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 The shipyard phase of the Unocal Thailand FSU Erawan Life Extension Project has been completed. The FSU Erawan departed from the Keppel Shipyard in Singapore on June 30, 1997, 14 months after arrival in April 1996. During that time, the FSU underwent an extensive "life extension" and "re-conversion" of the Erawan that had been in service in the Gulf of Thailand since 1981. The shipyard work included the renewal of 1600 tons of steel, new external coatings and internal cargo tank coatings, refurbished accommodations, completely new remotely operated cargo system (including all valves, piping, tank radar control system and three cargo pumps). All other machinery was either overhauled, or replaced as required. Most electrical cables were also renewed, as well as the main switchboard and various other electrical items.
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The FSU Erawan was connected via the existing rigid mooring arm to a newly fabricated and installed mooring system offshore Thailand in early July 1997, and began loading condensate shortly thereafter. The Erawan tanker was originally built in Germany in 1965, and was first converted to FSU service in Japan/Singapore in 1980/81. The Erawan was in service continuously until April 1996 when it entered the Keppel Shipyard. INTEC's Scope of Work included basic and detailed design, project and construction management - as well as being responsible for the complete commissioning involving thirty six major systems - and took several months to complete in the shipyard, prior to the FSU being re-installed at the offshore field site.
This now completes the overall project which also included a new single point mooring (SPM) system, new condensate pipeline and a temporary FSO while the FSU Erawan was at the Shipyard.
INTEC INTRODUCES EMPLOYEE STOCK PLAN
Effective July 1, 1997, INTEC has initiated a plan whereby key employees are allocated common stock in the company on a regular basis. This latest addition to INTEC's benefits, which already include profit sharing, will allow key employees to directly participate in the growth and profitability of the company, and is part of the INTEC proactive strategy for transitioning to, and taking on the challenges of, the 21st century.
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You may think he'd be ready to come home after such a long time, but "50 Years Offshore" is the title of a book George co-authored and which has just been published at the occasion of the BOSS conference in Delft this year. He agreed to do this just before joining INTEC as Managing Director of our new Dutch office, and how he has found time to do this and start a new INTEC operation is rather a mystery. The result is a most interesting tale of the history of our industry which will be of interest to the novices as well as the old-timers. As he describes, it has been 50 years since Kerr McGee found oil in the first offshore concession in Ship Shoal Block 28 in quite shallow water. It is interesting to note that Kerr McGee is still drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, but this time in 2,000 ft. depth.
Those interested in the book should contact George at our Delft office; his contact details can be found elsewhere in this Journal.
The Flow Assurance and Operability Group has been busy in recent months, assisting with the design and analysis of oil and gas production systems for Marathon Arnold/Oyster, Wapet (Chevron) Chrysaor, Texaco-Mobil Gorgon, Texaco Gemini, Vanco Manta, Shell Macaroni, and several other smaller projects. | |
Jay Hilty joined INTEC in July 1994 immediately after receiving his Masters in Structural Engineering at Stanford University. He received his B.S. Cum Laude Engineering Science at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas where he was frequently recognized for his achievements. Awards included Presidential Scholar and Alpha Lambda Delta National Honor Society. In the three years short since arriving at INTEC from Stanford, Jay has established himself as a leader and "mentor" of INTEC's ever-increasing group of exceptionally fine young engineers recruited from colleges around the country.
Jay's wife, Dora, is in her third year residency at Baylor working in Houston's Medical Center hospitals. Her specialty is internal medicine. What little leisure time Jay is also a soccer player, but presently is out of commission due to a knee injury which will be fixed shortly (surgery scheduled for the end of August).
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| Deepwater has become such an important part of the future of offshore oil and gas development that we can now write it as one word, even if the spell check still doesn't recognize it. Some twenty drilling rigs are being built or undergoing major upgrades to operate in water depths of 1000 m and more, and the resulting baby boom in field developments will hit the industry after a gestation period of a few more years. Yet, just as gestation period of a few more years. Yet, just as there is a current shortage of engineering talent to help develop the resulting finds. Contracting strategies designed to pass the responsibility for design, project management and interface coordination of often-complex projects to a contractor or consortium of companies, do little to alleviate this shortage. While it creates opportunities for a quick grab of market share, it can result in grossly overrun budgets, delays in project completion, and even a below-standard end product. The problem often is the absence of a suitable mix of technical expertise, project management talent and common sense. In an offshore environment where this can be serious, Deepwater will have even less tolerance for the unprepared.
