Meet Patrick O’Shea, Senior Surveyor (DP and Critical Systems), ABL South Africa
The team at ABL Group shares the passion, vision and values for working in energy and the world’s oceans, de-risking and driving the energy transition. We are driven by the idea that the best work is born from professionalism, diligence… and fun. You know ABL Group, but do you know our team?
Give us a glimpse into your day-to-day life at ABL so far. What keeps you on your toes?
I spend a considerable amount of time travelling in the Southern African region for attendances on board various vessels for OVID inspections, Dynamic Positioning trials, MWS and Assurance surveys.
The past year I have diversified into casualty response attendances, supporting an array of interesting surveys locally. When I am not traveling for attendances, I coordinate operations and business development with my colleagues, continue with training and self-development, and supporting our global ABL colleagues.
The diversity of the work keeps me on my toes, as well as the drive within the ABL Group to keep growing and learning.
What drew you to our industry and what keeps you passionate about it?
My father was in the merchant navy for some time before he settled for an office job in banking. His love for the sea and all things relating to ships was contagious. The bug bit me at a young age and I have been around ships ever since. I have been fortunate to have had a career spanning almost 40 years so far in the marine world, from military ships, to commercial diving, from ship building and commissioning, to inspections, surveys, and training. The sea doesn’t take prisoners and sailors are a special collection of humans.
What keeps me passionate? The constant opportunity to learn and grow, and our related contribution to the ongoing drive for operational standards in the marine and offshore industry which is an everchanging landscape. The support regionally between colleagues is immense, and allows me to draw on experience of those colleagues working in matured oil and gas segments globally.
Can you tell us about something exciting you are working on right now?
Being part of the team that is expanding and diversifying ABL’s customer support base in southern Africa, as well as introducing our Group services, in multiple business lines, to emerging segments.
Establishing and growing ABL commercial entities and developing local talent in both Namibia and Mozambique is both challenging and exciting.
How do you see the future of ABL Services evolving in Africa and in Namibia particularly, and what technical or operational developments will be most critical?
Since the emergence of the oil and gas sectors in the southern African waters, we have seen a marked increase in the number of seismic, construction, drilling and offshore support vessels/units calling in at the various ports. These vessels (and the respective operators) require specialist services in way of DP, OVID and other marine assurance surveys which would require regular on board attendances.
Of course, the deepwater drilling units will also require additional services such as rig inspections. The region is a rapidly developing O&G sector and ABL, as a global forerunner in the offshore, marine services and assurance markets, carries a considerable depth and scope of projects across the sector.
The most critical element currently is the capacity for access to the local markets to facilitate the servicing of the operational market demand and to facilitate the cross-skilling of local mariners to transition from the more traditional commercial shipping environment to the O&G service sector.
Beyond the work, what’s your favourite part about being part of the ABL team across Africa?
ABL has a brilliant global network of specialists (including both our operations and support staff) who cover a broad spectrum of energy and marine related disciplines, and who are just a phone call away.
The high degree of collaboration certainly creates the feeling of being one big office. On a personal note, I have enjoyed the opportunity to once again work closely with an old friend and past colleague who joined the ABL South Africa office in 2023.
If you could change one thing about your industry, what would it be and why?
In an ideal world, I would love to see the achievement of high standards of people, training, technology and safety, without increasing the administrative and time loads on the mariners and offshore personnel.
But, selfishly, if I could change one thing for myself, it would be to simply teleport to the installation or vessel and avoid all the hassles of international and domestic air and road travel (“beam me up, Scotty”).
More about Patrick
Position: Senior Surveyor
Office: Cape Town, South Africa
Hobbies: Mountain biking; 4×4 driving; camping
Favourite authors: Terry Pratchett, Tom Clancy
Catch Patrick and the ABL team at IADC Drilling Africa 2026 Conference & Exhibition in Namibia
ABL Namibia provides a full technical service offering in energy and marine consulting, with a focus on marine technical due diligence, rig inspections and rig moving, marine inspections and surveys, marine warranty survey, and maritime services including ports consulting.