Jaring

Safety Issues of Construction and Operation on Deep Marine Condition

Jaring — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:44:16 +0000

Abstract

Oil and gas industry becomes one of the most favorite industries which many people are attracted to work on it. However, it has also the most dangerous places as it deals with the exploration and production of flammable things. This paper discusses mainly construction issues on deep marine condition as one of location where the petroleum is explored and produced, more particularly is on aspect of safety. Discussion will not be only limited on construction phase, but also during operation phase once an offshore infrastructure has been constructed and installed. The discussion is started with general introduction about deep marine condition, specifically for offshore oil and gas industry. Furthermore, hazards and risks on offshore industry are discussed in quite detail manner including all aspects related to these two main aspects.

Keywords: Oil and gas, offshore, hazards and risks

Introduction

Petroleum which supports most of human-daily-life on the earth could be found both on land and under an ocean. There are two common terms which describe the location of exploration and production of oil and gas, onshore and offshore. Onshore means a location on land where the petroleum is found and then be explored. When petroleum is found on an open sea then that location is called as an offshore area. Offshore industry is situated on sea which water depth could reach more than 2,000 meters. Later, this condition could be defined as the industry on deep marine condition.

Construction and operation on deep marine condition have significantly difference in comparison with usual project onshore or other non-oil and gas project. Installation of offshore infrastructure also involves numerous equipments, tools, labors, and money. For renting an accommodation and crane barge in a 24-hour rental time, renter could spend until USD 100,000. This number is for the smallest accommodation and barge for installing a new structural part of existing fixed platforms on offshore Indonesia. Then, it could be imagined what is the magnitude of dollars has to be spent out for larger project scale.

Severe working condition on offshore construction and operation brings the safety issue becomes paramount topic on all parts of the world where this industry is situated. Denton (1991) stated that the offshore industry presents a very unusual combination of problem from the safety point of view. They include:

- High pressure systems up to 300 bar and sometimes to 500 bars;

- A high (300 tons) inventory of explosive and flammable material;

- Extensive electrical system, often at voltages as high as 6.6 kv;

- Large scale machinery such as gas turbines, compressors and pumps;

- All plant placed in a very confined space;

- Living quarters necessarily very close to working plant;

- Evacuation of personnel difficult if not impractical in the most adverse weather conditions;

- Installations all individually designed to meet specific requirements;

- Installation life of 20 to 30 years;

- Installation necessarily modified during their life, for example to meet changes in field behavior.

Tragedy of Piper Alpha (1988) could give brief view about the importance of safety issue on offshore industry. Piper Alpha was the name of a platform for producing oil and gas located in the North Sea about 340 km east of Aberdeen in Scotland. This platform was destroyed in several hours following a series of explosions, killing 167 persons. A study done coordinated by Centre for Economics and Management stated that the accident led to production being stopped immediately, for several months, for five other fields, with a total loss of production of 300,000 barrel per day, representing 12% of the production of the North Sea. It was estimated at that time that the loss of exports amounted to ₤550 million in 1988 and ₤800 million in 1989, with a loss of tax revenue to the British government of ₤250 million in 1988-1989 and ₤520 in 1989-1990. This illustration certainly brings obvious magnitude of loss when an offshore accident occurs.

Identifying Hazards

Safety issues on deep marine construction needs to be taken into account by all stakeholders, oil company, engineering consultant, installation contractor and other parties. First step for concerning with safety issues is about the hazards identification. Wong (2002) defines hazard as anything that has a potential to cause harm (e.g. chemicals, fire, explosion, electricity, a hole in the ground and many others). Hazard has close relationship with risk which is the chance, high or low, that someone will be harmed by the hazard (Wong, 2002). Hazards could happen to humans, and hazards also come from machines and processes, emissions, radiations and others.

Hazards to Humans

During installation sequence at offshore site, there are quite a lot hazards that could happen to humans. One of them is skin contact by chemicals which have an immediate destructive effect. However, type of chemicals used during offshore installation or operation has no immediate destructive effect. They are harmful for humans’ skin, but not so destructive and could be prevented. For instance, various types of liquids for topside painting, oils used as lubricant for machines, crude oils, various types of chemical liquids used for operation purpose. Wong (2002) warned that damage from petroleum products to skin properties becomes one of hazards to human. It could trigger possible cancerous effects from long-term exposure.

Hydro test of piping on topside platform is also a type of hazard to human. High-pressure jets by air penetrations into the bloodstream can cause death. In addition, all materials nearby the hydro test area are also hazards to human. If there is a leak then compressed air from piping line would be very able to move all materials surrounding everywhere and they could hurt the people.

Eye contact by spray, mists, high vapor concentrations and harmful rays that can damage or destroy its tissues could be classified as hazards to human. Grinding activities during installation phase is one of sources of small particles that could hurt the people’s eye. Moreover, fire from welding activities is also harmful to worker including light occurred during welding.

Hazards from Machines and Processes

Hazards from machines and processes on deep marine construction condition usually come from crane and welding machine. Welding machines are situated on topside platform, they could be positioned at cellar, sub-cellar, or top deck. All those locations are very near to working location. Every workers will have possibility to direct contact with welding machines. High electricity voltage, hot surface and flammable fuels are the most hazardous parts of welding machines. Furthermore, once the platform has been commissioned and operated, there would be another hazard comes from processes itself. Improper installation and lack of maintenance of all parts of infrastructure for supporting the processes would be hazards.

Hazards from Emissions

Machines and engineered process plants produce waste streams, these are unwanted emissions. Emissions from process platform in offshore site come out from flare. The unwanted emissions are burnt out before they are released to the air. Carbon monoxide (CO) emitted from welding machines, power machines, crane, and others are released in the middle of working place. They are hazardous to workers’ health and need to be considered carefully. In addition, water pollutants come also from people activity in the accommodation barge. Some unwanted wastes from food have to be collected properly, they could not be thrown away directly to the sea. Other emission occurs in construction and operation on deep marine condition is noise emissions. Noise is an unwanted sound produced by working machinery and plant. It could be continuous, intermittent, or erratic, depending on the source. Noise could cause hearing damage to the people nearby noise’s sources. Ability for communication could be also affected by noise; therefore important consideration needs to be taken into account for designing control rooms or cabins.

During installation of structural parts of offshore platforms, welding could not be avoided. As a consequence, Non Destructive Test (NDT) is also required. For particular joints, NDT has to be performed using X-ray or radiography method. Radiation of from that activity is classified as an hazardous emission.

