From the Star – Pertamina, PETRONAS

September 17, 2009

Dateline 2009-09-12 taken from the Star:

(PT) Pertamina and partner PETRONAS Carigali Overseas Sdn Bhd, a unit of Petroliam National Bhd., won the rights to jointly develop West Glagah Kambuna block of the coast of Sumatra…

Star - Pertamina PETRONAS

Star - Pertamina PETRONAS

Hey, a sign of cooperation during these trying times for Malaysia-Indonesia relationships (I blame the Discovery Channel).

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

And Patrick Swayze passed away this week.

1 Comment | oil and gas | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Wata

IEM Shout Out – Water Recovery Network for a Process Plant

September 16, 2009

This is a shout out for the IEM. The Chemical Engineering Technical Division (know as CETD to friends) will be having a half-day workshop on Saturday, 3rd October, 2009.

Industrial water recovery is commonly accepted as a promising mean to the water scarcity problem faced by the world-wide community. However, many regard that water recovery can only be achieved by the installation of purification units (e.g. filter) at the effluent discharge point of the wastewater treatment tank. This is indeed not true, as there are always direct reuse and recycle opportunities to be explored prior to the use of purification units, provided that appropriate mixing and segregation rules are followed.
Water pinch analysis technique has been widely accepted as a systematic design tool in synthesizing a water recovery network for maximum efficiency. It establishes the minimum fresh water and wastewater flowrates needed for a process plant after maximizing the reuse/recycle potential of its water sources, base on first principle (termed as targeting). After the water flowrate targets are established, some design rules are used to synthesize a network that achieves maximum water recovery.

As for the speaker:

Engr. Dr Dominic Foo is an Associate Professor with the University of Nottingham,  Malaysia Campus. Engr Dr Foo is a world leading researcher for waste minimisation,
focusing on the systematic design of water recovery systems. He published more than 40 journal papers and made more than 100 presentations in various conferences. He is a book editor on the design and optimisation techniques for sustainable processes. Engr Dr Foo conducts training for practicing engineers in the area of waste minimisation and process simulation.

Water pinch sounds interesting. Please come along, and partake of the food (both intellectual and physical).

1 Comment | Chemical, engineering, Malaysia | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Wata

Saturday Star 2009-09-12 – Job Opportunities

September 14, 2009
  • First off, Synergy is looking for 5 lead safety engineers and 3 lead process engineers. Visit the Synergy website for contact details. And safety specialists. Ah, heck. If you have more than 5 years experience in O&G, apply. If you have less than 5, send a donation to the offshore account, and still get abuse.
  • I see AP Recruitment has a full page spread. Must be the start of booming times in Qatar. The are usually associated with Qatar Petroleum and Qatar Gas. Wonder why the don’t mention their client here? Anyhow, jobs are available for Maint Eng (Electrical), Planning Engineering Specialist (Shutdown). The rest are technician posts. Apply here.
  • Shapadu is recruiting for Mech & Piping, Elect & Instr, Planning, Structural & Construction, Comm Eng. Email here or here. I know these guys as an offshore construction group, though I tend to pay attention to who actually works for a company rather than the company name. That’s the nature of construction contracts, if the PSC likes you personally, then you swap coveralls and work for the PSC’s flavour of the month.
  • And Kebabangan Petroleum Operating Company (KPOC to friends) has a two-page spread. I presume they are now moving into detailed design / fabrication? Anyhow, the posts that they hope to fill are: Offshore Installation Manager (OIM, PIC, Platform Supv), Snr Proj Eng, Snr Proj Eng (Mat & Eqpt), Electrical Reliability Eng (is TNB offshore?), C&I Reliability Eng, Snr Contract Specialist (this is where you make your money by, ahem, creative means), Metering System Reliability Eng (not many of them around), Piping Eng, Mech Reliability Eng, LQ project eng (please don’t make it dorm style), Proj Eng, Planning Eng, Cost Eng). Please apply here, or snail mail to: Kebabangan Petroleum Operating Comp Sdn Bhd, Level 52, Tower 2, PETRONAS Twin Towers, KLCC, 50088 KL, Malaysia.

No makan-makan recommendations this week. I did have an iftar at the Bluewave Hotel, Shah Alam though.

