Report
The SUT announced the
election of a new president at its AGM in December. During the
meeting aboard HQS Wellington moored at London's Embankment,
Michael Leece announced the appointment of David Brookes, who was
also made Honorary Fellow during the SUT's annual awards and new
fellowship presentation.
Joining BP in 1980, David
Brookes embarked on what can only be described as an illustrious
career in subsea and floating production systems in the oil and gas
industry. David has been at the forefront of BP's deepwater
technology with responsibility for multi-disciplined teams based in
Sunbury and Houston delivering deepwater R&D projects and providing
support to all major deepwater projects for BP.
In 2006 David was appointed
Senior Advisor in upstream engineering and is currently Chief Subsea
Engineer for Subsea and Floating Systems of BP. In addition, David
has presented many professional papers and is greatly sought after
as a Keynote Speaker or Chairman at many of the industry's most
prestigious conferences. David has been Vice President and Chairman
of Council of the Society for Underwater Technology and is a past
recipient of the SUT's David Partridge Award.
Mike Leece's final act as
president was to hand out the Society's annual awards.
Sophie Clayton of the
University of Wales, Bangor, received the Tom Patten Memorial Award
for outstanding final year undergraduate student. The decision was
made with great difficulty this year due to the high number of First
Class Honours achieved by SUT's sponsored students.
The Houlder Cup was awarded
posthumously to Lieutenant-Commander Harry Wardle Royal Navy for his
contribution to underwater operations. John Houlder presented the
trophy to Harry's son, Richard, who was in attendance.
The David Partridge
Commemorative Award, jointly sponsored by the SUT and the former
Offshore Energy Technology Panel, was made to Dr Patrick O'Brien.
Peter Metcalf received the President's Award in recognition of his
long and distinguished career in subsea engineering.
SUT Fellowships were awarded
to Dr Peter Allan, Jim Hind, Alex Hunt and Mark Finch. SUT was
delighted that John Allen from Houston, USA, could attend to receive
his Fellowship award in pderson. Others receiving Fellowship awards
to be given locally are Don Wells of Houston, USA, and Andy Lane and
Enda O'Sullivan of Perth, Australasia.
This year, SUT inaugurated a
new award for outstanding feats of professional skill and heroism
named after Jackie Warner, who was the first Inspector of Diving and
who made a major contribution to diving safety in the UK. The first
recipient of this award was conferred upon Dr Ajit Kulkarni, who
displayed of a very high degree of professional skill, planning and
boldness allied to a very high level of personal bravery when
onboard the MSV Suraksha when it caught on fire. His actions
led to the safe rescue of six divers who were in saturation at 85 m
at the time of the fire.
Ending the meeting was a
well received presentation titled 'Biggest, Deepest, Longest: 2007 -
a Year of New Offshore Industry Records', given by Alex Hunt, who,
among other things, is a member of the Society's very active Subsea
Engineering and Operations Committee.