Hazards from Circumstances

Discussion on this part is intended for hazards that are not explained on previous parts. Wong (2002) explained that latent energies are hazards, which if released could pose danger to life and limb. Potential energy is one of latent energies, for example, people or loads failing from a height. Riggers during installation stage on deep marine condition are people who have the highest risks regarding to this hazards. They have to climb on particular height for assisting crane operator during moving and placing an object from one point to another. Moreover, lifted objects are those which have latent energies and all workers standing up on lifting region have risks. Other latent energies is kinetic energy release. It could be from explosions, release of moving components, due to failure of, for example, pressure vessels, components of engines and vehicles (Wong, 2002).

Dangers from electrical energy could be occurred due to live components, insulation problems, fault condition or residual stored energy. Competent engineers worked for this field have to ensure that all electricity sources are well maintained and well controlled during installation phase, as well as during operation stage of platform and construction of smaller parts on topside.

Fire, as the common hazard which could happen in all areas of life, could occur also in deep marine condition. Fire could present due to the presence of three components which are heat, fuel, and oxygen; therefore, fire could be prevented by separating or insulating each of those components. Fuels used on deep marine condition could be painting liquids, LPG, fuels for machines, and others.

The presence of many equipments, tools, machines, raw materials, structural parts, and the limitation of space of platform, working and transportation barges could create an entrapment for the worker working there. Situation involving fire, gas release or explosion could give risk to this danger (Wong, 2002). The worker could not escape to safer place when these situations are happening. Careful thoughts during design phase need to be done by the engineers and all stakeholders in order to arrange proper layout for positioning all parts involved during installation or operation phase of platform on deep marine.

Weather conditions in deep marine situation affect to the completeness of particular works. Sometimes due to bad weather, the workers have to leave their incomplete works. Without proper communication, next different workers will not understand the latest jobs condition left by their colleagues. This condition leads to a potential hazard. For example, a job for constructing scaffolding in a rehabilitation work at topside area. Scaffolder has to put specific tag on his incomplete job when he has to leave work site. The tag could be a sign that the scaffolding structure could not be used. On the following day, other workers will notice not to use the scaffolding structure since there is a tag there and other scaffolder could continue for constructing the scaffolding structure until finish and finally he could put a tag which informs that the structure of scaffolding is ready to be used.

Finally, humans make mistakes. The risk of human error could be reduced by doing everything. Formalization of work practices and the provision of engineering controls might reduce the risk of human error. Well-trained workers and daily safety briefing in deep marine construction are a requirement and activity for reducing the risk for human error also. In addition, proper crew change on a particular time periodic has to be done for avoiding work-stress of workers. Furthermore, on living quarter, enough entertainment facilities has to be provided and sport equipments as well.

Safety Integration

Knowing or identifying hazards have been presented on previous parts of this paper. This section mainly discusses how to deal with the resulting risks. Wong (2002) gave a hierarchy of preference to hazard risk control, which is:

Alter the design to avoid the hazard;
Provide facilities to reduce the risk from the hazard by design;
Provide procedures to protect exposed persons;
Provide means for personnel protection.

Safety integration is the provision in a design to provide risk control of hazards (Wong, 2002). In ideal condition, hazards could be minimized by design in accordance with the hierarchy stated before. In a particular condition, for instance, in offshore industry which deals with petroleum (flammable) materials, fire and explosion could not be avoided. But risk of fire and explosion will be specific to particular area of platform. The designer who design layout of platform has to consider these hazards. For instance, by designing layout of platform which locate away the building facilities (office, store, and workshop). In addition, computerized control room, CCTV control centre and storage tanks with flammable fluid could also be situated far away from process area. In particular, since the control room has to close to hazards, the designer could design that kind of room fire and blast proof. It could be also equipped with suitable means of escape way for operators.

Safety Culture

Nature of business in deep marine condition, particularly in offshore oil and gas industry brings safety culture to be penetrated to each worker’s brains. It has been widely known that people could not be changed and that therefore the work conditions have to be changed accordingly. However, there is still a possibility to engineer systems that could reduce the risk of human error, experience has shown that this is not enough. Worker’s attitude has to be changed. A safety culture has to be created, which is the purpose of the regulations on managing risk (Wong, 2002). All stakeholders involved in deep marine industry have to have established safety policy. Those include oil company as the operator of the offshore field, consultant which designs everything and contractors which install the infrastructure. Safety policy on each those parties could be different; therefore, a meeting coordination has to be held before the project commencement in adjusting and combining safety policies on each company into global safety policy that would be implemented on particular project.

Control

Safety policy determined would not effective in implementation without control. There are two common terms usually used for controlling safety and reliability, these are Quality Control (QC) and Quality Assurance (QA). Quality has no meaning unless there is a means of measuring it, with limits set as to what is acceptable and not acceptable (Wong, 2002). QC is the act of measuring quality; meanwhile QA is the act of verifying that it has been carried out. Another way to control the implementation of safety policy is by implementing a system of permit to work. Every single work done in offshore has to get permit from the authorized people. Usually there is a company man who represent the Oil Company. Every day, supervisor will collect information about what activity will be performed on the next following working day. After he collected it then together with safety officer they will approach the company man for getting approval of proposed works.

Conclusions

Working in deep marine condition involves many things to be considered, especially the aspect of safety. Weather condition, nature of works and involvement of huge project budget are only several points from many others points that safety becomes paramount matter that could not be ignored at all. Enforcement of safety in deep marine condition has to be started since the project design phase, installation or construction and during the operation stage. First thing that has to be performed is identifying the hazards and risks. Once the possible hazards and risks have been identified, the next following action needs to be performed is to establish a safety integration among the stakeholders of the project. It could be done by reinforcing safety culture and establish safety policies. In addition, control of all things established before is mandatory to ensure that everything is going to work well and meet the arranged scenarios.

References

Wong, William.. 2002. How Did That Happen? Engineering Safety and Reliability. London, UK: Professional Engineering Publishing Limited.

AA Denton, MA. 1991. Quality management offshore. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Beccles, Suffolk: Waveney Print Services Ltd.

