The firm began in a single office with a small founding team, one bridge contract, and the rule that a chief engineer signs every drawing.
The Bjørnafjord crossing, awarded in 1995, was the first programme wide enough to require a regional office. By that point the firm had stopped taking on subcontracted scopes — the practice is run by in-house discipline heads, and it has been ever since.
Five years in, the firm was invited to bid the Hail-3 fixed platform in Abu Dhabi. The Dubai office was opened the same year the contract was signed.
A regional chief engineer ran the office. A chief engineer still signed the drawings. The discipline-head model survived the move intact. The Gulf practice has been the firm’s largest by revenue since 2002 — and its smallest by headcount.
Stenvik & Bray has, by written policy, declined seven acquisition offers over the past twenty years.
Each was declined on the same grounds — that becoming a public entity, or a subsidiary of a larger one, would split the chief-engineer responsibility the firm was built on. The firm has never opened an office outside the seven markets it can still walk from a single chief engineer. That is the policy; it has not moved.
The firm runs roughly 1,500 staff across Stavanger, Stockholm, London, Frankfurt, Rotterdam, Dubai, Kuwait City, and Houston.
The partners are still the engineers. The chief engineer walks active sites. The discipline-head review runs every Friday, in person, with a paper drawing.