If you had to figure out what the ID number and service of the item below is, how would you go about it?
Offshore Equipment - corroded
Offshore Equipment
September 27, 2008
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Posted by Wata
Registration with the BEM
September 26, 2008People have asked me about how the Board of Engineers, Malaysia (BEM) registration categories for Professional Engineers clashes with their work experience. Questions have come to me either when I’m presenting on the topic, during IEM meetings, and over the ‘Net.
For those not in the know, it’s a legal requirement to register with the Board within 6 months of starting work. There’s a form you fill up. You have to state that you want to be registered in the same field you graduated in.
Now, what happens when your work experience does not match your degree? Or you want to be apply to be professionally registered in a speciality of your discipline. Here are my thoughts:
- You have to work with the system. If you have clout to change the system, please do so. Don’t forget the paperwork and procedures the BEM has to establish to determine whether the PE speciality is correct, which will also be applied to those applying for the traditional categories. And compare this with other systems. The IChemE only gives Corporate Membership, it doesn’t allow you to pick a specific category.
- Do you really care what category you are registered under? The only place I’ve seen this crop up is when I have to endorse tech documents, and how many of us do that? Engineering houses would require PEs working in their own disciplines, but they would make sure their staff had the right disc. EMEPMI wouldn’t care what your PE qualifications are, or even if you were a PE.
- For those who say that their current work has nothing to do with their BEM registration category, I say: are you sure? The classical disciplines have more leeway than you think. Material selection can be ChemE, turbine maintenance can be AeroEng, corrosion inhibitor selection can be MechE. Wrap project management around all this, and you have enough tech content to take the Professional Interview.
1 Comment | engineering, Malaysia | Tagged: BEM, IEM | Permalink
Posted by Wata
Business Idea – Analyse Phone Bills for Mobile Number Portability
September 25, 2008A while back, I notified you the reader about Malaysia’s foray into Mobile Number Portability. As one barrier tumbles, and while I still wait for the price war, I wondered if anyone wanted to start a service to analyse a consumer’s phone habits, and suggest which provider was the best for them. Since changing carriers costs RM25, I would suggest that you charge RM10-20 for this service. If you can convince someone that they could have saved RM20 per month if they maintained their usage habits but used another courier, then that would be a 240/45, about 500% annual return on investment.
What I wonder is why the carrier companies themselves don’t do this, to promote their products. Could it be that for every one customer they convince, they send one customer towards their competitors?
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Posted by Wata
Fasting – Offshore Style
September 23, 2008Taken from The Star:
For oil platform workers off Terengganu, work must go on
By NURBAITI HAMDANTERENGGANU: For most people, the Hari Raya holidays are the time to spend with family and friends.
But for a group of workers, the end of the fasting month will have to be marked some 240km off the Terengganu shore in the middle of the South China Sea.
They are the staff of Exxon- Mobil’s Lawit A oil platform who are tasked with ensuring that petroleum production is not disrupted.
Operations supervisor Jawead Allahrakha, 50, said whatever happens, the work must go on.
“We are sacrificing our Hari Raya so that other people in the country can celebrate,” he said, adding that 90% of the 81 platform crew are Muslims.
He will be one of 45 people who will spend the first day of Hari Raya on the oil platform.
The rest were lucky enough to get leave to celebrate at home.
Chef Hanizul Hamzah, tasked with feeding those on the platform, said a sense of duty makes him carry on.
Hanizul has never celebrated Hari Raya at home since he started working at the platform in 1999. But this year, he hopes he would be home in Kota Baru for the festivities.
“Being able to serve the crew with the best meals I could cook makes it all worth it.
“Good food makes people happy,” said the 46-year-old from Kelantan.
His main concern at the moment was making sure there was lemang and ketupat for the crew as it would just not be Hari Raya without these favourites.
For maintenance worker Sulaiman Samsudin, 55, the platform has become a second home.
“I have celebrated Hari Raya 12 times here. It was hard initially to be so far away from my family in Perak,” said Sulaiman.
He said some of the younger crew members would lock themselves in their rooms because they were too sad.
“But this is life at the platform. Being one of the seniors here, I would talk to them and try to make them feel better,” he said, describing the crew as his ‘family.’
