Alan BrunnenManaging Director

ContentsBusiness development 2tendering

EMT roadshow 3

Quality 4

HSE 5

Healthy working lives 8

Skuld 9

Technology bite 10

People news 12

Your job profiles 15

Charity updates 17

Sports and social 20

Chief engineers blog 21

Dear colleagues,In February, our Executive Chairman Øyvind Erikssen, our main shareholder, Kjell Inge Røkke and ten others from the executive management of Aker Solutions came to Aberdeen for a two day visit to gain a better understanding of what we are doing, what our key opportunities are and our major challenges.

They also wanted to find what out what more they could do to assist the business in becoming more successful in the long term. The major outcome of this, as I mentioned in the recent Townhall, is the twin commitments – first to the Aberdeen businesses for the long term and secondly to invest in the business and take us forward as a world class provider of subsea solutions to our local and global customer base.

Whilst here, Øvyind also challenged us on the quality of our products and services. He was right to do so. We need to make a step change in the way we focus on delivering the right products,which are properly designed, manufactured and tested for the scheduled date of delivery, time after time. In order to achieve this we need to simplify our design process – this is done by doing our product development up front and outside projects.

We need to simplify our build process – by removing prototype build and test from the main manufacturing production line (of which you will hear more shortly) and by building the same products repetitively. We need to improve our test processes to better reflect actual operations- this will be done via the autotest facilities under development. Most of all we need to change our quality culture so that we treat quality with the same care and attention that we currently apply to HSE. Over the coming months you will see a heightened focus on this across the management team, filtering down across the organisation.

We should all embrace this opportunity – it is our chance to differentiate ourselves from our competition and provide products and services across the range of the business of which we can be proud.

The Board of Aker Solutions, the Executive Chairman, the main shareholder and the Executive team have given us a vote of confidence, they are ready to provide funding to support development and improvement. The market is picking up with many new opportunities. It is up to us to deliver.

Alan BrunnenManaging director

Issue 06 05/11

DeepfocusSubsea news Aberdeen

Business development and tendering

Orders and letter of intent (LOI’s) received include BG Everest, Statoil Njord, Total David, TAQA Falcon and Statoil Vigdis workover system, which in addition to the future SLS work are key to allow greater opportunities with Statoil in future projects. Three further systems have been called off.

We were also awarded a substantial major Subsea project with Statoil for Fossekall-Dompap (SKULD). This the first of many fast track Statoil projects and could potentially form part of a Frame Agreement.

Tendering activity has continued at a very high level since the last newsletter with an even greater number of major subsea projects being prepared for, or undergoing clarification with Inpex, Total, ExxonMobil, Nexen, Statoil, ENI, Chevron, Shtokman etc.

Business development activities in the UK sector have also increased. Specific customers and key opportunities have been targeted which should enable us to increase our share of the UKNS market for wellheads, trees and controls. We are also dealing with the requests for information relating to HPHT (high pressure high temperature) trees in the UK sector which fits our technology and track record.

As part of the 2011 plan and appraisal process, several key objectives have been set including but not limited to: structured project feedback into tenders, improvements to processes, futher improvement and standardisation of bid packages, pricing consistency, monitoring of bid costs, definition of responsibilities to utilise people more effectively, improved benchmarking and risk evaluation. Now we have to find the time to focus on these improvements to take us forward.

The above success is as a result of all the support the tendering department has received throughout the controls and wellheads organisation. Due to the high workload level, there are still opportunities wthin the department so we would like to hear from you if you are interested in joining the team.

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EMT roadshow

Extended management team visit

As mentioned earlier in February, our main shareholder Kjell Inge Røkke and our executive chairman Øyvind Eriksen along with other members of the executive management team, visited the facilities in Aberdeen to gain a greater understanding of the five business units which operate in the city.

Management teams from MH, Offshore partner, Process systems and Subsea gave presentations to the visitors along with a tour of the manufacturing facilities. On Wednesday they visited Aker Qserv in Portlethen, followed by an extended management meeting with Øyvind Eriksen explaining the recent restructure which was followed by a Q&A session.

Quotes from extended management meeting

“Aberdeen is the single biggest hub outside of Norway with approximately 2500 Aker Solutions employees and is crucial for our growth internationally. We are here to develop and invest in each of the businesses and build on the foundations we already have” said Eriksen.

