Gordon Sterling: Contributing to the Heritage of the O&G Industry

Serving 35 years in the oil and gas industry with Shell and then contributing for the last couple of years as a consultant, Gordon Sterling's career has encompassed some of the biggest innovations and technologies the industry has ever seen. Named as a Heritage Award winner for OTC 2008, Sterling has definitely had a hand in many influential offshore projects and certainly helped to shape the energy industry of today.

Gordon Sterling is being honored by the Offshore Technology Conference with a Heritage Award at the OTC Awards Luncheon on Tuesday, May 6. Devoting more than four decades of a decorated career to offshore advancements, Sterling has been a leader in the industry.

The OTC chairman in 1998 and 1999, Sterling represented the American Society of Civil Engineers on the OTC Board of Directors for eight years. He also served on the board and as president of the Coast Oceans Ports and Rivers Institute of the ASCE and is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers.

Now retired from Shell, he uses his vast experiences and knowledge to consult companies on how to organize and execute offshore projects. Rigzone got the chance to catch up with Mr. Sterling for a one-on-one about his life in the oil and gas industry.

How have you contributed to the development of offshore resources through your career?
In looking back over my 35 years with Shell, all but two years being spent in the Offshore Industry, I reflect that there were times in the 1990s that the projects that I had worked on were producing as much as 5 to 6% of the total USA domestic Oil production. In another vein, I was involved in some manner -- as designer, construction engineer, project manager, or overall project director --with about 20 major projects in the Gulf of Mexico, and a couple international ones, that have produced, or will eventually produce, over 2 billion barrels of oil.

As a professional, my personal contributions have ranged from research studies on the load-carrying capacity of driven piles, to the managerial issues involving more effective ways for the oil companies and contractors to jointly execute projects in a mutually beneficial manner.

What has been the most rewarding aspect of your career?
When I joined Shell, the deepest water production system was a 250-foot platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Those of us in the generation that joined the offshore industry in the 1960s were very fortunate to be at the onset of a truly astounding growth in the offshore oil and gas industry. We rode the wave, so to speak, and were therefore involved in the new and innovative engineering and construction technologies for our entire careers.

Being involved in projects that always had some new aspect, requiring new technology, or significant advances to existing methods, has been a real pleasure. These included such technical advances as understanding how to determine pile capacity, how to determine and deal with structural dynamics and fatigue, the basis for wind wave and current levels and the hydrodynamic forces created, and the appropriate ways to analyze and deal with technical risks.

On the equally important management and relationship level has been the challenge to develop contracting and management approaches so that the talents of consultants, contractors and oil company technologists were all effectively utilized to solve these challenging, but surmountable problems.

In short, being involved in the actual execution of significant projects, which served a national need and provided an economic return to the company, has been very satisfying.

Why do you feel you've been so successful in your career?
On a personal level, I was willing to take on new and different projects. Each assignment was a learning opportunity. And, though I worked in a very sound and, I believe, professional organization, I kept myself at a knowledge level such that I could have gone elsewhere if things had turned sour, or if bigger opportunities arose.

On a company level, I was fortunate to work for a company that was deeply committed to the offshore, allowing me to work on truly exciting projects my entire career. And, also fortunate to have a series of managers who had the authority and the personality to support innovation and development of new ways to improve each project as we progressed.

What do you think is the future of the oil and gas industry?
There are many more qualified than I am to discuss the global aspects of the energy industry. However, I am confident that the Offshore and Harsh Environment segment of the oil and gas industry will be with us far beyond my grandchildren lives (and one of then is less than a year).

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