“I never thought I would be making multimillion dollar decisions and recommendations based on my technical analysis and work on a regular basis. We work in a very capital intensive industry and reservoir engineering, in particular, is a challenging, high risk/ rewards game with lots of uncertainty. It can be the world’s best feeling to be celebrating a win with your team” – Helena Wu

Helena joined the Santos Graduate Program in 2008 initially as a Field Production Engineer based at Ballera, South West Queensland, before rotating into the Gas Development department in 2010 as a Reservoir Engineer looking after Cooper Basin Gas and Permian Oil assets.

In February 2012, Helena moved into a Planning Analyst role within the Gas Strategy and Finance team where she was responsible for modelling, forecasting and identifying the opportunities/threats and implications of various investment/ operating scenarios that affect the optimisation of the Santos Eastern Australian portfolio.

Helena recently moved into a Reservoir Engineering role in the Oil Exploration and Development team to broaden her technical experience, and she aspires to a subsurface or asset management position.
 

Five minutes with Helena:

Why did you join the Santos Graduate Program?

I completed an industry honours project with Santos during my final year of study and really liked what I saw—the people, company culture, everything! The Santos Graduate Program has an excellent reputation for providing opportunities with real, hands-on responsibilities combined with great training and constant support. Being a part of the program has allowed me to hit the ground running with my career.

Explain a time when you felt most supported.

Mentoring is an important and valued part of the Graduate Program. I had an awesome technical mentor when starting out as a Reservoir Engineer. He was a very experienced and well respected engineer with a fantastic, quirky sense of humour. He helped me out a lot with concepts, given my mechanical engineering background, and was a believer of learning by doing. As a graduate, it’s great to have your own projects and responsibilities while knowing someone is looking over your shoulder and there to provide support when needed.

What has been your favourite role/rotation?

Working as a Field Production Optimisation Engineer, based out at Ballera on a ‘two weeks on, two weeks off’ roster. The role was a fantastic opportunity to learn about our operations and understand the challenges faced in the field.