For Drilling Engineer Matt, a day on the rig as a summer intern ten years ago was all it took to carve out a career in drilling.
“Before working at Todd, I studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Auckland. In my third year, I secured a summer internship with Todd’s Asset Integrity team based out at the McKee Mangahewa Production Station (MMPS).
“During my internship, Todd was drilling at its Mangahewa C site, and I was fortunate to spend the day on the rig, shadowing the drilling supervisor. At this point I knew I wanted a career in the industry, specifically in drilling, so I contacted the drilling manager at the time and arranged to come back to Todd during the shorter spring break to spend a couple of weeks with the drilling team.
“After that, I secured a graduate position – I think I was Todd’s second graduate engineer ever – and went through the graduate rotations, where your first 2-3 years with the company is spent working across the different departments.
These days, Matt’s day starts a little differently than it did when he was an intern.
“A day in the life of a Drilling Engineer starts with a juicy piece of steak for breakfast, cooked to perfection on the sandwich press in the kitchen (no joke!).
“I attend the morning call to the rig about 8am and, after that, it’s time to send out the morning report from the previous day’s activity and track the progress of the well compared to plan. Then it’s about preparing torque, drag and hydraulics models for the next section of the current well and preparing all the engineering for the next well, making sure you have all the required equipment to construct the well and ensuring that the rig and its equipment will actually be able to drill the well.
For Matt, there have been lots of career highlights.
“It’s really satisfying when something you’ve worked on has a measurable impact – sometimes it’s very significant financially, too!
“There are always problems to solve which means you’re constantly challenged and constantly coming up with solutions collaboratively alongside a team of really talented people.
“That’s what I like most about Todd – working with high calibre people with similar interests. It feels like you are working with friends, so there is clearly a very careful selection process during recruitment!”
Outside of work, Matt enjoys keeping active and being outdoors.
“I enjoy skiing, mountain biking and I’m learning how to windsurf. I started ocean sailing a few years ago and, later this year, I will be sailing from Sydney (Australia) to the Bay of Islands.
And what gets him out of bed in the morning?
“A cup of pineapple-flavoured pre-workout and a hard Crossfit session!”
16/11/2022