IEM Shout Out – 2016-10 One-Day Course on “Offshore Sand Separation, Design, Operation and Maintenance”

August 18, 2016

This is a shout out for the IEM. My Technical Division will hosting the above workshop on Thursday 29th September, 2016 by Mr. Hilmi Isa and Eow John Son.

n the upstream offshore oil & gas production, effective and efficient sand separation and management are vital, since the presence of sand and solids in wellhead production lines are likely to cause erosion and blockage issues in the subsequent downstream equipment at production platforms. As a consequence, dangerous incidents, such as the failures of flowlines, production vessels and control valves, have a higher risk of occurring. Moreover, oily sand discharged into the sea is also an environmental concern.

This full-day course is designed to educate the participants on the engineering design, operation and maintenance of the technologies for the removal and cleaning of the sand and solids prior to discharge. Proven sand removal technologies, such as wellhead desanders, produced water desandinghydrocyclones, sand fluidisers, and sand cleaning systems are commonly used in the upstream oil & gas production. However, these sand removal and cleaning systems need to be designed and operated correctly to ensure optimized separation performance.

Mr. Hilmi Isa is Managing Director and Principal Trainer of EDES Technology Sdn Bhd. Hilmi has worked in the oil & gas industry for 20 years specializing in mechanical and process designs for production and processing equipment. Hilmi has worked as Lead Mechanical Engineer for many upstream oil & gas projects, covering wellhead desanders, produced water treatment, sand separation and management, seawater treatment, multiphase production separators, fuel gas treatment, and glycol gas dehydration. Hilmi is also well-versed in the PETRONAS Technical Standards (PTS) and the SHELL DEP Standards. He has also successfully conducted technical training programs for PETRONAS and SHELL engineers and operators. EDES has successfully completed process packages for major clients, such as PETRONAS, SARAWAK SHELL, MURPHY OIL MALAYSIA, SAPURAKENCANA PETROLEUM, TALISMAN, CAMERON MALAYSIA, WOOD GROUP, etc.

Ir. Dr. Eow John Son is Principal Engineer & Trainer with EDES Technology Sdn Bhd. He is also a Professional Engineer (BEM), and a Chartered Engineer (Engineering Council, UK). He obtained his PhD (in electrostatic water-oil separation) from the UK, and has published many technical papers in international journals and conferences. Having spent many years in multinational companies, and having worked in the UK, Singapore, Japan and Malaysia, John is well-versed in the oil & gas processes and production technologies, such as Wellhead Desander, Produced Water Treatment, Sand Separation & Management, Crude Oil Treatment, and Gas Processing for the upstream oil & gas Industry. He has worked from Technical and Commercial Proposal Stage to Detailed Engineering Stage to Commissioning Stage to Production Troubleshooting for oil & gas processes. John has conducted technical training and consultancy work for engineers and operators at Saudi Aramco, PETRONAS, Sarawak SHELL, GAIL India, etc. He is also an Assistant Professor at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR).

You can register here. Flyers may be obtained here.


IEM Shout Out – Two-Day Workshop on Fluid Mechanics: Impacts on Line, Pump & Compressor Sizing

August 16, 2016

My technical division will be hosting a 2 day seminar on the 1st and 2nd September, 2016. It is worth 13 CPD points, and held at Wisma IEM. The course will be presented by Ir. Anwar Ahmad.

During this Fluid Mechanics: Impacts on Line, Pump, and Compressor Sizing course, there will be overview on the impacts of the fluid mechanics while executing line, pump, and compressor sizing by considering design, operational, and maintenance perspective. Appropriate sizing of all these are very important because of the operating cost where there might be damages to the piping, pump(s), and compressor(s) during operation if it is not properly designed. The impact mainly will give impacts due to the vibration which lead to cavitation and vice versa. Furthermore, properly sized of line sizes, pump(s), and compressor(s) can reduce the turn-down time for maintenance as no issues pertaining to vibration and cavitation which may avoid from frequent changing of the parts for both pump(s) and compressor(s). Codes and Standards applicable for the sizing of line, pump, and compressor will be discussed which may affect upstream and/or upstream equipment of the system(s).

Learning Outcomes

  • Fundamental of Fluid Mechanics
  • Line, Pump, and Compressor Sizing and Correlation among Line, Pump, and Compressor with respect to Fluid Mechanics
  • How does Fluid Mechanics will affect to the operating cost of the plant?
  • How does flow characteristics will affect to the line, pump, and compressor sizing?
  • How to perform hydraulic calculation for new plant and How to evaluate hydraulic calculation for existing facilities especially for revamp study and the impacts of Fluid Mechanics from operational perspective;
  • considerations to be considered during design stage
  • Lesson learnt from previous projects on line, pump, and compressor sizing from both design and operational perspectives.