He added “Oil and gas is our primary focus and we have great opportunities in the North Sea, both on the British and on the Norwegian shelf. Our industry is expected to more than double over the next ten years, with an annual growth rate of approximately 7-9% per year, meaning there are some very interesting market opportunities ahead for Aker Solutions and our employees”.

With the discovery of significant oil deposits in the North Sea during the late twentieth century, Aberdeen became the centre of Europe’s petroleum industry. With the second largest heliport in the world and an important service ship harbour port serving oil rigs off-shore, Aberdeen is often called the Oil Capital of Europe. The executive management team has visited a number of Aker Solutions locations around the world after the restructuring in December 2010 and these visits will continue over the next few months.

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Quality isn’t an option!

Those of you attending the recent Subsea town hall communication would have been left under no illusion by our Managing Director as to the importance of improving the quality of our products and services, and how the effect of not doing so will impact upon us all along with the future success of our business.

As some of you may already be aware, we are undertaking a business transformation project and have recently begun to take a critical look at our business processes and procedures to see how these can be improved. We will be publishing the business transformation plan for you all to see in the near future.

You too have a major part to play in helping to bring about this transformation by ensuring that you don’t allow quality to be compromised throughout your day-to-day activities. Here are some examples of what the management team expects from all Subsea UK employees: Know your procedures and work to them Procedures are there to protect you and the product. If your procedures are wrong or can be improved take the appropriate action as soon as possible. Never pass on poor qualityRegardless of delivery or schedule pressures, there are no excuses for compromising the quality of our products and services.You are empowered and expected to challenge anything you believewill have a negative impact on product or service quality and safety.

Don’t use un-calibrated or unauthorised equipmentAny equipment used for assembling or testing our products must be approved and calibrated. Failure to ensure this may mean that our products are not fit for purpose and may result in product recall, significant quality costs and or product safety issues. Don’t be the one responsible, always check and where necessary challenge!

Don’t tolerate poor working practicesAlways challenge others where you see poor working practices such as others knowingly breaking the rules. You are empowered to contact an appropriate person or manager who will ensure the issue is fully addressed.

There is no excuse for poor housekeeping Observe when you walk around our facilities and look out for anything you feel may adversely affect our ability to provide a quality product or service. This applies to the site in general and particularlymanufacturing, stores, goods inward and yard areas. This can range from the appearance of a particular area to where product or component parts could be damaged. Think as the customer or certifying authority would and report anything that needs improving.

Over the coming weeks and months we will be re-aligning the inspection and verification functions to aid in the attainment of the quality of product and service expected by our organisation and our customers.

Quality isn’t an option!!

D.BenisonVP Business Process and Quality

HSE Aker Solutions Subsea business unit returns to zero LTI

Aker Solutions’ Subsea business unit has now reached 12 months since our last lost tme incident, and have returned to a zero LTI rate.

I would like to thank each of you for your commitment to HSE ensuring that we do not have any lost time incidents in the UK. Our previous lost time incident was in May 2006 which means that we have had only one lost time incident in the UK for almost five years. This is a magnificient achievement for the work activities that we carry out and could only be achieved with the personal buy-in to our Just Care HSE culture from everyone in the UK.

As is always the case when we meet our objectives, the hard part is maintaining the result. We must always be vigilant in our daily activities and not become complacent. We have had a number of a near miss incidents in January and February this year which have had complacency as a factor in the near miss occurring. Please continue to be aware of your work environment and safe work requirements, intervene if you see an unsafe act or condition and raise worksafe cards when required. As we have stated before the earlier we can catch the potential for an injury to occur the easier it is for us to rectify the situation and reduce the outcome of an injury or near miss actually happening.

Please take on board and celebrate the recognition of us returning to a zero LTI rate and also keep a focus on us maintaining this zero LTI rate.

Thank you all for your continuing positive commitment to our improving HSE culture.

Charlie Ingram

Vice President HSE

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Oil and gas safety awards 2011

Aker Solutions employee’s preventative action scoops success at safety awards

Mike Ross, a Subsea hydraulic technician has won the accolade for preventative safety action at the prestigious UK Oil and Gas Safety Awards 2011.

