Operations & Maintenance Manager - Alaska-Santos

Through its merger with Oil Search, Santos has acquired and assumed operatorship over a world-class portfolio of oil leases on the Alaskan North Slope, USA.

Our focus in Alaska is advancement of our Pikka Phase 1 project, which includes a single drill site, an oil processing facility, and other infrastructure to support production of 80,000 barrels of oil per day.

Pikka has been identified as being among the top quartile of oil and gas development projects for greenhouse gas emissions performance. Pikka is poised to play an important role in the energy transition and is aligned with our company goal of managing climate change risk.

The Pikka Unit is one of the largest conventional oil discoveries made in the United States in the last 30 years, and the Pikka Phase 1 Project is the most significant development on Alaska's North Slope in more than 20 years.

The permitted Pikka development project includes two additional drill sites. The Alaska assets also include discoveries made from both the Mitquq and Stirrup exploration wells drilled in 2020. These opportunities combine to offer a clear path to long-term growth in Alaska.

Position Purpose

The Operations & Maintenance Manager will be part of the Production Operations team and is accountable to the Director of Production Operations.

In this leadership role, the Operations & Maintenance Manager holds primary accountability for leading the frontline operations and maintenance teams, including the management of contractors, and supporting site resources. They will ensure successful management of all functions in accordance with established policies, procedures, systems, and requirements approved by the company.

The role is the most senior on site and is responsible for the safety of all site personnel including emergency response activities.

The role will ensure safe and successful start-up of the Pikka field and developing and managing the processes necessary for the long-term operability and reliability of the assets. This will require collaboration with project, development, commissioning, and start-up resources through the project delivery lifecycle.

Key Responsibilities

• Promote and lead in the implementation of Santos Ltd policies and procedures, including Safety, health, environment, process, people, and planning.
• Manage EHS risk and promote risk awareness amongst employees, ensuring processes are steward to lower risk to as low as reasonably practicable, and support the leadership team to achieve a zero-incident culture.
• Lead, coach and guide operational teams towards continuous improvement and delivery against business targets, including the control of costs in associated with production accountabilities.
• Develop the operating processes and management system to ensure long term operability and reliability of the asset and implement Operational Excellence processes.
• Set operational strategies for integrated project delivery, commissioning, start-up, and long-term operations.
• Build out the organization to ensure a safe and successful start-up of the field and in a way that develops the desired workforce culture.
• Actively work with the project delivery team to ensure a smooth transition from Project to Operations.
• Ensure stakeholder engagement and successful partnership including joint venture partnerships in alignment with asset development, operations and associated budgets.
• Manage any SIMOPS associated with ongoing drilling and construction activities.

Qualifications

• Degree qualified or equivalent tertiary / work / industry experience in relevant technical area

Experience and skills

• Extensive gas and oil process or production operations experience in plant or field - Alaska North Slope experience will be advantageous
• Experience of Offshore / Onshore operations, including FIFO and shift work
• Extensive team leadership and management experience, preferably at the site manager level or higher
• Demonstrated safety leadership experience
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills with people at all levels of the organization
• Self-motivated with demonstrated experience in building relationships
• Proven experience with SAP and Integrated Action Planning workflow systems