Mechanical worker Nazman Muhammad, 35, from Kelantan, shared a way to deal with home sickness.
“The important thing is not to be alone. You need to keep yourself occupied,” he said,
Nazman said he would also re-enact the first morning of Hari Raya once he got back home onshore, even if it was the 15th day.
“With the decorations still hanging and food served, my wife and I would treat the day as if it was the first day of Aidilfitri,” he said.
(Did I mention I was part of the Lawit Design team?)
2 Comments | engineering, Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: ExxonMobil, Lawit | Permalink
Posted by Wata
What to Bring Offshore
September 14, 2008I have a team of people going offshore soon. What should they bring offshore along with them, to make their stay more comfortable? What don’t they need to bring, and will be supplied by the onsite catering crew?
- Toiletries – at least bring a toothbrush and toothpaste. Soap is supplied offshore, but maybe you want to bring your own stuff. If you travel offshore by chopper, there’s none of this ‘put liquids in plastic bag and not more than 500g’ restriction. Also consider if you want to use the towels provided, or bring your own.
- Telephone services – If you ask the radio operator or OIM (offshore installation manager) politely, you can use the commercial line to get in touch with the office or home (BTW, you might want to give the commercial line number to your family and office so that you are more contactable). Other platforms have a call rota at night, 5 minutes per person to call anywhere you want (I do mean anywhere). An additional service provided at EMEPMI assets is that some phones have been set up such that you can use the iTalk service to call home. Bring a prepaid card.
- Slippers/Flip flops – Bring a set, as you are not allowed to where your dirty, heavy, manly working boots in the living quarters.
- Multiport adaptor – If you are bring electronic items offshore, you might want to use one of these to maximise the use of the limited number of free power sockets.
- Ladies – bring your own items. Note that sleeping quarters are not locked, so expect cleaning staff to barge in at all times.
- Pens and paper – I usually bring more pens then I need. Pens have a nasty habit of either slipping out of my pockets unnoticed, or waving bye-bye before they slip out and fall through decking into the sea. Is ink toxic? Same goes for paper, a difficult commodity to find offshore. Strangely enough, photocopy machines are a rare breed as well.
- Cellphones – Some airports (Kerteh) don’t allow you to take your phone offshore. Park it with the friendly man who runs a handphone deposit service there. Other assets (Talisman) allow you take it with you, though they disembowel the thing (remove the batteries) before allowing you to get on board the chopper flight.
- Ciggies – no sundry shop offshore. Bring your own.
Have fun.
Central Processing Platform, offshore Terengganu, Malaysia
2 Comments | Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: offshore | Permalink
Posted by Wata
ExxonMobil – Instep MOU
September 11, 2008Signing of MoU between EMEPMI and INSTEP
On September 3, 2008, EMEPMI signed an MOU with the PETRONAS Institute of
Petroleum Technology (INSTEP) to develop a technician training curriculum
for Upstream Production Operations.
Zan Noor Ismail, Operations Manager, signed on behalf of EMEPMI while
Khairul Azman Yasin, PETRONAS Management Training Berhad CEO, signed on
behalf on INSTEP. Grace Choo, EMEPMI SHE Manager and M. Sazali Salim,
INSTEP General Manager witnessed the signing.
Since 2002, EMEPMI has been utilizing INSTEP facilities to train field
technicians. The MOU will expand this relationship for the benefit of
both parties as follows:
- INSTEP will gain access to proven training curriculum developed from
ExxonMobil’s worldwide vendor pool and calibrated against ExxoMobil
global standards. - EMEPMI will be able to leverage on INSTEP as a proven training
facility and training provider to help rebuild competency levels in
the current workforce as well as for training of new trainee intakes.
The signing of the MOU marks another milestone in the ExxonMobil and
PETROANS partnership. The training curriculum developed through this
partnership will contribute towards building a competent local workforce
not only for ExxonMobil but also for the Upstream Oil & Gas Industry in
Malaysia.
Ceremony Signing EMEPMI INSTEP MOU
(I thought EMEPMI had been sending technicians to be trained at INSTEP for a looooong time already.)
