First Time – Firefly to Kerteh

May 22, 2009

This week, I took my first flight on a Firefly flight to Kerteh. Not bad, I left on the 6:30am (red eye!) from Subang and returned on the 6:20pm. Managed to get a whole day’s worth of work in there.

One amusing thing I saw was when we were deboarding the aircraft. The stewardess solidly plants herself halfway down the aisle, and allows the rear seating passagers to debark via the back door (there is no front exit) before letting the front seating passengers depart. I guess they are afraid of tipping over the plane if the front passengers left the plane first?

Also, cargo is stored between the cockpit and the passeger aisle. Again, weighing down the front of the plane to prevent tip tipping back.

The flight schedule follows the former MHS charted flight, with 2 flights a day, and no flights Friday, Saturday or Sunday, though rumour has it that this will change soon.

I’d get Firefly to tie up with the local Kerteh hotels, and package the flight and hotel ala Berjaya.

Also, when they going to sponsor Kampung Kuantan?

Leave a Comment » | Malaysia, oil and gas | Permalink
Posted by Wata

IEM Shout Out – Flow Assurance

May 21, 2009

Disclaimer: the speaker is from Synergy.

Back to business. This is a shout out for the IEM. My Technical Division will be having a talk on the 22nd May. It’ll be at 5:30 pm (makan-makan at 5:00) at Wisma IEM. That’s right people, as part of the new health drive you are required to walk up 3 flights of stairs to get your 2 CPD points.

Oil and gas operations require assurance that a given product moves from one point to another. This assurance may require knowing for example, the backpressure caused by a transportation pipeline onto well production facilities, the amount of liquid and gases caused by the interplay of two phase flow in a pipe, the buildup of wax deposits that can constrict flow.

Abnormal situations are looked at as well, for example restarting a pipeline that has been stopped, blowing down a pipeline from high alarm limits, and pigging a line at various speeds. Flow assurance is the art of manipulating tools and providing an interpretation as to whether the given process and physical conditions may be cause and concern. An experienced flow specialist is able to analyze the system, and provide solutions to minimize the effects of unwanted flow artifacts. These solutions can be provided on a design as well as operational level.

Ir. Kevin Shanta has 14 years of experience in process design, simulation modeling (both steady state and dynamic) and plant operations. Upon graduating in 1994 he worked in the oleochemical industry managing the production of fatty acids He then moved to the oil and gas industry where he was involved in dynamic simulation of offshore topsides. He proceeded to broaden his skills by working the several design companies in Malaysia before moving to Perth to perform flow assurance for a subsea development.

Currently, he is the Technical Director for Synergy Oil and Gas Engineering, part of a multinational engineering company overseeing the Malaysia engineering operations.

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

Saturday Star 2009-05-16 – Job Opportunities

May 18, 2009

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

  • First off, Synergy is looking for 5 lead safety engineers and 3 lead process engineers. Visit the Synergy website for contact details.
  • DNV is looking for a Senior Engineer /Consultant, for Marine Systems and Principal / Senior Engineer Consultant for DNV Energy Solutions. Send your resumes via email to Human.Resources.Malaysia@dnv.com
  • Secret Recipe is looking for… never mind, got hungry about here.
  • I see that SABIC is still recruiting. It wants project engineers,  mech design / elec design / C&S design / project / control sys / instr / safety engineers. You can apply via email here.
  • Keppel Offshore & Marine Training Centre is looking for a Senior Research Eng for Drilling and FPSO / Process. Apply to KOMtech@keppelom.com

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

From Business Times – Deleum Tenders for RM400m Contracts

May 3, 2009

Dateline 2009-04-28 (story link here):

Oil and gas services provider Deleum Bhd has tendered for contracts worth RM300 million to RM400 million, group managing director Chandran Aloysius Rajadurai said today.

These comprised service and project contracts, he said, adding that a major chunk involved jobs in Malaysia.

Currently, Deleum has projects worth RM1 billion which will keep it busy up to 2016, he said after the company’s annual general meeting here.

Asked if the decline in crude oil prices from an all-time high of US$147 per barrel has impacted the industry, Chandran said: “Some major projects have been deferred, some are being reassessed and some have been stopped.”

I need to squeeze some work out of Deleum.

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Posted by Wata

IEM Shout Out – Managing Information

April 28, 2009

Okay,  I survived the talk I gave last week, though I’m not sure the audience did. My apologies for a bit of rambling. Contact me, and I’ll give you a private taste.

Back to business. This is a shout out for the IEM. My Technical Division will be having a talk on the 28th April. It’ll be at 5:30 pm (makan-makan at 5:00) at Wisma IEM. That’s right people, as part of the new health drive you are required to walk up 3 flights of stairs to get your 2 CPD points.