Our hydraulic technician beat off stiff competition from a host of organisations to with the hotly contested category at the award ceremony and lunch held by Oil and Gas UK and Step Change at the Mercure Ardoe House Hotel on the 20th April.

The accolade recognises an individual who, through their pro-active and vigilant behaviour, successfully intervened to prevent a potential incident.

Mike has always been a conscientious employee who has actively participated in the Just Care Safety culture. He has acknowledged both positive and negative observations through our worksafe system and has raised 29 cards in the last 12 months.

During 2010, Mike was working as a hydraulic field technician on a vessel in Egypt when nitrogen bottles were delivered with flammable stickers and stencilled with oxygen signs. He was to use nitrogen gas for a gas test that was part of his scope of work. He refused to go ahead with the job even when put under pressure by the client to use the gas cylinders provided and contacted the on-call engineer.

Requests were put in with the client for certification relating to the gas bottles but none could be supplied and when they did arrive they were supplied in Arabic. Mike would not progress with the job until a new set of correctly labelled cylinders supplied with the correct documentation could be produced. He continually put safety before time pressures when directly confronted by a number of our client personnel on the vessel and showed great HSE leadership and commitment.

Alan Brunnen, managing director of Aker Solutions Subsea division in Aberdeen said: “Safety is of paramount importance to us as a company and to the oil and gas industry as a whole. I am delighted that Mike has won this award as his actions are a testament to the work that goes on each day to ingrain safety into our operations.

“We have worked hard to improve the safety of the industry and these awards are the perfect opportunity to recognise the commitment of certain individuals who strive to benefit the wider oil and gas sector.”

Charlie Ingram (Left), Mike Ross (centre) and Karon McDonald (right) presenting Mike with his certificate and award.

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Subsea receives safety accolade

Just Care programme & supporting activities refreshment

Aker Solutions subsea division have received a coveted award from the British Safety Council.

This is the thirteenth consecutive year Subsea has been recognised for their efforts. The award rewards businesses that show a real commitment to improving corporate health and safety , the award is acknowledged by the UK Health and Safety executive as a powerful motivator for achieving high safety standards and more than 600 organisations from across the world apply for the prestigious award each year.

Charlie Ingram, VP HSE says, “It is one thing to tell yourself that you are doing a good job but having this confirmed by an international accreditation organisation like the British Safety Council independently endorses our efforts to date.”

The awards will be presented during a banquet at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London on May 20.

As part of the 2011 HSE Plan the HSE Team are focusing on a refreshment of the Just Care programme and its supporting activities. As part of this refreshment the HSE department have analysed previous incidents and near misses to identify specifically where our focus should be.

As part of this we have developed a series of in-house training programmes which will be rolled-out to our personnel with a focus on the workshop personnel, field team, engineers and managers. So far the COSHH awareness course has been completed and we are currently running the behavioural safety training course. Currently training courses are being developed on Just Rules and risk assessment which will be delivered later on in the year.

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Healthy working lives

Fitnut charity challenge update

As part of the healthy working lives teams’ plans for 2011, Subsea took part in the Fitnut charity challenge, organised by Fitnut Ltd.

The purpose of the challenge was to motivate employees to improve their health and fitness. This was done by assessing how fit you are initially by checking the following five measurements; blood pressure, body fat, aerobic capacity, flexibility and strength. Participants then received weekly e-mails providing advice on healthy changes they could make to their lifestyle, how to keep the momentum going and build activity into their daily life. Then after six weeks the same measurements were re-assessed to gauge how much of an improvement had been made.

As part of this process the participants were given advice on a suitable exercise plan which should have lead to results that you did not think were possible. Participants halved the risk of lifestyle diseases whilst also doubling their energy levels. The small donation of just £10 was requested to assist raise funds for charity. Sixty people took part in the initial challenge with re-assessment for some participants still to take place before an overall winner will be announced. So far £450 has been donated and the most improved participant will get to decide which charity to donate this money to.

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SKULD project (formerly Fossekall-Dompap)

Aker Solutions has been awarded a letter of intent by Statoil for the engineering, procurement and construction and engineering services. Aker Solutions Subsea business unit has landed a share of the £112 million subsea contract.

This contract which will see the systems built at Aker Solution’s workshops in Dyce for delivery in the second quarter of 2012, is worth £35 million to our subsea business unit.

