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to an article on the properties of Tapis Crude, which comes from offshore Terengganu (ignore the crude oil price, it’s outdated).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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Saturday Star 2008-10-25 – Job Opportunities

October 29, 2008

Hmm, not many oil and gas ads this edition.

  • 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. Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.
  • 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.
  • Talisman is looking for a QA/QC Safety Engineer, HS&E Integrated Management System Engineer.
  • Hey, Awan Inspirasi is looking for A&C Rotorcraft Engineers, and Avionic Engineers. They are the competitors to MHS. Please support them, then maybe we will get some value out of the whole chopper industry. CVs to be sent to recruitment.awan@spkb.net

How was the PETRONAS open day last weekend?

Captive Piranhas

Captive Piranhas

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Tales from the Engineering Floor – Jabba’s Books

October 28, 2008

Jabba has decided to share his knowledge of the oil and gas industry with the world at large. Here are the first three books in the series:

If you want to place a pre-order, send a donation, and it will be taken off the price of the books when he ships. I’ll see if I can get some preview pages as well.

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Tales from the Engineering Floor – Exorcism

October 22, 2008

Jabba must have been on fine form the past few days. He contributed the following story as a comment, but I just have to promote it to article status:

Does anyone know how to perform an exorcism. I was wondering what would happen if we try to perform an exorcism on some of the engineers in the office. It’d be a good movie to make…

Here’s a possible dialog-

Exorcist: “I command you, leave this body.”
Possessed Engineer: “Sorry sir, it’s after 5pm, come back tomorrow.”

Exorcist: “I command you, leave this body.”
Possessed Engineer: “Sorry, need to wait for the datasheet from the Process Department before we can do anything.”

Exorcist: “I command you, leave this body, you Spawn of Satan.”
Possessed Engineer: “Don’t know how, it is not in the PETRONAS Technical Standards.”

Exorcist: “I command you, leave this body.”
Possessed Engineer: “Not part of deliverables.”

This could go on forever, until you give in and accept every piece of crap the possessed engineer throws at you.

Definitely going into the ‘Anecdotes of the Engineer.’

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Malaysia – Mobile Number Portability (update)

October 21, 2008

From the pages of the New Straits Times, 16th October 2008

KUALA LUMPUR: Mobile phone users can now switch to another provider without changing their number.This means a customer whose number is 01x-3456789 can retain it when he or she switches to a rival firm. This applies to postpaid or prepaid users.

This is possible after the government launched the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) yesterday.

“The government is committed to ensuring all mobile users can experience world-class services,” said Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor after the launch here.

Previously, consumers were unwilling to change operators as they did not want to go through the hassle of informing their contacts of the change in phone number.

About 87.9 per cent of Malaysians, or more than 25 million people, own a mobile phone.

“We believe this the best time to launch MNP as the telecommunication market is moving into a mature phase. Initiatives like MNP will help boost competitiveness within the sector,” Shaziman said.

Present were Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission chairman Datuk Dr Halim Shafie, Maxis Communications Bhd chief executive officer Sandip Das, Celcom (M) Bhd CEO Datuk Seri Shazalli Ramly and DiGi.Com Bhd CEO Johan Dennelind. Mobile operators were excited about the MNP.

“Competition can only be good for consumers. MNP will force all operators to be more efficient,” said Sandip.

The link to the article is here.

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Saturday Star 2008-10-18 – Job Opportunities

October 20, 2008

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

  • PETRONAS (all capitals, please) is recruiting. The online ad version of The Star isn’t clear, but I think there’s an Open Day from the 24th-26th Oct, 2008 at the JW Marriot, KL. I wonder why they didn’t do it next door at the Mandarin. Too expensive? Anyhow, they are looking for people with at least 7 years experience, which leads on the the next ad.
  • 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.
  • The Kuwait Oil Company is looking people. You can visit the job website and send your application here and here. The engineering positions they offer are for process, reservoir, petroleum, drilling, planning, cotnracts, maintenance, material, cost estimation, safety and enviromental. In a nutshell, ask and you will find an opening.
  • QP is looking for a lot of people. You can visit the QP website. Did I tell you that QP’s SWB (salary, wages, benefits) package is something to be sneezed at?
  •  M3nergy is recruiting. CVs may be sent here. HQ-based positions available are for planning, marine, QS.
  • RasGas is looking for a rotating eqt and mechanical integrity specialist. . Snr Integrity, Snr Mech, Snr Programmatic, Snr Elect/Power, Measurement Specialist (Way hay!), Snr Rot Eqt, Snr. I&Control, Analyser Eng Specialist. CVs to be submitted here. I believe RasGas is a JV, one of the partners being ExxonMobil.
  • Delcom (public holding company Deleum) is looking for a Evaluation engineer. At least 2+ years experience. Hah, you have to send a hardcopy CV to NOV ReedHycalog, 4th Floor, South Block, Wisma Selangor Dredging, 142A Jln Ampang, 50450 KL. Closing date is 18 November, 2008. Always a good way to weed out the trawlers from the dedicated applicant.

Anyone know if Chee Meng is going to open a branch is SS15 Subang?

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Tales from the Engineering Floor – Progress Ceremony

October 19, 2008

Picture this.

It’s the weekly progress meeting. The design consultant project manager starts to go through the project’s progress. One discipline is 15% behind schedule.

So the client’s discipline engineer asks “Why? What’s the delay?” and the catch up plan to get back on track.

The project manager looks at the lead engineer and the lead stares back at the PM.

The Lead engineer says that the progress % is wrong.

Now the project manager looks at the cost control engineer…

who stares back at the at PM, then at the lead and starts flipping through his papers.

The client project engineer, fed up with this intricate dance of eye contact and body language, stands up and says “This (weekly progress meeting) isn’t a ceremony. When you are ready, call for a meeting,” and walks out.

This will be a classic, to be recorded in the ‘Anecdotes of the Engineer’.

A Jackup Rig in a Malaysian Fjord

A Jackup Rig in a Malaysian Fjord

6 Comments | engineering | Permalink
Posted by Wata

Photosynth – Walking around a skid

October 17, 2008

In a previous article, I had written how Photosynth might be used as a poor man’s 3D modelling tool. Well, I’ve attempted to make a walk around of a pump skid. See what you think.

Oh, and keep an eye out for DivePhotographer’s projects once in a while.

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Petrol Prices Drop in Malaysia

October 16, 2008

Taken from the pages of Bernama:

Petrol Price Down 15 Sen A Litre Wednesday, Says Abdullah

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 14 (Bernama) — The RON97 petrol price has been lowered by 15 sen to RM2.30 a litre, RON92 less 10 sen to RM2.20 and diesel sheds 20 sen to RM2.20 from tomorrow, announced Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

The downward revision followed marked drop in world oil prices of late, the prime minister said in a statement Tuesday.

Crude oil prices have dwindled from a record high of US$147 per barrel in July to US$82 currently.

Abdullah said the government decided to expedite reduction of petrol and diesel retail prices to enable the people to enjoy lower fuel prices immediately.

This is the third time the government had lowered petrol and diesel prices, with the earlier adjustment being on Aug 23 and Sept 24.

The government had on June 4 announced petrol price hike by 78 sen, up 41 percent, to RM2.70 from RM1.92 a litre following spiralling world crude oil prices

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