May 29, 2010
The vessel involved in the accident is an MISC vessel, MT Bunga Kelana 3, an Aframax vessel (tracking data here). Was it on its way back from Kerteh port?
From Bernama, dateline 2010-05-27:
The oil spill caused by a collision involving the tanker, MT Bunga Kelana 3, and bulk carrier MV Waily in the Singapore Strait, about 13km southeast of Changi East last Tuesday, has spread into Malaysian waters.
Johor Department of Environment director Dr Zulkifli Abdul Rahman said the spill measuring 1,600-metre long and 960-metre wide, was now 960 metres from the Tanjung Ayam beach in Pengerang, Kota Tinggi.
“Currently, the Southern Region Marine Department is in the midst of preventing the spill from reaching the beach,” he said in a statement here Thursday.
He said the ‘boom’ or equipment to prevent the spill from spreading had been installed.
Apparently the accident hasn’t affected Singapore’s drinking water supply.
Leave a Comment » | 
engineering, Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: Bunga Kelana, MISC | 
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Posted by Wata
May 26, 2010
This is a shout out for the IEM. My Technical Division will hosting a course on the 2nd and 3rd June, 2010. You’ll get to visit TNB’s Integrated Learning Solution – ILSAS at Bangi in addition to getting 13 CPD or PDP points.
The FFS course is designed in accordance with the FFS assessment techniques of API 579-1/ASME FFS 2007. The course will provide the knowledge and background of the following:
- Philosophy of FFS
- Introduction to FFS assessment standard
- FFS assessment techniques for different type of damages
- Damage mechanism identification
- Non destructive testing (NDT) techniques for damage detection
- Effect of NDT results to FFS assessment
Flyers for the above and other events may be obtained here.
I appeal to readers, come on and send yourselves and staff to these courses. I need the support.
7 Comments | engineering, Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: IEM, ILSAS | Permalink
Posted by Wata
May 25, 2010
From this article, it seems that our Malaysian brand of Tapis crude was worth a lot lately:
The highest average price was observed on the Malaysian oil Tapis last week. Its average sport price hit $84.01 per barrel, which is less by $4.45 compared to the previous week. This type is used as a reference for the oil-producing zone of the Far East. Tapis’s density is 45.5-degrees API with a 0.1-percent sulfur content.
Leave a Comment » | Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: Tapis, Tapis crude | Permalink
Posted by Wata
May 24, 2010
Commercial note: I’m monetizing this site, so support me by purchasing my recommendations, or buying through my Amazon store.
- ExxonMobil is looking for a wellwork supervisor. This advert came out about the same time last year. Do they only last for a year, or is this a term contract?
- Amerstrand Engineering is looking for a Project Manager (E&I, Mech, Piping & Architectural). Email to hr@amerstrand.com. There is no website.
- Kencana Pinewell, a subsidiary of Kencana Petroleum, is looking for a mess o’ people. Project Man, Constr Man, Tender & Prop Man, Opns Team Leader, Field Eng, Project Eng, Comm Eng, Rot Eqt Eng, QC Eng, HSE Eng. Send your resumes to hradmin.pinewell@knpe.com.my
- SABIC is looking for people, production operators for olefins (etylene, butene-1 and butadiene). You can apply via email here or here. Or key in your resumes online here, by logging in under candidate login and password at the website. Submission by 26th May, 2010, interviews on 29th and 30th May 2010 at the Ritz Carlton.
- Newfield is looking for a HSE specialist, Environmental specialist (I always forget the ‘n’ in environ…). Email your resume in before 7 June, 2010.
- Smith International Inc. is looking for i-Drill Engineers (you drill what?). Apply here.
Food recommendations for this week? Try Aliya, on Lorong Dungun.
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Food
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Tea Masala
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Elephant found
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Aliya Frontage
As for recommendations, since Ashes to Ashes (spin-of from the Life on Mars Series) concluded on Friday, 21 March, and I am a big fan of the series (not sure about the US version, though), I recommend getting Life On Mars (UK): The Complete Collection, Ashes to Ashes – Series One, and Ashes To Ashes – Series 2. Or if you can wait, I’m sure they’ll publish Ashes to Ashes as one complete selection.
17 Comments | engineering, Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: Amerstrand, EMEPMI, ExxonMobil, Kencana Petroleum, newfield, sabic, Smith International | Permalink
Posted by Wata
May 23, 2010
I was invited to give a talk at Process and Food Department, Engineering Faculty, Universiti Putra Malaysia (Universiti Pertanian Malaysia to us old blokes). I took the opportunity to make a Photosynth view of the Admin Building‘s main foyer.
The talk was a recruitment drive to promote the IEM‘s activities and benefits if you join as a Graduate Member. I also gave them a 20 minute intro job hunting and interview techniques.
I’d be most pleased to give more talks on this topic under the auspices of the IEM. Come on, you know you want to invite me.
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No Fishing, Please
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UPM Eng Admin Building Across the Lake
Leave a Comment » | engineering, Malaysia | Tagged: IEM, Serdang, University Putra Malaysia, UPM | Permalink
Posted by Wata
May 22, 2010
Hmm, Nio Petroleum seems to be a new O&G player in Malaysia. Anyone know where their Malaysian office is? And ‘The contractors minimum commitment is US$8 million’? What, are they only going to drill half a well? You can’t by a compressor for that amount of money.
Dateline 2010-05-19: Taken from Reuters:
Malaysian state oil company PETRONAS said today it had awarded two oil exploration blocks offshore Sabah to Sweden’s Lundin and Nio Petroleum.
Blocks SB307 and SB308 measure approximately 6,230 sq km and are located in water depths of up to 70 metres. Both blocks have been explored since 1965, Petronas said in a statement.