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

Optimal – A Fully PETRONAS Company

September 9, 2009

I can’t find this news on any Malaysian news site. I first read about it in the TCE:

TO further ease its debts, Dow Chemical has agreed to sell its stake in Optimal to Malaysian partner Petronas for $660m.

 I pulled an extract from Project Finance International (subscribers only):

Dow has recently sold its entire stake in Malaysia-based Optimal Group of Companies to Petroliam Nasional (PETRONAS).

From Optimal’s history page, there are only two investors, UCC (now part of DOW) and PETRONAS.

I remember when Optimal was sucking up the Kerteh workforce with higher pay and better compensation. They opened up an international school in Kerteh, to cater for the (highly paid) expats who came in for the first 2 years. They also closed the school when the expats left, so you know it wasn’t meant as a service to local staff, even those who could afford it.

So, does this mean that the current Optimal salary, wages and benefits (SWB) will be in line with the rest of PETRONAS? Is there going to be an exodus of talent from Optimal to … don’t think there are other high-paying jobs around the KIPP (Kawasan Industry Petroliam PETRONAS), so we’ll see another exodus overseas.

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The SOGE Story – Pipenet Training

September 8, 2009

Synergy’s staff does undergo training, you know. Here, they are in a session to improve theirs skills on Pipenet, supplied by EDSA.

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Saturday Star 2009-09-05 – Job Opportunities

September 7, 2009
  • Petrofac is looking for a reservoir engineer. Send you application here.
  • Talisman is looking for a Team Lead – Exploration Dept. Apply here, and visit their site.

Latest food site? I had iftar at Selero Negori, Subang.

3 Comments | engineering, Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: , | Permalink
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Near Miss Incident

September 3, 2009

In the industry, a near miss is an incident which lies at the bottom of the safety pyramid.

Safety Pyramid

Safety Pyramid

A near miss does not cause any injury, damage or publicity. However, the main reason why it doesn’t do so is usually due to dumb luck. For example:

  • A tie rod would hit someone on the head if it was two inches to the left.
  • A dropped box would crush someone if there was a person on a designated walkway.
  • A hammer missed smashing equipment because the wielder’s reach was 3 inches too short.

Here’s a near miss near our offices. In this case, it would be an incident if the power cable snapped, or the power cable was 4 feet longer, or a 10 ft tall person happened to walk by.

Near Miss - Detached Lighting Fixture

Near Miss - Detached Lighting Fixture

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Saturday Star 2009-08-29 – Job Opportunities

September 1, 2009

Sorry about the late post. I was using the new bluehyppo ebrowse service, and it hasn’t published any The Star papers since last Thursday.

  • First off, Synergy is looking for 5 lead safety engineers and 3 lead process engineers. Visit the Synergy website for contact details. And safety specialists. Ah, heck. If you have more than 5 years experience in O&G, apply. If you have less than 5, send a donation to the offshore account, and still get abuse.
  • Hey, there’s nothing else.

Happy Malaysia Independence Day.

4 Comments | engineering, Malaysia | Permalink
Posted by Wata

Business Visit – Bintulu

August 28, 2009

Second time I’ve been in Bintulu in 3 weeks. Place must be growing on me. I thank the people at MLNG for being kind enough to see me at such short notice.

4 Comments | engineering | Permalink
Posted by Wata

We Want MiFi Equivalent

August 25, 2009

Here’s a neat device that takes a 3G signal, and uses it to create a Wifi hotspot. See it on Amazon, and read about it on Leo Laporte’s site. Read endgadget’s review for more info.

When will we get a similar device here? I can create a wifi site that starts off with a splash page advertising my, hmmm, services.

BTW, have you calculated how much SMS costs? Say you send a 140 character text message. Assuming you get a 0.5 sen/sms offer, then one SMS (140 bytes) is o.5sen, and the cost for  1kb is 3.5 sen. The cost of 1MB is Rm35. Kinda expensive, don’t you think?

 Other end of the spectrum, assuming 1 message is 20 bytes long, and one SMS is 10sen, then the cost for 1MB is Rm5000. 

If you are a serious texter, get unlimited 3G broadband, and use a free sms service.

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