Singapore, November 3, 2009

-sedang menunggu-

Project Risks and Construction Aspects of Tunneling Through the Alps

Jaring — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 03:10:57 +0000

Abstract

This paper presents a discussion about several construction aspects involved during construction of the Gotthard tunnel. The Gotthard tunnel project is one of the largest international project scale which links German and Italy through the Alps mountainous. The discussion mainly is emphasized on the project risks which influence the project design and its preparation. With such big scale of project, USD 7 billion project budget, 2,000 workers on the peak schedule, 57 kilometers tunnel length, and built under one of the highest mountainous in the world which probably has the hardest rock layer, the Gotthard tunnel has many risks that could affect to the project design and project preparation itself.

Keywords: Gotthard tunnel, project risks, project design and preparation.

Switzerland, with its location on the central of Europe, becomes the most important hub which links several important countries in the Europe. As a consequence, everyday there are many transportation modes run on the highway which cause heavy traffic jam. In addition, existing railways has already been congested with many train trips on them. Finally, the unusual decision has been taken for constructing new railway not over the Alps, but under the Alps. This project costs USD 7 billion and is expected to be completed in 2017. The most interested feature on this project is that the entire railway line is positioned at the same level (altitude) of 500 meters above mean sea level, this allows trains using the line to reach speed of 240 km per hour.

The most dangerous risk inside the tunnel is fire. When it appears then it will absorb oxygen more quickly than the people can do. Strong attention to this risk has been paid by the project’s stakeholders and several actions to prevent and mitigate the fire are being performed, both during the project construction and during the project operational period once it has been commissioned and tested. Huge several fans are installed for cooling down the temperature inside the tunnel; moreover, the fans are provided in the escape tunnel for supplying fresh air and pushing out smoke when there is a fire accident. All tools and equipments used in the project are inspected regularly for ensuring the safety of them during construction activities. In addition, design of concrete wall was also based on this risk; they provide fire proof concrete which was tested before the installation.

Train collision is one of the most likely accidents in the tunnel, particularly for a tunnel which comprises two railway directions. After considering several proposed designs, two tunnels with escape tunnels between them are selected. The Gotthard tunnel consists of two parallel tunnel; each 1,000 feet there are smaller perpendicular tunnels which link the parallel tunnels. This smaller tunnel will act as escape tunnel during the operational period.

The construction of Gotthard tunnel also will affect to the environmental condition. With improper approach it might result on negative environmental effects. In order to reduce the bad effect of stone debris, drilled or blasted rocks from the tunnel are recycled in the concrete factory located on each base camp. Result of this recycling activity is that the concretes are used for constructing side wall along the tunnel. Furthermore, own water treatment is also built so that water from construction will not contain poisonous materials when it is entering nearby rivers.

The most common risk in a project, of course, are exceed the time schedule and over budget. As this project has enormous scale, this kind of risk becomes considerably larger. To cope to this situation, the project is performed 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. Moreover, workers involved in this project are selected from the best people come from around the world. One of factors that affect the project schedule is work progress which is affected from productivity of equipments used in the project. The most important equipment on this project is tunnel boring machine (TBM). Design of this tool was performed carefully by doing some previous researches in Colorado for ensuring that the material used for the TBM and the force are sufficient for drilling the rocks with designated or specified rate. Furthermore, the drilling activities are not done from only one entrance in order to speed up the progress.

Factors Affecting International Construction; Challenges & Opportunity of Singaporean based company in going abroad

Jaring — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:29:18 +0000

Abstract

This paper presents discussions about the key factors driving international markets and opportunities and challenges that a company in Singapore would face going abroad. The first topic will be elaborated in first half of this paper, while the second one will be discussed later. The international markets discussed in this paper are limited to the only construction industry and more specifically about construction of oil and gas infrastructure. Furthermore, company in Singapore sampled on the discussion of second topic is also working on offshore oil and gas industry.

Keywords: International Construction, Singapore, Oil and Gas Industry

Introduction

International markets or international construction could not be separated with the term of globalization. Ngowi, et al (2004) gives the definition of globalization as a situation where political borders become increasingly more irrelevant, economic interdependencies are heightened, and national differences are accentuated due to dissimilarities in societal cultures and central issues of business, is not new though. Meanwhile, they also comes out with the definition of international construction as where a company, resident in one country, performs work in another country, and has work in NICs (Newly Industrialized Country) and/or LCDs (Least Developed Countries). However, the term of international construction is not limited to a company which performs some works in another country only; international construction could also be meant that a situation of industry that a company is receiving and working for some works owned by a client from another country. More examples about this phenomenon are explained further in a discussion of Singaporean’s company.

International construction happens due to two major factors, these are internal and external factors. Internal factors mean some driving factors available on a company that supports it to compete not only in its domestic region. In other hand, external factors are some factors outside of a company that stimulates or encourages the presence of international construction and supports domestic companies for establishing themselves in international markets.

Internal Factors

To be able to compete in international markets, a company needs to equip itself with several capabilities which internationally adequate for entering the competitive markets. As the international construction industry is concerned mostly with large scale construction, only large technologically qualified contractors are allowed to enter into overseas contracts (Raftery, et al, 1998). In addition, Gunhan and Arditi (2005) have been researched several strength factors inside a company that makes it enter the international markets easily. The most important strength factor for a company to enter the markets is track record. The company has to come to the markets with specialist expertise that distinguishes it with the others. Later, project management capability becomes the third most important strength factor needed by a company. In addition, a company has to create or maintain international network, its financial strength and equipment, material and labor support.

External Factors

The presence of international markets or constructions is also influenced by external factors. Economic booms such as the one resulting from sale of oil probably becomes one of external factors which stimulate the international construction; as oil-rich countries created substantial construction demand (Ngowi, et al, 2004). Another factor encouraging international markets comes from the government. On their paper, Raftery, et al (1998) pointed out several roles of government that can be conducted. Those are (1) removing or relaxing barriers in the repatriation of profits, (2) adopting a transparent tax policy especially by way of granting equal tax treatment to foreign and local companies, (3) adopting double taxation relief agreements with other countries, (4) offering preferential interest rates for joint ventures where there is equity majority by local partners, and (5) entering into bilateral agreements with foreign governments to guarantee safety of foreign investment.

Opportunities that a company in Singapore would face going abroad

In earlier part of this paper, it has been stated that international construction means not only a company work outside of its domestic region, but also a company which works for international project owned by a client outside of its country.

Exploration and production of petroleum in South East Asia is one of the busiest activities in the world compare to same activities performed in another part of the world; especially for offshore industry. With its strategic position in between offshore of Indonesia and Australia and also not so far to the Middle East region, Singaporean’s company working on this industry has enormous advantages. In addition, there is well-known university in Singapore which is also concern in this particular industry. The combination of these two factors created conducive environment for attracting international projects entering to Singapore. As an indication, there are several Singaporean based companies which are very active on performing this industry, such as Keppel, Sembawang Shipyard, and Jurong Shipyard.

