Monday, October 12, 2009

New Assignment

A bit nervous about my new assignment in roving team...away to Abidjan (West Africa).

For sure there are lots of challenges ahead, keeping in mind this is the
1st time working with all the guys ( who are they? No idea at all...),
1st time in Operation team (Never meet the team b4 ....will be meeting the 2 of them on wednesday),
1st time in Abidjan (Seldom heard of the country and now having to work with the local),
1st time work as a operation personnel (what is their mentality? am i ok with their hierarchy reporting system? how long can i survive in their system? bla bla bla)

Thinking in depth, those 1st time experiences are what im looking for isnt it? Have i changed? or what is the reason of the feeling nervous?

I do not know the scope of work...anything told by the MS
I do not know if i can handle the work assigned.....that's why i am with Roving team (exposure & learning ground level technical skills)
I am getting too relax (after coming back frm Brazil end of June).....this is what i need to get rid and return to more routine and healthy lifestyle!!
I am getting too ( zi4 yi3 wei2 shi4 )....getting too much trust and are empowered to get things done in previous project change my way of doing thing and my thinking, so it is now to train my patience and sharpen my political working skill and my socialise skill with people around me....

I wish myself good luck and looking forward to end yr 2009 with a big bang!! Fan2 Shi4 quan2 li 4 yi3 fu4, zhuo4 shi4 wen4 xin1 wu2 kui4, dui4 de2 qi3 tian1 di4 liang2 xin1....you4 you3 she me hao3 dan1 xin1 de4!!


Will try to update my blog more frequently during my free time...

Ok la gonna go home and pack my luggage....

ISSUING AIRLINE : EMIRATES
TICKET NUMBER : ETKT 176 4789039523
BOOKING REF : AMADEUS: ZJVLAS, AIRLINE: EK/CZESX6
FROM /TO FLIGHT CL DATE DEP FARE BASIS NVB NVA BAG ST

SIN CHANGI EK 0405 B 13OCT 0140 BSCWW2 SC 40K OK
TERMINAL:1
DUBAI ARRIVAL TIME: 0450
TERMINAL:3


DUBAI EK 0787 B 13OCT 0730 BSCWW2 SC 40K OK
TERMINAL:3
ABIDJAN ARRIVAL TIME: 1400

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Preparation for 1st Gas

2 Days before gas:
Dewatering, by launching the PIG ( PIG-MEG-PIG-MEG-PIG-MEG-PIG-MEG-N2 to pressurised)to clear all the water from the service and production lines.
- PIG not able to launch successful, flush & push with diesel ( flushing diesel booster pump at ~ 180m3/hr max)
- Clients were happy with the amount of water, MEG and Diesel collected back in the tank.

One day before gas:
1) Function test the subsea valves opening and closing
2) Running the MEG injection to pressurised
3) Leak was found at ambilicals but fixed the next day.
4) Check all the vessel lined up for gas and condensate for leakage ( pressurised up to 35 barg wt N2 by Halibuton man)
5) Pressure not holding in some vessel due to some PV valves were passing. Fixed the leak by maintenance sup, both mech and inst. Check that all the open end to be pluged.
6) Circulate the diesel through the backup heater( swap the specticle blind on the heating medium inlet of the heater)to heat up the diesel to 72C (take few hrs to heat up around 20ton of diesel in the tank). Diesel to be heated up to 90 C upstream of the choke valve to control the temperature of the gas coming up from the well to be below -5C.
7)Meeting among the decision makers about the preparation. New time decided to be the next day 6am.to bring gas onboard.
8)Have to wake up around 4am to prepare the diesel system (temperature, and starting the Diesel pressuring pump, and keep circulating, to check temperature at upstream the choke with temperature gun for more accurate temperature measurement.


Some brief notes about our preparation for bringing the gas on to the vessel:

1) Safety note about the use of Camera ( prohibited w/o permit to work and tape off the flash light)
2) Safety note about the use of tools ( any tools that can create spark are not allowed, brass tool can be used)
3) Stop the daily activities ( construction, commissioning and daily deck operation and receiving supply boat etc), personnel are asked to stand by for immediate help if required.
4) Lock Cargo control room middle entrance. Only key personnel are allowed.
5) Production meeting to dedicate job to grp of people and the focal point of each grp.

ok la tomorrow gonna be the day...so have to sleep earlier tonight...

Thursday, May 7, 2009

The night before disembark from Cidade De Sao Mateus 19.8 miles offshore Brazil

Tonight i feel so excited!! My heart beat was fast until i went to take a shower to cool down myself. I could not believe i will be so excited..why? I never been so excited b4...may be staying too long on board the vessel ba...Finally, i disembark from the vessel after about 8 weeks stay on board the vessel.


This is the 1st time i am in Brazil and the place really caught me by suprise. The city (Vitoria)is so nicely developed. The road is clean, the buidings are nicely planned and maintained and the environment is so relaxing. Hard to describe but the people, the environment, the feeling (not forgotten)is so nice....Flying from Spore-Paris-Rio-Vitoria from 13Mar 09 arriving in Vitoria on the 14Mar around 930pm local time. ( The time in vitoria is 11hrs slower than the time in spore..not it is 0000 8may09.)

