Joining us as Applications Manager earlier this year, Mark Satchell brings a wealth of experience to the Fardux team. Here, we ask Mark about his career to date, and what he’ll be focussing on in the coming months.
Hi Mark - Welcome! Tell us a little about yourself and your history with Fardux?
Thanks! I started work in 1978 on big Mainframe computers such as ICL2903/4, then onto IBM and McDonald Douglas mainframe data systems. During this period, I worked in several positions based around Norwich, in Civil Engineering, University and regional Government.
Then decided to take some time out and went sailing around the world for a few years, and ended up in Miami. When I returned to the UK I was contacted by a college friend who said his people were looking for someone with a computing background - that’s when I went to work for Halliburton, back in 1989.
Since then, I worked all over the globe as both a Memory Gauge Specialist and DAQ Engineer until 2008. Firstly as a member of Halliburton International, then I was seconded to the Crystal Sea, a Halliburton/Brovig early marine based early well intervention ship, initially writing the Data Acquisition system used on the process plant, then later the commissioning and operation of the ground breaking vessel in the North Sea, and after moving from Norway, I was based out of Kazakhstan and Russia, during the transition through PWS then Expro in Kazakhstan.
Then just as Expro were shutting down the operation in Kazakhstan, and I was handling logistics and the base operations during relocation, I was asked if I would be interested in a position with MB Petroleum in a new department being formed in Oman as Head of Data Acquisition Systems.
I jumped at the chance, and from 2008 to 2014 was based in Oman working with MB Petroleum, FOS Energy Services and lastly SOSCO – Al Sahari Well Services. In 2014 my Tunisian wife and I (we met in Oman) moved back to the UK, where I continued mostly contract work until the big downturn. For a while after that, I did what was required to keep busy and a roof over my head, and then the call from Fardux, who I have worked alongside, and on their equipment since the company started way back.
Tell us about some of your favourite locations you’ve worked in over the years.
Oman has to be one of the highlights, as I spent such an instructional and rewarding time there.
I have always had an interest in culture and travel, and I’ve tried to learn about each and every location I have encountered in my travels. As I was rotational in some of the more interesting and challenging locations around the world, it was always a journey of discovery in the people, places and work involved. Every location has its own special moments, and it’s been a privilege to have had the opportunity to have travelled and have met as many people as I have during my many years in the field.
The main thing I try to follow was to always treat people I met through work or social interactions, the way I wished to be treated, with respect and understanding, and being prepared to learn something new from each and every person I met, through work or other situations.
How was your experience using Fardux equipment during your career so far?
Like it is said, it “Does what it says on the box”. Everything from the meticulous care taken in preparing and shipping equipment, to the feedback on software and design issues, to the brilliant round the clock, anywhere in the world technical assistance - it all makes the difference.
I have phoned whilst on a job, in the middle of the desert, at two in the morning, and someone at Fardux/Wellwise has always answered the phone and been able to direct me towards a solution, or onto someone who can walk and talk me through any problem I was encountering. I have used this kit all over the world, and have 30+ years of oil field and process operational work under my belt, and I would be hard pressed to think of another company and organisation that goes to the lengths that Fardux does in the care and operability of it’s kit and assistance to the end user.
What will you be focusing on in your new role?
Firstly, I’ll be getting fully up to speed on the operational requirements that go on behind the scenes. I’ll also be following up on development already in progress, and coming up with ideas and plans to introduce as we move forward. The oil and gas field has taken a hammering over the past few years, and with so much focus now on sustainable energy production and diversity to aid global issues, it will be an interesting period to see how we could transition into these new areas utilising the equipment and know-how we have at our disposal, and move along with the current groundswell of climate change, renewable energy areas, and care for the planet, trying where we can, to do our part in sourcing environmentally conscious parts, suppliers, components and develop even more efficient ways for our recycling and reusable component usage.
What, in your opinion, should service companies be looking for in a data acquisition system, and what are Fardux doing to meet these needs?
They want accuracy, reliability, ease of operation and a solid development structure, tested to ensure complete reliance in the final presented product with the Fardux user out in the field.
They want to, and expect, accuracy above everything else. No matter where, when and how the operator gets them the end resulting data. To use an old computer adage, ‘garbage in, garbage out’.
I have seen situations in recent years where companies have wiped out their Well Testing and DAQ departments, thinking they are saving costs, and it has come back to haunt them, as they have lost a valuable resource.
You shouldn't sit a green operator in front of any DAQ system, just because they can operate the PC in the office and “nothing’s happening”. If something does start to go wrong, could they understand, recognise and act upon the data streaming on screen, right in front of them?
It is a totally different environment and situation, where the bottom line is, they are responsible for the team and the lives’ of all who are working around the testing equipment, and to an extent, the rig or site itself. When sitting in front of a PC screen with a graph trending upward, accepting an alarm status advising them the separator pressure has just spiked, and WHP has been steadily increasing for ten minutes… What now?
This is why at Fardux we run our own, in-house specialist courses for DAQ operators at both basic and advanced level. This is why we run our own courses on hardware maintenance. This is why even the operators on the well testing side of the Wellwise Group, go through our own certified competency if they work as contractors on a site, anywhere in the world.
What can we expect in terms of product development from Fardux in the coming months?
As always, we are constantly reviewing and enhancing what has gone before, but amongst other things we are working on a new upgraded Mini O.L.S.B. (Object Logic Switching Box), which is capable of initiating both audible and visible alarms around the site.
Upgrading the transceivers and adding a hardwired isolation switch for the wireless functionality on our CUBE and Airwave Logger Systems, whereby the wireless system can be independently isolated from the wired instruments, and switched off during hazardous operations, such as loading and preparing radio controlled TCP guns.
We’re also conducting ongoing reviews of our manuals and procedures, to make it even clearer, exactly what is required, expected, and the results that should be seen during operation.
If you’d like to contact Mark, he is reachable via email at mark.satchell@wellwisegroup.com