4 years and going

Tomorrow, 24 Nov, marks completion of my 4th year in service with Qatargas. Time flies so fast huh.

I still remember the day when I stepped out of Qatar Airways plane that took me from Jakarta to Doha. It was the onset of Ramadhan 2008 (September), temperature was 39 C and I was able to maintain my fasting amid long flight trip. The interview went well with two good people who already left the company now. I owe them for their decision to have me onboard.

Then a new beginning started when I embarked a new endeavor as an expatriat in Qatar. That was on 24 Nov 2008. Then a complete new beginning started when my family joined me on 28 Feb 2009. Fast forward, throughout this flying-fast four years I have been nothing but having excellent work experiences and working with extraordinary people.

Despite many seductions of leaving Qatargas and Qatar, I am still here today, looking forward to more exciting work and life experience years to come.

4 years and going….

Beach Club

I feel ashamed to admit that it is after about 2.5 years that I visited QG/RG Beach Club for the first time. Beach Club is privately owned by QG/RG and to be used only by QG/RG employees and their families. However, employee is allowed to bring one guest at a time. Access verified by showing QG/RG ID.

Beach Club is a piece of land at the shore end of breakwater belong to N-KOM shipyard at Ras Laffan Industrial City. Measured only 200m by 250m probably, the club offers 11 small huts, BBQ facilities, playground, and sandy beach. A main building at the center provides canteen, prayer room, TV room and toilet/changing room. A volleyball court is also available at the north side. All facilities are on first come first serve basis. The club closes at 9pm weekday or 10pm weekend.

Access to the club is through beach road or Ras Laffan Highway (Route 77) and then taking a turn to Ras Mulaiji.

Coordinate: 25°51’33″N   51°35’1″E

Welcome to Beach Club

 

Beach Club - shown here Main Building at the background

Playground is available at the Beach Club for children

 

Sandy beach at Beach Club

77

It is not Christiano Ronaldo’s number or ‘beautiful number’ from Vodafone. 77 is a magic number for LNG (liquified natural gas) production capacity from Qatar. Qatar will soon reach 77 millions tons per annum (mtpa) LNG with start up of Qatargas Train 6 in November and Train 7 in February. Qatargas and Rasgas are the two LNG producers who make up 77mtpa mark: 42 and 35 mtpa from Qatargas and Rasgas respectively. This 77 achievement represents a landmark event for Qatar, where it will ensure its reputation of being the center of energy in the world and the largest producer of LNG in the world.

It is expected that the celebration for 77 is to be held on Monday, December 13, 2010 in Ras Laffan Industrial City in the presence of several delegations and media figures from around the world.

So if you are roaming around Doha or flipping through newspaper and find big advertisements with 77 in Qatar maroon color, that’s what it means in here.

Qatar soon to reach 77mtpa LNG and becomes the world's largest LNG producer!

Jetty Boil-Off Gas Project

I was only once involved in this project – known as JBOG –  for a HAZOP meeting.

(Source: Qatargas website)

KEY PROJECT TO RECOVER FLARED GAS AT RAS LAFFAN 

Doha – Qatar, 24 February 2010: Qatar Petroleum, Qatargas and RasGas Company Limited (RasGas) have given the initial go ahead to a key US$1 billion environmental project to recover gas currently being flared during Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) ship loading at the Port of Ras Laffan.

The project which is part of the Common Facilities Projects at Ras Laffan Industrial City in the north of Qatar is known as the “Jetty Boil-Off Gas Recovery Project”. 

The project will enable boiled-off gas to be collected from LNG ships and compressed at a central facility.  The compressed gas will then be sent to the LNG producers to be consumed as fuel or converted back into LNG.  This project, when fully operational, will recover the equivalent of some 0.6 million tonnes per year of LNG, which is enough natural gas to power more than 40,000 homes.

Qatargas Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Faisal M. Al-Suwaidi said: “We are very pleased that Qatargas is able to lead this project on behalf of all the LNG producers at Ras Laffan Industrial City.  Qatargas, Qatar Petroleum, and RasGas are all focused on reducing our emissions and energy use so that we can bring our emissions to the lowest levels possible to meet or beat international standards. This project will contribute greatly to reducing emissions from our facilities.”

Qatargas, as the project leader, is working with Qatar Petroleum and the Ministry of the Environment, to execute this project which aims to significantly reduce overall flaring and emissions at Ras Laffan Industrial City.

