Wata – Malaysian Oil and Gas Engineer

Dateline 2011-05-28:

A year after suffering massive losses from its oil and gas division, Sime Darby Bhd has taken a decision to exit this business by hiving off its two fabrication yards for RM695mil in cash.

Sime Darby has inked two non-binding memoranda of understanding to sell its Teluk Ramunia fabrication yard to Petronas Nasional Bhd for RM296mil and its Pasir Gudang fabrication yard to Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Holdings Bhd (MHB) for RM399mil.

Sime Darby said the disposals followed a recent “portfolio review” and that for the oil and gas division to move up the value chain and enjoy better returns, “the group would need to further commit its financial resources into a business which is no longer in line with the group’s strategic decision.”

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You can subscribe to an online version of the paper at the e-browse site.

Apart from the standard list of items to bring offshore (slippers, toothbrush, gamma radiation dosimeter), I would suggest the following items be included in your standard kit:

• chalk – to mark equipment / piping when you’re doing a bloomin’ P&ID site verification. Use it to mark flow direction, line numbers, dates, ‘Kilroy was ‘ere’ graffiti.
• tape measure – it’s useful if you ever need to find access way dimensions, level heights, plot plan area. And if you bring the metal one, it makes a cool defensive weapon and an interesting injury report (“cut caused by inadvert operation of the tape measure release button.”)
• laser pointer – this is controversial, but it makes line tracing (especially if the line is above you) a lot easier. Have two, in different colours. Purple for Mace Windu, red for Darth Vader.
• gloves – typically not standard PPE equipment.
• Notebook
• Pens – a lot of pens, approximately one per day at location. Mine keep on getting donated to the denizens of the deep, when they slip out of my shoulder pocket and through the grating.
• Camera – ease of documentation. Not only on site, but to make copies of documents when the photocopier is down, or there is no paper to be had.

What else do you like to bring? plumb-bob? Duct tape? Chewing gum?

Finally. And how much is it for Sime’s engineering license? Silly me, isn’t Mustang the first in line?

Dateline 2011-05-27:

Sime Darby‘s wholly-owned unit Sime Darby Engineering has entered into two separate non-binding memoranda of understanding (MoU) with Petroliam Nasional (Petronas) and Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Holdings (MMHE) for the proposed disposal of assets in the oil and gas division.

Sime Darby’s president and group chief executive Datuk Mohd Bakke Salleh said in a press release Friday that the company has decided to focus its resources in areas where it already has or could achieve sector leadership.

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You can subscribe to an online version of the paper at the e-browse site.

Dateline 2011-05-24:

WITH rosy prospects, Gas Malaysia Sdn Bhd a unit of MMC Corp Bhd will make a compelling growth story for investors upon listing, according to analysts. Eventually, it may even rank high as a sound dividend-yielding stock.

“It will be a period of growth for Gas Malaysia for the next two to three years, especially with more gas supply coming into place as the liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Malacca is getting ready,” OSK Research head Chris Eng told StarBiz.

He said Gas Malaysia was constrained by gas supply but, with the second LNG terminal expected to be ready by year-end, it could provide gas to more customers.

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You can subscribe to an online version of the paper at the e-browse site.

This is a shout out for the IEM. My Technical Division will be  hosting a seminar on the21st June, 2011. It’ll start at 9:00 and is worth 6.5 CPD hours. You still gotta climb those steps at Wisma IEM. They promise up that the elevator will be ready by the next AGM.

Drilling Engineering Overview shall present the audience with the knowledge and arts of drilling wells, especially in Malaysia. It shall be presented in a way that is comprehensible to the engineers who are with or without the oil and gas background. The objectives of the seminar are to provide exposure to audiences on the drilling practices and issues as well as to familiarize the audience with an appreciation of a Drilling Engineer’s work scope.

En. Razak Yakob has been in the oil and gas industry for 15 years working for companies such as ExxonMobil, Halliburton, and Talisman Energy. His core expertise is in Drilling Engineering but the working experience spans from development and exploration, technical support, training, finance and consultation, As a consultant, he has worked in countries such as China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Algeria and others. Currently, he is an independent consultant providing consultancy services for Drilling Engineering at PETRONAS Carigali Sdn Bhd. He was a graduate of Colorado School of Mines in the United States with a degree majoring in Petroleum Engineering and a minor in Mechanical Design.

