In Imitation of Manneken Pis

November 11, 2008

I present in imitation of that famous little boy, platform pis, a sight to behold in Pasir Gudang

Platform Pis

Platform Pis

6 Comments | Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Wata

Petrol Prices Drop in Malaysia

November 8, 2008

Taken from the pages of The Star online:Petrol prices cut by 15 sen per litre

PUTRAJAYA Oct 31: Petrol and diesel prices will go down 15 sen a litre from 12.01am on Saturday – the fourth reduction since August.

The new price of a litre of RON97 will be RM2.15 from RM2.30; RON92 will be RM2.05 from RM2.20; and diesel will be RM2.05 from RM2.20.

The prices will be reduced so that the people could enjoy the benefit of the recent drastic drop in global fuel prices, said Prime Minister Datuk Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in a statement on Friday.

The Star reported on Friday that petrol price will go down by 15sen and that petrol dealers expect another round of price cuts on Nov 15.

Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad said that if the world crude oil price continued to drop at the present rate, local pump prices would likely revert to the pre-June price of RM1.92 per litre.

Linking to my other article on comparitive pricing, the US gas price on 6th Nov is RM2.16 per liter (USD2.328 per gallon). You wonder, why do we have a subsidy if our prices are the same as US prices?

2 Comments | Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by Wata

The Biohazard that is called Crude

November 6, 2008

If you subscribe to the theory that all crude comes from organic matter that is crushed, heated and puterified for a long time, don’t you wonder if there are ancient micro-organisms lurking in it?

When you take a crude sample offshore, don’t you worry that the mist that comes of the collection container hasn’t seen the light of day for millions of years, and the last time it did it was a living organism?

Petrol, not too worried, it’s gone through a distillation tower, the heat should kill off those little critters.

Makes you want to wear a mask all the time, don’t it?

1 Comment | Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by Wata

Saturday Star 2008-11-01 – Job Opportunities

November 5, 2008

Ah, I’ve been out ill for the past week, so this entry is kinda late. Better late then never, eh?

  • QP is looking for a lot of people. You can visit the QP website. Positions available are HSE Risk Man Head, Lead Safety and LP (remember those?) Eng, Senior Safety and LP engineer, Senior Fire Engineer, HSE Eng.
  • There’s another QP ad as well, this time for offshore engineering opportunities. Snr Elec Eng, Sub Sea Pipeline Eng, Proj ENg, Budget & Cost Control Eng, Cost Estimating Eng, Snr Process Eng (Technology).
  • Synergy Oil and Gas Engineering is recruiting fresh chemical engineering graduates, or those with around 1 year experience. CVs may be sent to enquiry@synergykl.com.my. It’s also looking for admin execs who can run the invoicing / payroll / accounting web as well as be office managers.
  • Saudi Aramco is looking for people. Drilling Eng, Drilling Supv, Production and Facilities Specialist, NGL Process Eng Specialist, Upstream Crude Processing, Process Modeling Specialist (I aspire to this), O&G Prod/Planning Specialist, Process Eng Specialist. You can send your CVs to aramcojobs@melorita.com (so that’s what Melorita does), or Contact Armand Abdullah at +60379542764. Drop my name, please. It’s the same ad as last week, so’s my writeup.
  • Ranhill Worley is looking for people, leads and seniors for mechanical, pipe stress, piping, structural and civil engineers. Queries can be sent to my.recruitment@ranhill-worley.com.my

1 Comment | engineering, Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Wata

A Description of Tapis Crude

October 31, 2008

Here’s a link to an article on the properties of Tapis Crude, which comes from offshore Terengganu (ignore the crude oil price, it’s outdated).

Congratulation, PCSB, EMEPMI, and all you other fellows that produce through Tapis Pump.

I always think we should sell Tapis crude as a brand, rather than a commodity. It’s got a lot of things going for it:

  • Good history.
  • A mixture of many oil companies’ production, lots of vested interest.
  • Has its own pump station in the middle of the South China Sea.

Can you imagine a PETRONAS ad saying ‘Buy TAPIS’ instead of ‘Buy Syntium’? Exxon has the same interest as well..’ExxonMobil, a proud contributor to the TAPIS lifestyle’. ‘What have we got that Shell doesn’t? TAPIS!’

You can tell my day job isn’t as an ad copywriter.

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Posted by Wata

Malaysia Gas Prices – Compare against US Prices

October 30, 2008

Hah, I found an almost mindless way to compare US pump prices to Malaysian pump prices.

  1. Go to gasbuddy.com to get a US pump price. For example, on the 28th of September, 2008, the average price was 2.624/gallon. BTW, the price one month ago was 3.619/gallon.
  2. Go to google.com, and type “convert 2.624 dollars per gallon to ringgit per liter,” or whatever the US gallon price is. In this case, the price is equivalent to about RM2.48/liter. This should work for any currency and volume, ex 7,434 Rupiah/liter. Haven’t tried out kolah and ‘tin minyak tanah’ yet.
  3. Compare to the Malaysian gas price of RM2.30/liter.