Check-in, take a shower me and collegue head on to for dinner in the restaurant in the hotel. It took us about 45min wating for the food, noted that there was no one in the restaurant except the 2 of us. Anyway the dinner is quite good. The prawn is just damn nice. Next activities was to walk around the hotel area (it was almost 1130pm)and not far from our hotel is where they call the golden triangle ...lot of bars with loud music etc...We couldnt decide the bar so we hop from one bar to another as we only meant to look around...something funny is that none of them speak english...haha and so we cant order beer from the menu...but by pointing to the beer that we want....be prepared if you want to travel around brazil...
We had one or 2 drinks in the bar and continued hopping to another which have more people and better music... Saturday night in golden triangle is so happening, full of youngsters and the gals are nicely dress up so do the guys...we notice one thing and it might be part of their culture...the people will sit and chat for a long time at one place...1st i dont understand y ..but now i know, the brazillian is just to much talkative...Opps, no offence amigo / amiga..but it is true. :) We knock off at about 2am in the morning. Quite exciting night out and we still have 1 day before embark on the 15Mar.

On sunday morning we went out walking along the beach opposite out hotel...though the sand is not natural ( i think so ) the sea breeze is just refreshing. As usual, gals will be in their bikini and man will be in their trunk playing volleyball, soccer etc...wow the gals here are hot!!! We went to another beach Pria De Canto before lunch...it was all about beaches for the whole morning.We were tired so just rest in the hotel for the whole afternoon....the night itself i happen to meet brian and we went out for drink at the golden triangle. Didnt chat with Brian for quite sometime after he didnt turn up for our weekly soccer games in spore...so we had a good chat for about 2 to 3 hrs...didnt really remember but one thing for sure is that we had a good chat. One Beer after another until we all had enough. Happy spend a night with my friend in vitiria prior to kick start of working days...60days onboard.

So, what am i going to do tomorrow?? or should be today afternoon and tonight ?? Need to talk to the local to have some suggestion but im sure will not spend time sleeping in the hotel.....

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Meaning of CNY...become clearer for the 1st time

26 Jan 09 is getting closer and now it is over....

I started to count down to the day which i will never miss ( for the pass 26 years) but this year it is abit different. After many times of delay, i am prepared to not to able to celebrate CNY at home with my family members. I thought that i can handle the feeling of not going back home for CNY just like the other public holidays that i spent working in 2008 but again i might be wrong...

A week after sailing, i start to put a cross on my calender at the end of everyday. The initial sailing which expected to take only about 21 days is delayed due to some unforseen reasons, like stopping for overhauling the main engine, waiting for spareparts for the main engine at Mauritius etc etc...

The unforseen delay has made the journey to become about 29 days ( expected arrival date in Capetown is on 2Feb afternoon). Now that i am totally missed the CNY though i might still be in A/S around 7 Feb (Sat)if everything go smoothly...

On the CNY eve, browsing through my facebook, knowing that all my friends are on their way back to hometown / preparing for their reunion dinner / lunch make me feel homesick but that was only for a temporary moment...as i was quite busy with lots of work on board the vessel...which keep me mind away from thinking of CNY celebration.
At about 8pm ( vessel time) around 12 midnight ( M'sia time)after finished the evening meeting, i immediately made a phone call back to my home. Speaking to my sisters, brother , my mum and dad i can feel that they also miss me very much ...since this is the 1st time i didnt spend my CNY at home...you just feel like something is missing and you dont know what to do during that time except making phone call to friends...

The night, i finallly realise the meaning of CNY to me...it is not about the spring cleaning/preparation feeling anymore ( which i enjoyed most in the past)before the CNY. It is the feeling of seeing getting together with my family members. The feeling of seeing them all happy and healthy give the most satisfaction to me..now i finally know that.....:)

Anyway, i never feel regret to go sailing with the vessel as i did learnt lots of thing which will be helpful to my carrier in years to come...final count down 5 days to Capetown and i will spend another 2 nights stay travelling in capetown before flying back to Office in Singapore before headed home on Friday night ( 6th Feb 09). Hopefully everything go smoothly and i safety reach home on 7 Feb 09.

Happy CNY to all my friends!

Sunday, January 11, 2009

A week of Sailing

Ever since sailing on 6th Jan, i just get too lazy to upload the photos onto the web due to the super slow uploading speed...but since tonight i have some free time and not feel like sleeping yet..so i will try to upload some photos for sharing.

Anyway, it is really an amazing journey. Started from you can see a lot of boats to now just merely can see the sea and sky horizon....almost no boundary. Enjoying the sea breath while having a cup of coffee or an icecreme cone after lunch is what i normally will do while staring at the horizon..seems like thingking of something but actually the feeling is so relaxing. So, hope that you will enjoy the photos.


Photo taken by helicopter when we started to sail. So nicely taken.


Panaromic View of our Floating Production and Offloading Vessel (FPSO)Cidade De Sao Mateus.