The scope of work includes the manufacture of subsea power and communication units, subsea control units, subsea control modules and wellhead housing assembly as well as installation tooling and testing. The fabrication of other equipment including three template-manifold structures, 11 subsea trees and a tie-in system will be carried out in Norway.

Skuld is a fast-track project located north of the Norne field, 200 kilometres west from Sandessjoen and occupies blocks 6608/10 and 6608/11 in a water depth of 380 metres.

The Aberdeen elements of the scope as defined at this early stage:

Wellheads WellheadsWellhead installation tooling

Topside control equipmentSPCUSCU

Subsea control equipmentSCM’sSRM’sElectrical and fibre optic distributionPressure and temperature transmittersMPFM’sHydrocarbon leak detectorsCITV’sParking platesTest equipment

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Technology Bite – topside controls (MCS - master control station)

Introduction to an MCS

The master control station controls our subsea production systems and is usually the only part of the system our end user gets to see. The majority of our equipment is out of sight below the sea and often miles away from the host platform and the only way of knowing how its behaving is via the MCS.

The MCS is typically an 19” industrial rack with the following equipment:

• Dual industrial PCs complete with screen, keyboard & mouse to give the operator a visual representation of the subsea equipment and the main input to open/close valves, read pressures, temperatures etc and control the subsea wells and manifolds; In some instances the Industrial PCs are replaced by programmable logic controller ( PLCs) which take over the function of controlling the subsea production system

• A PLC which marshalls input and output from the other topside equipment (Hydraulic control – HPU, electrical control, - EPU, shutdown systems -ESD and platform operator control (DCS)

• Modems to provide the communication mechanism through the umbilical to our subsea equipment.

• Third party interfaces PCs (for external data handoff)

We currently have two types of MCS which we actively supply to our customers; SMACS6 and MCS-PLC.

They both essentially do the same job but came about for different reasons and are used in different situations depending on client/project requirements:

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Technology bite – topside controls (MCS - master control station)

Long service

SMACS6The SMACS6 MCS was a direct evolution of the SMACS4 and SMACS5 systems that Aker Solutions have been installing for over 25 years and originally was designed to provide an upgrade path for the SMACS4 system to overcome aged technology obsolescence issues. This is a Microsoft windows based control system, with the main control being provided by dual PCs and is written in a software package called VTS.

MCS-PLCThis MCS was created initially for one particular customer who requested a PLC-based system rather than a Window-based system but other projects for other customers specifically requesting PLC-based systems followed and this product is now being standardised and developed further by the Product Development Group. PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) have been used for many years in industrial applications and through their simplicity are very reliable.

There is still a PC for operator interface but this is purely for the user interface. In the MCS-PLC the Subsea control is performed in the PLC.

Why supply two different systems to do the same job?Both systems are equally valid – The MCS-PLC is the preferred option in some markets (e.g. Brazil and Norway) where some customers require PLC-based systems as a standard. We could not compete on tenders for these customers and in these regions without having the PLC option.

SMACS6 tends to be preferred by our long standing customers who have benefited from this robust design for many years and whose personnel are trained and comfortable with the operation, functionality and familiarity of the system.

Both systems will be further developed and standardised and actively marketed to our customers. Having the options of windows-based and PLC based control offerings means Aker Solutions can compete in all markets and respond to our customers requirements.

Charlie Lawson reaches 30 year milestone

Name: Charlie Lawson

Job title: Designer, Tree and Wellheads

Charlie started his career with Aker Solutions when it was the national supply company in 1981 in the machine shop as a machine operator.

He was then promoted to deputy machine shop supervisor; his primary role was to support others. During 2004, he took on the role of draughtsman in the drawing office and later on during 2005 he took up the role of designer. His role involves the design and modifications of existing and new tools and equipment for the wellheads and subsea tree division.

The most interesting part of his role is the designing of new tools from scratch and he also enjoys the modification of existing tools. The worst part of being a designer are the constant changes to the design at the last minute which involves reworks.

