized the vessel or the rig, it's very difficult then to get additional things and things like that. So just everything has to be perfect before we set sail.

So it depends really job by job. On projects there's two different aspects.

So there's the marine crew that run the vessel, the rig, and those guys from all over the world, many Russian, Russian gentlemen, some ladies work on these boats as well. Lots of people from the Philippines, from Thailand, so all over the world.

And these guys run the vessel. They make sure that we are able to do our work. Make sure the vessel's on station, make sure everything's stable. And they're in overall control of the ships or the rig.

And then there's the project crew, and we're there to deliver what the client is asking for. So I often work, depending on projects, I'll work with other geologists. I'll work with geotechnical engineers, work with surveyors, work with geophysicists who are there to sort of scan the seabed checking for any obstacles or anything like that.

Also with environmental scientists because often on these jobs we are looking at the seabed, looking to see what's in the seabed, looking at marine life and making sure that it's safe and we're not interfering with any whales or any migrations, so these guys are on board as well.

So there's a vast array of people on board really and it's quite an exciting sort of environment.

The best thing about my job is the traveling. I love to travel to these places.

You wouldn't go on holiday to these places, some of them. Places like the Congo, Liberia, Mozambique, Ghana. You know, places in South America like Chile, you know, we've got jobs all over the place and visiting these places you might not typically visit is really exciting. Particularly, I love the African jobs, they're amazing.

That's the main thing, but also, you know, meeting people from around the world, all the colleagues that I work with, you know, I've made some really great friends and, you know, it's every job is different. That's what I like about it.

You know, I'm never in this, you know, it's not on the same rig all the time. So you're meeting new people all the time, new experiences, you know, weather conditions can throw up all sorts. We've had we've had tropical storms. We've had all sorts of business.

It's never, nothing's ever the same, which is what I like about it.

So, you know, when you're on shift, you work 12 hours and then have 12 hours off. The day shift is often when all the big bosses are around, it can be a bit more stressful on the day shift. The night shift, obviously, it begins at midnight and ends at midday.

So the hardest bit is having to change your normal schedule, and having to sort of... On board, you'd be on the vessels or rigs for two, three, four, up to six weeks. And so being on night shift for six weeks, if you're not used to it, can take its toll on you but you get used to it after a few days, it's not too bad.

Initially, when I was a kid, I always wanted to be a paleontologist. I was fascinated by fossils and dinosaurs 🦖 like most kids are when you're younger.

And as you got older, I sort of forgot about that a little bit. When I was doing my A levels, that sort of came back into the mix really. I was really interested in volcanoes at the time.

And so someone suggested, oh, why don't you study geology? And I thought, well, return to that. And so I went to university and studied geology, which was fantastic. I loved it. What's so amazing about it is it covers all aspects.

You know, it covers paleontology, you do bits on that, cover volcanoes, earthquakes, you know, all sorts of things. You know, once graduating, you know, I got a job, I applied to move up to Middlesborough to work as a drilling geologist or a graduate drilling geologist up in the Northeast.

We did a lot of drilling, you know, for sort of mine tailings, we did a lot of geotechnical stuff, particularly for foundations of buildings, analysing rock and soil. I did that for a few years and sort of all around the UK and Ireland.

And so I wanted to stay in that industry and I saw an advert for an offshore geologist job down in Great Yarmouth, which is how I ended up in Norfolk. And yeah, it's, you know, since I've been doing this job for a few years now and yeah, I just love it. It's, you know, it's nothing is the same every time.

So studying geology can take you in many different branches. There's loads of industries that this degree is useful in. It's a science.

And so, you know, it's a great stepping stone to build, even if you don't want to work in geology, but there's lots of opportunities worldwide, particularly at the moment in renewables, in the wind and wind industry, particularly in Britain, the wind industry is really taking off for foundations, for turbines, for pipelines.

But also worldwide. In Australia, the mining industry is still, you know, it can be being more bust at times, but there's still jobs available worldwide.

And, you know, with what's going on in the world and understanding the planet more, particularly with climate change, geology still has a relevance. So it's a great degree and a great career if you're interested in that.

I mean at school it's, you know, particularly for GCSEs, like many sort of teenagers at that time, you sort of forget about what your long-term goals are, don't you really, at times.

And, you know, I sort of...I sort of found my way a little bit later, I think, when I realised that I needed to do a bit of work.

So, you know, A levels, it's not the be-all and end-all. Well, lots of people think, oh, I need to study certain A levels to get to move into a certain career. And that's not necessarily always the case, you know. It's never too late.

And when I did my A levels initially, I did, you know, I did politics and history and things I was really interested at the time. I didn't initially study A level science.

And so that was obviously later on when I decided, actually, I want to pursue what I wanted to do a long time ago. I then had to go back and redo my chemistry and biology at A level. So, you know, it's never too late.

And when you're young, that's the opportunity to really just explore what you want, what you're interested in. Don't get tied down and bogged down into certain areas. Just go for it. And that's the main thing I would say.

I enjoyed school, but it's a means to an end. Particularly in certain industries, you need to study and you need that piece of paper. There's many apprenticeships around today and there's great opportunities in many sectors. Particularly the wind industry, there's some fantastic apprenticeships and I know many colleagues have moved into that sector.

But certain things, looking at geology, looking at volcanoes, earthquakes, you need to then study further. Many people go on to do a masters, go on to do a doctorate in those areas.

But yeah, it's never too late at school to decide what you want to do. You can always go back and do it again.

We were working off the coast of Mozambique in the Pemba channel which is just in between Madagascar and Mozambique and we're working on a drilling project there and there was delays for different reasons and we ended up on anchorage where the boat is sort of laid up on a sand bank and the captain of the vessel, was in overall control of the vessel at the time, called himself Captain Barbecue.

And so he said, right, we're going to, we're leaving the ship on anchorage with a skeleton crew and we're all going to the beach. So we were like, all right. And we got in this little... it's actually the rescue craft that you're meant to rescue people at sea in. It was doing shuttle runs to this beach. Anyway, we all got on this beach in Mozambique in the middle of nowhere.

And there was a bar there. They were doing African snail races, giant African snail racing. We all put in a few pounds on that. There was canoes and we all went kayaking in the mangroves and fishing off the beach. And it was just a fantastic day. It was something that you never forget.

You build really close bonds with the people you work with, you know. And so, you know, there is opportunities for things like that sometimes to occur when all the stars align.

I think that whatever you want to do in life you can do. You can achieve whatever you want. If you really want to do something, go for it.

You know, you might have to study hard and nothing comes free in this world. You need to work hard. Effort equals reward. And if you put in the effort, okay, and you work hard, you can get where you want to be.

And that's the thing, I think sometimes it's lost on children, that, you sort of get lost in sort of growing up and being a teenager what else.

But, you know, really it's never too late and you can do whatever you want if you really, really put your mind to it.