Lundin will own 42.5 per cent and operate both blocks, Nio will have 42.5 per cent and PETRONAS Carigali will own 15 per cent.
The contractors minimum commitment is US$8 million, Petronas said.
2 Comments | Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: Lundin, Nio Petroleum, Petronas, SB307, SB308 | Permalink
Posted by Wata
May 20, 2010
Most people are familiar with the brand name exploration and production companies that come to Golden Chersonese and Borneo and extract hydrocarbons from the ground. However, have you wondered why there are no Malaysian production sharing contractors (PSCs) operating here? By Malaysian, I’ll use an ad-hoc definition and say that the company is majority owned by Malaysians.
It’s not that there aren’t any capable companies. Some existing companies I had in mind were:
- Genting Oil & Gas – to quote from their website “In China, the Division operates and produces oil from an onshore oilfield under a Petroleum Contract with Sinopec. In Indonesia, the Division has interests in four Production Sharing Contracts, which have been signed with BPMIGAS (Indonesia’s oil and gas supervisory body), and the Division operates three of these contracts, which are all in the exploration phase. While in Morocco the Division operates the Ras Juby Offshore Exploration Permit.”
- M3nergy – a very old acquaintance of mine. Rumour has it that they are bidding for operation of fields in India and Indonesia.
- PETRONAS Carigali – Okay, I throw this one into the mix to remind ourselves that they do have operations overseas. Whether they would be competitive enough, or given the opportunity to venture into Malaysia if they weren’t a subsidiary of PETRONAS, is an interesting discussion point.
It is said that we can’t have Malaysia PSC companies because:
- That politics will come into play, i.e. PLC (Politically Linked Companies). I say, so? In the mind of the rakyat, they already exist, and they are already part of the oil & gas community, albeit in the services and supplies sector. Is it the magnitude of revenue involved in a PSC that causes such an outcry?
- Greater scope of corruption. Please, you prefer to have corrupt expatriates exporting money to their overseas bank accounts, rather than corrupt locals exporting money to their overseas bank accounts? Within recent memory, wasn’t a CEO or President of a PSC company removed from his post because he was cutting personal deals? Unless people in the oil & gas industry are more corrupt than the national average, I don’t see this as a problem. A larger proportion of the revenue pie stays in Malaysia.
- Lack of expertise. This one bugs me. If you want, I can name and build a complete PSC team of people I would trust to be as competitive and ruthless as any foreign worker. They probably won’t be the people you want to invite to teh tarik after work, but it’s their competence I’m after, not airy fairy talk and ego stroking. Also, do you know how many locals are working overseas at all levels, from strategic to tactics? Give them a chance, and a decent wage, and I can forge 2 or 3 Malaysian PSC companies.
- Lack of funds. This I would agree with. But, where there is a will, there’s a way. Let some of the larger venture capitalist companies team up, maybe with an injection of funds from PETRONAS (remember how PCSB started out) and Khazanah (please, invest more of the rakyat’s money in Malaysia), and we should be able to put together a stable, profitable company that is in line with national interests. We may not be very profitable, as we would have social obligations and a Malaysianised corporate citizenship outlook, but give us a chance.
I humbly offer myself to be the No. 1 corrupt dude of these companies. I promise that I will only take 30% max on all transactions. Oh, and a holiday home as well, Kerteh and Redang would be nice.
3 Comments | engineering, Malaysia, oil and gas | Permalink
Posted by Wata
May 19, 2010
And I thought it was hard to open a non-Pertamina gas station in Indonesia… any station owners want to comment on this article?
VIVAnews, dateline 2010-4-27: – Setting up gas stations in Malaysia is apparently not as easy as it is in Indonesia, who lets every multinational oil company opens up new stations. It is difficult for PT Pertamina to establish a petrol station in Malaysia, just like Petronas did in Indonesia.
“Applying for a permit to build a gas station in Malaysia takes three years,” Pertamina Marketing and Trade Director Djaelani Sutomo said in Jakarta on Tuesday, April 27.
3 Comments | engineering, Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: Pertamina, Petrol station | Permalink
Posted by Wata
May 17, 2010
Commercial note: I’m monetizing this site, so support me by purchasing my recommendations, or buying through my Amazon store.
- For graduates, Technip wants to ‘Engineer a Successful Career’. It is embarking on the Graduate Skill Enhancement Program in Piping Design. They last advertised this program in June, 2009. Visit here soon. Interestingly enough, you can ask the Selangor Human Resource Development Centre as well (isn’t Technip in KL?). Since sooo many people ask, here’s the basic requirements:
- Degree in Mech, Pet or ChemEng
- Min CGPA of 2.5 or 2-2 or better.
- Ability to speak and write fluently in English. Oh, please let me be the judge of this.
- < 28 yrs.
- Murphy (you know, the company who was linked to the acreages ‘lost’ to Brunei?) are still going strong, kudos to them. They are looking for a subsea eng, snr metering eng (I humbly offer myself for consulting services), snr production eng (cut me a long term call off contract), and cost control assistant (we’ll do this to, ehem, ‘control’ the costs of the above two contracts). Send your applications here.
For a food recommendation, how about Peppercorns in SS15. It’s under new management now, but the menu’s still the same. We regularly schedule our management breakfasts and lunches there. For dinner, I could recommend Alisara, a Thai restaurant in Puchong. Food’s good, but a bit dear.
This week is nostalgia video week. I can finally afford to purchase DVD collections of series that were shown in the 80s on TV3. Back then, I don’t think TV3 focused much on showing complete series runs. Now I can afford it, I’m getting a collection of some of the more esoteric series: Robin of Sherwood, Nowhere Man and Wiseguy.
2 Comments | engineering, Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: Murphy, Peppercorns, technip | Permalink
Posted by Wata
Wata - Malaysian Oil and Gas Engineer 