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People news

Name Job Title Start Date

Karen Dunn SLS Co-ordinator 5th January 2011

Sulaimon AkarakiriSpecialist Engineer - Reli-ability

10th January 2011

Iain PhilipsSpecialist Engineer - Me-chanical

10th January 2011

Michael MacLaughlin Lifecycle Support Engineer 10th January 2011

Alan Craigie Designer 17th January 2011

Alison Murray Production Planner 24th January 2011

Dominic Moffat Test Engineer 31st January 2011

Kay Scott SLS Resource Coordinator 7th February 2011

Satya Thunuguntla Mechanical Engineer 14th February 2011

Adele E'tangs Project Engineer21st February 2011

Willie McCallum Project Manager 21st February 2011

Philip Bagley Programme Leader 28th February 2011

Paul Dickie Lifecycle Support Engineer 28th February 2011

Jaspal BhambraSpecilaist Engineer - Met-talurgist

28th February 2011

Andrew MassiePrincipal Mechanical Engineer

7th March 2011

Alan Horsburgh Mechanical Engineer 14th March 2011

Stephen Day Project Engineer 15th March 2011

Faye Inglis HR Recruitment Co-ordinator

21st March 2011

James RussellMechanical Completions Co-ordinator

21st March 2011

Frances Gordon SLS Co-ordinator 28th March 2011

New staff appointments Q1 2011

We would like to take the opportunity to welcome all the new permanent employees who have joined the organisation during Q1 2011. We continue to actively recruit and would like to wish all our new starts well as they take up their new positions with us.

Long service milestones:

In addition to our new starts, we’d also like to acknowledge the following employees who have reached a significant milestone in their service with the company during the period up to end April 2011. We would like to take the opportunity to thank them for their service and contribution to the organisation over the years and take a moment to congratulate them on this achievement. Special mentions go to Charles Lawson in trees & wellheads who reached his 30 year anniversary in April, Peter Jenner at Magnus Power who reached his 25 year milestones as well as Mark Beal at subsea components and Edward, Keith and Paul Necklen (yes they are all related!!) at Magnus Power who all reached their 20 year service milestones.

Congratualtions also to Derek Cox in the BP West of Shetland team, Martin O’Brien at Subsea Components, Alistair Reid from tendering, Alastair Farquhar and Billy Melvin in trees & wellheads and Gordon Milne in SLS who have reached their 15 year service milestones in this period also.

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Employee full Name ame Hire Date Employee Award Level

Lawson, Charles 21/04/1981 30

Jenner, Peter 03/02/1986 25

Beal, Mark 01/01/1991 20

Necklen, Edward 01/04/1991 20

Necklen, Keith 01/04/1991 20

Necklen, Paul 01/04/1991 20

Cox, Derek 01/01/1996 15

O'Brien, Martin 05/02/1996 15

Reid, Alistair 11/03/1996 15

Farquhar, Alastair 08/04/1996 15

Milne, Gordon 25/04/1996 15

Melvin, William 29/04/1996 15

Fulton, John 01/01/2001 10

Greenfeld, Meir 01/01/2001 10

Shaw, Alison 03/01/2001 10

Trevis, Gary 08/01/2001 10

Higgins, Deborah 05/03/2001 10

McKinlay, Bryan 05/03/2001 10

Fairall, Fiona 12/03/2001 10

Svensson, Adrian 19/03/2001 10

Kyriakidis, Ody 26/03/2001 10

Craig, Lucinda 30/03/2001 10

Smith, Catherine 01/04/2001 10

Stage, Pauline 01/01/2006 5

Walker, Colin 04/01/2006 5

Weir, Graham 04/01/2006 5

Bletzer, Marcela 16/01/2006 5

Nothway, Marie 06/02/2006 5

Baxter, Stephen 13/02/2006 5

Brebner, Alistair 13/02/2006 5

Lawson, Alan 13/02/2006 5

Duguid, Philip 27/02/2006 5

Pendlebury, Matthew 27/02/2006 5

Rodrigo, Mangala 27/02/2006 5

Barron, Steven 01/03/2006 5

Hamilton, Ian 06/03/2006 5

Gresham, Steven 13/03/2006 5

Jack, Gordon 13/03/2006 5

Pocknell, Paul 13/03/2006 5

Meldrum, Gary 20/03/2006 5

Cameron, Donald 17/04/2006 5

Jamieson, Claire 17/04/2006 5

Broadhurst, Martin 19/04/2006 5

Long service milestones:

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Employee referral payments:

