Survey Engineers

The role of a Survey Engineer demands an in depth understanding of the latest methods, equipment and software used for data acquisition. An experieced professional survey engineer can save a significant amount of cost to a project by performing detailed planning, careful selection of equipment and pre-emptive selecton of contingency spares, which results in reducing downtime, thus saving project time. By being thorough during the equipment installation, and considering items such as system redundancy and careful verification of calibrations, no costly additional surveys should be required. For a role relatively small error in setup can propagate through the entire project and cost the client millions in rework. SSR has a direct experience in this field and can assist our clients with supply and selection of appropriate individuals which will reduce the risks to their projects.

Water and electricity are not ideal ingredients to mix, but this is one of the many challenging issues that face the offshire survey engineer. Electronic engineering is normally associated with equipment operating in dry and natural atmopheric environments. This changes completely when equipment is taken offshore and submerged, sometimes to depths in excess of 3000 metres. Today's survey engineer is faced with continual rapid advance in equipment technology, driven by the commercial and technical demands of the offshore industry.

Specific disciplines and activities survey engineers are involved with include:

• fault finding, repair and maintenance of electronic, computer and electromechanical equipment
• installation and interfacing of equipment and data communications networks onboard ships
  
• installation and interfacing of equipment on remotely operated vehicles (ROV's)
• calibration and verification of measuring devices
• operating surface and underwater positioning systems
• operating geophysical survey systems
• development of existing survey systems to fulfill specific project requirements.

Survey engineers are often pioneers involved in the trial and test of new equipment. A sound theoretical background is a must and most companies have a training schedule in place to ensure that their workforce keeps up with emerging technology.