Oil Spill in Miri

August 9, 2008

To quote from the Star:

Thursday August 7, 2008 MYT 4:58:51 PM Leak along pipeline causes oil spill off Miri

By STEPHEN THEN

MIRI: Petronas Carigali has suspended decommissioning works on a network of disused pipelines offshore Miri in northern Sarawak after detecting leakage along a 13km pipeline that lays between an oil platform in the South China Sea and the inshore Miri Crude Oil Terminal.

The company’s contractor and staff from the Department of Environment are now in the midst of an operation to contain the spill and to clean up the oil sleeks that had washed ashore, causing pollution to a stretch of beach along an exclusive housing estate occupied by oil and gas industry expatriates in Lutong town, some 20km north of the city here.

DOE Miri chief Dayang Norbani on Thursday confirmed that the leakage has been contained and that 90% of the spill had been recovered. “We are now in the midst of trying to recover the other 10%. Petronas’ contractors are also cleaning up the beaches to ensure that the pollutants are removed.

“We are still trying to determine how the leak occurred and how much of the shoreline has been affected,” she said when contacted.

To a question, she said the DOE is still trying to find out if any populated riverine villages were affected by the oil pollutants.

Dozens of workers from the oil company had been deployed at various points along the affected zones to ensure that the oil sleeks do not get washed back to the sea.

PETRONAS on Thursday issued a statement saying that “about 15 barrels of oil” trapped in the pipeline had leaked into the South China Sea, and the leakage was spotted at 7.40pm on Tuesday.

The company said that air surveillance had been carried out and it was found that there were no additional signs of leakage.

“The company had deployed divers to detect the exact location of the leakage on the pipeline for repair works to be done,” said the statement.

The pipeline was installed in 1984. A new pipeline was installed last year.

The decommissioning works on the old pipeline started on Monday and was supposed to go on for three weeks.

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Posted by Wata

Fuel Saving Tips – Commentary II

August 8, 2008

There’s this email being circulated touting the best way to fill up your car. You know the one, giving advice such as:

ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT TIPS IS TO FILL UP WHEN YOUR TANK IS HALF FULL. The reason for this is, the more fuel you have in your tank, the less air occupying its empty space. Petrol evaporates faster than you can imagine. Petroleum storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the petrol and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated, so that every litre is actually the exact amount.

What kind of tripe is this? “… occupying its empty space. Petrol evaporates…” if I did this kind of logical leap in an exam, I would be shot.

Consider this. All things being equal (temperature, driving style, etc), two half tanks would take you the same distance as one full tank. So, for the same distance driven, when you refill your tank, you would displace either:

  • 2 x 1/2 tank volume, or
  • 1 x 1 tank volume.

Aren’t these the same?

The article further confuses the issue by introducing internal floating roofs to eliminate vapour space and minimise creation of fuel vapours, therefore have more fuel to burn. Problem is that floating roofs have guides to maintain the roof position and levelness, and these don’t take kindly to the jostling a typical car ride will provide. A jammed roof would limit your tank capacity.

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Posted by Wata

Travelling Around Kerteh – Taxis

August 7, 2008

I go to Kerteh once in a while, either chasing business, or being chased to get business in that most famous of oil towns. Well, the ‘town’ designation is a bit grand for a place that is essentially a hamlet.

Anyhow, travel around Kerteh is difficult if you don’t have your own transport. Taxis are based at Kerteh airport, and charge you according to travel distance to and from the base. You won’t find taxis roaming the streets that you can flag down.

Taxi travel is expensive around Kerteh, with the rates being set the local Taxi Association (located at said airport). Sample costs are:

  • Awana Kijal to TCOT is RM50
  • Airport to TCOT is RM25
  • Awana Kijal to PETRONAS @ Rantau PETRONAS is RM25
  • Awana Kijal to Airport RM30

Note that the taxis make most of their money ferrying people to and from the airport. These would be people transferring to and from offshore, and passengers on the twice-a-day Subang shuttle. I guess the low volumes justify the high cost of taxis.

Useful contact nos. are:

  • Airport Taxi desk: +6098262108
  • Jafa: +60199636253

My suggestion is that if you travel to Kerteh via Kuantan and have a lot of places to visit, rent a car at the Kuantan airport.

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Posted by Wata

V-Cool Makes your Car a Faraday Cage?

August 6, 2008

Talking about Faraday cages, I have anecdotal evidence (i.e. me trying it out) that you can’t get a GPS lock inside your car if it is equipped with V-Cool window tints. I wonder why. I didn’t know that tinted glass products could block out radio waves.

GPS operates at 1575.42 MHz (190mm). My cellphone service operator, Celcom operates GSM at 900 MHz (300mm) and 1800 MHz (150mm). As the wavelengths are similar, it seems that you would block out telephone reception as well (i.e. a conductive mesh that blocks 190mm electromagnetic waves would block 300mm as well). But v-cool doesn’t, as far as I can tell, or maybe it blocks GSM 900 but not GSM 1800?

Anyone know how this is possible? References to window tint films here and here.