We continue to recruit heavily in this busy period so just a quick reminder about the employee introduction scheme (EIS). Payments are available of £1,000 for successful staff placements the applicable payments (subject to normal tax deductions) and for successful contract placement will be as follows:Referral of a contract position where the rate to person is above £25 per hour (PAYE) £ 500Referral of a contract position where the rate to person is up to £25 per hour (PAYE) £ 250

With several recent significant project awards and other ongoing and upcoming project commitments we have an urgent need to recruit across all disciplines but especially within engineering and the mechanical engineering discipline – principal, senior and mechanical engineers.Full details of the referral scheme are available on enet or on hard copy from the HR department. We are also happy to consider details of any candidates you may know who would be suitable for any position within the company – whether it is currently being advertised or not so please feel free to submit details to HR at any time.

New management appointments within Subsea:Within the greenfield project management team the following L4 senior management appointments have been confirmed:• Susan Hay - Senior Project Manager with responsibility for Statoil Projects• Nick Smart - Senior Project Manager with responsibility for Petrobras, Brazil projectsAs part of the ongoing re-structure of the controls and SPS P&L area the following management appointment has been confirmed within the controls & SPS group reporting to Derek Robertson:Arthur Forster – Subsea controls engineers & life of field managerWithin the brownfield account management team the following L4 senior management appointments have been confirmed:• Eric Gilmour - account manager with responsibility for the trees & wellheads account team• Gillian Bloomer - account manager with responsibility for intercompany accountsOther recent L4 senior management appointments are:• Simon Wain has been appointed senior manager - tendering group, taking responsibility for all tendering activities within the Uk business• Cammy Murray has been appointed as equipment/material manager within ops & manufacturing• Robbie Hendry has been appointed vendor & procurement manager within ops & manufacturing• Mark Ellis has been appointed finance manager within the finance departmentWe would like to congratulate all these people on their new appointments and wish them well in their new roles.

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Your job profiles Name: Carl Beer

Job title: Product assurance manager

Detailed overview of the jobInitially, I joined the company in November 2010 as a quality assurance engineer. My role involved interacting with the brownfield project teams and I was the day-to-day focal point for all quality issues. I have recently been appointed as Product assurance manager which will involve the close liaison with all parts of the company to ensure our deliverable products and associated components meet both our contractual and legislative requirements.

Other elements of my role involve:• The management of goods inward inspection, in process verification and vendor support.

• To support, conduct and report on quality problems, where required. Including investigations to ensure the root causes are identified and effective corrective and preventative measures are put in place.

• Providing direction, guidance, support and development of a quality culture throughout the company.

Best bitsThe unpredictability, as every day brings new challenges.

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Your job profiles Name: Kelly Donald

Job title: Manufacturing Co-ordinator

Operations management, workshop and quality control technicians and their group leaders/lead technicians, supply chain buyers, planning, finance, HR, CPA, payroll, assembly and test engineering.

Detailed overview of the jobMy role mainly involves administrative support for the manufacturing/operations department. This includes:

• Checking all of the technicians’ hours have transferred from Promark to SAP on a weekly/monthly basis

• Compiling reports such as the MOR, headcount figures and reports on working hours

• Updating, identifying and arranging training for the workshop personnel

• Reviewing the manufacturing overhead costs and raising/coding manual purchase requisitions and invoices

• Updating the workshop COSHH and risk assessment folders so updates are available to the technicians

• Ensuring that calibrated items are updated in the SAP planned maintenance system and reports printed & passed to the maintenance technicians for actioning

• Processing travel requests and expenses claims for operations personnel

• Re-allocating the vending machine costs to the correct cost centres/ projects on a monthly basis

Best bits:My job is very varied therefore I have a lot of interaction with different people and departments throughout the organisation on a daily basis.

Worst bits:Month end reports!

Charity/sports and social update

Pool night

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Montrose Air Station thank youOur Subsea workshop kindly donated equipment to the Montrose Air Station Heritage Centre.

We received a letter thanking the workshop for the kind donation of surplus equipment which is no longer in use. The trustees and members are most appreciative. The heritage centre re-opened on the 1st April. If you would like to go along to the centre please find details on the website below:

www.rafmontrose.org.uk

The sports and socialclub pool night – Friday 25 February

Pool shark Martin Buchanan beat the rest of the 40 strong field through three rounds of elimination, a game of killer and finalists league to first place, with Andy Pollock closely in 2nd and Neil Profeit in 3rd!