Challenges that a company in Singapore would face going abroad

With some limitations of area and population, Singaporean’s company also faces some challenges in competing to the international markets. Again, our discussion on international markets for this particular topic is limited to companies in Singapore which are working for international project owned by clients from outside of Singapore. Limited shore length of Singapore due to its limited country’s area becomes one of challenges need to be faced by Singaporean’s companies working on offshore industry. For efficiency and ease for transportation reason, a fabrication yard for constructing offshore oil and gas infrastructure needs to be situated nearby shore line. Next issue risen from this need is a conflict between the needs of area for fabrication yard and the needs for providing recreational area in the beaches. Another challenge faced by companies in Singapore is about the limited population which affects to manpower supply. They have to invite high-skilled and qualified manpower from outside of Singapore for completing the projects. The disadvantages of this phenomenon is that they have to spend more in their expense for paying salaries of expatriate people worked for them; they would spend less money if they employ only the local Singaporean.

References

Raftery, John, et al. 1998. Globalization and construction industry development: implications of recent developments in the construction sector in Asia. Construction Management and Economics (1998) 16, 729-737.

Gunhan, Suat and Arditi, David. 2005. Factors Affecting International Construction. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management ASCE. March 2005.

Ngowi, A.B. et al. 2004. The globalization of the construction industry—a review. Building and Environment 40 (2005) 135-141.

Earliest days of Petroleum Industry in Indonesia

Jaring — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 07:33:30 +0000

Indonesia is in an equitorial location, spanning 15 degrees above and below the equator, with the Indian Ocean flowing into the archipelago from the west and the Pacific Ocean from the east. Indonesia is a very huge country, it has more than 17 thousand islands which make it as the world’s largest archipelagic state. Indonesia has population of around 240 million people. Its area is approximately 1.9 million square kilometres which streches 3,200 miles from east to west. In addition of oil and gas, coal, gold, nickel, copper, and many other natural resources are found in Indonesia.

History of petroleum in Indonesia began with the first drilling activity which was undertaken in East Java by a Dutch Plantation Manager. Indonesia’s petroleum history can be grouped into 4 (four) stages, those are The Pre-war phase, The War Years, The Early Post War Period and The Post – present period. This essay will focus on the earliest stage, however the next stages also will described briefly.

First phase of petroleum history in Indonesia is started from 1884 when the first drilling for oil was commenced. It is limited until The War Years, around 1942 up to 1945. Although first drilling activity is done in East Java, first commercial oil was produced in North Sumatra in 1885. In 1884, A. J. Zijlker (the Dutch manager of the East Sumatra Tobacco Company) began drilling at Telaga Tiga, the most accessible of the oil pools at the concession. Previously, he was able to secure a concession to the oil-bearing-land (officially named Telaga Said) from the Sultan of Langkat (Bee, 1982). The first well gave some promising results but the second well drilled at Telaga Tunggal in 1885 was an immediate success, producing oil in commercial quantities at a depth of only 121 m. This discovery provided great stimulus to exploration and drilling, new fields then were discovered, such as Kruka, East Java (1887), Kampong Minyak, South Sumatra (1896), Sumpal, South Sumatra (1897), Sanga-sanga, East Kalimantan (1897), Perlak, North Sumatra (1900) and Ledok, East Java (1901) (Bee, 1982).

With interest in the region’s oil increasing rapidly, the Royal Dutch Company was formed in 1890 for the production and refining of oil. Another early company was Shell Transport and Trading which found oil in East Borneo and set up a small refinery in Balikpapan in 1894. In 1907, the two companies merged into the Royal Dutch/Shell group of companies. At that time, The Netherlands East Indies had become the major supplier of oil for the lamps of Asia (Barnes, 1995).

In the 1907, the first general mining legislation was introduced. All mineral rights were invested in the colonial government which was authorized to grant full ownership rights to foreign company. Oil concessions were normally valid for 40 years with a maximum government revenue entitlement of 20% of net profits. Later, in 1924, member of concessions had increased to 119, covering a total of 6,400 square kilometers. Total production had also increased to 62,000 barrels per day, of which 95 percent was produced by Royal Dutch (Barnes, 1995)

Preference in obtaining concession had been given to Dutch firms and overwhelmingly to Royal Dutch in an attempt to continue the Dutch monopoly over all country’s resources. However, US companies had also been interested in obtaining concession. Finally, after threats of counter action against Dutch companies in the United States, restriction were relaxed. Thus, Caltex and Stanvac were firmly established in Indonesia as producers and refiners well before the Second World War. In 1939, production of crude oil had reached 170,000 barrels per day and total refining capacity is approximately 180,000 barrels per day. Indonesia then dominated the oil industry in the Far East where over 75% of the crude oil produced came from Indonesian wells.

The Japanese government and military establishment had long been interested in obtaining control of Indonesian oil and other resources. Indonesian crude oil and refinery were seen as vital for the functioning of the Japanese war machine. This event ended the phase of Pre-war. The next step which is The War Years phase is initiated with invasion of the Japanese to Indonesia. Japanese invaded the Netherlands East Indies in January 1942. At the beginning of the war attempts were made by the Dutch to destroy most of the oil facilities to prevent them being used by the Japanese invaders. By the end of March 1942, the Japanese army had taken full control of the oil fields. Through the rest of war years they drastically exploited the existing oil reserves and refineries for their war effort with the aid of the few experienced Indonesians and Dutch prisoners. They also drilled the discovery well of the giant Minas oil field whose location had been prepared by Caltex in 1941. Overall, the Japanese were stay in full control of oil field in Indonesia until 1945.

The Japanese surrendered on August 15, 1945. From this time, the third phase is started. The Early Post-war period is within 1945 and 1966. Two days later after August 15, 1945, Indonesian leaders determined to free themselves from Dutch colonial rule, proclaimed independence for their country. Then, major oil companies (Stanvac, Caltex, Shell) returned to Indonesia. Shell was able to resume production in Tarakan, Kalimantan as early as 1946 (Barnes, 1995). Production increased steadily to reach more than 400,000 barrel per day in 1960 as Caltex developed a number of major new fields in Central Sumatra.

