Broken bones, ligament damage, dead legs, shin splints and exhaustion did not prevent a hardy group of footballers from raising thousands for charity by completing an epic 24-hour match.

Thirty-six players including Ingen's very own Systems Engineer Matthew Laurenson took part in the match at Lochside Park – the home of Hermes Junior Football Club – in Bridge of Don to raise funds for the Dochas Education Trust.

Two teams, kitted out in Scotland and Brazil strips, kicked off the match last Friday at 6.30pm and played straight through until 7pm on Saturday with only a half hour break for half-time.

The players who took part ranged in standard from those with Highland League experience to local businessmen and school pupils who just wanted to come along and help raise funds for a good cause.

Organiser Dougie Simpson said: “The first four or five hours were played at normal match pace with Scotland being ruthless in front of goal and taking a substantial lead.

"Things started to slow down around about midnight and the pace of the game had taken its toll on the Brazil squad who had already lost four players due to injuries ranging from a broken hand to a dead leg.”

When half time came at 6.30am both teams only had one substitute left each so the decision was made to reduce the size of the pitch in a bid to keep the challenge going for a further 12 hours.

Come full time, Scotland had secured a memorable 95-87 victory, and, more importantly, a whopping £12,500 had been raised for the trust.

The Dochas Education Trust is a Christian organisation which is working to improve the Nsanje district of Malawi through education and training. The trust is sending a group of volunteers to help run a children’s bible club for two weeks in July.

Mr Simpson added: “All of the players who survived the 24 hours require huge praise, most notably Craig Ferguson who played an incredible 20 of the 24 hours. One word: machine.

"We are hugely grateful to Hermes for allowing us to use their pitch, local businessman Jim Milne who provided the strips, the referee Dan McFarlane and the ladies who organised the food which helped keep the players going. We are delighted to have raised so much for such a worthy cause.”

For more information on the Dochas Education Trust go to www.dochaseducation.org.uk.

Source: stv.co.uk

Indeed Baker Hughes chat was circulating the office as Ingen's very own Claire Marlow took on the 10k challenge raising funds for CLAN.

With running mate Paddy Gopala they completed the course in a very respectable time of 64 minutes with no stoppages - which we're lead to believe made it the first time they had managed to run a full 10k in one go!

With a fundraising total to date of £670.00 for charity CLAN - a huge congratulations to Claire for dedicating her time and effort to succeeding in such a worthwhile challenge for a worthy cause.

Alan will go on to enroll as a Mentor for Ingen’s recently implemented Approved Company Training (ACT) Scheme, accredited by the IChemE.  Mentors work to counsel trainee engineers through the training over a period of 3-5 years tutoring and advising them through the range of experience required to achieve chartered status. It is Ingen’s policy to provide a comprehensive programme of training and experience, ensuring that all engineers seeking Chartered Engineer status develop a wide knowledge of appropriate professional engineering skills.

 With several other members of the engineering team working towards achieving Chartered status, Ingen have no doubt that the quality of their team will continue to strengthen as 2011 progresses.

At present there are several members of staff fully IChemE Chartered and a further 9 in training.  The company is investing heavily in training and development of staff and believes that even in this current economic climate it is worthwhile and necessary to position the business for success going forward.  Senior management believes the industry skills shortage is ever present even in this fragile economic environment and wants to position the company for future growth. 

It is Ingen’s policy to provide a comprehensive programme of training and experience, ensuring that all engineers seeking Chartered Engineer status develop a wide knowledge of appropriate professional engineering skills.  The training scheme will also provide a broad understanding of applied chemical engineering to the benefit of the company, its employees and its clients.

Conor and seven other representatives were invited to the competition all having previously won an EI Award for Best MSc. project on their respective courses from the Robert Gordon University and the University of Aberdeen.  After a short presentation and Q&A session the outcome was decided a panel of judges.

Conor studied the MSc Oil & Gas Engineering at RGU and his MSc project was carried out with Ingen.  The title of his project was “A Knowledge-Based Concept Stage Development Screening Tool for Artificial Lift & Subsea Processing Technologies"

Well Done Conor!

Rob Binner has over thirty years of experience engineering and commissioning in the Oil & Gas Industry in a variety of different roles covering several worldwide locations.

Rob's particular skills include:

• Instrumentation and Control Systems
• Electrical
• Facilities Engineering
• Brownfield Modifications
• Commissioning

Rob's experience builds on our current capabilities, and in particular with respect to our support to projects involving:

• Multi-discipline FEED
• Topsides modifications associated with tie-backs
• C&I, Electrical, Facilities Engineering or commissioning activities arising from process modifications.

Ingen is delighted to welcome Rob to the team and we look forward to a long and fruitful association.

Senior management believes the industry skills shortage is ever present even in this fragile economic environment and wants to position the company for future growth.  “Investment in staff is one of the key goals of the company and implementation of the training scheme has been in preparation for almost two years.” Wayne Strachan, Commercial Director. 

It is the Ingen’s policy to provide a comprehensive programme of training and experience, ensuring that all engineers seeking Chartered Engineer status develop a wide knowledge of appropriate professional engineering skills.  The training scheme will also provide a broad understanding of applied chemical engineering to the benefit of the company, its employees and its clients.

It is expected that all participants in the scheme will be in a position to apply for full Corporate membership typically within three to five years through a combination of experience developed through direct work assignments, including secondments and training – both formal courses and “on the job” training as defined by Ingen’s approved scheme.  In doing so, it is expected that an engineer will meet the requirements as set out by the IChemE.

Russell Cutler, an expert with over 20 years experience in flow assurance modelling in the Oil & Gas industry, has been recruited to create and head up the flow assurance team within Ingen to service clients in Aberdeen and internationally.  A significant increase in the number of flow assurance projects, both in the UK and overseas, has prompted this investment, together with increasing our service offering by directly offering transient analysis using specialist simulation software.

The position is underpinned by the significant investment in specialist software, OLGA, to allow Ingen to carry out transient analysis of oil and gas pipelines in house. Operations Director Andy Robertson comments that, “This investment in the new position and software is a significant step change for Ingen in the improvement and delivery of our services.  The investment in OLGA and recruitment of Russell further underpins our commitment and ability to deliver successful flow assurance projects, from concept to production.

“Our objective is to grow this team in house and create a further five positions over the next year, which based on our current workload and increasing demands from the Middle East, is well within our reach.”