The excitement in many internships comes from entering a new world with seasoned professionals that can help launch fulfilling careers. For Slippery Rock University student Rufus Byler, that world included flying in helicopters and working on offshore energy production platforms and drillships.
Byler, a senior safety management major from Hadley, completed an internship over the summer with the Chevron oil company in Covington, Louisiana. He said SRU prepared him through his energy exploration class and his ability to effectively network, develop the confidence to speak up, and have a driven attitude to make the most of his internship.
“Closed mouths don’t get fed,” Byler said. “Networking is huge, especially down there. You’re meeting tons of people and especially when you’re offshore, there’s people from all around the world. Those offshore locations have people I’ve met from the Philippines, Thailand, South America, Europe and Africa. You see all those walks of life every single day.”
During his internship from May to August, Byler worked on gap assessments for high-risk activities, such as in areas affecting confined space, electrical work, isolation of hazardous energy and more, all while helping Chevron implement new operating procedures. He would go offshore to present the assessments to contractors and Chevron personnel to ensure everyone was following safety protocols. While he was offshore, some of his daily duties included doing isolation and deisolation permit checks, site visits and audits, and start work checks.
For Byler, travelling 1,000 miles away –– and even further onto Chevron’s Gulf of America offshore facilities –– provided a wealth of new experiences and learning opportunities.
“When you go into something like that, you have to go in with open arms and learn from the people around you. You’re going to get bombarded with information and you have to take it in and learn it,” Byler said.
Hands-on experience is immensely important in the field of safety. Byler had the chance to work in several high-risk environments before going to college, seeing what the real-life application is truly like.
“You’re trusting the person next to you with your life,” Byler said. “It is very dangerous, but it’s very cool and there’s a lot to learn.’”
The upkeep of an offshore rig is an all-hands-on-deck endeavor, including working with plenty of specialized professionals on maintenance, drilling and safety tasks.
“You have Chevron personnel, the operators, then you have all these contractors; electricians, maintenance guys, scaffold builders, cooks, cleaners, there’s around 200 people on board,” Byler said. “It’s like a mini city out there.”
Byler went to offshore platforms and drill ships five times, each visit for three to five days. With shifts sometimes starting with a 4:30 a.m. flight, his days were usually at least 12 hours long.
In addition to the gap assessments, Byler also helped rewrite the worker authorization training that involved more high-risk activities with the work authorization vetting team and spent time with Chevron’s environmental team on documentation transfers after their purchase of the Hess Corporation, which included three offshore platforms.
“With the environmental team, those documents are basically the life of the platform,” Byler said. “That goes for anything from water disbursement to air quality testing, basically all the testing that went on for that platform was in those files.”
Byler said the most exciting part was flying in helicopters and being offshore. The helicopter training process incorporated Helicopter Underwater Escape Training.
“There is a lot more to the oil and gas industry, including things going on offshore, than people realize,” Byler said.
The HUET training process had Byler placed in a helicopter hull, dunked underwater and rotated around before he had to prove he could escape through safety glass windows.
The whole process of learning to implement safety procedures offshore was quite intriguing for Byler. He said it was an adrenaline rush.
The internship not only provided Byler experience to start his career, it also led to his first job. He will start a full-time position with Chevron in Covington next May as a Health, Safety and Environment/Operational Excellence offshore specialist.
“The offshore life is something hopefully I can work towards,” Byler said. “It’s definitely somewhere I want to be.”
More information about safety management at SRU is available on the program’s webpage.
