Based in Paris, Ron works as a contractor to monitor the Health, Safety and Environmental standards worldwide for suppliers to public company Total, one of the world’s top oil and gas producers.
“My current focus is a deep water subsea oil and gas field 100 kilometres off the West Coast of Nigeria,” he said.
“As the Health, Safety and Environmental manager, I ensure that the safety and environmental standards of both Europe and the country in which we are working are adhered to as per the terms of the contract.
“In the area of environmental management, Australia has the highest standards in the world, so with my Certificate IV, I have no problems working anywhere in the world.”
Ron cites Managing Director Phil Abernethy’s teaching as one of the course highlights.
“Phil isn’t just an academic who passes on the theory, he is highly experienced in this field and has enormous integrity,” he said.
“One of the things that he really drilled into us was the importance of not compromising our own professionalism.
“I’m well known for not budging when something is not right.”
Ron said he owed the confidence to stand his ground to what he had learned through the course.
“Before I moved into health and safety, I was a self-employed professional diver – it’s all I had ever done,” he said.
“But an episode of whooping cough in my late 40s meant I could never professionally dive again.
“A friend who worked in the oil and gas sector suggested I look into health and safety as a career option because as a professional, commercial diver and instructor, I had always been pedantic about safety and the environment.
“I owned the only diving centre in Australia that had never experienced a single incident and I had been instrumental in co-writing two different diving safety codes of practices implemented as acts through Parliament.”
At first, Ron found his friend’s suggestion too left of field, but his when his diving business sold, he was pushed to “give it a shot”.
“I was offered a six week contract on a small oil and gas pipeline in West Australia,” he said.
“As my friend had predicted, this was a field with which I had a natural affiliation and this contract kept leading to more contracts.
“I did the Absorb course to consolidate and expand my industry knowledge, while also allowing me to qualify to work overseas.
“As a result of having completed this course, I was accepted as a mature age student into Murdock University to undertake a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science.
“My ultimate goal is to become an expert consultant in the oil and gas sector at home in WA.”
Based in Paris, Ron works as a contractor to monitor the Health, Safety and Environmental standards worldwide for suppliers to public company Total, one of the world’s top oil and gas producers.
“My current focus is a deep water subsea oil and gas field 100 kilometres off the West Coast of Nigeria,” he said.
“As the Health, Safety and Environmental manager, I ensure that the safety and environmental standards of both Europe and the country in which we are working are adhered to as per the terms of the contract.
“In the area of environmental management, Australia has the highest standards in the world, so with my Certificate IV, I have no problems working anywhere in the world.”
Ron cites Managing Director Phil Abernethy’s teaching as one of the course highlights.
“Phil isn’t just an academic who passes on the theory, he is highly experienced in this field and has enormous integrity,” he said.
“One of the things that he really drilled into us was the importance of not compromising our own professionalism.
“I’m well known for not budging when something is not right.”
Ron said he owed the confidence to stand his ground to what he had learned through the course.
“Before I moved into health and safety, I was a self-employed professional diver – it’s all I had ever done,” he said.
“But an episode of whooping cough in my late 40s meant I could never professionally dive again.
“A friend who worked in the oil and gas sector suggested I look into health and safety as a career option because as a professional, commercial diver and instructor, I had always been pedantic about safety and the environment.
“I owned the only diving centre in Australia that had never experienced a single incident and I had been instrumental in co-writing two different diving safety codes of practices implemented as acts through Parliament.”
At first, Ron found his friend’s suggestion too left of field, but his when his diving business sold, he was pushed to “give it a shot”.
“I was offered a six week contract on a small oil and gas pipeline in West Australia,” he said.
“As my friend had predicted, this was a field with which I had a natural affiliation and this contract kept leading to more contracts.
“I did the Absorb course to consolidate and expand my industry knowledge, while also allowing me to qualify to work overseas.
“As a result of having completed this course, I was accepted as a mature age student into Murdock University to undertake a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science.
“My ultimate goal is to become an expert consultant in the oil and gas sector at home in WA.”
