XP and Offshore Hardware Obsolesce

June 30, 2008

You can’t miss the announcement that Microsoft will stop selling Windows XP as a retail product after today (30th June, 2008). It will still be supported till 2014. Considering it was introduced in October 2001, it has had a long streak.

Now, how long do you expect offshore hardware to be supported? For field instrumentation, you really don’t care. Discontinued? As long as you have the original specs and current requirements for the item, you are covered. You usually replace the whole item, not individual components like displays, power board and logic circuits.

Machinery is another matter. You have sunk, oh say USD8M in a compressor/turbogenerator package which is meant to last the life of the platform (20 years). You need support for that whole period, either with the vendor maintaining a warehouse of replacement parts, or a part-by-part or bundle-by-bundle upgrade program. I would say that this program is similar to aircraft engine upgrade schemes, seeing that offshore generators are generally aero-derivatives to save weight, i.e. having a large power to weight ratio (efficiency is another matter).

The one that would trouble me are the brains of the asset. This would cover flow computers, DCS, PCS, SCADA, MMI, SDS, F&G. The vendor has to provide hardware and software support for yonks (or the term stipulated in the PO). And us consumers know how fast electronics evolve. That cool Zip drive of 1998 is no longer in sight. When was the last time you saw a floppy? 50MB hard drives are now hard to come by. Electronics are proprietary (sorry, Low Yat plaza). Replacing or upgrading these systems are not as easy as picking out the successor from a vendor catalog. Months and years of planning are in place, usually requiring an asset shutdown (USD80/bbl x 100 kbl/d x 4 days…). There are redundancies in place, but it still requires a something akin to a heart-lung transplant. kudos to the I&E surgeons for performing the surgery under pressure.

I don’t worry about PLCs not so much, as I suspect they are easier to replace, similar to field instruments.

Me, I’m a process guy. I deal with vessels and stuff, no electronics to worry about. Though, a pressure surge can really damage orifice plates, vane mist pads… buy a replacement in Balakong, that’s the ticket.

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

Blue Ocean Strategy in Malaysian O&G?

June 29, 2008

I was introduced to the ‘blue ocean’ strategy on the 25th, when the IEM arranged a visit to PETRONAS’s Prince Court Hospital. The strategy involves you choosing a market where there are no competitors (swimming alone in the ocean blue, get it?).

All of the oil and gas businesses of note I know swim in red oceans, where we fight and cut and tear at each other.

In the oil and gas industry, you can start out with a niche market (ex. high end process consultancy, HAZOP leadership, good engineering when your competitors are rubbish) which you hope you have no competition, but when you want to play with the big boys, you have to go head-to-head. If you are successful, you create a blue ocean for yourself by buying up (or bumping off)  your rivals.

So, you can go blue ocean – red ocean -> blue ocean. If you don’t see that cycle, you’re doing it wrong, at least in Malaysian territorial waters.

3 Comments | business opportunity, engineering, Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Wata

Vendor Lock-In

June 28, 2008

You never know what item can come back and haunt you. Here’s an example from an oil and gas client I have worked with. They have custody measurement systems (who doesn’t), and they use supervisory metering computers to manage the flow computers available at particular assets.

Now, all the SMCs run their programs in an environment called Citect. They have had environments and application software developed by the local, Malaysian team, and others developed overseas. You would have thought that the two would play nicely together, wouldn’t you?

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

The overseas developer didn’t (wouldn’t) give the source files to the local folks. Hence, any work that needs to be done on the MCS has to be sourced back overseas. You can understand why this foobar gives grief to client, and why they are thinking of replacing these made-in-Westernstan system with homegrown apps.

How about something closer to home. Did you know that the HP Photosmart 3310 all-in-one has region encoded ink cartridges? You know about DVDs, Wiis and warranties, but actual print cartridges? Makes you want to buy region-free printers:

“Boss, ini printer boleh pakai cartridge chiplak?” 

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

Shorter Work Weeks

June 27, 2008

An associate of mine mentioned that Ranhill WorleyParsons has implemented a 4 1/2 day work week. You work an hour more from Monday – Thursday, and skedaddle Friday afternoon.

IGL Perth did (does?) a similar thing. You work an extra hour for 7 days in a fortnight, and get the 8th day free.

The above are examples of companies putting that extra bit in to nab the scarce experienced engineering resources that are floating out there, and promoting intangible benefits to entice them.

But, give an engineer extra hours in the day, and she’ll try to work overtime. Intangible benefits only go so far, gas for the car isn’t sold for smiles and goodwill. Heck, I’ve seen an engineers’ timesheet where he worked 18 – 22 hours a day. And he was an expat. Please work for someone who will sign off a timesheet with those figures.