After proclaimed their independence, Indonesian government still had conflict with the Dutch. During the conflict, three worker oil companies were founded, in Java, South Sumatra and North Sumatra. One of these companies, Perusahaan Tambang Minjak Negara, is considered to be the first Indonesian oil company (Barnes, 1995). This company had already been formed in 1945 when the North Sumatran oil fields were transferred by Japanese occupation army to the Indonesian army. In 1957, when the army took over the management of the former Shell fields in North Sumatra, it appointed Dr. Ibnu Sutowo to establish a limited liability company to rehabilitate the oil industry and to export oil (Barnes, 1995).

In the beginning of The Post-Present period could be regarded as a watershed in the history of the Indonesian oil industry. However, in 1966, after thirteen oil companies signed production-sharing agreements, ushering a new era in the history of the petroleum industry of Indonesia. These companies mounted an intensive search for oil, concentrating their efforts on offshore area. For instance, ARCO, started drilling in the Arjuna Complex in the Java Sea in September 1968, and struck oil in February 1969 at a depth of 1400 m. This is the first offshore oil to be discovered, was a low-sulfur crude which tested at a flow rate of 2,600 barrels per day (Bee, 1982). After that, both offshore and onshore oil and gas industry developed significantly until present. Currently, there are 53 oil companies, both local and international, signed the production sharing contract with production expectation in 2009 is 960,220 barrels per day (BP Migas, 2009).

A Practical Guide for Preparing and Conducting Case Studies in Oil and Gas Industry

Jaring — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 05:27:43 +0000

Abstract—Case study can be also conducted in oil and gas industry. This paper presents guidance or framework for everyone who want to prepare and conduct case study in oil and gas sector. This paper is started from basic definition of case study continued with reasons to use case study in this sector. Then, type of case study and its context are determined. Beside that. guidance to provide protocol of case study is described on this paper. This paper is finished with real step of conducting case study, conclusion and points of evaluation.

I. INTRODUCTION

In some professional fields, eg. medicine, social work, law, all cases are studied and recorded (Ofori, 2009). However, in this paper we will not deal with that sectors. This paper describes step-by-step guidance for one who has passion to conduct case study in oil and gas industry. We will discuss each steps of developing case study in this sector, starting from basic definition of case study, finding reasons why we use case study method, determining type of case study until the most last steps, drawing some conclusions and discussing methods to evaluate whether our case study is good or not. Sometimes, during our discussion, we will use sample of case to be implemented in our discussion topic so that it can be explained more clearly.

As we know, there are several ways to conduct a research, we can name it as research strategies. Those are experiment, survey, archival analysis, history and case study (Yin, 1987). The latest stated strategy is used extensively in social science research – including the traditional disciplines (psychology, sociology, political science, anthropology, history and economics) as well as practice-oriented fields such as urban planning, public administration, public policy, management sciences, and education (Yin, 1987). However, it does not mean that we can not implement case study to investigate or do some research in oil and gas sector. For example, Hatakenaka et al. (2006) have done comparative case study about oil and gas industry which has relationship with development in Stavanger and Aberdeen.

In their paper, Hatakenaka et al. (2006) agreed that the oil and gas industry is among the most technology intensive and highly globalized industry. Its harsh and sometime extreme environment made all methods and tolls involved in this industry should be in good performance and acceptable in latest codes and standards. The industry also can be found in whole world, we can find this industry in 5 (five) continents, Asia, Australia, Europe, Africa and America. Thus, we can imagine the problem complexity and various of cases which had or would be happened both in past and the future of this industry.

If we discuss about oil and gas industry, it would be very long stage of industry, from exploration of petroleum (oil and gas) that is known as up stream until its distribution into market which is known as down stream. This paper limits the definition of oil and gas industry only in its up stream stage, which are from exploration up to production stage.

Case study has several meanings according to who has defined it. Some definitions both from book writers and internet would be presented here in order to catch up the meaning of it clearly. Yin (1987) defines a case study is as an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context, when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident; and in which multiple sources of evidence are used. From this long definition, we can absorb several key words from the meaning of case study, those are investigation, contemporary phenomenon, real-life context, boundary between phenomenon (case) and its vicinity (context), and using multiple sources of evidence. Moreover, according to EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), case study is a method for learning about a complex instance, based on a comprehensive understanding of that instance, obtained by extensive description and analysis of the instance, taken as a whole and in its context. Then we will find same keyword from this definition compared to Yin’s (1987) definition, those are learning or investigation, instance (case or phenomenon), and context. With these two definitions from different sources we clearly can take conclusion that we need a case to be studied or investigated and the case must be located in an environment which is covering it (context); therefore, the case is a bounded system (has boundary). In addition, the phenomenon or the case must be in a range of time or we call it as contemporary case.

II. REASONS TO CONDUCT CASE STUDY IN OIL AND GAS SECTOR

At previous section we have defined the case study and limited the oil and gas sector. In this section, we will discuss why we use case study in oil and gas sector. There are cases, events, or phenomenon which happen in oil and gas sector, we then will measure can we use the case as an object to be studied or not. Incident and offshore project would be some examples of case that we will discuss in the following paragraphs.

During its operation, oil and gas industry involves many parties, they work on their own discipline or expertise. Working interface between them is a must condition. Oil and gas sector is classified as high risk industry, each of discipline has to perform well and safely during day-to-day activity. If one discipline or party make a mistake, it can be huge problem both for the mistake maker and the whole system. Then, we can name it as an incident.

Refer to location of oil and gas operation, we can classify that sector into 2 (two) groups, onshore and offshore operation. Onshore operation means that both drilling (exploration) and production of petroleum are commenced in land, such as near shore, desert, forest, high land, low land, arctic, antarctic, and other place as far as not in sea. In contrast, exploration and production (may be partial or whole production) of petroleum which are held at the ocean is known as offshore operation.

Offshore operation need much more efforts to be commenced than onshore operation, it needs huge amount both capital and operation expenditure. To be able to explore petroleum beneath the sea bed, we need infrastructure to support drilling rig and also can be used during operational activity while production period. Both fabrication and installation of fixed or floating infrastructures need big budgets, therefore, each offshore project should be arranged, conducted, and recorded well in order to minimize same mistake or failure in the next project.

Main purpose of case study is to investigate the case relation to its historical, economic, technological, social and cultural context. Those purposes are generally suitable to be implemented in two sample cases described in previous paragraph. To obtain lesson learnt from an incident, we have to know the system where the incident happens, how it happens, why it happens, how it can affect to other worker in psychological matter, and how big the financial loss after the incident due to loss time of operational activity. Similarly, offshore project also can be studied using case study since to arrange and perform the project we also have to manage our team to be expert in some areas of project. For example, history of reason why a project has to be performed, its economic value, technological matter involved on the project, and its effect to the environmental condition.

