Borneo oil royalty push sign of Putrajaya’s strength, not weakness

September 24, 2016

We look forward to an election right after this is all resolved.

Dateline 2016-08-12, Malay Mail:

The renewed demands by Sabah and Sarawak for oil royalties and greater devolution of powers is prompted by the federal government’s growing influence rather than any perceived vulnerability, said state leaders and analysts.

Despite controversies linked to Putrajaya, they said the federal government’s powers have not been reduced, which required both east Malaysian states to be more vocal in demanding a return of the rights they said were due to them according to the Malaysia Agreement 1963.

“It has nothing to do with Putrajaya being weak or strong,” Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr James Masing told Malay Mail Online.

“Sarawak is led by the leader (Tan Sri Adenan Satem) who finally realises that we have been short-changed all this while,” Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president said while declining to state who has short-changed Sarawak.

 


Shell Malaysia pledges RM125mil for social investment

September 23, 2016

Dateline 2016-08-11, The Star:

Shell Malaysia will invest RM125mil over the next 10 years to fund Malaysian talent innovation and competitiveness, says Chairman Datuk Iain Lo.

“We still have much to contribute towards developing Malaysia’s energy resources and exploration, demonstrate our commitment to the local oil and gas industry.

“That is not all. We can think of no better or fulfilling way to make the future together with Malaysia than through the exponential impact of individual Malaysians,” he said.

 


Petronas’ claims of meritocracy hold no water: SPG

September 22, 2016

Are they saying the PETRONAS does kakistocracy?

Dateline 2016-08-11, Borneo Post:

Suarah Petroleum Group (SPG) said national oil corporation Petronas had forgotten its role and Sarawak’s sacrifice in making it a Fortune 500 company while its employment records contrasted sharply with its claims of meritocracy.

Speaking on behalf of SPG, its media communications officer Yusuf Abdul Rahman said Petronas’ claims that it’s latest manpower restructuring exercise was based on merit were off the mark and that there were plenty of qualified Sarawakians around.

He said Petronas owed a big chunk of its success to Sarawak; since its inception to a multi-national corporation listed in Fortune 500.

“Sarawakians are not asking or begging for jobs which they don’t deserve. All Sarawakians want is a fair chance. If that is denied to them because of pro-West Malaysian Petronas bias, then it has to answer to the state,” he said.

He accused Petronas in its quest to become a multi-national corporation of having forgotten its role as a national oil company and that citing meritocracy was only an excuse.

 


Offshore Toilet Stop

September 21, 2016

The legacy things we have on our offshore assets (Malaysia’s, not mine).

Toilet Stop


IEM Shout Out – 2016/10 One Day Course on Demolition Using Explosives

September 20, 2016

My technical division will be hosting a 1 day course on the 20th October, 2016, presented by Brig General Mustapha Omar, Ir. Look Keman Sahari and Ir. Dr. Mohamed Alias Yusof. It is worth 6.5 CPD points, and held at Wisma IEM. I expect that you register using your actual names, not your Pokemon handles.

Malaysia is considered a young country and rapidly developing. We see many new high rise building coming up even on small plot of land in city area. This is due to high cost of land. However, anything that goes up some day, sometimes it will have to come down. It can be due to aging, high cost of maintenance, availability of new technology, new planning by the owner or authority or whatever other reasons. It is very rare when forwarding development plan, the subject of the need for demolition later is ever considered. Bringing down a building or any structure by mechanical means for example will subject the neighbours to vibration, dust noise and numerous other dangers to them for a long time. It may even take several months. There are also incidents where demolition workers were injured and some were killed in line of duty. Demolition by using explosive may require the services of civil/structural engineer working together with the blasters and blasting engineer. The preparation may take months to study the structural plan of the building to be taken down, to survey the surrounding area and plan how to mitigate the effect of airblast, fragmentation, dust and ground vibration.