I guess someone will create a Java / AJAX script to link all this up, and alow me to make it an applet on my page?

7 Comments | engineering, Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Wata

Saturday Star 2008-10-25 – Job Opportunities

October 29, 2008

Hmm, not many oil and gas ads this edition.

  • Synergy Oil and Gas Engineering is recruiting fresh chemical engineering graduates, or those with around 1 year experience. CVs may be sent to enquiry@synergykl.com.my. Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.
  • Saudi Aramco is looking for people. Drilling Eng, Drilling Supv, Production and Facilities Specialist, NGL Process Eng Specialist, Upstream Crude Processing, Process Modeling Specialist (I aspire to this), O&G Prod/Planning Specialist, Process Eng Specialist. You can send your CVs to aramcojobs@melorita.com (so that’s what Melorita does), or Contact Armand Abdullah at +60379542764. Drop my name, please.
  • Talisman is looking for a QA/QC Safety Engineer, HS&E Integrated Management System Engineer.
  • Hey, Awan Inspirasi is looking for A&C Rotorcraft Engineers, and Avionic Engineers. They are the competitors to MHS. Please support them, then maybe we will get some value out of the whole chopper industry. CVs to be sent to recruitment.awan@spkb.net

How was the PETRONAS open day last weekend?

Captive Piranhas

Captive Piranhas

3 Comments | engineering, Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Wata

Tales from the Engineering Floor – Jabba’s Books

October 28, 2008

Jabba has decided to share his knowledge of the oil and gas industry with the world at large. Here are the first three books in the series:

If you want to place a pre-order, send a donation, and it will be taken off the price of the books when he ships. I’ll see if I can get some preview pages as well.

6 Comments | engineering, Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by Wata

Tales from the Engineering Floor – Exorcism

October 22, 2008

Jabba must have been on fine form the past few days. He contributed the following story as a comment, but I just have to promote it to article status:

Does anyone know how to perform an exorcism. I was wondering what would happen if we try to perform an exorcism on some of the engineers in the office. It’d be a good movie to make…

Here’s a possible dialog-

Exorcist: “I command you, leave this body.”
Possessed Engineer: “Sorry sir, it’s after 5pm, come back tomorrow.”

Exorcist: “I command you, leave this body.”
Possessed Engineer: “Sorry, need to wait for the datasheet from the Process Department before we can do anything.”

Exorcist: “I command you, leave this body, you Spawn of Satan.”
Possessed Engineer: “Don’t know how, it is not in the PETRONAS Technical Standards.”

Exorcist: “I command you, leave this body.”
Possessed Engineer: “Not part of deliverables.”

This could go on forever, until you give in and accept every piece of crap the possessed engineer throws at you.

Definitely going into the ‘Anecdotes of the Engineer.’

6 Comments | engineering, Malaysia | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Wata

Saturday Star 2008-10-18 – Job Opportunities

October 20, 2008

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

  • PETRONAS (all capitals, please) is recruiting. The online ad version of The Star isn’t clear, but I think there’s an Open Day from the 24th-26th Oct, 2008 at the JW Marriot, KL. I wonder why they didn’t do it next door at the Mandarin. Too expensive? Anyhow, they are looking for people with at least 7 years experience, which leads on the the next ad.
  • Synergy Oil and Gas Engineering is recruiting fresh chemical engineering graduates, or those with around 1 year experience. CVs may be sent to enquiry@synergykl.com.my.
  • The Kuwait Oil Company is looking people. You can visit the job website and send your application here and here. The engineering positions they offer are for process, reservoir, petroleum, drilling, planning, cotnracts, maintenance, material, cost estimation, safety and enviromental. In a nutshell, ask and you will find an opening.
  • QP is looking for a lot of people. You can visit the QP website. Did I tell you that QP’s SWB (salary, wages, benefits) package is something to be sneezed at?
  •  M3nergy is recruiting. CVs may be sent here. HQ-based positions available are for planning, marine, QS.
  • RasGas is looking for a rotating eqt and mechanical integrity specialist. . 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.
  • Delcom (public holding company Deleum) is looking for a Evaluation engineer. At least 2+ years experience. Hah, you have to send a hardcopy CV to NOV ReedHycalog, 4th Floor, South Block, Wisma Selangor Dredging, 142A Jln Ampang, 50450 KL. Closing date is 18 November, 2008. Always a good way to weed out the trawlers from the dedicated applicant.

Anyone know if Chee Meng is going to open a branch is SS15 Subang?

1 Comment | engineering, Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Wata

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