Case study is also conducted for particular purpose. An incident is studied to gain experiences from it so that prevention action can be commenced and the same or typical incident will not happen at the future. Lessons from an incident then is informed to whole part of company or it also can be passed to another typical company as lesson learnt. In the same way, case study of offshore project is done to evaluate past projects. The result of study would be guidance for next projects with main purpose is to find effective method during engineering, procurement, construction or fabrication and installation phases so that the budget is realized efficiently and length time of project can be reduced.

III. DETERMINING TYPE OF CASE STUDY

In their book, Mallette and Duke (2004) gave explanation about the type of case study stated previously by Stake (2008). Case study is classified into 3 (three) types, those are intrinsic, instrumental and collective case study. In first type, it is undertaken because one wants to understand the particular case (Ofori, 2009). The researcher is seeking better understanding of a case, that is, he or she is exploring the case because it is interesting, not because it might contribute to theory building. In the instrumental type, the case moves to the background of interest, for it is being used to understand something else. The last type is collective case study. Researcher investigates numerous cases to study a phenomenon, group, condition, or event. The redundancy of cases is purposeful as the researcher is building a stronger understanding and a more compelling argument for the significance of the work through the use of multiple cases.

Another writer who defined the type of case study are Jan Dul and Tony Hak. At their book, Dul and Hak (2008) classify case study into two types. The first type is single case study which means a case study in which data from one instance is enough to achieve the research objective. The other type of case study stated by Dul and Hak (2008) is comparative case study. In this type, one which requires data from two or more instances to achieve the research objective.

In oil and gas sector we are better to use collective case study if we refer to case study classified by Stake (2008). We also can implement comparative case study in that sector. These types of case study allow us to involve more than one case to be studied so that it represents several typical cases and quite enough for developing new criteria or requirement that can be used for next project or to prevent same incident.

IV. CONTEXT

As discussed in section I, context becomes one of important things that we have to defined while preparing case study in all sectors. There are several meanings of context that we can find from internet source. Context is defined as the set of facts or circumstances that surround a situation or event (taken from glossary of Princenton). The Department of Computer and Information Science of Linkopings Universitet gave definition of context, context is the setting in which an item of information appears. Again, we also can obtain the definition of context from Curtin University of Technology. It defines context as the situation including the creators, their purposes, activities and circumstances that caused events to occur and records documenting them to be created and maintained.

Then, based on several definitions of context presented above, we can identify what are our context to do case study in oil and gas sector. We can start from what case we have chosen to be studied. For example, incident, contexts of an incident can be location of incident, time of event occurred, worker on site when incident happened, type of work and so on. In the same way, if we decide to choose offshore projects as our case then its contexts would be company involved in those projects, time range of projects, location, infrastructure involved in the project, international and regional regulation, code and standard, and others.

V. CASE STUDY PROTOCOL

The protocol is a major tactic in increasing the reliability of case study research and is intended to guide the investigator in carrying out the case study. A case study protocol is more than an instrument. The protocol contains the instrument but also contains the procedures and general rules that should be followed in using the instrument. Having a case study protocol is desirable under all circumstances, but it is essential if we are using multiple-case design (Yin, 1987).

The protocol should have the following sections:

· Overview of the case study project (project objectives and auspices, case study issues, and relevant readings about the topic being investigated). If we take an example of incident as our case that we will study, then the objectives are to provide lesson learnt for everyone who are working in same type of job, to provide prevention action to avoid same incident, to be material for safety briefing before commencement a same work. About relevant reading materials, it can be obtained in many sources, especially from internet and professional mailing list.

· Field procedures (credentials and access to the case study “sites”, general sources of information, and procedural reminder. Only authorized people who is allowed to access incident “sites” due to strict regulation which is implemented in all oil and gas projects or refineries. Source of information may be from injured person (if any), people who are working in vicinity of event and authorized people who has the responsibility of all things in that project.

· Case study question (the specific questions that the case study investigator must keep in mind in collecting data, “table shells” for specific arrays of data, and the potential sources of information for answering each question); and

· Guide for the case study report (outline, format for the narrative, and specification of any bibliographical information and other documentation).

VI. IMPLEMENTATION OF CASE STUDY

Once we have defined all of things described in previous section, then the following sub-sections is a practical step we have to follow in order to prepare and conduct case study well (Ofori, 2009):

A. Preparation Phase

In this stage, we have to define the research topic which will answer the question of what is the study really about? Once we have decided about what case (about case selection would be presented in next section) to be studied or investigated, then we are able to define the research topic of our chosen case or cases. After that, general and specific research objectives have to be specified. For this matter, we have determined all of them in section V, with case example is incident which had happened in oil and gas project.

B. Research Phase

A research strategy is chosen in this stage, starting from hypothesis, then by considering research objective we finally decide a research strategy that we will use in our case study. The next step is instance or case selection. It can be done by listing up all candidate cases continue with selecting a or some cases. In early part of this paper we have used two cases in oil and gas sector as our cases. It is assumed that we have done the above steps previously. Subsequently, we have to do measurement on our selected case which will bring us to commencement of data analysis. This last step of this section will give as the result of analysis of data.

C. Implication and Report Phase

Once the survey or observation was conducted, the next step is to find out the implication of data analysis result and to move them into a written report. If case study is conducted by a group of people then they can discuss the result, test the result and obtain practical decision that can be done correspond with the result.

VII. CONCLUSION AND EVALUATION OF CASE STUDY

The final step of reporting case study would be conclusion. This conclusion is generated by author of report, can be single person or a group. If we refer to our previous cases, the conclusion may be the incident was triggered by human error or technical matter, the incident could be avoided if the injured person use his personal protection equipment properly or the machine was located to another safer location, and many other conclusions can be drawn from a case study.

In order to make sure that we have conducted a case study and made report well, we have to evaluate our previous step. The following criteria can be guidance to evaluate whether the case study is good or not (Stake, 1995):

· A good case study must be significant in one way or another;

· A case can be unusual, unique, or of general interest;

· The issue studied should be interesting and relevant, either theoretically or practically;

· The case study must be complete – researcher should have given explicit attention to define the case and its context, all relevant evidence has been investigated (including contradictory ones);

· A good case study considers alternative perspective, which involves examination of evidence from different perspective;

· A case study must be composed in an engaging manner, to keep the reader interested in reading to the end.

