Solstad Offshore : Kostiantyn Terekhov

Kostiantyn from Ukraine started his career in Solstad Offshore in 2013 as a Technical Superintendent in our Singapore office. One year later he was promoted to Technical Manager.

Read more about why he strongly recommends working for a multicultural company.

Title: Technical Manager Asia Pacific
Joined Solstad: 2013
Country: Ukraine

What is your background (education and experience from other companies)?

I graduated from National University "Odessa Maritime Academy" in 2003. I was sailing on board various types of merchant and offshore vessels/barges from 1999 till 2011.

When my first child was born in 2010, I moved ashore as Technical Superintendent for Bourbon Offshore.

When and how did your story with Solstad start?

My family and I wanted to get some international experience and I started looking for a job either in Singapore or Dubai.

In 2013 Solstad had advertised for a Technical Superintendent position in Singapore so I applied and got this job. In 2014 I was promoted to Technical Manager.

Can you explain what you currently do in your role as Technical Manager Asia Pacific?

APAC region includes operational area South East Asia, Far East, Middle East, Australia, New Zealand and Oceania. Collectively with the technical team in Australia we are responsible for overall management and technical operations of the Solstad APAC fleet of 17 vessels in operation and 6 vessels in lay-up. With a team of five technical superintendents within APAC we have been involved in a number of interesting projects - including management of heavy lift pipe laying barge DLB until she was sold in 2020, technical specification completion commissioning and delivery of two MPSVs built in China, mobilizing new built aquaculture DP wellboat to Tasmania, converting a company PSV into a multipurpose logistics vessel capable of carrying 76 off 20ft shipping containers as deck cargo while maintaining logistic vessel capabilities, multiple dry dockings, vessel up grades and layup / re-mobilizations hub.

What do you want to highlight from your current position?

With a good mix of nationalities and technical skills in the APAC Technical team, it brings unique challenges but also shared learnings and positive improvements for our business with greater understanding of how different regions approach the challenges presented by the offshore industry.

Working closely with the greater Solstad Technical team, being influential in technical process and system for positive improvements intended to increase vessel reliability and up time by reducing reoccurrence of technical failure is of top priority.

In Solstad we now have 50 nationalities and we encourage diversity. Can you relate to a situation where diversity has improved the results in your daily work?

In the first place, it is amazing to work in a team of seven which consists of 6 different nationalities! Integration of the Perth technical team into APAC has been one of my biggest challenges with such a reactive client network in Australia. It was difficult at first to find a working dynamic for the merged team and I am proud of how far we have come as a team and feel the APAC technical team is now fully united despite sitting in two different locations and being so multinational.

Shipping is traditionally a male industry but Solstad believe in equal opportunities. Would you recommend women to start a career in Solstad?

Definitely. There are a lot of women in Solstad and we even have a Master on one of our vessels operated in Taiwan. (Hi Blanka!)

Would you recommend young people to start a career in Solstad?

Life and work at sea is not for everyone, however for those who chose career at sea, joining the world's leading offshore shipping company with some of the best vessels in the fleet, will be the right choice.