Sheryll Yap
Graduate Process Engineer, Woodside Energy Limited
I’m the type of person who likes to keep busy, take on new challenges, meet new people and continuously seek to improve myself. This explains why I’m a second-year graduate on the Facility Engineering team of one of Woodside’s oil producing assets, the chairperson of Woodside’s graduate committee and a committee member of Young Engineers WA.
I’ve ended up as a process engineer in the oil and gas industry by simply sticking to my strengths, which at school were English, science and maths. I completed a Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical)/Bachelor of Science (Chemistry) double degree at the University of Melbourne and an additional Honours research year in chemistry. I always look for and pounce on good development opportunities so by the time I finished university I not only had two degrees under my belt, both completed with Honours, but also work experience as a laboratory demonstrator to university Chemistry students, a Research and Development (R&D) and Quality Control Chemist at Orica specialty Chemicals, an R&D technologist at Masterfoods and a process engineer at Woodside. For my Chemistry Honours research, I was awarded a scholarship and had much of my work published in journals. Furthermore, I was one of three people chosen to do my final-year engineering research project in China at Tianjin University.
While growing up in the eastern states, I didn’t get much exposure to the mining and oil and gas industries. So when I was offered an intern position to work at Woodside in Perth during a summer break I grabbed it with both hands to get a taste of what the oil and gas industry was like, as well as to see what Perth had to offer. I loved the work, enjoyed working for Woodside, made lots of friends and had one of the best summers in Perth. These reasons made my decision to accept an offer for a graduate process engineer position with Woodside fairly easy and I have not regretted it one bit.
My first role as a graduate process engineer was in the Pluto LNG Project’s commissioning and start-up team, which was a great experience and one that I was fortunate to have since the opportunity to be in commissioning doesn’t come around too often. I learned what was involved with starting up a multi-billion dollar greenfield facility and was responsible for many of the utility units, was able to observe the project during its construction phase, acquired a good grasp of the safety and contract aspects during this critical stage of the project and learned many valuable lessons along the way.
Currently, as one of three facility process engineers on Nganhurra, a floating production, storage and offloading facility (FPSO) just off Exmouth in WA, I provide support to achieve maximum production safely with minimum impact to the environment. Enfield crude is very heavy and therefore very valuable, which highlights the importance of debottlenecking and eliminating risks to successful production. There is hardly a dull moment – if an issue arises, for instance if the HP compressor trips, we need to get on to it pronto. There is plenty of challenging work and many opportunities for learning and development as I deal with a wide range of short to long term issues. Prioritisation, communication and time management are all must-have skills in this role.
I am based in the Perth office and enjoy going offshore, having travelled to the facility three times in the past year via plane to Learmonth airport and then helicopter to the FPSO. The number of people on Nganhurra varies throughout the year, with the maximum number on board being 60. The offshore personnel are predominantly male and the same can be said about the facility engineering team based in the Perth office. However, since everyone shares the same vision and goals, everyone on the team is valued, respected and supported regardless of gender, role and years of experience.
Throughout my life I’ve always been involved in committees and this comes from an innate desire to effect changes and improvements, and make positive contributions that I can look back on and say I’m responsible for. These reasons led me to join GradComm, Woodside’s graduate committee, and Young Engineers WA, a special interest group of Engineers Australia. Joining these teams also offered me many opportunities for personal growth and gave me the opportunity to network and meet more people. I initially joined GradComm as the Corporate Activities Representative and organised information sessions and tutorials aimed at increasing the understanding graduates have of the company and the oil and gas industry. After six months in this role, I became the first female chairperson of GradComm and led a solid team of four other committee members to help maximise learning and development opportunities for all 137 graduates. As a committee member of the Young Engineers, I help out with social and learning events where I can, and help with their promotion.
I have a very mixed bag of interests outside of work. Activities I’ve done in the past year include completing an intermediate Italian language course and a six-week beginners’ dancing course. I also do occasional boxing, Zumba and Bikram yoga classes. On top of this I’m learning to DJ, play the guitar, love cooking and I’m keen to get a motorbike licence.