It is anticipated that the project will be completed by the end of 2013 or early 2014.

4-riyal Lunch?

Where on the Earth (of Qatar) can you get a decent and stomach-filling lunch for 4 riyals?

– Yes you can. In QG Ras Laffan Canteen!

4 riyals is what QG charged (through salary deduction) to its employee for each lunch. That’s for senior staff. For junior staff, it’s even much less: 2.5 riyal! But if you pay peanut you’ll get monkey right? Not really. It’s a good lunch tough.

QG Ras Laffan canteen is managed by AMWAJ – a catering company. To be able to have a lunch in the canteen you can either: scan your employee badge barcode, state your staff number to receptionist, or use a coupon. If you use a coupon (contact your secretary), you will notice that Amwaj charges you QR25. So 4 riyal or 2.5 riyal lunch is a subsidized one.

Once you get in the canteen, you will see to separate buffet serving counter, then in the middle is salad and drink island and next to it is dessert and fruit table. The canteen hall is large enough to accommodate about 200 employees I think. There is a separate ladies dining room in the hall. Menu is a combination of Arabic, Indian, Continental, and sometimes Philipine cuisines. Majority of the menu is Indian, so you’ll need to get used to it. For those who are Indians, congratulation you are as happy as in your home country.

Plain rice, mutton rice, or briyani rice are almost available everyday. For westerners you can take either french fries or mashed potatoes, or grilled potatoes. For continental, there are normally pizza, noodle, or macaroni. For main dish, you can expect mutton, fish, beef,  chicken and less frequently seafood. Then you have 4 Indian dishes! available everyday.

Salad island is a good provision.At least you will have 5-6 different type of salads. Really a treat. For drinks, soft drink dispenser, three juice dispensers, bottled water, canned soft drink are available. For dessert, you will have choices of 2-3 fruits, and 3-4 dessert (at least one of them Arabian sweets or cake), and lastly ice cream.

If that’s not enough, you can take fruits or bottled water, canned drink to your office although they are strictly prohibited.

Those who are working outside QG plants or HQ building are normally served with onsite catering (I heard that in one of the satellite office (project office) the onsite catering serves Japanese cuisines to accommodate large Japanese /Korean workers in the project. The workers however can opt to go to Ras Laffan canteen for their lunch.

BTW don’t compare RL lunch with Doha lunch. Ask Doha employees why! You will be glad to work in Ras Laffan.

An example of daily QG Ras Laffan lunch

Al Khor or Doha?

Sometimes it’s a must but sometimes it is a choice. Difficult decision to some QG Ras Laffan-based employees who need to trade-off at some points.

Why living in Al Khor Community?

• Living in a secure, safe, gated, well-controlled camp
• Living with many friends nearby
• Excellent clubs, restaurants, and recreational facilities
• Close to Ras Laffan – 18km to RLIC Gate
• It’s a must due to operational requirement (i.e. shift employees)
• You don’t like shopping, malling, or clubbing as your past times
• Living in peaceful environment, stay away from the hectic of a city
• Your kids school at Al Khor International School
• More saving? for less shopping?

Why not to living in Al Khor Community:

• No shopping malls (Lulu Hypermarket is underconstruction)
• Limited choice of amenities and services
• Away from the center of activities in Doha (once you’re in you’ll bit lazy to go out of camp)
• You’ll not get a club allowance QR10,000 a year
• Your monthly allowance is deducted for QR800 a month
• Your circle of friend is mostly QG and RG

Why living in Doha

• Close to center of activities (i.e. you don’t need to go driving 40km just to watch an exhibition or festival or activity)
• You’ll receive a club allowance QR10,000 per year
• Possibility of meeting friends outside QG & RG more frequently
• Close to malls, amenities and services
• Boring? Just jump out to a mall or cafe in just few minutes

Why not living in Doha

• If you live in central/southern Doha and you work in Ras Laffan, traffic will be your best friend
• You need to travel 70km to Ras Laffan for work

Trade-off:

• You get financial allowance but you need to be on the road 1 hour longer each day
• Your kids school in Doha, so you need to live in Doha although working inRas Laffan.
• You’ll get more quality time but reduced allowance and away from center of activities

So which one do you like?

