9 minute read
CSR's Conscious Leader - Authentic Leadership, Joannah Nelson
Inspiring Innovation and Continuous Improvements
"Authenticity in leadership is important. Authenticity is needed to responsibly lead high-performing businesses. DeNovo has challenged me to go beyond what I thought possible, to perform in all areas of the business, and to be a better leader. For us, “We make a difference” is a motto we take very seriously, and that helps us inspire innovation and continuous performance.
Even as the smallest player in Trinidad and Tobago’s offshore Upstream Sector, DeNovo continues to lead on innovative approaches to stranded natural gas field developments in a mature hydrocarbon basin. For Joannah Nelson, this is rooted in the organisation’s purpose - to make a difference that benefits the people of Trinidad and Tobago – and that starts with people.
“ For any employee to add value to a business, they must care about the work being done and understand how their job, roles and responsibilities, and decisions make a difference to business outcomes. For me, it’s about making a difference in my life, the lives of the people in our team, and in our country by challenging myself and others to grow. It’s important to identify gaps and areas for improvement and strive for something more as individuals, leaders, and organisations because that’s the only way we get better. That’s how we make a difference.”
DeNovo is Trinidad and Tobago’s first and only local upstream natural gas producer. The company owns and operates the Iguana and Zandolie natural gas fields, connected pipelines, and an onshore Gas Processing Unit (GPU) on the Point Lisas Industrial Estate.
As DeNovo’s Business Services Manager, Joannah is responsible for integrating business operations and systems and increasing efficiency across the organisation. Her journey with the organisation started as a consultant to develop the Contracts and Procurement Department when DeNovo was established in 2016. She then transitioned into the role of Procurement and Supply Chain Manager to support the Iguana field development and new upstream operations. In 2019, she became the Project Services Manager, supporting the Project Manager for the Zandolie Field Development and was responsible for contracts and procurement, logistics, materials, risk, and project controls for the award-winning project.
Consecutive “FIRSTS”
In July 2022, DeNovo announced first gas from its Zandolie field through the region’s first offshore platform powered entirely by renewable energy. The Zandolie platform uses a combination of wind and solar power generation with a 72-hour battery backup. Since first gas, the Zandolie platform has achieved 100% uptime, and there have been no unplanned outages.
DeNovo’s green power generation philosophy is a testament to the organisation’s commitment to “maximising the use of local content and innovative technology to unlock opportunities and to find new and better ways to contribute to the sustainable development of hydrocarbon resources for the benefit of Trinidad and Tobago.”
This approach resulted in DeNovo being awarded the “Best Decarbonisation Project 2022” by the Energy Chamber of Trinidad and Tobago and receiving the “Green Agenda Award 2022” from the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce at the 2022 Champions of Business Awards.
In 2018, DeNovo announced first gas from the Iguana field, Trinidad and Tobago’s first offshore west coast natural gas field development that also used the first conductor supported platform to be installed in the region. The Iguana field development leveraged local leadership with global collaboration to deliver an unmanned minimum facilities platform, three (3) production wells with a combined production of 80 MMSCFD, a 45 km offshore and onshore 14-inch pipeline, and a Gas Processing Unit (GPU) on the Point Lisas Industrial Estate. The Iguana platform uses solar panels and natural gas from the wells to power the thermoelectric generation system rather than the traditional diesel power generation system, reducing greenhouse gas emissions for a smaller carbon footprint.
For Zandolie, the COVID-19 pandemic challenged DeNovo to improve its ability to collaborate globally, virtually coordinating, managing, and delivering the design, engineering, construction, and installation of the single well, conductor-supported platform and 17” offshore pipeline. The project commenced in January 2020 and spanned 31 months employing approximately 371 people at the peak of construction with Zero (0) Loss Time Incidents (LTIs) from 476,613 manhours. In addition to the Zandolie Platform being entirely powered by wind and solar energy, there is also no methane slip in the transportation of the gas during extraction or transportation to the gas processing facility. Without the need for fuel storage and power generation, less steel was required on the platform, resulting in a more compact design with a small environmental footprint.
“ We believe in our people. We believe in the capabilities of our people, and our people have proven that they can do the impossible to world-class standards. We were able to execute even through the pandemic. People are willing to challenge themselves and get excited when there is a project. A drilling programme is very exciting but is also the riskiest aspect of an offshore development project. As an upstream operator and as Trinbagonians, it’s thrilling to see a local rig safely drilling wells.