Ir. Anwar Ahmad is a registered Professional Engineer with Board of Engineer (BEM), Corporate Member with Institute of Engineers, Malaysia (IEM), Corporate Member with Institute of Chemical Engineers, UK (IChemE), Chartered Engineer from Engineering Council, UK with more than eleven (11) years experiences in process engineering in oil and gas industry, mainly in design with engineering firm and operation for technical support during turn around Experienced in process simulations (Hysys, PetroSim, and VMGSim/iCON), heat exchanger rating software (HTRI), flare network backpressure software (FlareNet/Aspen Flare System Analyzer), and flare radiation study software (FlareSim). He’s currently freelance process engineer attached to engineering firms based requirement basis when executing projects and also execute projects remotely if required.

Register here, or download the form here.


IEM Shout Out – Talk on “Heat Exchangers Design, Inspection and Maintenance”

August 15, 2016

This is a shout out for the IEM. My Technical Division will be hosting a talk on the Monday 29th August, 2016  by Ir. Alzakri. It’ll start at 5:30pm and is worth 2 CPD hours.

The talk will provide an overview on types of heat exchangers commonly used in Oil & Gas industry based on the Codes & Standards used during the design. Common types will be the Shell & Tube Heat Exchangers, Air Cooled Heat Exchangers, Double Pipe Heat Exchangers and Plate Heat Exchangers. This will be followed by the sample fabrication processes which touch on the common welding processes such as GTAW, SMAW, SAW and main forming processes such as plate rolling and tube bending.

Ir Alzakri Ekhwan is a Custodian Engineer for Static Equipment based in PETRONAS Group Technical Solutions and has more than 23 years of experience in maintenance, design, fabrication, inspection and construction of Static Equipment in Oil and Gas industry. Previously, he was the Principal Engineer, Field Engineering Manager for MG3 Lube Base Oil (MG3) Project and Hydrogen Processing Unit 2 (HPU-2) Project and Senior Inspection Engineer of PETRONAS Penapisan (Melaka) Sdn Bhd . He was also the Head of Mechanical Section of PETRONAS Methanol (Labuan) Sdn Bhd.

Register here or download the form here. A map to Wisma IEM is presented here.


Saturday Star 2016-08-13– Job Opportunities

August 15, 2016

Happy Recover from IEM Engineer’s Run 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’m looking for fresh meat-ish, to help with a peak work period.
  • Nothing in the papers today.
  • 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


Petrofac pulls plug on contract with Malaysian state-owned oil firm Petronas

August 14, 2016

Who pulled whose plug? And notice that Petrofac’s share prices went up.

Dateline 2016-07-11, City AM (who?)

Petrofac shares popped today after the oilfield services provider scrapped a contract with Malaysia’s state-owned oil firm.

Petrofac’s Malaysian subsidiary and its partners agreed an early stoppage to the development of the the Berantai gas field, located about 150km offshore Peninsular Malaysia, with Petronas.

Petronas was due to pay Petrofac $357m (£275.4m) for the contract last year, which resulted in a profit of just $1m during this period.

The London-listed firm had the right to end it ahead of the expected end date in 2020, depending on the project’s economics.


The 3 Numbers That Oil MISC Berhad

August 12, 2016

Go subscribe to the Motley Fool.

Dateline 2016-07-01, Motley Fool:

MISC Berhad (KLSE: 3816.KL), which is listed on Bursa Malaysia (Malaysia’s stock exchange), is currently one of the largest energy shipping companies in the world.

The company happens to be a listed subsidiary of PETRONAS, the national oil and gas conglomerate of Malaysia.

Here are three numbers you need to know about MISC.

Number 1: 33 billion

MISC has a market capitalization of RM33 billion (around S$11 billion) at the moment. That would make it over three times larger than Sembcorp Marine Ltd (SGX: S51), which is already one of the world’s largest oil rig builders.

MISC also generated revenue of RM10.9 billion (around S$3.7 billion) in 2015 and earned more than RM2.46 billion (S$0.82 billion) in profit. This equates to a net profit margin of 22.5% – not bad at all for a company that’s operating in a difficult environment of low oil prices.


IEM Shout Out – Talk Handling Sand Issues In The Upstream Oil & Gas Production

August 11, 2016

My technical division will be hosting a talk seminar on the 18th August, 2016. It is worth 2 CPD points, and held at Wisma IEM. The course will be presented by Ir. Ir. Dr. Eow John Son.

The presence of sands and solids in wellhead production lines are likely to cause erosion and blockage issues in the subsequent downstream equipment at oil & gas production platforms. As a consequence, dangerous incidents, such as the failures of flowlines, production vessels and control valves, have a higher risk of occurring. Moreover, oily sands discharged into the sea are also an environmental concern.

The objective of the Talk is to introduce the participants to the sand removal technologies, such as wellhead de-sanders, produced water desanding hydrocyclones, sand fluidizers, and sand cleaning systems, which are commonly used in the upstream oil & gas production platforms. Moreover, these sand removal and cleaning systems need to be designed and operated correctly to ensure optimized separation performance.