VIII. CONCLUSION

Actually, discussion on this paper bring us to the conclusion that case study (especially collective and comparative case study) is definitely suitable to be conducted in oil and gas sector. With its problem complexity, harsh environment and strict regulation, both case and context in oil and gas industry can be studied comprehensively. Case study is able to present and solution or theory to avoid same problems may happen at the future.

This paper then can be guidance for all people or parties who will perform case study in oil and gas industry. This framework can be assistance in order to perform case study easily. People can follow the section, stage and step-by-step explanation on this paper so that he or she would not find any difficulties.

For next study, each of section need to be explained more detail, give various example of case may be a good tools to bring the reader follow this guide easily. Not only from offshore operation, but also sample can be taken from onshore operation since cases on that area will also have high variety. Down stream industry at oil and gas sector also has many phenomenon or case that could be appropriate to be studied.

REFERENCES

Ofori, George. Case Studies: Nature, Definition, Formulation. Leture Notes in Project Management Case Studies. Singapore: National University of Singapore, 2009, p. 3.

Yin, Robert K. Case Study Research – Design and Methods, 6^th ed. United States of America: SAGE Publications, Inc, 1987, vol. 5, p. 10, 23.

Hatakenaka et al. “The Regional Dynamics of Innovation: A Comparative Case Study of Oil and Gas Industry Development in Stavanger and Aberdeen,” Industrial Performance Center – Massasuchetts Institute of Technology, pp. 3, Nov. 2006.

Mallette, Marla H and Duke, Nell K. Literacy Research Methodologies. New York, United States of America: Guilford Press, 2004, p. 9-10.

Dul, J and Hak, T. Case Study Methodology in Business Research. Amsterdam, Netherland: Elsevier, 2008, p. 4.

Stake, R.E. Qualitative Case Studies. In Denzin, N.K. and Lincoln, Y.S. (Eds) Strategies of Qualitative Inquiry. Sage, Los Angeles, 2008, pp. 119-149.

Princenton. 2009. Definition of Context. Retrieved February 01, 2009, from http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=context

The Department of Computer and Information Science of Linkopings Universitet. 2009. Definition of Context. Retrieved February 01, 2009, from http://www.ida.liu.se/~mikki/comics/lic/sup1.htm

Curtin University of Technology. 2009. Archives & recordkeeping glossary. Retrieved February 01, 2009, from http://john.curtin.edu.au/society/glossary/index.html

Kampusku, Rumahku, Tempat Baru Untuk Bertarung

Jaring — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 05:00:13 +0000

Tak henti-hentinya, puji syukur kehadirat Allah SWT selalu dipanjatkan selepas melakukan kewajiban 5 waktu. Sebuah anugerah yang begitu indah. Salah satu mimpi yang terwujud, dengan berliku-liku, tidak mudah, penuh perjuangan dan stock semangat yang tidak boleh habis sama sekali.

National University of Singapore (NUS), baru mendengar beberapa tahun yang lalu saat memulai pencarian tempat kuliah. Lebih terdengar NTU (Nanyang Technological University) ketimbang NUS, paling tidak saat kuliah dulu di Bandung, kota yang penuh kenangan, tak kan terlupakan.

Berdasarkan QS TOP UNIVERSITIES ranking untuk tahun 2008, NUS berada di peringkat 30 dunia. Untuk lebih sedapnya, silahkan dibuka link berikut. Peringkat pertama dan kedua masih diduduki oleh HARVARD dan YALE Univeristy, di United States of America, kemudian disusul peringkat ketiga oleh universitas dari United Kingdom, University of Cambridge. Peringkat 1 sampai dengan 29 diduduki oleh negara-negara sebagai berikut: United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, Canada, Switzerland, Hongkong, France, dan Singapore dengan NUS-nya. Sedangkan NTU (Singapore juga) untuk pemeringkatan universities dunia berada di peringkat 77. Bila berbicara regional Asia, NUS berada di peringkat 4, yaitu setelah University of Tokyo, Kyoto Univeristy, dan University of Hongkong. ITB sendiri berada di peringkat 315, naik cukup signifikan bila dibandingkan dengan peringkat 369 di tahun 2007.

Khusus di bidang engineering/technology, NUS bercokol di peringkat 11 dunia dan untuk NTU berada di peringkat 26. Pemeringkatan universities dunia di bidang engineering bisa dilongok di link berikut. Untuk bidang ini ITB berada di peringkat 90, mengungguli Brown University (USA), Univ of Southampton, University College London, Univ of Birmingham (UK), Tohoku University (Japan), serta Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris (France) yang menduduki peringkat 100 di dunia.

Picture 1. Map of Singapore

NUS terletak di bagian tengah-selatan pulau Singapore. Tidak terlalu jauh dari pusat kota (bila refer ke Orchard), dan 30 menit perjalanan menggunakan MRT dari Changi Airport.

Tidak jauh berbeda dengan kondisi kampus di Bandung, di NUS keasrian lingkungan kampus sepertinya menjadi perhatian penting. Bisa dilihat dengan terjaganya (dengan baik) tanaman-tanaman (pohon dan bunga) di kawasan kampus, dan tentunya merupakan smoke free campus.

Picture 2 & 3. Suasana Salah Satu Titik Kampus

Penelusuran selanjutnya adalah ke kantin, sebuah tempat yang bisa dibilang paling penting, karena di sinilah kebutuhan pokok para mahasiswa terpenuhi. Ada beberapa kantin di kampus, berikut dijelaskan untuk kantin yang terdekat dengan Faculty of Engineering, Techno Edge Canteen namanya.

Picture 4 – 7. Techno Edge Canteen

Harga makanan di kantin ini merupakan harga setelah disubsidi oleh pemerintah, tentunya menjadi sangat murah bila dibandingkan dengan membeli makanan di tempat umu. Nasi dan 2 jenis sayur bisa diperoleh dengan harga SGD 1,8, untuk mengirit lagi, minumnya tidak perlu beli karena kita bisa meminum air ledeng (bila diistilahkan di Indonesia). Mencari makanan yang halal pun tak akan kesulitan, ada beberapa counter yang menjual khusus makanan halal. Tidak perlu ada yang dikhawatirkan, karena bila selesai makan maka alat-alat makan (piring, sendok, gelas)-pun ditempatkan terpisah antara alat-alat makan untuk makanan yang halal dan yang lain sehingga Insya Allah akan terjaga dengan baik.

