Career Episode 2

This e p i s o d e took place in U n i t e d A r a b E m i r a t e s - A b u D h a b i . and period w a s from A u g u s t 7, 2005 until N o v e m b e r for T e c h n i p 10, 2 0 0 6 .

L o c a t i o n w a s R u w a i s City

I w o r k e d as P r o c e s s E n g i n e e r The client company

in p r o j e c t : U n l e a d e d G a s o l i n e / L o w Sulfur Gas Oil Project.

w a s Abu D h a b i Oil Refining C o m p a n y T a k r e e r from U A E . The project task w a s e x p a n s i o n of old Al Takreer refinery. With a total value of approx. 19,000

$480 mil U A E the n e w units of refinery w e r e to increase the p r o d u c t i o n with approx. b/d. I started to work in this project from Precommissioning stage, and I was

in title to

supervise the final erection and c o n s t r u c t i o n j o b s for the I s o m e r i z a t i o n Unit ( P e n n e x - M o l e x licensed cleaning, UOP). catalyst I did all the leak preparation tests, for start u p : tests, flushing, and hydro steam test. blowing, Together chemical with the

loading,

pressure

m e c h a n i c a l d e p a r t m e n t I w a s s u p e r v i s i n g the d y n a m i c s e q u i p m e n t tests ( c o m p r e s s o r s , p u m p s , fans and rotary valve), and with the instrumentation department I did loop checking and

instrument During

calibration. the Commissioning and Start-up period I was promoted to Shift Controller:

r e s p o n s i b l e for the o p e r a t i o n and p r o c e s s d e p a r t m e n t . Commissioning Manager. duties Because our process units

I w a s u n d e r the direct authority of the were interconnected with the main old

refinery u n i t s my

included also

p e r m a n e n t contact with p r o c e s s

d e p a r t m e n t of the

refinery, the client Al Takreer e n g i n e e r s and o p e r a t o r s . As daily routine j o b , I followed all the refinery p r o c e s s e s , in Control R o o m and field,

c h e c k i n g the log b o o k s with the last e v e n t s , s u p e r v i s i n g the o p e r a t o r s , m a k i n g o b s e r v a t i o n s and suggestions production. for foremen and shift leaders in order to i m p r o v e the p a r a m e t e r s , and increase

I w a s trained and then b e c a m e r e s p o n s i b l e for issuing the work p e r m i t s for any

activities from my areas.

The Organization Chart was:

Personal Engineering Activity

D u r i n g the first p e r i o d of my j o b in U L G P 2 1 3 8 from U A E , at p r e c o m m i s s i o n i n g stage, I c o o r d i n a t e d our s u b c o n t r a c t o r s t e a m o f w o r k e r s . Pakistan and A l e c Co. from S o u t h Africa. The s u b c o n t r a c t o r s w e r e D e s c o n Co. direct s u p e r v i s i o n I from

U n d e r my

h a d 60 p e o p l e ,

o r g a n i s e d in 3 t e a m s . T h e y did c o n s t r u c t i o n w o r k s (civil, p i p i n g , m e c h a n i c a l ) for my unit. My daily j o b w a s to inform, instruct, and follow t h e i r p r o g r e s s . At that t i m e , the project suffered a large n u m b e r o f d e s i g n m o d i f i c a t i o n s and n e w P I D s and I s o m e t r i c d r a w i n g c a m e every w e e k . As P r e c o m m i s s i o n i n g U n i t s u p e r v i s o r , t o g e t h e r w i t h the M e c h a n i c a l loop c h e c k , specialists Technip Department, I did the t e s t i n g of all the d y n a m i c s e q u i p m e n t and w i t h the I n s t r u m e n t D e p a r t m e n t t o m a k e the For all m e c h a n i c a l and i n s t r u m e n t

i n s t r u m e n t t e s t i n g and a n a l y s e r s c a l i b r a t i o n . I h a d to e n s u r e

safety w o r k c o n d i t i o n s and to issue w o r k p e r m i t s a c c o r d i n g to regulations balls I for and their j o b s . molecular and Together sieves with UOP specialists I

Safety the

Department catalyst, Before

supervised

ceramics

loading all

according to the j o b s

vendor

specifications. cleaning, vessel

the

start u p ,

supervised

controlled final

for c h e m i c a l and internal

steaming,

air b l o w i n g , For c o l u m n s

h y d r o g e n leak t e s t s , inspections I

gasket i n s t a l l a t i o n ,

inspections.