 

Laffan Refinery Starts Production

Doha, Qatar – 26 September 2009: Qatargas has started production from the Laffan Refinery, the first condensate refinery in Qatar. The refinery’s production reached commercial quantities and specifications on 23 September for all products.

The new refinery has a total processing capacity of 146,000 barrels per stream day (BPSD). It consists of process units including utility systems, distillation units, naphtha and kerosene hydrotreaters, a hydrogen unit and a saturated gas plant producing naphtha, kerojet, gasoil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

Mr. Faisal M. Al Suwaidi, CEO and Chairman of Board of Directors of Qatargas Operating Company, said: “The Laffan Refinery brings together a number of effective technologies and synergies from multiple ventures. The refinery adds value for end customers as well as the State of Qatar. This start-up represents a historic milestone for Qatar and Qatargas especially as this is the first time some of these technologies are being used in the country.”

“We have also focused on safety at the refinery and implemented critical safety systems throughout the construction phase. The same Qatargas safety philosophy has also been applied in the commissioning and start-up phases as well. We are aiming for safe and stable operations,” said Mr. Al Suwaidi.

The Laffan Refinery is a key part of the strategic vision for Qatar as it will process and add value to the field condensate produced from the Qatargas and RasGas facilities.  The condensate will be refined and turned into products such as naphtha, kerojet (otherwise known as jet fuel) and gasoil.

The refinery’s production capacity will be 61,000 bpsd of naphtha, 52,000 bpsd of kerojet, 24,000 bpsd of gasoil, and 9,000 bpsd of LPG.

From inception, the refinery has been planned as an environmentally friendly facility and it has been built in line with stringent environmental standards to reflect this concept in every detail.

One of such systems is the gas recovery system which captures and compresses gases generated during normal operations and recycles them as fuel gas. Furthermore, the refinery’s waste water treatment system enables reuse of treated water in various operations of the refinery. Under this system, as much as 40 per cent of the effluent water is treated with the overall treatment capacity of the plant being 40 cubic meters per hour.  Emission levels at the refinery are also low because of advanced environment control programmes introduced within the facility that meet European Union standards.

Salman Ashkanani, Venture Manager, Laffan Refinery said, “Like all Qatargas projects, the Laffan Refinery has also embraced the “Incident and Injury Free” approach from day one.  The excellent safety performance demonstrated by the project throughout the construction, commissioning and start up phases reflect our commitment to safety.  One of the unique aspects of the start-up was the combined involvement of people from the Commissioning, Start-Up, Expansion Start-up, and Project teams who brought with them different areas of expertise, ensuring a flawless and safe start-up for the refinery.  Our focus now is on the safe and reliable long term operation of the refinery.”

In terms of manpower, it was a challenging task to recruit highly skilled people from different parts of the world to build and operate the refinery. Some 30 different nationalities are represented in the construction and operations workforce. For the operations personnel an advanced competency development programme has been completed and involved extensive class-room and simulator training as well as simultaneous on-the-job training.

The Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractor for this project was a consortium of GS Engineering & Construction Corporation and Daewoo Engineering & Construction Company who were awarded the contract in May 2005. The plant foundation stone was laid in April 2006 by His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the Heir Apparent.

Qatargas operates the refinery on behalf of the shareholders: Qatar Petroleum (51 per cent), Total (10 per cent), ExxonMobil (10 per cent), Cosmo (10 per cent), Idemitsu (10 per cent), Mitsui (4.5 per cent) and Marubeni (4.5 per cent).

Source: Qatargas.com

Qatargas Train 5 Starts LNG Production

Qatargas today (8 Sep 2009) announced that Train 5 of the Qatargas 2 project has started producing liquefied natural gas (LNG) taking the company halfway through its expansion programme. The train, which has an annual production capacity of 7.8 million tones, will take the overall LNG production of Qatargas to 25 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) by the end of this year.

Mr. Faisal M. Al Suwaidi, Chief Executive Officer and Vice Chairman of Qatargas said: “This is truly a remarkable achievement for Qatargas 2 and I would like to congratulate and thank all those who have made this possible. The production of LNG in Train 5 takes us one step closer to Qatar’s target of producing 77 million tonnes of LNG per annum by the end of this decade. We are greatly proud to be able to contribute to this ambitious vision.”

