Meet the Team: Conan O’Driscoll

With more than 25 years of seagoing and shore-based experience to his name, Conan O’Driscoll, Principal Marine Engineer in our Liverpool office, has one of the most impressive maritime engineering portfolios in the industry.

Conan started his career offshore as an engineer cadet, once qualified he moved to Maersk Line, predominantly working onboard container vessels, before transferring back to Maersk’s fleet of offshore vessels.  During his 11-year stay at Maersk, he worked his way up the ranks to Chief Engineer.  Crucially, during this time in the offshore fleet, Conan was a man who had to wear many hats while at sea. 

“You would work all day in the engine room and then take on a shift operating the crane or the anchor handling winches for a few hours.  These vessels didn’t have technicians or electricians onboard, so the engineers received basic training on how to maintain the equipment themselves; it was not always comprehensive training, particularly when it came to the hydraulics or electrics. Depending on the nature of work the vessel was involved in mechanical failures of the equipment could be common so you had to learn on the fly,” Conan noted.

“You can learn a lot from that approach though.  Being able to adapt yourself and understand common risks meant I quickly understood best practices and how to ensure mechanical issues were mitigated or resolved quickly.”

In 2011, Conan ended his time at sea and decided the time was right to come ashore.  However, he was involved in one of Europe’s biggest-ever energy projects just prior to his feet hitting the ground.

“I was involved in the construction of the Nord Stream 1 offshore gas pipeline connecting Russia to Germany, working onboard offshore vessels to assist with moving subsea equipment, anchor handling equipment and towing operations.  We had some great experiences on that project, and I had the chance to reconnect with my crew for the Nord Stream 2 project, but decided my seagoing days were behind me and a change was due.  I’m still in-touch with that same crew to this day as you bond as a team incredibly quickly when at sea,” Conan said.

After moving ashore Conan worked as a Superintendent to oversee technical management of a number of self-discharging dry bulk carriers.  In his role, he assisted crew members to understand and maintain the cranes onboard.  However, Conan noted that a superintendent’s role had its drawbacks, particularly at a difficult time in the industry.

“You’d often be at sea for weeks at a time, whether it be routine inspections for cranes or carrying out crane repairs and load testing.  There were times as superintendent that I was away longer than when I was a crew member!”

“It was also a particularly challenging time for the dry bulk sector in 2011-2012.  There was an oversupply of vessels and market rates were low.  As a knock-on result, maintenance budgets were low.  At the time, this made my role as superintendent more difficult in trying to maintain the standards that I was used to at Maersk,” he added.

Being based in Merseyside, Conan knew of Brookes Bell and in 2012 he joined the Liverpool team as a Marine Engineer.  He highlighted how the idea of being part of Brookes Bell was always something in the back of his mind.

“I became aware of Brookes Bell during my period as a superintendent.  Living in Birkenhead and working in Liverpool, the marine community was an incredibly small world, and I later learned that my next-door neighbours were also closely linked to Brookes Bell.  I was fortunate I had the chance to join the team and it’s been more than 12 years now and it’s still fantastic to be here,” Conan added.

Although his work predominantly focuses on surveys, including collision damage, main/auxiliary engine failures and various crane issues, Conan pointed out that his career highlight to date was on an entirely different sector altogether -exhaust gas cleaning systems or “Scrubbers”.

“In 2017 we began working with owners to understand the requirements of the incoming IMO 2020 regulations on sulphur in exhaust gas emissions.  This regulation looked to reduce the sulphur content of exhaust gas from the vessel’s engines and make it cleaner.  This meant the majority of owners were required to retrofit their vessels to either run on cleaner fuel options or install scrubbers to reduce air pollution.”

“We needed to understand the compliance options for owners. This meant understanding owners’ positions and undertaking a huge amount of research into the different options to ensure their fleets were compliant.  As the 2020 deadline neared, there was a rush for scrubber installations and more and more owners came to Brookes Bell for advice.  We were also dealing with cases where scrubbers had been installed but were causing problems, such as corrosion or specification issues,” Conan noted.

“At the time, I was the go-to guy at the time at Brookes Bell for everything scrubber related.  However, it is important to note it was also a team effort as our metallurgists and fuel experts played a major role in understanding the composition of both the materials used in scrubbers and the alternative low sulphur fuels – there were a lot of issues with the supply and use of some of these fuels” he noted.

Conan has acted as an Expert Witness at a number of arbitration cases both in the UK and in Europe related to scrubbers.  He pointed out the importance of being continuously aware of the trends and regulations related to emission technologies in the maritime sector.

“Brookes Bell’s years of work on scrubbers and IMO 2020 means we are well-placed to deal with the current issues facing owners when it comes to carbon emissions.  From different technologies to an array of fuel options, we are always keeping abreast of issues, working closely with manufacturers and staying trained on compliance options for fuels and engines.  These are the reasons Brookes Bell has remained so trusted for so long and I hope it is why we are going to play a big part of the shipping industry’s decarbonisation journey,” he concluded.