By Stephen Whitfield, Senior Editor
As a student attending École Centrale Paris (now CentraleSupelec), one of France’s premier engineering universities, in the late 1990s, Thomas Gautherot initially saw himself going into a career designing planes. He loved aeronautics, and he knew from childhood that he wanted to be an engineer. The fit seemed natural.
However, one day during his second year at university, he attended a career forum where alumni from various industries came to speak with students about their work experiences. There he met a drilling engineer working for Total (now TotalEnergies), and that meeting set him on his path.
“This guy told me about working on a platform in the middle of the sea, traveling the world. He showed me some pictures of a platform during a storm in the North Sea, and it really got my attention,” he said.
That chance meeting with the Total engineer led Mr Gautherot to pursue a master’s degree in ocean engineering and, ultimately, led him into a career that has taken him all over the world. In his current role as VP – Drilling & Wells at TotalEnergies, he not only travels the world but focuses much of his time on cultivating collaboration. This includes making rigsite visits for one week out of every month, which helps him truly understand the challenges field personnel face and effectively oversee E&P drilling operations on five continents.
His collaborative efforts also encompasses speaking at industry functions around the globe, such as the IADC World Drilling Conference and the SPE/IADC International Drilling Conference. This gives him opportunities to meet with stakeholders from every level of the energy value chain in settings that foster an exchange of ideas on how to move the industry forward.
“We have a lot of challenges ahead of us as an industry,” he said. “Even if some people may tell us that they don’t want the oil and gas industry around anymore, I’m convinced that we’re still needed, and we’re still expected to deliver the energy that people fundamentally need.”
Mr Gautherot joined Total in 2000 as a Junior Reservoir Engineer, based out of Angola. He later took on a Drilling Engineer position in Nigeria and a Senior Drilling Engineer position in Scotland, before being promoted to Drilling Manager in Azerbaijan.
By 2013, the company had flagged Mr Gautherot as a future candidate for senior leadership, which led him through a string of diverse roles. These included a year as a Corporate Auditor; two years leading new business and development studies for the drilling and wells division; three years as Health, Safety, Environment and Inspections Manager in a refinery; and two years as VP Procurement of E&P.
As it was intended, this experience exposed him to several aspects of TotalEnergies’ E&P business, far beyond the responsibilities he had become accustomed to as a Drilling Engineer.
For example, while working as an auditor at a small affiliate in Indonesia, he gained experience in the production of chemical adhesives and in the logistics of diesel fuel distribution between different facilities. Maintaining an open mind and sense of curiosity were critical in these positions – something that Mr Gautherot urges young professionals to remember as they work to advance their own careers.
“One of the messages I give to young people that we hire is that, whatever your job is, the most important thing is to learn. I’ve been a drilling engineer, I’ve had a lot of different experiences in different locations, and I have built technical credibility from working in the field, but I also have experience interacting with the rest of the company,” he said.
In 2021, Mr Gautherot was promoted to his current position as VP – Drilling and Wells. His day-to-day activities now involve overseeing a team of staff monitoring the approximately 5,000 TotalEnergies-operated wells around the world. Another aspect of the job is to help the company “prepare for the future.”
The future encompasses, for instance, efforts around sustainability and digitalization. It also involves working through industry organizations like IADC, he said, spreading TotalEnergies’ message on sustainability and digitalization. Industry engagements – such as a presentation he gave at the 2023 IADC World Drilling Conference on how to make sustainable wells a reality – are essential to collaboration and technical advancements.
He recalled the positive responses he received after the presentation: “I got a chance to speak with so many people about their company’s sustainability roadmaps. Those conversations gave me a lot of insight, a lot of ideas from drilling contractors and operators, and it gave me an opportunity to compare that with what we were doing.”
Such sharing of ideas at industry functions is vital for operators, drilling contractors and other stakeholders. “Change is not immediate. It’s not like you say something at a conference and something happens the next morning. But over time, things will evolve if we continue to share our views on where we see the industry is going.” DC