So what do we do about it, realizing that there is no way to create instant experts in an industry that has practically skipped a generation of new entrants? The answer lies in having the most experienced among us starting to act more as teachers and coaches to effectively spread the knowledge to all who need it. This involves not only training, but also definition of our engineering processes and "knowledge management", so that we build on our collective experience, avoid unnecessary repetition and re-work, and allocate more time to the creative process that is essential in this frontier area. At INTEC we are working hard to formalize these processes, and to build the knowledge base and the communication system needed to provide access thereto. However, this we cannot do in isolation, and our clients and project partners must be included so that this approach can be effective and appreciated for the benefits it provides to the ultimate objective: a commercially, technically and environmentally successful project.
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Such cooperation will require that novel contracting and cooperative structures be devised, which depart from the traditional (and often uneven) client-contractor relationships, but rather rely on trust, mutual respect, and a compensation scheme that rewards creative solutions by means other than industry standard manhour rates. It also requires a fresh look at how a project team is selected and supported. If experience is a scarce resource, then the focus must be on how to effectively access the available knowledge, regardless of where this resides. This may require adjustment in values and corporate culture of both the engineering partner (as opposed to "contractor") and the Oil Company. The decentralization and flattening of organizations as advocated by the re-engineering gurus can cut off access to the available corporate expertise, which has already been depleted by downsizing. This may not be the fashionable view, but without some uniform knowledge management strategy, the industry risks making the same mistakes all over again.
I believe that the engineering and construction firms can play a significant role in providing this much-needed glue of knowledge and experience if their resources are incorporated into the project in an effective way and combined with those of the Oil Company. This requires a much more liberal treatment of information than allowed by standard confidentiality clauses. If this is recognized, partnering will become a shared set of values instead of a contracting model. With the shared values and pooled knowledge will come the joint success in managing the deepwater development baby boom. We intend to be in the middle of all of this, feeling comfortable with Deepwater!
W. J. Timmermans
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Personnel Movements:
INTEC continues to have international activity with floating production activities, with a great diversity of projects and personnel movements. We welcome Gurin Hanspal and Bob Jones to our Houston staff. Gurin comes to INTEC from AMEC PROCESS & ENERGY in the United Kingdom. He has 17 years experience with floating production facilities, subsea engineering, and offshore pipelines, and has very strong project management skills. Bob comes to us from SBM, Monaco after many years experience with single point moorings and floating production facilities. We welcome Kim Dyson back to Houston, now that he has completed his extended tour in Stavanger, Norway and Belfast, Ireland on the HARLAND and WOLFF conversion of the DOLPHIN BIDEFORD semi-submersible drilling unit. Ken MacKenzie and Ken Hook have completed their assignment at the KEPPEL SHIPYARD in Singapore, and will be back in the regional office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia when they complete their much deserved vacations. Dave Gorry and Brian Casey also are back in the Kuala Lumpur office after several weeks in Singapore. Undoubtedly, we will see many more movements of our staff as we respond to the project needs of our clients. An update of some of the projects follows.
Harland and Wolff; Dolphin Bideford Semi-Submersible Drilling Unit
INTEC has completed four months of effort in resolving interface problems between various contractors, vendors, and engineering firms that have been involved in the upgrade of the semi-submersible drilling unit into a fifth-generation unit which will operate in Norwegian waters once the conversion is completed by HARLAND and WOLFF later this year in Belfast, Ireland.
Union Pacific Resources; Mini-Spar Study
George Lagers, in our Delft office, has completed an evaluation of a small Spar which could be utilized for the economical production of small fields. The main column of the Spar is 34 feet in diameter, with an overall length of 443 feet, and an allowable weight of 1500 short tons for the topside production facilities. It has good motion characteristics and the other advantages of a Spar, but can be built and installed in the Gulf of Mexico, West Africa, or similar locations. | |
Marathon Sakhalin; FSO
Pogo Producing Company, Benchamas Field FSO, Offshore Thailand
Vanco Energy; Field Development Study For Water Depth of 6,100 Feet
Absence Of Major Oil Spills From FPSO & FSO Units
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INTEC Rolls Out New Website | ||
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| Website Features
INTEC has replaced the old internet website with a new model. The new website features information on our major disciplines, as well as information on the company, announcements, newsletters, and publications by our engineers.
