My Engineering Journey: Xodus Group senior consultant Mike Allan

Beginnings

I grew up in Aberdeen so, looking back, a career in oil and gas was almost a certainty for me with my skillset, but I really had no idea until it happened.

1997-2001: Aberdeen University

I knew I was great at maths, physics and tech studies. So I studied mechanical engineering and didn’t specialise. I’m glad my choice of course didn’t pigeonhole me.

2001-10: Pegasus International

I joined an oil and gas subsea design house, Pegasus International, straight from university and it was a great place to learn. I worked on projects at all stages of design life and from all over the globe.

2001-07: Design engineer

I worked on pipeline design, deep-water dynamic umbilical analysis, material specifications, installation analysis, decommissioning, and finite element analysis of a hot-tap – a drilling operation into a live pipeline carrying 40% of the UK gas supply. The work used almost every aspect of mechanical engineering.

2007-10: Project lead

One of the stand-out projects from my early career was a two-well extension project. Initially, it appeared to be a standard oilfield extension project, including two new wells and a new controls system. However, the difference was that my client turned up at the office with a hand sketch of the idea and three years later I was on the boat supervising the final commissioning of the system.

It was a great experience to take a project through every stage, leading all the standard design activities. I wish I’d kept that original hand sketch.

2010-Present: Xodus Group

My one career move saw me go to a more integrated consultancy, Xodus Group, where I’m now a senior consultant. This opened me up to the likes of topsides engineering, technical safety and environment.

2010-15: Project management

My focus at Xodus was running projects, whether that be small, quick concept studies or long-duration front-end engineering design and detailed design scopes. Consultancy gives you plenty of opportunities for diversity and I’ve worked on 70 projects in nine years. 

Project management was a natural course for me, as I like to be involved in all aspects of a project. I’ve also been involved in developing project management training courses.

2013: IMechE Chartered status

Becoming chartered was always an ambition of mine but I never seemed to find the time. I was lucky enough to get the spur I needed from one of my young engineers. If he was willing to set up an accredited scheme for the company just so he could proceed with his monitored professional development scheme, then the least I could do was get chartered so that I could be his mentor. In the end it was a painless process and I think the tools available online are tremendous. We’ve had 10 engineers, a quarter of our division, chartered in the last four years thanks to Jamie putting that scheme in place.

2015-17: Asset management

With the downturn in the oil price limiting the number of new developments, it was a good time to diversify even further into operational support. I led the creation of the Xodus subsea integrity management offering, supporting UK operators in managing their assets. That opened me up to another facet of the industry and I was soon involved in decisions that could mean shutting in an entire oilfield on the back of your engineering judgement. 

2017-Present: Software development

I helped develop our asset management software platform, XAMIN, to help oil companies make their operations and integrity as efficient as possible, giving instant access to status, data or information as it is required. 

It’s been great to work with our software team, looking at innovative ways to take tasks that have been done in certain ways for decades and tweak them to remove frustrations from the lives of engineers. 

I’ve visited a number of countries, had stints offshore, and my designs are situated all over the globe, but I’ve only ever worked in two offices 500m apart. Journeys aren’t always measured by distance.