Hj Look Keman bin Sahari graduated in mining engineering from the University of Strathclyde, Scotland in 1979. He joined the Mines Department initially as Geotechnical engineer specialising in Slope engineering particularly technical investigation on slope failures. He later joined the Inspectorate division of the Department until retirement in 1996. In 1990 he continued his studies at Royal Military College of Science, Cranfield University, England and obtained MSc in Explosives Ordnance Engineering. His interest was then on the use of Shape Charge in the industry. On retirement he worked as Consultant Engineer in the use of explosive for mining, quarrying and construction. He had also served as expert witness in control blasting in Arbitration. As a committee member of IEM Training Board he had attended many courses particularly on Geotechnical Engineering, Health and Safety, forensic engineering and also tunnelling as Auditor. He is a Professional Engineer with Practicing Certificate and a Fellow of IEM. He had also given lecture on explosives application at IEM and Institute of Quarrying, Malaysia. He is also a qualified Shotfirer..

Brig General Mustapha bin Omar is a qualified Ammunition Technical Officer and had rose through the rank in the Malaysian Army  to become to Chief Ammunition Technical officer He is  an expert in the application of military explosives including demolition. He also had a Diploma in Industrial Management from UKM in 1993 and subsequently Bachelor in Business Administration from UPM in 2001. In 2002-2003 he further his studies at Royal Military College of Science, Cranfield University at MSc level in Explosives Ordnance Engineering. He is also knowledgeable in the use of commercial explosives and had attended a Shotfirer Course organised by Institute of Quarrying, Malaysia. He is currently a Senior Research Officer at STRIDE ( Institute Penyelidekan Sains Teknologi Pertahanan)

Associate Professor Ir. Dr. Mohamed Alias bin Yusof obtained his Bachelor Degree in Civil Engineering from UTM in 2002, MSc in Project Management from UITM in 2005 and PhD in Civil Engineering in 2012 from University Pertahanan National Malaysia. He is also a Professional Engineer registered with the Board of Engineer. Dr Alias specialises in the Blast Effect on Structure. He is also knowledgeable in Commercial and Military explosives and had also attended course in Explosives Engineering at Royal Military College of Science, Cranfield University He also attended Shotfirer Course and Blast Vibration, Monitoring and ControlCourse at Institute of Quarrying Malaysia.

Register here, or download the form here.


Saturday Star 2016-09-17– Job Opportunities

September 19, 2016

Happy Brunei Week.

Donate to your favorite charity (me), buy my recommendations, or through my Amazon store. Or get the Young Turks series (3 books until I can get YTP republished). Where are those corporate sponsors? Or throw donations at me, my camera dive case flooded, and I need a new replacement. Heck, if you want to send me a Canon 5D Mk III plus dive case, I will not say no.

  • A mate of mine is looking for a MD/EngMan type person to help run his engineering company (the main business is skid manufacturing). He can’t handle the work volume, so you know that his oil & gas company is bucking the trend, and has a bright future ahead. If I know you, send your CV’s to me. If I don’t know you, send your CV along anyway, but note I will contact your references. I am not getting a commission for this ad, you know.
  • I have a feeling that The Star isn’t the preferred O&G job recruitment portal now. I see more adverts via social media. What do you think, is it a step change that the papers need to embrace?
  • I’m looking for jobs for 4Q2016. Send me your POs.

Support your local bookshop!  Bookalicious at The Summit Subang is a good choice. I think they focus on trilogies, quadrilogies, and other ologies. Tell them I sent you, and enjoy the look of perplexity on their faces. Those of you who have dropped my name, thanks!

Food choice of the week? Any weight loss diet.

Let’s get a bit nostalgic with the book selection.

Wetter, Louder, Stickier: A Baby Blues Collection (Baby Blues Scrapbook), BBXX: Baby Blues: Decades 1 & 2, Bedlam


Malaysia’s PETRONAS Voices Concerns Over Sarawak’s Work Permit Moratorium

September 18, 2016

Report from Rigzone, perhaps giving a different slant on this historic milestone, for which we will celebrate the anniversary in 2017, 2021 and 2066.

