Maartje van Santbrink

“The success of this conversion project is truly a team effort”

Since July 2025, Maartje van Santbrink has been involved in the Porthos project on behalf of TAQA as Offshore Installation Manager (OIM). During the conversion of the former gas production platform P18-A into a CO₂ injection platform, she ensures that all work is carried out safely and in a coordinated manner. She assesses and issues work permits, coordinates the schedule and monitors the coherence between the many activities taking place simultaneously.
“You need to know exactly what’s happening on the platform and what risks are involved,” says Maartje. “You don’t just issue work permits; you also understand the impact of the various activities. It’s precisely that combination of safety, planning and operations that makes this role so interesting to me.”

A different role from the norm
The role of OIM within the Porthos project differs significantly from a standard OIM role in the oil and gas industry. Whereas an Offshore Installation Manager is normally responsible for a production platform, Porthos involves a large-scale conversion operation. As long as the Valaris 123 is moored alongside the platform, Valaris’s Head of Current Operations is responsible for the drilling rig. Maartje liaises with him daily regarding the safety and progress of the work. As soon as the Seafox 4 jack-up unit arrives in early September and takes over the accommodation role from the Valaris 123, operational responsibilities will shift to her.

The connecting link
Although safety and planning form an important part of her work, Maartje says that, ultimately, it’s all about collaboration. “I’m not a line manager,” she says, “but I do find that I’m often the link. On a platform measuring roughly 14 by 15 metres, people from different backgrounds and with different areas of expertise work closely together during their two-week shifts. That can sometimes cause tension. So it’s important that you know how to find common ground and keep communicating with one another.”

Learning and improving together
The conversion of an offshore production platform is not unique in itself, but the transformation of a gas production platform into a CO₂ injection platform certainly is. “Porthos is a first-of-its-kind project. That means that all parties involved continue to learn as they go along. Not only during implementation, but also during the design phase. For example, the pig receiver was moved from the helicopter deck to the intermediate deck, as this proved to be a much better solution in practice. The design of the boat landing has also been adapted based on experience gained during implementation. These are excellent examples of how TAQA, KCI and Porthos work together. ‘The insights of the people carrying out the work on site are genuinely taken on board, so that they can be directly translated into improvements to the design.’

Safety requires constant attention
In a project of this scale, safety is naturally a top priority: both during the planning stage and in delivering a safe and reliable end result. Interestingly, according to Maartje, it is not always the highest-risk activities that require the most attention. “Everyone is extra alert when it comes to high-risk work. The biggest challenge actually lies in the SIMOPS: the various activities taking place simultaneously. It is precisely then that risks can arise which can only be prevented by maintaining constant communication with one another. That is why we pay close attention to work permits, daily meetings and effective coordination between all parties involved.”

One team
That collaboration has clearly developed over the course of the project. “At the start, during the drilling phase, Valaris and TAQA really had to get used to working together. Thanks to the commitment of the project leaders and their teams, we’ve increasingly started working together as one team. You can now see that everyone has the same goal in mind and is working together towards the completion of the project.”

When Maartje looks back on the past year, she is particularly proud of the people she has worked with. ‘Everyone works hard every day to ensure that the work is carried out safely. When you consider how many people are working on such a small platform at the same time and how few incidents have occurred, that really is a remarkable achievement. The success of this operation is not down to any one person, but to the whole team.’