Looking back to the day prior to Sailaway...it was dated at 6th Jan,7am in the morning.We were ready to sail after whole night of struggling to lift the winch and to get the fresh water generator (RO) running. Spent time until 2am in the morning getting the RO package running..i was so excited getting to know that those who are fixing the hydraulic sys for the anchor winch nearly finish their work too...they finish at 4am. I was told that the ship going to sail at 6am. Feeling too tired, i went to take a nap...keeping in mind that i would like to see they lift the anchor for sailing...but a nap become a sleep. The time i woke up it was about 7am. I went to check if we were sailing and was told that we were on the way lifting the anchor..without 2nd thought, i ran towards the forward anchor winch which is located at about 300m away just to make sure i manage to catch the "special moment" ofcourse wont leave my camera behind. Find the "Special Moment" i catched.


This Anchor Took us 1 hour to lift from sea bed. So i was lucky to witness this moment. But after that we had some problem again with the main engine and have to lower the anchor again before we really sailed in the evening at about 630pm.What's important is that we work against all odd to make sure the smooth sailing.




Bridge Deck- This is the place where pilot will give command to the watcher and navigate the ship.


The 4 men Cabin on Board our Vessel. To me it is about the size of First world hotel room. I eventually change to a 2 men cabin which is much comfortable staying together with the Maintainance Superintendant.


All the cabins are equipped with Lifejackets & smoke hood with light stick for escape during emergency.


SImple Furniture in the Cabin


Some said that, toilet is one of the criteria to determine the number of star a hotel should be....so i have no choice as to show it as well...so now you have got all the information to judge how many star is the cabin...no matter what i leave the answer to you. Haha.


Photo taken at night from the bridge deck. Looking at topside process module.


Last photo for today post...the lengcai taking photo of himself.

Oya, forgot to let you know that now we are travelling to the west, after coming out from Melaka Strait. So our time is 2 hours behind Singapore time. We are now at 1130pm(11 Jan 09) and Singapore is at 130am (12 Jan09). So it is time for me to go to sleep as tomorrow gotto work from 7am till 7pm in the evening.

Cheers! Looking forward to travelling in CapeTown and Resting at home after sign off from vessel. We should reach CapeTown by 1 Feb 09 according to the speed (10knots/hr) and currently we are also sailing against the current which is slowing us down. Anyway, the current and wind should be in our favor in another 3 days time.

Night!

Monday, January 5, 2009

Set to Sail to Cape Town

Now it is only a matter of counting down the time before we lift up the anchor and start our sailing journey first to Cape Town (South Africa)then to Vitoria (Brazil). As for me, i have been waiting for this chance for so long. Starting from the begining of the project, i would always want to finish the project and see the vessel leaving the port. But even since i join the commissioing team,sailing with the vessel has become my target. To be able to get the installed / constructed items / modules / system running at their desired condition has been the duty of all the commissioning team.

Because of the nature of the work that you just couldnt correctly estimate how long it will take to commmission a system, sometimes we need to stay back until 9pm at yard finishing the job. Giving the short period of time due to work delay by the construction team, needless to say we have to work 7 days a week. But all the hard work finally pay off...the vessel is on its way sailing to Brazil...

Today started quite relaxing. I did some paper work in the morning, and going around to check the fire water system and modification work for the condensate system for the gland steam condenser. In the afternoon, we had our safety induction course,and about 230pm the captain arranged a fire drill to prepare everyone onboard about things to do during emergency. It seems pretty simple and easy for us until dinner time. Everything seems prepared and set for sailing.

First, there was news that the main engine is not gonna get started due to some problem with the govenor. Then there was a problem that the storage of the fresh water is too little, and might not enough to fire the engine room boiler so that might prevent us from sailing.At about 10pm, i was in the engine control room, standing by to see what i can help (apprently i cant, but i just want to be there to see how the problem get solve). Sooner, the the RO unit (reverse osmosis unit)that we kept runnning since 630pm in the evening was found to be leaking....trying to figure out the problem, i pull along my colleague who have much more experience than me together to get the problem solve. Then it came my boss, and the offshore installation manager and the maintainent superintendent.Suddenly the machinery space become more lively though the flanges still leaking as we tried to figure out which flanges actually clothing the discharge line. At about 2am in the morning, we finally figure out and solve the problem after opening 4 flanges and found out that it is actually the problem of the failure valve which clothed the line. SO happily pack up our tools and went back to retake our bath and change our soaking cloth...

Despite having to work till midnight, i am still very excited as i get to know that the vessel is gonna leave at about 6am in the morning. So,i am ready with my camera to take down the memorable moment sacrifising my sleep. I found some noted written on the board about sailing speed and arriving date in cape town..

If we sail at 10 knots/hr----arriving at Cape town on 30 Jan 09
If we sail at 11 knots/hr----arriving at Cape town on 28 Jan 09
If we sail at 12 knots/hr----arriving at Cape town on 26 Jan 09

I hope that i will be able to reach home by 1 Feb 09 for CNY.

Feel sleepy now...may be i need a coffee ...i gonna miss all you guys....


Wait to see more picture ba...