Under the surface with: Fabiana Teixeira

Under the surface with: General manager with ScanTech Offshore South America.

Tell us a bit about yourself

I grew up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, attending the local public school before qualifying for the state technical school. When I was 19, I got a job with Schlumberger as a well testing engineer, which meant working offshore with people from all over the world – and learning English. Even though I knew nothing about the oil and gas industry at the time, I thoroughly enjoyed my offshore life.

Unfortunately I damaged my hand in a work accident in 2012, and had to move to the technical team within Schlumberger, but within two years I had become a mobilisation team leader responsible for equipment preparation and support to the field guys. It was a big challenge!

In January 2015 I was invited to join ScanTech Offshore as regional sales manager for the Americas and I’ve been with the company ever since. Outside of work, my passion is my dogs – we have two little dogs at home, but I also care for four homeless dogs and help out at two local dog shelters. I also love surfing with my husband at the weekends.

What’s your current role?

I’ve been made general manager of ScanTech Brazil which gives me responsibility for all commercial decisions as well as regional business development.

The South American oil and gas market is in a time of flux with a great deal of pressure on pricing but we are busy exploring wider opportunities in the region.

What projects are you working on?

Having a dedicated South American base in Brazil allows us to offer our customers in Brazil and Trinidad and Tobago fast-responding local support and competent personnel. We are also specialists in handling the often complicated process of licensing and the niche requirements of this region.

Unfortunately the economic crisis and political scenario in Brazil means that the market here has slowed down recently.

The Brazilian offshore oil and gas sector is clearly affected by the reduced world oil price as well as cash flow issues suffered by the Brazilian national oil company, Petrobras, and changes to the Brazilian administration. This means that offshore exploration activities have been slashed from 140 to 25 wells in the last six years.

However, things are looking up because changes in legislation have led to more international oil companies getting involved in offshore exploration and production. This gives us reason to be optimistic and we have expanded the support we offer our clients to include service and storage as well as maintenance.

Right now we are busy servicing the major rental and service agreement we have with Schlumberger and we have just secured a three-year contract to supply compressors to Ventura’s rig which will be transported to India. We have also just secured an extension on a contract to supply rental air compressors for Transocean, and a ‘call off’ contract for maintenance on steam generators for Halliburton.

In Trinidad and Tobago we also have an arrangement through Schlumberger to supply EXXON with a full package of rental equipment (including air and steam and heat suppression equipment such as rig cooling, PyroSentry and HeaterSentry).

What do you enjoy most about your job?

I love the ever-changing challenges I meet. It is very exciting! No two days are ever the same. It takes huge resources of dedication and perseverance to keep everyone motivated and I put a high priority on the value of team work. There weren’t many women in this industry when I started out – particularly offshore – but there are more of us around now and I’m very proud to be part of this exciting market.

What does the future hold?

We have a number of exciting projects in the pipeline, and we are bidding for additional jobs with key players and global corporations. My aim is to develop the Brazil and Americas region, keeping and improving the current client relationships and opening new doors if possible, with Brazil held in the highest esteem as an example of excellent service quality, structure, HSE, organisation and performance, service delivery and management.