We delivered Iguana while simultaneously setting up for operations. Our model is not to build these assets in new, innovative ways and then hand them over to someone else to operate. As we are the operator, it was important for us to ensure we design and build the assets and set up operating systems that could support and maintain our vision. We also heavily leveraged technology from the beginning, adjusting, and enhancing as we started operating. From our start-up of Iguana in 2018 to date, we’ve had pretty seamless operations with an average uptime of 99.7%.
For Zandolie, we challenged ourselves to do better, leveraging our learnings from Iguana and the competencies of our team. We are excited by the energy transition, and as an aggressively learning organisation we get to prove that renewables can be incorporated into designs and operations towards net zero. It’s responsible leadership and business when we look at innovative ways to continue operations safely, keep production up, and do what’s best for the environment as much as possible. We have done our lessons learnt from Zandolie and we are ready to incorporate these learnings into future projects to keep improving.
Our success also comes back to our vision and purpose. It comes back to how we designed the assets and the business to enable remote work and collaboration. Our vision from the beginning was a business that balances delivery with a safe, flexible, and healthy working environment that allows people to perform and grow despite challenges. Ensuring everyone had mobile devices for work was fundamental when we started in 2016, and that decision continues to yield results and benefits today. It allows us to continue making a difference.”
We make a difference in our values and how we care about people. We try to ensure that our people have the resources they need to do their job well, despite changing environmental circumstances. We value their safety and competencies, and it’s important as leaders to nurture that. That’s how we make a difference.
DeNovo’s innovative approach towards a greener Zandolie development amidst a global pandemic demonstrates its ability to lead local development with a low carbon footprint, aligned to the national development agenda of Trinidad and Tobago and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, to which Trinidad and Tobago is a signatory. For Joannah, DeNovo has proven its ability to deliver the impossible and that success is directly linked to inspiring people to dream big and to believe in themselves.
Inspiring People to Achieve the Impossible
DeNovo’s continued performance is also supported by employee engagement and ownership of the organisation’s vision and goals at all levels. According to Joannah, choosing the right people is essential, but so too is supporting them to understand how they contribute to the success of the business and empowering them all as leaders themselves.
“ I came into a company with a vision set by the leadership of accomplishing the impossible. Then we were able to execute the impossible, despite the many voices that did not believe in us. We believe in our people, and listen to their ideas and challenges, and that culture inspires us to push ourselves beyond what we previously thought possible for ourselves.
The beauty of supply chain management and procurement is that you need to understand all aspects of the business to do your job well. DeNovo has allowed me to really move around and learn about the business and challenge myself to be better along the way. I have also been able to support and challenge the people I work with to grow and be better as well.
Our “We make a Difference” tagline personally means a lot to everyone. For me, it means that as much as possible in everything I do, every decision I make, every action I take, and every conversation I have is centred around how we can make a difference and do things better. As a founding member of the non-profit NourishTT, I have been able to find another way to make a difference. NourishTT’s main objective is to end hunger and reduce food waste in Trinidad and Tobago and with the financial support of DeNovo, both NourishTT and DeNovo have been able to make a difference in the lives of many families throughout the country by ensuring they have food, medical support and even school supplies.”
Towards Net Zero
As DeNovo looks to expand operations and increase natural gas production, they continue to actively pursue renewable and sustainable energy projects. The team also often shares their learnings to support other organisations in increasing renewable integration across the country.
As part of the Proman Group, DeNovo’s upstream innovations also impact the efforts to reduce carbon emissions along the petrochemical value chain. Proman is leading global efforts to utilise methanol as a marine fuel, with significantly lower carbon emissions than traditional diesel fuel and LNG. Proman’s facilities in Trinidad and Tobago also include the world-scale M5000 methanol plant, which produces industry-leading lowcarbon methanol by recycling CO2 produced from nearby ammonia plants.
“Our contribution doesn’t end with DeNovo, and it makes a difference across the value chain. Proman now gets natural gas for methanol production from a platform powered by renewable energy. We are getting it cleaner, and they are getting it cleaner through their efforts. Our goal is to continue making a difference in Trinidad and Tobago with our operations, people, and partners. We are making a difference.”
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