The Website contains state-of-the-art internet features such as javascript, enhanced graphics, animations, imagemaps and true interactivity. The website has a lot running "under the hood" with usage of CGI programming (common gateway interface), and perl scripting.
Navigation Made Easy
Our website is designed for easy navigation. On most pages you will find a navigation bar with both graphical and textual links to major categories of our website. This feature allows a browser to quickly navigate through the website to areas of interest. The choices on this navigation bar are: The choices on this navigation bar are: Home, About INTEC, Our Expertise, What's New, Links, Experience Record, Info Request, and Job Opportunities.
In addition to this basic navigation feature, our "About INTEC" and "Our Expertise" pages feature left border javascript-enhanced buttons for navigating within that category.
Project Resumes
Perhaps the heart of our website resides in the "Our Expertise" section, which describes our major disciplines of marine pipelines, subsea production systems, floating production systems, marine terminals, onshore facilities, flow assurance and operability, and illustrations/animations. Within these categories are full descriptions of our experience in these disciplines and the services we offer. Finally, we feature project resumes describing some of our completed projects in that discipline, with rich color illustrations. These sections demonstrate INTEC's successes and our highly technical accomplishments.
Interactivity
Our website gives customers, students, and offshore aficionados a chance to internet with our engineers, sales team, and administrators. Selecting "Info Request" brings the reader a full form to fill out, including fields for selecting areas of interest and a free-style area to write comments, ask questions, or provide information. The click of the "send" button immediately speeds the form to INTEC personnel who will quickly respond. This interactivity brings the blinding speed and richness of the internet to the offshore engineering industry. We are not exaggerating when we emphasize "speed." Recently a client in Thailand sent a message from the "Info Request" form at 6:00 AM his time on Monday morning in Bangkok. This translated to 5:00 PM on Sunday evening in Houston. A response was sent back to this surprised client within 5 minutes of the time he pressed his send button. This was not a robotic auto-answer issued by our server. One of our duty personnel received this crucial message and instantly responded.
The Location
We hope you will soon visit our website. The internet address, or URL, is http://www.intec-hou.com
Welcome aboard!
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INTEC Welcomes the following New Employees to the Houston Office....
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The following employees were recently promoted to new positions. We appreciate their hard work and congratulate them on their success:
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| ANNIVERSARY | |||||||||
| Congratulations to Kim Clarke who has been with INTEC for 10 years as of August 16, 1997. We've watched her grow into being a great CAD designer. Thanks, Kim; your loyalty and attention to quality has made you an invaluable employee. | |||||||||
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Richard Bell - Senior Engineer | | |
| NEW AWARDS THIS PAST QUARTER | ||
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 For Mobil Equatorial Guinea, Inc., Zafiro Field SPM - SPM & Bid Package Preparation/Evaluation and Detailed Pipeline Design
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For Conoco Inc., PHA for Wingate Butmer Project - New Mexico - Provide Electrical/Instrument Engineering Services to Perform Preliminary and Pre-start-up Hazards Analysis
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| INTEC Engineering, Inc. Intercontinental Building 15600 JFK Boulevard, 9th Floor Houston, TX 77032, USA tel: (281) 987-0800 Primary Fax: (281) 987-3838 Admin Fax: (281) 987-2002 e-mail: info@intec-hou.com |  | INTEC Engineering (SEA) SDN. BHD. Suite 12.2, 12th Floor Menara Aik Hua Changkat Raja Chulan 50200 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Tel: +60 (3) 202-2488 Fax: +60 (3) 202-3488 e-mail: info@intec-mal.com.my | | INTEC Engineering B.V. Poortweg 14 2612 PA Delft, The Netherlands P.O. Box 3178 2601 DD Delft, The Netherlands tel: +31 (15) 256-5675 FAX: +31 (015) 256-0194 email: info@intec-delft.com | | INTEC Engineering S.R.L. Lavalle #465 Planta Baja 1047, Buenos Aires Argentina tel: +54 (1) 14 327-4120 FAX: +54 (1) 14 327-4121 email: info@intec-hou.com | | INTEC-egis Adelaide House 200, Adelaide Terrace Perth, Western Australia 6000 tel: + 61 (8) 9220 9374 FAX: + 61 (8) 9325 9897 email: info@intec-hou.com |