André Derikx, Commercial Manager Pin Piles & Jacket Tubulars

You need to have a sense of impact every day, throughout your organization

At sea, everything is different; that’s something I have become very aware of since becoming a Commercial Manager for Offshore Steel Structures at Sif. The legs, piles, and pile sleeves that we supply for the jackets for production platforms and distribution stations need to satisfy the most stringent of requirements. And that’s a good thing. After all, when it comes to safety, there can be no compromises.

Johan Sverdrup

I’m currently working on the award of phase two of the Johan Sverdrup project in the Norwegian North Sea. This involves me talking to all stakeholders in the market so as to have a clear overview, thereby allowing us as a partner to respond accordingly. Phase one is currently being scaled down. This phase involved no fewer than four drilling platforms which, beginning in 2019, are expected to account for some 25% of Norway's oil production. They will be operated by Equinor, formerly known as Statoil.

I wasn’t actually involved at the start of phase one, but I have been told that the award was largely down to our reliability. Sif is known for its outstanding quality, reliability of delivery, and market-compliant conditions. These are the areas that the yards – the construction sites specializing in platforms – pay attention to. The stakes in large, complex projects like these are high – the tighter the planning, the more important your responsibility becomes. What looks like a minor deviation can have huge consequences for the overall chain, so you need to have a sense of impact every day, throughout your organization.

It’s an interesting area and I am grateful that I can play my part in it – not only for the offshore oil and gas fields but for the wider industry to which we supply jacket components, including wind energy, mooring piles, and suction anchors. Sif has identified plenty of opportunities for utilizing our expertise, people, and production capacity, even if oil and gas decline in importance for the world economy. We are easily accessible both in Roermond and at our strategic location at Maasvlakte 2 in the Port of Rotterdam, and we also have numerous options for storage for end customers and partners. Bring on the future; we are ready!

André Derikx studied mechanical engineering at The Eindhoven University of Technology and has worked as a Commercial Manager for Offshore Steel Structures at Sif since 2017. Before that, he worked as a Sales Manager at various companies, including Marel.

[email protected] / +31 (0)6 571 428 17