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

Dateline 2011-05-22:

A News Commentary By Siti Hawa Othman

A long-overdue review of the heavily subsidised natural gas price is crucial as demand for cheap gas in Malaysia is far outstripping supply.

Analysts said that if this market-distorting situation is not corrected by the government soon, then Malaysia will run out of gas reserves which will jeopardise future generations.

As it is now, the government continues to subsidise gas by as much as 71-77 per cent, which means lost opportunities for the country and the economy not being cost efficient.

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For those of you who suffered withdrawal symptoms on Monday, here are some job postings in Kertih (all in the same company), that li’l backwater in Terengganu. The job is to “provide Engineers for Migration to SAP ECC6 Upgrade”

• Rotating Engineer 2 persons
• Instrument Engineer 1 person
• Static Engineer 2 persons
• Control System / Safety System Engineer 1 person
• Analysis Engineer 1 person
• Electrical Engineer 2 persons

Requirements are:

• With minimum qualification of degree in respective discipline
•  Working experience minimum of 3 years on Plant Environment
•  Able to read and extract data from technical drawings.

(I didn’t set the requirements, so interpret as you will)

Your scope of work will be:

1. Organizing data for Functional Location Hierarchy aligned with PETRONAS design
2.  Identify the Equipment class
3.  Determine MPLAN compliance to PETRONAS design
4. Determine Task List compliance to PETRONAS design.
5. Duration of Contract is estimated at 12 months.

Send CVs here. Now. You can attach a check if like.

And if there are 5 yr+ process engineers who want me to interview them, send your CVs to the same location as well.

This is a shout out for the IEM. My Technical Division will be  hosting a talk on the 11th June, 2011. It’ll be at 9:30 am  (makan-makan at 9:00). You still gotta climb those steps at Wisma IEM.

Developing an oil field is never a one-woman task. Regardless of the field’s size or setting, an integrated team approach is inevitable. The talk will touch on the integrated team make-up and briefly discuss the role of each team member in the various phase of a field life including identifying a potential reservoir for development utilizing fit-for-purpose techniques. Whilst having the core disciplines in the team, who are armed with experienced and knowledge, equipped with the IT-know-how, is critical, a proven work process is also important to ensure effective implementation of the proposed field development plan. The talk will then elaborate on how a reservoir engineer contributes to the formulation of an optimum field development plan.

Allida Muhammad Said has more than 20 years of experience in the oil & gas industry working at the various phases of a field life, an experience critical in formulating an optimum field development plan. A reservoir engineer in a multinational oil company for 15 years, she then became a pioneer in the setting-up of a local company which provides upstream consultancy service throughout the oil and gas E&P life cycle, from the exploration phase to the tertiary production phase.

As a Head of the Engineering Department and a Project Manager, she manages both the technical and commercial aspects of a project which include locating by-passed oil in a complex field with historical production via dynamic simulation, quantifying asset value leading to block acquisition, evaluating a real development plan for massive investment and maximizing profit of a marginal field development. She has worked in the different areas including the basins in Iran, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Indonesia. Allida is also as an adjunct lecturer with the University Teknologi Petronas (UTP) and serves as the external examiner as the industry representative for the UTP students Final Year Project.

A mother of three, she advocates positive parenting via active participation in her children activities; hence her involvement as a Vice President of the Malaysian Rare Disorder Society and a Green Consultant for Yayasan Anak Warisan Alam, a youth environmental group.

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

My apologies, my ebrowse subscription had run out, and the darn credit card payment system is still down. If I can get a copy of The Star, we’ll publish the openings as usual.

Thank you for your patience.

Dateline 2011-05-22:

When it comes to controlling prices, it is always a headache for government policy makers, for it is not an easy task to mitigate the global impact on daily necessities such as food and energy.

One must understand that this is something beyond their control. External implications on local prices are not something that can be tackled easily without incurring huge costs.

For example, a government can contain discontent by cushioning prices locally through subsidies, one of the most popular ways to minimise the threat of rising prices on items like fuel and food.

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