c h e c k e d all the t r a y s a c c o r d i n g to d e s i g n e d

d r a w i n g s , p a c k i n g r i n g i n t e r n a l s , b u b b l e cap t r a y s , d i s t r i b u t o r s , etc. I c a m e u p w i t h the i d e a t o record all the inspections client in a log b o o k , vendors had in f o l l o w e d by case pictures, went in o r d e r to during avoid the further normal normal

discussions operations.

with In

and I

something with

wrong

c a s e that

further p r o b l e m s

some

equipment

d u r i n g the

operations,

could

inspect

the

equipment

and

draw

conclusions

if p r e c o m m i s s i o n i n g This proof

p r e p a r a t i o n was bad,

or a mistake in start-up

or n o r m a l r u n n i n g o p e r a t i o n s a p p e a r e d .

could be good later on w h e n After t h e

I faced p r o b l e m s during t h e n o r m a l operations. completed, I was promoted as Shift C o n t r o l l e r and and start u p , and the I all

P r e c o m m i s s i o n i n g was

t h e new refinery u n i t s c a m e u n d e r my supervision. a series of p r o b l e m s from various r e a s o n s . solved t h e m . problem first appeared at the Isomerization had In I would

During

commissioning

faced

describe now two

of t h e m

methods

how I

One during the

r e a c t o r from a low

Pennex-Mollex activity the at the

unit.

Because

start-up to

UOP reduce

company it C. again. During

suspected normal day

isomerization range of t h e for

catalyst t h e y catalyst was

decided between

operation shift the

temperature was

160-180

the

preparation

completed

r e d u c t i o n from U O P ,

and during my night shift I had to follow t h e r e d u c t i o n p r o c e d u r e in order My night shift t e a m i n c l u d e d o n e i n s t r u m e n t engineer, and

to be c o m p l e t e d until next m o r n i n g .

10 p a n e l ( D C S ) and field o p e r a t o r s . At m i d n i g h t I was informed by my C o n t r o l R o o m o p e r a t o r t h a t all the and all the fast to thermocouples temperature increasing 265 (5 pieces) were in from at the Isomerization reactor indicated ranges. I checked entire all the O u t of scale", trends, and I

values

maximum all

observed 100

temperature

catalyst mass. one hour.

The I

reactor became

hot

from

(top

of t h e range)

during

suspected

a h y d r o c r a c k i n g reaction

inside t h e r e a c t o r and I decided to m e a s u r e the real t e m p e r a t u r e . the temperatures were inside the reactor in order to start

I w a n t e d to know exactly what the cooling down

immediately

procedure.

I asked t h e instrument e n g i n e e r to o p e n all t h e thermocouples and to use t h e portable I found out t h a t t h e t e m p e r a t u r e inside the Immediately I

c o m m u n i c a t o r device to check t h e local t e m p e r a t u r e . reactor reached 350 C. At a r o u n d 600 the

catalyst s u p p o r t b e c a m e m e l t e d .

called t h e U O P e n g i n e e r and I informed him a b o u t the s i t u a t i o n . up a procedure for a gradual temperature decreasing. I

T o g e t h e r we decided to follow my operators about the

informed

procedure, values

and we started it.

B e c a u s e from t h e to

C o n t r o l R o o m o p e r a t o r s could n o t see t h e real 265 ) I sent my i n s t r u m e n t e n g i n e e r at local minutes and to give me t h e real

of t e m p e r a t u r e s

( D C S range was up and I asked h i m to

reactor thermocouples values by radio in

m e a s u r e every 45

Control Room.

In this way I

could c o n t r o l t h e cooling

down n i t r o g e n flow

and t e m p e r a t u r e . A c c . to t h e p r o c e d u r e I had to r e d u c e t h e r e a c t o r t e m p e r a t u r e with a gradient of 50 C / h o u r in cooled order n o t to down all affect t h e m e c h a n i c a l resistance catalyst mass. After this of t h e catalyst. for about Within 1 6 h o u r s we all the

successfully

the

episode,

month

i s o m e r i z a t i o n u n i t s were

shut-down

for welding

and stress test at t h e r e a c t o r vessel.

All t h e data

which I

collected that night w e r e

sent to U O P

h e a d q u a r t e r s for s i m u l a t i o n s .