Ir. Dr. Eow John Son is Principal Engineer & Trainer with EDES Technology Sdn Bhd. He is also a Professional Engineer (BEM), and a Chartered Engineer (Engineering Council, UK). He obtained his PhD (in electrostatic water-oil separation) from the UK, and has published many technical papers in international journals and conferences. Having spent many years in multinational companies, and having worked in the UK, Singapore, Japan and Malaysia, John is well-versed in the oil & gas processes and production technologies, such as Wellhead Desander, Produced Water Treatment, Sand Separation & Management, Crude Oil Treatment, and Gas Processing for the upstream oil & gas Industry. He has worked from Technical and Commercial Proposal Stage to Detailed Engineering Stage to Commissioning Stage to Production Troubleshooting for oil & gas processes. John has conducted technical training and consultancy work for engineers and operators at Saudi Aramco, PETRONAS, Sarawak SHELL, GAIL India, etc. He is also an Assistant Professor at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR).

Register here, or download the form here.


IEM Shout Out – Talk on “Managing HSE Challenges in Oil & Gas Industry”

August 10, 2016

My technical division will be hosting a talk seminar on the 17th August, 2016. It is worth 2 CPD points, and held at Wisma IEM. The course will be presented by Ir.Lee Chang Quan. Safety practitioners, fill up the seats, please.

In view of the hazards and risks associated with production, transportation, and handling of hydrocarbon, companies in the oil and gas industry have always given the pledge to have the subject of Health, Safety, Environment (HSE) as the top business priority. People may get injured or killed, and environment may be damaged. It is evident from the history that, if the hazards and risks are not managed properly, catastrophic disaster could happen, as in the case of Piper Alpha, Bhopal, or the recent one at Macondo.

Managing HSE has remained a top challenge though. In the time of market volatility since year 2015, many oil and gas companies have taken serious measures to control cost so as to survive the turbulence. It is in this time of cost pressure that the pledge of maintaining HSE as the top business priority will be tested.  This talk will look into the key HSE challenges faced in the oil and gas industry, and share on how these challenges could be managed, especially in times of turbulence.

 

Ir. Lee Chang Quan started his career as a mechanical engineer with a design engineering firm, and moved on to join a national oil company. His experience in the oil and gas industry includes engineering, procurement, installation and construction activities in plant modification and rejuvenation projects. He has led a few feasibility studies, engineering management work and managing brownfield projects. Later, he moved on to undertake operational excellence and improvement roles at business level. He is now the Health, Safety and Environment Manager with one of PETRONAS subsidiaries, formulating HSE strategies and implementation plan. He is a trained internal auditor, involving in Tier 1, 2, 3 HSE Assurance Programs. He is an active trainer in HSE programs. Occasionally, he delivers adjunct lecture to university students in the subject of mechanical engineering and safety.

Ir. Lee Chang Quan graduated from University Teknologi Malaysia with a Bachelor Degree in Mechanical Engineering. He has a Master Degree in Business Administration from University of Nottingham. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP®). He is also a committee member of the Oil, Gas and Mining Technical Division of IEM.

Register here, or download the form here.


JX Nippon gears up for Malaysia drilling campaign

August 10, 2016

Dateline 2016-06-28, Offshore Engineer:

Japan’s JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration (Malaysia) is gearing up to drill three wells offshore Malaysia after agreeing a contract for the rig for the campaign.

JX Nippon is to hire the semi-tender drilling rig SKD Berani from a SapuraKencana Petroleum subsidiary.

The contract with be for a minimum 150 days and has two option wells. The contract is expected to start by July 2016.

JX Nippon acquired blocks SK10 and SK8 offshore Sarawak, Malaysia, in 1987 and 1989 respectively. In 2012 and 2013, the firm also acquired deepwater Blocks R (offshore Sabah), 2F and 3F (offshore Sarawak).

The SKD Berani is able to drill to 6000ft water depth and was built in 2006 at Keppel Offshore & Marine in Singapore.

SapuraKencana has also announced a number of other contracts. SapuraKencana Drilling Jaya has accepted an extension to its contract with BP Trinidad & Tobago (BPTT) for the provision of the semisubmersible SKD Jaya. BPTT has extended the use of SKD Jaya for its development drilling campaign offshore Trinidad & Tobago for an additional one well for approximately 45 days, and additional work on an existing well for approximately 60 days.

In addition, SapuraKencana HL won a contract by Selex ES Malaysia, for the provision of FEED and EPCIC of the Radio Shortwave Support System project for Petronas Offshore Facilities off the west coast of Sabah, for 19 months.


Saturday Star 2016-08-06– Job Opportunities

August 8, 2016

Happy Visit Miri Again 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’m looking for fresh meat-ish, to help with a peak work period.
  • Nothing in the papers today.
  • 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