Alumni Profile: Samantha Harris
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Left: Samantha Harris on Sakhalin Island with a Russian student pipeline engineer she was mentoring during summer vacation work. |
Degrees: Bachelor of Science (Hons) Geology 1996, PhD - Hydrogeology and Environmental Science Current Position: Snr Project Engineer (Operations and Maintenance) & Assets Interface Pipelines Project - Transition Team, Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd Samantha Harris’s role as a Senior Engineer with a company constructing the worlds largest integrated oil and gas project in remote Sakhalin Island off Siberia whilst juggling family commitments brings new meaning to the term ‘challenging’. One of few expatriate professional women in Russia, Samantha believes she may be the only University of Melbourne graduate working in Siberia. Here she shares some insights into her work, her location and how she manages work and family. |
I worked part time and full time as a geologist / hydrogeologist for an environmental consulting firm throughout my PhD. I've always been committed to working towards sustainable development and minimising impact to the environment from human activities, whether they are through mining, agricultural or petroleum industries.
After working for a number of years throughout Australia, I joined Shell Australia in Perth, working for their Shell Engineering business, which provided services to their Oil Products business. In this role I completed site decommissioning activities. This involved site closures (removing above ground infrastructure such as buildings as well as below ground infrastructure, such as underground storage tanks and pipework) and site remediation (managing any hydrocarbon impacted soil and groundwater).
I also worked closely with local, state and federal government agencies to develop suitable long term environmental site management plans. Throughout this phase I also worked closely with local community members who may have been impacted by hydrocarbon impacted soil and groundwater to minimise their exposure and to gain their insight and input into the environmental remediation plans.
I was then posted to Sakhalin Island, Russia, to work as a Risk, Assurance and HSES Advisor as a Shell secondee to Sakhalin Energy Investment Company (SEIC). Shell was a majority shareholder in this company. SEIC have significant challenges with respect to the construction of the worlds largest integrated oil and gas project, in a very environmentally sensitive region which is also politically charged, with many stakeholders showing high levels of interest in the project.
My first role was to assist the Pipelines Project Manager in minimising risks to the environment and the people working in construction from various hazards. It was an extremely challenging role given the location (an island off the east coast of Siberia, just north of Japan), climatic challenges (snow on the ground for 6 months of the year), cultural diversity (not only having a 70% Russian workforce, but the expatriate community has at least 30 different nationalities) whilst managing family commitments.
My husband and I decided to start our family and we were delighted with the birth of our son Charles Tasman Harris in December 2005. Due to the hospital conditions on the island we were advised to return to Australia to get suitable care.
After returning from maternity leave, I took on a new role involving Project Management. Specifically, my role is to manage the close out and handover of the Pipelines Project now that we are nearing project completion. This is also a challenging role, given that it covers the spectrum of project areas that need suitable transition from project to operations, including HSES, Information Management, External Affairs, Legal Issues, Engineering (Technical Integrity) and Finance (Cost, Planning, Budget transfers, etc).
Aside from work, the Shell expatriates here try to get involved with local charities such as the local orphanage, Sisters of Charity (who manage the local soup kitchen), the Russian Federation ex-Servicemen/women (who are some of the poorest of the poor), etc. We have been proud to contribute to some Sustainable Development programs as well, such as the Road Safety Partnership (raising awareness of road safety, like wearing seatbelts) and implementing this at local schools.
Life is very full here and the only constant is change. Realising that I am one of a very few expatriate professional women in Russia, I am very conscious of the fact that I am fortunate to have a very supportive husband who's own career as a Cartographer / GIS Analyst is flexible - he can easily take time out and re-enter the workforce on a part-time, work-from-home or full-time basis at any time. He has enjoyed the opportunity to stay at home with his son and watch him develop over the past 17 months and looks forward to our second child.
I am due to take my second maternity leave in the second half of this year. I will return to Melbourne to have the baby, due in September 2007. I will be enjoying my maternity leave in Melbourne for 5 months (July-December). I will then return to work in January 2008 with the Pipelines Project and remain with this project through to completion and final handover, due for late 2008. After this, a new posting in Shell, the current destination is unknown - keeps life exciting!
