AGM and Members’ Dinner

5 December 2013 London, UK

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Report

The SUT held its AGM, annual awards ceremony and members’ dinner at the stunning location of the Trinity House, London (situated overlooking the Tower of London and River Thames) on 5 December 2013. The AGM began at 6.00 pm, followed by the annual SUT awards ceremony honouring those who have made exceptional contributions to underwater technology.

During the awards ceremony, SUT Fellowships were awarded to Andy Barwise and Keith Broughton and Chris Milner. Other Fellowships were awarded to overseas members Earl Doyle in Houston, Trond Olsen in Norway, and Norman O’Rourke and Ian Wilson who are both in Perth.The Society wishes them all many congratulations on their awards.

The Houlder Cup for outstanding contribution to underwater operations was awarded to Mr Mike O’Meara for outstanding contribution to Underwater Operations. Mike O’Meara has a long and successful involvement in the subsea world. He started his career in the Royal Navy and, after training as a clearance diver, was involved in a variety of naval diving operations before leaving the RN in 1975. Mike continued diving for a number of commercial diving companies before joining the newly formed Wharton Williams in 1978 as a diving superintendent. In this capacity he was responsible for the offshore management of diving support vessels and project teams and the implementation of subsea projects in the North Sea, Middle East and Asia. These projects involved a range of commercial diving techniques including air, gas, saturation and lockout submarines. In 1981 he was responsible for the successful salvage of £40 million of gold bullion from the Second World War British cruiser HMS Edinburgh resting in 800 feet water depth in the Barents Sea. After 23 years as an Offshore Manager, in 1991 Mike was tasked with reviewing theh Cullen report and the impending UK Safety Case Regulations following the Piper “A” disaster. The outcome of this work was the formal introduction to the company of risk identification and assessment as a specific planning tool in support of safe operations.

Through the years many changes in company ownership and structure have taken place. These have involved the following leading subsea engineering and construction companies: Wharton Williams, Brown & Root, Rockwater, Subsea Offshore, Halliburton Subsea and DSND into the present day Subsea 7. Mike is Vice-President responsible for Health, Safety, Environmental and Quality Strategy for Subsea 7.

The SUT wishes Mike many congratulations on his award.

The SUT Oceanography Award was awarded to Dr Steve Rintoul in recognition of his contribution to the field of oceanography. Dr Rintoul is a physical oceanographer who works for the CSIRO in Hobart, Tasmania. He has published more than 65 papers in refereed journals and books, with more than 1800 citations. He is on the editorial board of Ocean Dynamics and the Journal of Marine Research. In 2005 Dr Rintoul was awarded the inaugural Georg Wust Medal by the German Society of Marine Research. He was elected to the Australian Academy of Science in 2006 and was made a CSIRO Fellow, CSIRO’s highest recognition for scientific achievement.

In 2007 Dr Rintoul graduated with Honours in Physics from Harvard College, USA, and obtained his Doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program, USA. He is Co-chair of the International Climate of Antarctic and Southern Ocean (CASO) research programme, Co-chair of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) Expert Group on Oceanography, Leader of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) Southern Ocean Implementation Panel, and was Acting Chief of CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, May-November 2009. Dr Rintoul’s research has laid the foundation for the growing recognition of the importance of the Southern Ocean in the climate system. For example, he has shown that the Southern Ocean plays a critical role in the global overturning circulation that controls climate. He is internationally recognised as a leading authority on the circulation of the Southern Ocean and how it affects global climate systems. A sign of that recognition is that in 2012 he was awarded the prestigious $100,000 Martha T Muse Award of the US Tinker Foundation, for Science and Policy in Antarctica.

Dr Rintoul’s research has made a profound contribution to our scientific understanding of the Southern Ocean and of Antarctica’s role in the global system. His work has provided new understanding of the structure, dynamics and variability of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the largest ocean current on Earth. He has also shown how the Southern Ocean circulation links the shallow and deep layers of the ocean to form a global network of ocean currents that strongly influence climate patterns. His research has provided new insights into the nature, causes and consequences of Southern Ocean change. Dr Rintoul’s leadership has been critical to advancing coordinated international investigation of the Southern Ocean and to promoting long term Southern Ocean observing systems.

SUT was very pleased to award Steve the SUT Oceanography Award for 2013.

The SUT President’s Award was awarded to Mr David Brookes in recognition of his enormous contribution, over many years, to the SUT.

With over 40 years of industry experience, David started as an undergraduate apprentice at Esso UK in 1966 at Fawley Refinery. He then went on to work with rotating equipment vendor Ingersoll Rand and then Selection Trust mining company in the UK, Zambia, Peru and Iraq. David joined BP in 1980 and spent time on subsea and coal slurry pipelines systems, followed by becoming Manager of the Marine Systems Group. He was Project Engineering Manager for the BP Chemicals Indonesian Polyethylene Project based in Japan from 1989 to 1991, and then spent a period as BPX Global Subsea Consultant. In 1994, David transferred to the Atlantic Frontier Asset in Aberdeen, initially as Technical Manager and later as Subsea Project Manager for the Foinaven Development. After leading a team of pipeline, multiphase and subsea engineers as part of BPX’s shared technical resource, he became BP Amoco’s Team Leader for Deepwater Developments in the Upstream Technology Group in 1999. In 2001 he became a Senior Advisor in BP EPTG and moved to managing the overall BP Deepwater Facilities Technology Development Programme.

In 2006 David moved to BP’s Upstream Engineering Leadership as their Chief Engineer for Subsea and Floating Systems and is currently a Senior Advisor. David holds a BSc in Mechanical Engineering and is a Chartered Engineer. Also he is a FIMechE, FIMarEST, a member of the SPE, a Past President and Honorary Fellow of SUT, and an SUT Registered Subsea Engineer.

Also he is a past Chairman of DOT, a member of the Organising Committee for SUT International Conferences and the MCE Deepwater Development Conference. He has published more than 30 papers and presentations, including three papers to OTC Conferences and three patents.

David was awarded the SUT’s David Partridge Award in 1995 and the Subsea UK 2009 Engineer of the Year Award. For his many achievements it gave SUT great pleasure to award David the SUT President’s Award for 2013.

The AGM and awards ceremony was followed by a drinks reception and then dinner, attended by around 97 members and guests. After dinner, a game of ‘Heads and Tails’ was led by Ian Gallett and was won by Jodi Roberts. The game raised a fantastic sum of £1195 for the Fund, and all participants were thanked for their contributions