Mr. Al Suwaidi added: “We have entered into a new phase in our journey towards becoming the world’s premier LNG Company. Our task now is to ensure that the new trains operate flawlessly and that we meet our customers’ expectations with regard to a secure and reliable supply of LNG for the long term, as we have been doing with Qatargas 1 for many years.”

Qatargas pioneered LNG production in Qatar in late 1996. The Company began operations as a three train LNG project with a total production of six mtpa of LNG. The production capacity was increased to nearly ten mtpa following the completion of a debottlenecking project in 2005. In addition to Trains 4 and 5, Qatargas 3 Train 6 is expected to come online in 2010 while Qatargas 4 Train 7 is planned for start-up by the end of the decade. This will bring the overall production capacity of Qatargas to 42 mtpa by the end of next year.

Mr. Al Suwaidi said: “Our focus remains on delivering these projects so they can operate safely and reliably for the long-term. We will be known as the company that leads the LNG industry in terms of safety, reliability, operating excellence and commitment to its people and customers.”

Qatargas 2 shareholders are Qatar Petroleum, ExxonMobil Qatargas II Limited and Total E&P Golfe LTD

Commuting Doha – Ras Laffan

Living in Doha but working in Ras Laffan, I have to commute Doha – Ras Laffan v.v. in daily basis. Ras Laffan is about 70-80km from Doha (or 76.4 km precisely from my house in Al Gharafa – near Al Shamal Bridge to Qatargas Gate). Depending on the transportation mode, that 76km can be reached around one hour for northern Doha or 1.5 hours for south or central Doha.

There are at least three transportation modes that I can use for commuting to Ras Laffan:

1. Use my own car. This is my least preferred method. I don’t like driving for commuting for reasons: reduce my stamina for work or after-office-hours activities, add mileage to my car, and does not allow me to have a morning reading of newspaper or workstuff on the way home, or doesn’t allow me to make up my sleep. However, in some circumtances, I use my own car for commuting such as if there is a planned prolonged meeting beyond bus schedule, or If I have a plan to go somewhere directly from work after office hours. Fortunately, these are not so many. It may be less than thrice a month.

Using my own car, I can travel for commuting for less than one hour (usually about 50-55 minutes one way, normal speed) benefited from its location at the northern Doha.

2. Use car pooling, join with friend’s car. I frequently join with my friend for back home from Ras Laffan. This gives a shorter commuting time whilst be able to exchange discussion.

3. Use shuttle bus. For safety reasons, Qatargas – despite giving transportation allowance – provides shuttle buses from employee’s compounds for their commuting. Big buses (i.e. 35-45 seats) or mini buses (i.e. 20 seats) are used depending on number of employees on the respective compounds.

I can opt to use my compound buses or other buses if I miss one. There are several shuttle buses available. Normally one bus serves two or more compound. For example, a big bus from Karwa starts from Doha Garden and neighborhood compounds (Beverly Hills 6 and Les Roses 1) in Al Waab Street then goes to Al Wadi Compound in Al Gharafa area. Another big bus serving Tatwer Complex (temporary accommodation) to 7 Pearl (also temporary accommodation or permanent accommodation for single) then goes to GEneral Post Office to pick up any employees who live outside QG compounds. Another big bus serves Al Handasa complex, and General Post Office. Also a mini bus from Al Khor Community is available.

As for my Al Faisalya compound, a mini bus serving Al Faisalya, then to Al Sadd Residence and to Regency Apartments can be used.

There are also some minibuses which serve shift employees to different plants.

A big bus is of course preferable than a mini bus for its comfortness. In my case, I can opt to use a big bus from Al Wadi for commuting. This requires a drop and pick up service (normally done by my wife  🙂 ) from Al Faisalya and Al Wadi which are separated 2 km only. Not a problem for the shake of comfortness.

My compound shuttle bus usually picks up at 5.45 – 5.50 am! (for 7.30 am work start) and drops back at 4.40 pm (for work ended at 3.30 pm). As for the Al Wadi big bus: 06.15 am and 4.40 pm.

Taking shuttle bus is my preferred mode of commuting for reasons opposite to #1 above.

4. Hybrid mode. Any combinations above. My most preferred mode is taking Al Wadi bus and back with direct bus to Al Faisalya.