There was a very good turn out on the evening which was held in Codona’s Havana and Fidel pool suites on 25 February, with about 50 people in attendance. A random draw had been undertaken earlier in the week and the first round elimination games got underway after a little warm up frame or two.

Forty competitors were eliminated down to five after three rounds with QA’s Harry King being the first to lose all three lives in the killer game, leaving Jim Stein to do battle in the finalists league with the eventual winners!

During the finals and afterwards, those eliminated were able to regain some pride with both friendlies and grudge matches going on until the end of the evening!

Highlight matches were the round three eliminations with Subsea manufacturing match between Martin Buchanan and Jamie Clark as well as a Subsea QA battle between Neil Profeit and Davy Benison, although the match between Ewelina Rabe and Harry King was much enjoyed! A particular mention should go to Claudia Duminicel for being the only lady to make it through to the second round where she was beaten by Mark Zang.

Special thanks go to Andy Haines for ensuring that the killer and finals game were well run and of course to all the player and spectators for making it a fun and friendly evening, raising money for CLAN.

CHAS donationOur subsea engineer, Tom Cremin worked on the Foinaven Intelligent Pigging scope over the Christmas period, has in conjunction with the Halliburton PPS crew (subcontracted by Aker Solutions), raised £180 for the Children’s Hospice of Scotland. BP and Halliburton have now matched this figure and we now have £540.

Charity/sports and social update

CLAN fashion show

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Eight hour spinathon for CLANThe CLAN spinathon took place on Saturday 16 April at the Garioch Sports Centre. A group of 11 spinners undertook the challenge which resulted in the group cycling over 1359 miles during the nine hour challenge.

Kay Newton, says, “I am delighted with the level of commitment of the group and we are happy we have been able to raise over £2500 for CLAN. We would like to thank everyone who sponsored us.”

CLAN have organised a fashion show on the 11th May at the Music Hall, Aberdeen. All the models are connected to CLAN. Tickets are priced at £15 and are available from the Aberdeen box office- www.boxofficeaberdeen.com or you can telephone 01224 641122.

CLAN casino night

Tandem skydive

Kids Christmas party 2010

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Saturday 23 April saw a group over one hundred Aker Solutions employees and partners participate in a “Casino Night” held at the “Green trees” pub in Dyce, near Aberdeen arranged by Lucy Craig

The event was compered by a master of ceremonies with Blackjack, Poker tables and two roulette tables set up for all to gamble their “money” away.

Additional entertainment was provided by the MC himself throughout the evening, with a disco supplying music in the background. An additional touch was provided by one attractive young ladies dressed in typical “Vegas” style costumes, and of course “Casino Royale” was being shown on widescreen in the main bar.

A total of £760.00 was raised on the evening from donations by those who attended, which will go to “CLAN”

Best Dressed person - Ali Behnam Winner of the Nintendo WII - Ron PrattBest Gambler of the Night - Alan Gordon

Dennis McInnes-Pirie & his wife Phionna would like this opportunity to thank everyone who donated for the event. A total amount raised to date including online & offline contributions came to £1930.00 with a gathered amount alone of £350.00 from Subsea personnel.

The NCT Skydive group all successfully performed a 10,000 ft Tandem Jump on Sunday 17 April at Errol Airfield, Perthshire. The skydive was 5000ft and they reached over 130mph. Each member of the group received certificates from the paragon skydive club. The instructors were brilliant in keeping everyone calm throughout the whole experience & made it a fantastic day to remember.

The online donations site is still open & will be closed a month after the event. If you would like to show your support for Dennis & his wife, please donate using the fundraising page in the link attached.

Link for donations: www.doitforcharity.com/nctaberdeenskydive

Originally our Christmas kids party was due to be held at Ardoe House Hotel on the 19 December 2010, but due to heavy snow the party was re-arranged for Sunday 31 January 2011.

All the children were told that Santa had delayed his trip home to come and see them. The party was a great success with both children and adults having a great time. At the party there was balloon modelling, Christmas Pinata, circus workshop, face painting, Christmas arts and crafts, bucking reindeer, moon walker, giant games, remote control cars and big screen games. There was also a Santa’s grotto where each child received a balloon and selection box for their journey home.