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Saturday Star 08-08-02 – Job Opportunities

August 4, 2008

Another week, another scan of the Saturday Star newspaper. Here’s a list of job ads in the paper:

  • DPS Bristol (M) Sdn Bhd and DPS Consultant Malaysia Sdn Bhd are looking for a lot of engineers. Examples are Project Eng (6 pax), Lead Process Eng (10 pax!), Lead Mech/Pipe (10 pax)… I wish my company was expanding that fast. Anyhow, closing date is 15th August, 2008, You can fax your resume to +603 9206 2626 or email it in.
  • RasGas is looking for engineers. Snr Integrity, Snr Mech, Snr Programmatic, Snr Elect/Power, Measurement Specialist (Way hay!), Snr Rot Eqt, Snr. I&Control, Analyser Eng Specialist. CVs to be submitted here. I believe RasGas is a JV, one of the partners being ExxonMobil. Hmm, I notice that the local headhunting house is no longer AP Recruitment, but is now Marsya Technology Sdn. Bhd.
  • Qatargas is looking for operators, interviews scheduled for mid-Sept, 2008. You can inquire and apply via email here. They do have positions for Controls Eng, Facilities/Process Eng, Metering Eng (Way hay again!)
  • Murphy Oil is looking for a subsea installation engineer. CVs to be submitted here.
  • Qatar Airways is recruiting for female cabin crew. Turn up at Renaissance Hotel, 9th August 2008, 9 am sharp. Thought I’d throw that in for you engineers out there.

IGL Process Solutions is looking for high paying work, preferably of a 6 month duration.

I put in a free advert for my favourite chicken rice place, Chee Meng. Go, people, go! I’m waiting for their loyalty card to come out. If you want to meet me, I’m usually there most Wed lunches. BTW, anyone been to the nasi kandar in the Sungai Wang rooftop foodcourt lately? Is it still there?

Happy hunting. Let me have some feedback if you find this list useful. Even better, spread the news. PayPal donations welcome.

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Affiliates: from Partner to Satellite Office

August 3, 2008

Here’s a story: One major oil and gas consultant had an office in shell I say, KL and another in, say Bangalore. The office in KL was swamped with work, having to hire (expensive) consultants to supplement their workforce.

The office in Bangalore was under utilised. So, in a fit of sheer blinding obviousness, the KL office started giving a lot of work to the Indian office, and said that the two offices operated as one entity. Everyone was happy.

I don’t know about you, but I would be unhappy. The Bangalore office seems have gone from equal status to receiving handouts. Why is the local office management team not getting enough work on their own? Which higher management decided that having an oil & gas consulting office in India was a good move? Do you even need Indian office management, or could you manage remotely from KL?

This is an example where having a partner doesn’t help you in developing your own skills and people. An even worse example is when you ‘second’ your experienced people out to your affiliate, and have a 100% non-return rate. Can you say ‘Malaysian body shop’?

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IEM Drilling Seminar – the Writeup

August 2, 2008

My colleague Hui Hin has provided a summary of the half-day course. An overview of the course is provided here.

Did I say that there were no oil and gas job in last week’s Saturday Star?

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Wind Turbines on Perhentian Island

August 1, 2008

I haven’t been to Perhentian Island (or Islands) for a long time. One thing there that will excite the techie in me (apart from the gadgets that make up my dive gear) is that renewable energy is powering the island, in the form of wind turbines.

Perhentian Island - Wind Turbines

Perhentian Island - Wind Turbines

Here’s an overview of the other systems installed, including solar cells and batteries (and diesel engines as backup).

Go, green movement!

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Office – Falling Light Cover & HSE

July 31, 2008

As the lighting cover falls off the ceiling, I was wondering how such an incident would be handled in the oil and gas industry:

  • Filling out a near miss incident report.
  • Reading out the incident in the morning meeting.
  • Incorporate any lessons learnt about the incident (redundancy? Better designed support bars?).
  • Tabulated in whatever incident database exists, to be inserted into the yearly HSE report.

At the office what happens is:

  • Building maintenance comes round, re-installs the light (matter of a push, and pressing the spring loaded tongues in), leaves.
  • No lessons learnt

Did I say that the same thing had happened a month ago? Different light fixture.

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IChemE 2nd regional safety seminar – Part IV

July 28, 2008

Continuing on the same topic above, a presentation was delivered by Ir Abdul Malik bin Alias, engineering manager, DPS Bristol (M) Sdn Bhd entitled ‘DPS – Process Safety for FPSO design.’

  • Agenda
    • Safety Strategies
    • Inherent Safety Concept
    • FPSO Inherent Safety Concept
  • Safety strategies (in order of decreasing reliability and robustness)
    • Inherent
    • Passive
    • Active
    • Procedural
  • Inherent Safety
    • Eliminate hazard
      • built-in safety
  • Passive safety
    • Control hazard
  • Active safety
    • Control hazard
  • Procedural safety
    • Control with operational actions.
  • Inherent safety (methods of implementation)
    • Eliminate of minimise
    • Substitute
    • Moderate
    • Simplify

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Posted by Wata

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