Business decisions requires information to be at your finger tips. Many giant companies globally have started to implement Real-Time Information Management Systems to facilitate decision making. PETRONAS Carigali Sdn Bhd (PCSB) has pioneered the development and implementation of its own information management system known as PCIM to manage Life Cycle Data and Documents based on Neutral Data Format.  This facilitates in
realizing Integrated Operation or Smart Field which will enable instant business decisions. Part of PCSB Neutral Data Format and Data Model has been adopted as International Standard (ISO 15926 : Integration of Life Cycle Data for Process Plants including Oil and Gas Production Facilities) to support “interoperability” which is important elements of Information Management System.

Lots of words. Further elaboration will be provided by En. Wan Hassan Wan Mamat:

He serves in the Board of Directors of POSC-CAESAR Association, Norway as Co-Chairman, championing Integrated Operations and Standardization. He drives the implementation of life-cycle information management with software integrations and interoperability for PETRONAS based on ISO15926 towards realizing “Integrated Operations of SMART Field”.
He is also Advisor to Malaysian Oil and Gas Services Council on Information Management and Deployment of ISO15926 for the Malaysian Oil and Gas Industry.

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

Saturday Star 2009-04-25 – Job Opportunities

April 27, 2009

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

  • Oo, PETRONAS has a full page advert. Those of you who believe you are worth the skewed starting salary PETRONAS offers (and PETRONAS doesn’t pay engineering companies enough to offer the same skewed salary), please apply.  Note that this time round, they are looking for 7 years plus experience. Send your CVs to talent@petronas.com.my.
  • Technip, with the tagline ‘Engineer your Future @ Technip’, is looking for structural, subcontract (!), senior contracts (!) engineers. G’won girl, engineer the heck out of that paperwork. Visit http://careers.technip.com.my if you are interested.
  • As Jabba reminds me, Synergy is recruiting Lead and Senior Safety Engineers. Send an email to Synergy if you have the qualifications. Very short listed applicants will be contacted. Others: submit at your peril.

Ah, Chee Meng, Chee Meng, the chicken rice shop. Sigh, since I have moved with Synergy out of KL, will you patronise Chee Meng in my memory? I’ll probably be there next Wednesday.

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

IChemE – More Expats Required

April 24, 2009

My contribution to the Malaysian Brain Drain. Become a member of the Institution of Chemical Engineers to get the other articles.

icheme-article-expats

4 Comments | oil and gas | Permalink
Posted by Wata

Safety – A Reminder

April 23, 2009

As people associated with offshore activities, safety plays a large part in our work culture. Among basic ingredients are:

  • Be aware of risks, and the associated events / initiators.
  • Plan to eliminate/ reduce the probability of an event happening, and minimise the consequences of such events (good old Risk Matrix).
  • Implement the actions recommended above.
  • Implement the actions AS recommended above.
  • Continuous monitor of the risk and improvement to actions (feedback, another familiar ChemEng concept).

You can translate the list to almost any aspect of work / life, even something as complicated as a SIMOPs procedures.

Now, here’s a real life scenario. As I was driving down Jln. XXX next to the USJ Intergrated School, I see that they have a zebra crossing, and a person posted to direct people to cross the street while he holds back traffic.

So far, so good.

Just as I am about to drive across the zebra crossing, this person, while standing on the right CURB (from my viewpoint), holds back the oncoming traffic flow, doesn’t tell me to stop, and BECKONS a father and son team on my left to cross the road.

See where the failure is? I blame management and apathy, myself.

No participants were harmed in the making of this scenario, though a few choice thoughts hummed through my head.

2 Comments | engineering, oil and gas | Permalink
Posted by Wata

Saturday Star 2009-04-18 – Job Opportunities

April 21, 2009

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

  • SABIC is recruiting. It is looking for a maint mech eng,  mechanical engineer, mech insp eng, instrument and controls engineer, comm eng, stress analysis eng, corrosion / metallurgy eng, process eng, advanced process control eng, SHE eng, fire eng. You can apply via email here.
  • Synergy is recruiting Lead and Senior Safety Engineers. Send an email to Synergy if you have the qualifications. Very short listed applicants will be contacted. Others: submit at your peril.

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

Exxon CEO Compensation Package

April 18, 2009

For all you Exxon and ex-EPMI wage slaves, here’s how much you made for your leader. Source article here.

April 13 (Bloomberg) — Exxon Mobil Corp., the largest oil company, raised Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson’s compensation by 34 percent last year to $22.4 million.

Tillerson’s salary rose 6.9 percent to $1.87 million and his bonus increased 19 percent to $4 million, the Irving, Texas- based company said in a filing today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The 57-year-old Tillerson’s restricted stock awards were $7.81 million, and the value of his pension and other deferred compensation rose $8.29 million. Other compensation, including personal security and use of the company’s aircraft, totaled $446,826.

Tiger at Lost World of Tambun

Tiger at Lost World of Tambun

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

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