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Sports and social dates for the diary

Easter raffle

Dates to make people aware of for the sports and social

Murder mystery 13th May 2011 - please contact lucinda.craig@akersolutions.com

Paint balling 14th May 2011 - please contact sandy.brown@akersolutions.com

Fishing day out 28th May 2011 - please contact lucinda.craig@akersolutions.com

Bus going to Balmoral Castle from Aker Solutions - 4th June 2011 - please contact mhairi.jupp@akersolutions.com

Pool night 1st July 2011 - please contact mhairi.jupp@akersolutions.com

Story book Glen 2nd July 2011 - please contact tara.beaton@akersolutions.com

Golf outing - please contact jim.stein@akersolutions.com

Go Ape 9th July 2011 - please contact mhairi.jupp@akersolutions.com

Bus to Blair Drummond safari park 16th July 2011 - please contact tara.beaton@akersolutions.com

RAFA golf tournament Spey Valley 2nd Junejim.stein@akersolutions.com

Perth races 20th August - please contact lucinda.craig@akersolutions.com

Bowling night - 26th August 2011 being held at Condona’s -please contact lucinda.craig@akersolutions.com

Look out for dates for another Spa day, a golf outing, tickets for shows such as Alan Carr, thriller live, Singing Kettle, vouchers for beauty treatments, spree books etc

We are pleased to announce the following winners of our Easter raffle draw:

1st Prize Fraser Ford Home Surf Tablet

2nd Prize Marisha Zagdan Sat Nav

3rd Prize Pamela McKay Baileys Truffles Easter Egg

Congratulations to the winners!

Deepfocus

21

Chief engineer technical blog

As Chief engineer I have overall technical authority for our subsea control system products but for those of you who haven’t been to the CoE roll out presentation, I also have responsibility for what we sell. With this responsibility I am trying to ensure that we sell systems that won’t cause us long term problems over the life of the project, through to its installation and commissioning and ultimately for the life of field support. After a very small number of directional control valves were reported as failing in the field, a great many engineering hours have been spent getting to the route cause of these failures. The findings showed that failed DCVs had a step formation on the valve seat and it was found that the DCV poppit was able, under certain rare tolerances, to hammer the valve seat face and thus cause an increased leakage or in even rarer cases a broken poppit.

The root cause of this failure was traced back to a minor engineering change that had taken place on the valve design. This engineering change has now been reversed and the valve will now go through a requalification process to further back- up the findings of the root cause analysis and further demonstrate the high quality of our products.

The detrimental effect such a small change had further illustrates the importance of strategically thinking through the impacts of any engineering change made to our products and systems.

The printed wiring assembly build quality from our suppliers has been massively improved, with us now far exceeding the required standards set out in the electronic assembly acceptability standard IPC610 Class 3. Although this is the case, we still found we were getting a high level of production quality notifications being raised in subsea electronic module manufacturing. The initial investigation showed faulty test equipment was causing card failure in one of the test racks. No other test equipment was found to be faulty but production had to be stopped while the racks were checked. A review of the test regime in SEM manufacturing is ongoing and it is expected that this will create actions that will help our processes enabling us to catch and correct any patterns in failure modes.

A new revision of the SEM application code has been released and this will have the effect of lessening the load on the processors in the SEM. The new revision also has increased diagnostics built in to give us a better understanding of how our SEMs behave when they are actually deployed. This diagnostic tool will be used continuously to improve our product and keep it at the very highest quality.

I’m presently working closely with Nexen, who are looking to make use of the standard very low bandwidth remote link available on their SMACS6 system running the Scott and Telford fields. With all the data available to a remote laptop simply running Internet Explorer it is expected we will be able to troubleshoot offshore problems from the beach. Long term we are looking to put this data into our conditioning monitoring system to aid life of field support and once this is established, increase other operators’ awareness of this functionality of their SMACS6 system. This also gives us an opportunity to make our clients aware of Geo where we can use this data for reservoir modelling etc and thus show that Aker Solutions has many capabilities in other parts of the oil and gas industry. As per my last blog, if you have any issues you wish to raise with me, feel free. I am particularly interested in hearing about issues where you are seeing the same mistakes being made repeatedly and those where we are at a loss to understand why we have not learnt from our previous lessons learnt.

My email address is martin.broadhurst@akersolutions.com