6 Comments | business opportunity, Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: ExxonMobil, Petronas | Permalink
Posted by Wata
Saturday Star 2008-09-06 – Job Opportunities
September 8, 2008Sorry for skipping a week. I was out of town. My next few post will have some photos I took on my trip.
Another week, another scan of the Saturday Star newspaper. Here’s a list of job ads in the paper:
- Optimal is looking for a Kerteh-based Chemist. Emailand web presence available. A lot of people moved to Optimal when it first started up, though I think the renumeration package isn’t as good nowadays. However, it’s still better than PETRONAS because Dow Chemicals is running interference.
- ExxonMobil is looking for a safe/ risk engineer. Submit CVs by 20th Sept, 2008 at the local web page.
- Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) is looking for a senior project, process control, process consultant and senior safety engineer. There is a walk in interview on the 18th to 22nd October, 2008 (tempting, tempting) at the JW Marriot, between 0900 to 1700. You can apply via email here.
- MISC has some positions, though with the recent hijackings, they might expect a drop of takers.
- Shell is looking for some downhole people and well people: Offshore Completion and Intervention Supervisor, Offshore Drilling Supervisor, Well Completion Design Engineer, Well Eng, Well Opns Eng. Head to their website and follow Professionals & Apply → Job Search → Region → Asia. Closing date’s Sept 21st, so run to your nearest netbook.
Jalan Sukajadi, Bandung, Indonesia
Leave a Comment » | engineering, Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: ExxonMobil, MISC, optimal, sabic, Shell | Permalink
Posted by Wata
Malaysia – Tank Fire at Tanjung Langsat (Update)
August 28, 2008From the desk of Bernama:
KUALA KUBU BAHRU, Aug 22 (Bernama) – The Fire and Rescue Department will be sending a forensics team to investigate the cause and assess losses incurred in the fire that occurred at the tank farm in Tanjung Langsat, Johor.
Its deputy director-general (Operations) Datuk Mahadi Md. Ali said the team would leave Saturday to assist the Johor Fire and Rescue Department in the matter.
“The operation to put out the fire took 65 hours, however, the probe report will take about two weeks to complete,” he told reporters after officiating the closing of a fire fighting course at Akademi Bomba here Friday.
Someone remind me to follow this up cum Eid…
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Posted by Wata
Pirates hijack MISC tanker (Update)
August 27, 2008From the New Straits Times, dateline 23rd August, 2008:
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian shipping firm MISC Bhd had established communications with its hijacked tanker on Thursday and were informed of a “casualty” onboard.
In a statement released yesterday, MISC said communications with the MT Bunga Melati Dua chemical/palm oil tanker had been established at 5.05pm Malaysian time.
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Posted by Wata
Saturday Star 08-08-23 – Job Opportunities
August 26, 2008As next week is the month of Ramadhan, I wish all readers a fruitful and fulfilling month.
Back to our regular program. Another week, another scan of the Saturday Star newspaper. Here’s a list of job ads in the paper:
- Wow! Talisman’s got a two page coloured spread! I guess they are tired of contracting out what should be in house jobs. Let’s see (deep breath): Opns Eng, Snr Integrity Eng (Materials, not Ethics), Integrity Eng, Subsea Insp Eng, Snr Prod Chem Specialist, Pipe/Mech Eng, Maint Systems Eng, Metering Eng (hey, I thought they had one already, just saw him on Friday), Rot Eqt Eng (they lost one of their last ones to CHOC, I believe). Visit their website if you are interested in the positions, and many more.
- Qatargas is looking for engineers and operators, interviews scheduled for mid-Sept, 2008. The engineering positions are under the Development (i.e. Projects) Dept. You can inquire and apply via email here. They do have positions for Controls Eng, Facilities/Process Eng, Metering Eng (Way hay again!)
- Why does Talisman have another advert for a Senior Completions Eng? Are various departments not talking to each other? Bad sign for the company, good sign for contractors, all the more chaos and FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) to feed off.
- The Grenland Group is advertising for Senior Engineers, Stuct/Piping. Email here.
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? It’s still there, with the cheap meals I love so much.
4 Comments | engineering, Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: Grenland, Qatargas, Talisman | Permalink
Posted by Wata
Wata - Malaysian Oil and Gas Engineer 