Dateline 2016-08-10, Rigzone:

Malaysia’s national oil company (NOC) Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS) voiced concerns Tuesday over a recent decision made by the state government in petroleum rich Sarawak to place a moratorium on all new applications for permits for non-state NOC employees to work within its borders.

“PETRONAS believes the decision, announced over the weekend, may have been made based on the misperception that PETRONAS’ recent group-wide business restructuring had unfairly impacted its employees from Sarawak,” the NOC said in a press release.

The issue surfaced last week after Suarah Petroleum Group (SPG) President Hamin Yusuf commented on the abolition of 29 permanent positions, resulting in the retrenchment of 13 experienced staff from Sarawak in PETRONAS’ upstream restructuring exercise in the state, local media Borneo Post reported Aug. 4. Hamin added that the restructuring exercise would hamper the development of skilled workforce and the job market in Sarawak.

 


IEM Shout Out – CETD 30th AGM 2016-10

September 17, 2016

The Chemical Engineering Technical Division AGM will be held at Wisma IEM Wisma IEM, 01- Auditorium Tan Sri Prof. Chin Fung Kee, Third Floor. You get 2 CPD points.

It will be held at 11am on Saturday, 1st October 2016.

Register here, and download the flyer here. A map to Wisma IEM is presented here.

Come, y’all and heckle us. We need a quorum.


IEM Shout Out – Talk on “Gaslift System Optimization”

September 17, 2016

My technical division will be hosting a talk on the 21st September, 2016. It is worth 2 CPD points, and held at Wisma IEM. The course will be presented by Ir. Ridhuan Affandi bin Abu Bakar.

Gas lift is one of the most widely used artificial lift techniques. It plays an important role in Malaysia’s oil fields production, as around 70% of active oil production strings are currently on gas lift. This shows how critical gas lift contribution to sustain Malaysia’s oil production. It is important to have good practices in gas lift implementation to ensure successful and optimum gas lift operation. Sub-optimized gas lift operation not only wastes the valuable gas resources and compression capacity but also resulting in a system bottleneck, if the planning for gas lift is not in place. Gas lift optimization can bring value for immediate and significant production gain and perceived as the most cost effective in production enhancement.

As the efficiency of overall gas lift system is much dependent on network integration between subsurface and surface system, a holistic view on performance and setup of each system is crucial to obtain optimum gas lift operation.

This talk will cover and discuss the gaps identification in the current gas lift implementation from the Surface Engineering’s perspective. The recommendation and best practices for gas lift optimization effort with associated oil gain will also be discussed and shared in this talk

Ir. Ridhuan Affandi bin Abu Bakar graduated from Universiti Putra Malaysia with a degree in Chemical Engineering. He has 10 years of working experience in the engineering industry, covering the design of onshore and offshore facilities. He has involved in conceptual, FEED (Front End Engineering Design), detailed design and modification projects for various types of structures (including wellhead platforms, central processing platforms, FPSO, production-drilling platforms and living quarter (PDQ)

He has worked on a number of projects globally including Singapore, Vietnam, United Kingdom and Iran. Recently, he has represented PETRONAS MPM (Malaysia Petroleum Management) to conduct assessment and evaluation on gas lift operation for the selected fields and Oil & Gas Operators in Malaysia.

He is currently a Process Specialist who provides consultancy services to the Oil & Gas industry.

Register here, or download the form here.


Perak to have new gas network

September 16, 2016

Do you need a custody transfer philosophy? You know who to call.

Dateline 2016-08-10, The Star:

The lack of piped-in gas supply, which has been preventing Perak from attracting major investors to the state, will be a thing of the past when a new gas supply network is built.

International Trade and Industry Minister II Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan said work on the gas supply network was expected to start in October and would take about two years to be completed.

Ong said it would cost about RM180mil to implement the gas supply system, whereby Gas Malay­sia has agreed to allocate RM120mil, while the remaining RM60mil will come from the state and the Federal Government.