Saturday Star 2008-11-15 – Job Opportunities

November 17, 2008

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

  • 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.
  • ExxonMobil Exploration & Production Malaysia Inc (who says I can’t remember names of my former masters) have an add for an elec engineer, facilities eng (aka ‘Swiss army knife engineer’), instrumentation and controls eng, process eng. Apply here.
  • QP is looking for a lot of people. Among them are Gas Production Dept: Snr Maintenance Opns Eng, Offshore Installation Supt. Transmission & Distribution Dept: Lead Process Eng, Snr Project Process Eng, Snr Opns Eng. Terminal Opns Dept: Maint Planning Eng, Snr Process Eng. You can visit the QP website. Did I tell you that QP’s SWB (salary, wages, benefits) package is something to be sneezed at?
  • Noble Denton  is looking for an engineer, with a degree in Naval Arch, Offshore Eng, Marine Eng or Mech Eng. At least 5 years working experience in O&G offshore. You can email to ndm@nobledenton.com.my
  • Kencana Petroleum is looking for design engineers – process, mech, piping, electrical, instrument and civil/structural, which about covers the whole spectrum. They are also looking for project engineers and managers. Send CVs via snail mail to The Managing Director, Kencana Bestwide Sdn Bhd, Megan Avenue II, Unit B-11-11, No. 12 Jalan Yap Kwan Seng, 50450 Kuala Lumpur.

Sigh, when I move with Synergy to Subang, will you patronise Chee Meng in my memory?

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Dangers of Unapproved Modification – NGV

November 16, 2008

Here’s an article from the Star.

Man killed in NGV explosion

By CHEN PELF YEEN and ALLISON LAI

MALACCA: Two brothers who converted a cooking gas tank into a natural gas kit for their van paid dearly when it exploded, killing one of them.

Mohd Hailmi Ishak, 25, from Kampung Duyong, and his brother Rosli Ishak, 30, from Taman Tiang Dua, had stopped at a PETRONAS petrol station in Batu Berendam at about 7.50pm on Friday to refuel.

Their worker Razali Md Zin, 31, was with them.

It is believed that Rosli, the driver, was refilling the van at the natural gas vehicle (NGV) stand while his younger brother was standing nearby when the blast happened.

The explosion shattered the front portion and two doors of the vehicle.

It shattered Mohd Hailmi’s left leg and ripped open his abdomen while Rosli and Razali escaped with light injuries.

You see a lot of this jury rigging work offshore, difference is, the jury rigging is engineered as opposed to ‘try and see lah’ philosophy. Thing’s I’ve done are:

  • Use a flange that had a higher than required rating.
  • Use a smaller than design size valve (it’s okay, the process flow had been reduced).
  • Use a process compressor for other than it’s intended use (don’t worry, risk analysis was performed).
  • Route liquid to different vessels (there’s a whole story behind this one).

This is where your engineering (and presentation and persuation) skills are called to the forefront.

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Cool Photo – Grinding

November 14, 2008

I thought this was a cool photo, testing out how well my manual photography exposure skills were working.

Construction grinding work

Construction grinding work

While taking this photo, I guess I was being observed by 2 HSE supervisors. I don’t know, maybe they though I was running a HSE investigation. Anyhow, they tailed me till I left the site, though they didn’t interfere with the work I was commissioned to do there. Very nice of them.

In the spirit of safety, notice that the grinding area has been barricaded off with tape

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Rambling Advice on Seeking Employment

November 12, 2008

I’ve compiled some of the advice I’ve given people. Take it with large doses of salt (BTW, this term came about when it was believed salt was an antidote to most poisons. Good thing chem eng came about, eh?):

  • Let’s be realisitic. Is it hard to get work in the O&G industry, or is it just as hard to get work anywhere? You need to look at your qualifications and grades, your presentation skills (oral and written), your target job (highest pay not matching your skills and aptitude), your letters (writing ‘I want to join your prestigious company’ when you write to a two man startup in Subang shows lack of particular interest, not to mention lack of research). And tawakkal. Also, most companies only inform short listed candidates of success.
  • As for working outside the office, a support engineer role  would be your best bet. Look at the papers for openings, esp. companies that supply good after sales service, turbomachinery, DCS systems, specialist measurement equipment.

A second option would be working for the PSC companies. Woohoo, you get more site experience then you want after a few years if you end up being a facilities or operations engineer.

  • There are positions for persons (telecomm) in oil and gas. What do you consider when you mean O&G? Some big telecom companies have an O&G division. If you have customers who supply products to O&G, then that’s a way in. You can try adverts in the papers, or on the Net.

If you mean that you want to work for a big multinational that operates O&G assets, then you may be limiting yourself, as telecom is a small part of opns. If you have electronics or systems background, then that give you a larger opening.

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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

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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?

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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?

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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

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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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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?

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