Sarah De Boer, Centrica

Young project professional of the year: 2015

Imagine having to clear a blocked well in the deep waters of the North Sea in winter safely and with huge amounts of money at stake.

That was the challenge facing Sarah De Boer from operator Centrica when the flow of oil from a well in the Chestnut Field declined steeply. A build-up of scale had slowed the flow to the floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, Hummingbird.

The well had to be shut in to prevent further scaling, losing nearly 2,000 barrels of the field’s daily production. The only other oil-producing well on the field was also shut in awaiting treatment to prevent scaling, leaving Hummingbird with no incoming production but very high running costs.