1 Comment | Malaysia, oil and gas | Permalink
Posted by Wata

Fuel Saving Tips – Commentary

June 26, 2008

There’s this email being circulated touting the best way to fill up your car. You know the one, giving advice such as:

“ONLY BUY OR FILL UP YOUR CAR OR BIKKIE IN THE EARLY MORNING WHEN THE GROUND TEMPERATURE IS STILL COLD.”

I would suggest you visit snopes.com, and read their take on these tips. In response to the above, their comment is that fuel is stored in underground tanks, which act as giant thermos bottles. This, coupled with the the observation that below-ground temperatures don’t change much during the course of a day, leads me to conclude that there is no need to join the dawn patrol when planning when to fill up your car.

From an engineering standpoint, here are other things to think about:

  • The flow of fuel from the storage tank to the car should be sheltered from the sun so that fuel isn’t heated as it travels, and produces vapour (and less liquid) at the nozzle.
  • If the fuel goes into the underground tank hot (midday fuel delivery?) then it will probably stay hot no matter what time of day you fill up.
  • You might want to ensure your car fuel tank isn’t hot so as to vapourise fuel as soon as it comes in. Is this a reason to pay the premium for covered parking?

I’d agree with snopes’ conclusion:

“…The bottom line is that there are much easier and better ways of improving the efficiency of your car (and thus of saving you money at the pump) than the tips outlined above. Particularly important is proper maintenance, including engine tune-ups, wheel alignments, tire pressure checks, and filter replacement…”

If there were any tips to follow, follow the ones on being a more efficient driver.

 

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

Offshore Living – Food

June 25, 2008

As I go through my exclusive collection of photos, I am reminded that there are not many luxuries out there. One of life’s simple pleasures that your company can splurge on is food. This was taken during Ramadhan offshore, many moons ago.

Offshore buffet

There used to be barter trade between the platform folk and fisherman who were fishing nearby. For a hot meal or three, the fisherfolk would send up some of their choicest fish, to be cooked per request. To get a closer look at their catch, the platform folks would even use binoculars, as they were at 30m elevation looking down on a small 10m boat.

If you want to irritate oil and gas people who stay offshore for weeks on end, serve them bad food, lukewarm food and not enough food.

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

100th entry

June 24, 2008

To fill space out, I’d like to highlight that this is the 100th entry to my blog. Statistics-wise:

  • Total views: 5,500+
  • Comments: a few (there’s no summary number in my admin pages).

Thank you all for your support and interest. Give me a buzz if you want to see topics elaborated here.

4 Comments | engineering | Permalink
Posted by Wata

Saturday Star 08-06-21 – Job Opportunities

June 23, 2008

Another week, another scan of the Saturday Star newspaper. This time, I’m trying out the ebrowse feature provided by BlueHyppo (will he ever manage to balik kampung?). Note that you need to have admin rights to run it in beloved Windows XP (they don’t tell you that on their help page). And McAfee detected a buffer overflow in Vista.

Here’s a list of job ads in the paper:

  • PETRONAS has a nice colourful advert for engineers. Looks like GTS is looking for a few good people. I understand that they have a really good training program, seeing that one of my colleagues left the private sector to join them.
  • QP is looking people. Actually, it’s looking for people times 3 (there are 3 adverts in the paper). You can visit the QP website. Did I tell you that QP’s SWB (salary, wages, benefits) package is something to be sneezed at?

Happy hunting. Let me have some feedback if you find this list useful. Even better, spread the news. PayPal donations welcome.

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

The Kerteh Subang Commute

June 22, 2008

Did you know that if you were Petronas or EMEPMI staff, you can take advantage of a chartered flight between Subang and Kerteh? It shaves off hours from the usual KLIA-Kuantan-Kerteh route. It leaves Kerteh at 7:00, leaves Subang at 8:30. The afternoon flight leaves Kerteh at 4:30, and leaves Subang at 6:00. As a former colleague of mine says, it’s travelling during gentleman hours.

No inflight movie, and no refreshments. The reading material is a bit thin, something about exits. Did I mention that 2 people sit abreast? You do get a personel safety briefing by the flight captain.

A commercial flight used to travel between Kerteh and Subang, Pelangi Air. Rumour has it that it went down due to mismanagement.

 So, a business opportunity. Maybe work with Awana Genting for packages, and promote Pulau Tenggol. Actually, don’t promote Tenggol, I want to keep the diving crowd to the ‘need to know’ basis.

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

IEM – Future Online Plans

June 21, 2008

I received this email back from the IEM:

“Dear Engr. Razmahwata,

Thank you for your email of April 2 regarding the above and my apologies for the belated reply. IEM will be setting up its own blog site in the near future and any issues that may concern the Institution and the engineering fraternity can then be posted and discussed there. We appreciate your interest and support given to the institution.

Best rgds,

KM Cheang,

Executive Director”

 

2 Comments | engineering, Malaysia | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Wata

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