How far is far

76km one way seems so far for commuting at the first time. But as I have been travelling it for the last 10 months, it’s now a piece of cake. In fact, one hour travel time is passed so quickly. It (in the case of shuttle bus) offers some benefits such as making up sleep, catching up material for a meeting, update news through reading, or chatting with friends.

Sleeping is the most common activity I can observe in shuttle bus, followed by listening to the music, chatting, and then reading (not many people are able to read while travelling).

A trip to Ras Laffan from Doha will use Al Khor Highway – a 30-km or so highway with two lanes on each way. Finishing the highway we will pass Al Khor town before making a left turn to Ras Laffan at the roundabout before Al Khor Hospital. From here we travel 5.5 km to Fish Roundabout for a right turn to Ras Laffan City road. A driving of 13-km down the road will lead you to Ras Laffan Industrial City security gate. From this gate is 9 km to Qatargas Gate.

An alternative route is available via Al Shamal Road (about the same distance from my compound) with meeting point to the previous route in Fish Roundabout. This route might offer a shorter driving duration (due to not passing any towns), however, Al Shamal Road is now under massive renovation upgrade and therefore presents unpleasant driving journey and risks.

Which mode do you prefer?

Update 12 Jan 2010

Starting 6 Dec 2009, no minibus to Al Faisalya Gardens 1, Al Sadd Residence & Regency. Al Faisalya Gardens 1 is now served by the same bus that serves Beverly Hills/Les Roses & Al Wadi. Pickup time is 6.15 AM at Al Faisalya. Al Sadd Residence is served by the same bus as Tatweer, 7 Pearl & GPO. Whereas Regency Apartment is served by the same bus as Al Handasa, La Rose de Sable & GPO.

To me this new arrangement is the best commuting solution so far. No need to travel to nearby compound, using very comfort bus, and get a second drop after Al Wadi on the way home.

Offshore Trip to NFB

I had an opportunity to visit North Field Bravo (NFB) Platform Complex on Sunday 5 July 2009. Two risk assessments were requested to be facilitated on the same day, one regarding techlok clamps removal and the other one is about lifeboat coxswain training. NFB is located in the Persian Gulf, about 80 km north east Ras Laffan. North Field is home to world’s third largest non-associated gas reserves of 910 TCF (trillion cubic feet) covering area of 6,000 sq.km. With Qatargas operating NFB, there are also NFA and RasGas operated platforms.

Helicopter is used as a main transportation moda for passenger, in addition to boat used for transporting goods and materials. Heliport base for all offshore gas platforms is situated in Doha Airport area, managed by Gulf Helicopters. If you are coming from city center, heliport can be accessed by taking Al Corniche Road all the way to Ras Abu Aboud, wandering along diversions within heavy construction to prepare interconnection road for New Doha International Airport. You need to take U-turn at clock roundabout and turn right just before traffic light. This is followed by turning right after few hundreds meter and driving the only road leading to heliport.

Parking space is premium here. With many offshore-based employee left their cars in parking area for couple days or up to their 28 day-on schedule, the remaining vacant space is minimum. You might want to come early in the morning to claim a precious spot for even 6.30 am flight. Otherwise you’re forced to park in open areas prone to accident or in area just quite far from heliport area.

Besides Qatargas counter, there is QP, Oxy, RasGas and Maersk. Heliport departure/arrival area is small yet complete enough to resemble mini airport. There is check in counters, mini shop, security gate and X-ray check, and boarding area for flight safety induction. What makes it different with what I had previously in Indonesia when going to offshore platform are prohibited items that include camera, and mobile phones! It seems that it is merely for security reasons.

For Qatargas employee or contractors, one needs to have an approved offshore request and Qatargas Offshore Pass as prerequisites for flying. Helicopter AW-139 (AgustaWestland) and Bell-412 are used in my trip heading to and back from NFB respectively. The former is way better than the latter. The latter is more like military helicopter with no fancy things, noisy and quite vibrating. AW-139 to Bell 412 is like Airbus A319 to Cassa 212 (at least the ones I am flying with, exaggerating though….:) ).

Trip this time was not scenery-filled experience. Doha is engulfed by sand storms with low visibility such that the flight is delayed up to 45 minutes. Nevertheless to say, it’s always enjoyable to see things from above. New airports being constructed, interconnecting roads, Qatar Airways planes ready to take off, monotonic brown buildings, and a maze of red-white road barriers.

AW-139