Sponsored feature: A day in the life at Shell

Chris works for Projects and Technology and, like many Shell Upstream Engineers in the UK, is based in Aberdeen. Projects and Technology is a critical part of Shell that develops and manages solutions that keep Shell at the cutting edge of technology in everything it does, from exploration and production of oil and gas all the way to refining and marketing products to customers.

“My official job title is Principal Control and Automation (PACO) Engineer. Our offshore oil rigs have a whole range of instruments that measure every kind of variable from temperature to flow speeds. There are also sophisticated intelligent computer systems that can make decisions based on measurements to keep processes running efficiently and safely.  It is my role to make sure the instrumentation is running correctly. Part of my role includes gathering information, so I will analyze lots of engineering drawings and also have meetings with operators to keep up to speed with activities on the ground. We get to use some advanced software to process the data. My average day is hard to describe as it is highly variable. I’m mainly desk based but also will visit sites to check on the instrumentation and carry our safety reviews.