No

defect was

found and n o w the unit is r u n n i n g fine. A n o t h e r p r o b l e m that I had to tanks. solve w a s related to two high octane n u m b e r gasoline During In this

These r e s e r v o i r s did not h a v e an a u t o m a t i c v e n t i l a t i o n system, only m a n u a l one.

the hot s u m m e r s in A b u Dhabi s o m e t i m e s the a t m o s p h e r i c t e m p e r a t u r e r e a c h e d 50 C. c o n d i t i o n gasoline v a p o r i z e d fast, pressure was m a i n t a i n e d with the and v a p o r p r e s s u r e increased inside the t a n k s . reduced the level

Usually the tanks by

transfer p u m p s w h i c h

in the

transferring the p r o d u c t to different r e s e r v o i r s . b l a n k e t i n g for these v e s s e l s . to c o n n e c t t h e m to the flare

I c a m e up with the idea to create a safe nitrogen

I used the 2" e q u a l i z i n g pipe line b e t w e e n these 2 spherical tanks system and the n i t r o g e n system. I d e s i g n e d two tie-ins for each

tank to c o n n e c t t h e m by t w o p i p e l i n e s : one to the flare and another one to the n i t r o g e n system. The v a p o r p r e s s u r e w a s m a i n t a i n e d inside the t a n k s at designed p r e s s u r e approx. 0.7 bar by 4

P C V s ( p r e s s u r e control v a l v e s ) that w e r e calibrated with a set point at 0.7 bar. In this w a y , if the v a p o r p r e s s u r e from inside increased, the P C V s from the flare p i p e s w o u l d open and the vapors w o u l d be r e l e a s e d to flare. In case the p r e s s u r e inside the t a n k s d e c r e a s e d , then the P C V s from The system supervised by Turn

the n i t r o g e n p i p e s w o u l d open and the p r e s s u r e w o u l d be increased until 0.7 bar. w a s d e s i g n e d t o g e t h e r with the p i p i n g d e p a r t m e n t and the c o n s t r u c t i o n w o r k s m y s e l f during one month job. I completed and c o m m i s s i o n e d the system I

during the

A r o u n d s h u t - d o w n in O c t o b e r 2 0 0 6 . D u r i n g the last stage of this project ( w a r r a n t y p e r i o d ) A u g u s t - N o v e m b e r 2006 I w a s the only Process E n g i n e e r from the site responsible for Turn Around shut down planning and

preparations. and Electrical.

I w a s the c o o r d i n a t o r for all d e p a r t m e n t s : M e c h a n i c a l , P i p i n g , I n s t r u m e n t a t i o n T o g e t h e r with t h e s e e n g i n e e r s , I made all the schedules for the shut-down

activities, material inventory, were to be e m p l o y e d from

and we chose the total n u m b e r of p e o p l e for each activity w h o our subcontractors. I supervised and controlled each shut-down

activity in order to clear the last p u n c h p o i n t s from our c l i e n t ' s claim list. Engineer I had r e g u l a r m e e t i n g s with client Al I had to clarify the Takreer e n g i n e e r i n g t e a m ,

As T e c h n i p Process and P M C Worley

Parsons engineers where

status of each Turn A r o u n d

s h u t - d o w n j o b , the

m e t h o d s that T e c h n i p used to solve each p r o b l e m . them about the j o b completion. Al

If my a r g u m e n t s w e r e clear and I convinced sign the completion forms.

Takreer m a n a g e m e n t w o u l d T e c h n i p could sign the

After all p u n c h p o i n t s were closed, and the project could be closed. Mr. M a r c o Ricci -

Completion Acceptance

Certificate

Reference about this stage of my career could be obtained from m r i c c i @ t e c h n i p . c o m or Mr. Cristian Bold -

Start-up M a n a g e r T e c h n i p : Parsons:

Machinery

E n g i n e e r Worley

cristian.bold@WorlevParsons.com.

Tasks from U A E project were a c h a l l e n g e for my practical k n o w l e d g e . this project since the very beginning, from the construction stage,

I w a s involved in

then p r e c o m m i s s i o n i n g .

commissioning,

start u p , operation and w a r r a n t y .

Also I used and d e v e l o p e d my abilities in I

c o m m u n i c a t i o n s and interpersonal finished the project in N o v e m b e r

skills, w o r k i n g in a m u l t i n a t i o n a l and m u l t i c u l t u r a l team. 10, 2006 and all the r e m a i n i n g modification w o r k s

and

r e p a i r i n g w e r e c o m p l e t e d and C o m p l e t i o n A c c e p t a n c e Certificate w a s signed one m o n t h later.

All

s t a t e m e n t s of fact in this report are true and correct.

Dipl.Eng.

Cojocaru Dan