Murdo MacRitchie

engineering manager, CNRL International

Expertise

Project Management, Construction, Design

Location

Scotland

My highlights

Working on the Berneray Causeway Project

Chartered Engineer with the ICE

Certified Project Manager with the Association of Project Management

A day in my life

As the engineering manager of an oil and gas company, I lead a team of 40 multi-disciplinary engineers working across three North Sea platforms and two assets in the Ivory Coast, West Africa.

Every day is incredibly varied.

Everything from immediate operational issues through to more long-term ‘life-of-field’ issues, including technical, financial, people, regulatory issues – the full spectrum!

I love it to be honest – I’m always learning, never boring!

Civil engineers are not boring people – quite the opposite!

Which individual project or person inspired you to become a civil engineer?

My father.

He was a shuttering joiner on many mega-projects relating to oil and gas in the late 70s and early 80s. His respect and admiration for the civil engineers he worked with really rubbed off on me and I always held the profession in high esteem from an early age.

We asked Murdo…

I would recommend a career in civil engineering because…

It’s never boring, you're always learning, and civil engineering projects improve people's lives.

What’s the biggest/most complex thing you’ve made out of Lego?

A tractor! It was a Christmas present when I was young. Loved it!

Complete this phrase: I’m a civil engineer, but I’m also…

a father, husband and crofter in the Outer Hebrides!

What about being a civil engineer gets you out of bed each morning?

Learning new things every day by dealing with challenges and working with some amazingly talented engineers!

What’s one great thing that you love about civil engineering that you didn’t know until you started working in the industry?

The impact projects have on peoples lives. I'd always focused on the technical aspects, with little thought about the difference infrastructure projects can make in people's lives.

Which civil engineering project (past or present) do you wish you’d worked on?

Ninian Central Oil and Gas Platform, built in Kishorn, Wester Ross, Scotland.

I'm lucky to work for the company who now own and operate this platform. The concrete jacket is an incredible feat of civil engineering - 600,000t of concrete floated out to the North Sea, still standing over 40 years later.

My father was a shuttering joiner on this project – I would've loved to have worked on it.

Anything else?

I'm the vice-chair of the local community landowner group called URRAS.

This has been an incredible opportunity to be part of a progressive movement, focused on creating a sustainable, low-to-no carbon community in the outer Hebrides.

Murdo's career path

I did the 4-year BEng (Hons) university degree straight out of school.

During the summer holidays, especially during the later years of university, I took on student placements with the local council for work experience.

Not only that, the placements gave me vital contacts and an opportunity to demonstrate that I had potential.

That opened up the opportunity to go into the Berneray Causeway project straight from university.

After two years there I accepted a position with Babtie Group in their Aberdeen office.

After a few years I moved into the oil and gas industry in 2001, and I have remained in this industry since, working on different types of projects in many different parts of the world.

I'm always grateful for my grounding in civil engineering for enabling me to see things form the bottom/foundations up.