Tidak jauh dari Techno Edge Canteen adalah Central Library. Maju tidak nya sebuah universitas salah satunya bisa dilihat dari fasilitas dan ketersediaan buku di library-nya. Berikut adalah foto bagian depan library dan book drop. Mahasiswa/dosen bisa mengembalikan buku yang dipinjam dengan hanya memasukkan buku tersebut ke dalam book drop, satu hari kerja selanjutnya maka record peminjaman buku kita akan ter-update dengan sendirinya.

Picture 8 & 9. Front of Central Library and Book Drop

Hanya pemegang student/staff card yang bisa memasuki library karena di bagian depan terdapat check point. Pintu akan terbuka bila orang tersebut menempelkan student/staff card-nya pada mesin yang tersedia. Central library di NUS dilengkapi dengan fasilitas-fasilitas pendukung yang bisa dilihat di beberapa pics berikut:

Picture 10. Computer Access

Terdapat sekitar 100 set desktop computers yang bisa diakses oleh siapapun. Prosedurnya, si peminjam harus melakukan booking terlebih dahulu di booking station. Masukkan login dan password kemudian akan tersedia mapping of computer yang di situ ditunjukkan komputer mana yang masih kosong dan hired. Si peminjam selanjutnya memilih komputer yang masih kosong dan selesai. Maksimum waktu peminjaman adalah 1 jam untuk satu desktop computer per orang. Bisa diperpanjang dengan melakukan booking di booking station.

Picture 11. Multimedia Viewing Room

Fasilitas ini disediakan untuk pengunjung agar bisa menonton film dengan baik. Tidak hanya film2 science dan technology yang tersedia di library, film-film populer seperti Lord of The Ring-pun tersedia di library. Untuk bisa menggunakannya, pengunjung musti melakukan booking di Loan Desk untuk sekaligus mendapatkan pinjaman headset.

Picture 11 & 12. Library and New Book

Buku-buku baru selalu diletakkan di kolom-kolom seluas ruangan perpustakaan sehingga peengunjung bisa selalu ter-up date dengan buku-buku yang muncul sesuai dengan bidang ilmunya. Bila kita mencari sebuah jurnal ataupun buku yang ternyata tidak terdapat di library, maka kita bisa mengajukan request tersendiri untuk pengadaan buku atau jurnal tersebut.

Picture 13 & 14. Perk Point and its Facilities

Fasilitas lain di library adalah “Perk Point”. Ini berfungsi sebagai tempat atau ruangan yang bebas. Bisa untuk ngobrol, browsing menggunakan notebook sendiri, makan, minum, dan juga dilengkapi dengan food and drink machines. Ruangan ini dikelilingi oleh kaca sehingga bisa bersuara lebih bila berada di dalam ruangan ini.

Picture 15. LINC

Untuk bisa mencari literatur yang kita inginkan, bisa memanfaatkan feature LINC. Fasilitas ini berupa desktop computer yang berjejer berjumlah sampai dengan 30 pcs. Tinggal tulis (bisa by title atau advanced keyword) di fasilitas tersebut maka selanjutnya akan muncul lokasi tempat buku itu berada.

Picture 16. Self-Service Facilities

Setelah menemukan buku atau CD yang kita cari, selanjutnya adalah melakukan “check out” pada literatur tersebut. Peminjam selanjutnya mengunjungi fasilitas yang terpampang di picture 16, memasukkan login dan PIN, men-scan barcode yang terdapat di barang yang akan dipinjam. Selanjutnya, items tersebut bisa dibawa pulang dengan waktu peminjaman berkisar 25 hari.

Picture 17. Quiet Area

Untuk belajar dan membaca, tersedia Quiet Area. Area ini terdapat hampir di setiap lantai perpustakaan yang tediri dari 7 lantai. Sesuai dengan namanya, tidak diperkenankan untuk berbicara, ngobrol atau mengeluarkan berbagai bentuk suara, karena akan mengganggu pengguna quite area yang lain. Siapa saja (Student BSc, Master, PhD) dan Staff bisa menggunakan ruangan ini.

Picture 18 & 19. Carrels

Inilah fasilitas favorit pemirsa, Carrel. Bentuknya seperti warung telepon kalo di Indonesia. Graduate student dan Staff yang bisa mem-booking fasilitas ini. Di tempat ini sangat nyaman untuk belajar karena tidak terganggu oleh pergerakan-pergerakan manusia. Di sini juga bisa tempat untuk menitipkan laptop dan barang-barang lain sehingga tidak perlu digondol kesana kemari saat akan kuliah.

–Singapore, January 18, 2009–

Dari Tempat Tinggal ke Kampus

Jaring — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 04:08:58 +0000

Tempat tinggalku di Singapore berupa HDB. Apa itu HDB? Bisa refer ke tulisan yang ini. Berlokasi di daerah yang dinamakan Clementi, sedangkan kampus baruku berada di daerah Kent Ridge. Biar lebih sedap membayangkannya mari kita lihat pic berikut, dicomot dari PakDhe Google yang selalu setia menemani setiap saat.

Picture 1. Map of Clementi and Kent Ridge Campus (NUS)

Letak kampus adalah sebelah tenggara tempat tinggalku. Sebenarnya NUS memiliki 2 kawasan kampus, yaitu Kent Ridge Campus (KRC) dan Bukit Timah Campus (BTC). Karena belum pernah ke BTC jadi ceritanya untuk yang KRC dulu.

Turun dari lantai 13 HDB, selanjutnya akan melewati jembatan Sungai Ulu Pandan. Kalo tak salah Ulu itu sendiri artinya Sungai. Di samping kiri sungai terdapat beberapa jogging tracks yang selalu ramai (kecuali tengah malam). Rupanya warga setempat sudah sangat paham bagaimana menjaga stamina dan kesehatan mereka, dan tentunya sebagai sarana untuk stress reduction.

Picture 2 & 3. Jogging Tracks

Lepas dari jembatan yang menaungi Ulu Pandan, selanjutnya akan melewati salah satu cabang Commonwealth Ave yang di kiri-kanannya terdapat tempat pejalan kaki yang begitu nyaman untuk dilewati. Selain bersih, dilindungi dari panas sang surya oleh pohon-pohon besar, dan tidak terdapat lubang-lubang galian yang bisa mencelakakan pedestrian.

Picture 4 &5. Jalan dan Pedestrian Area

Jalan tersebut membelah kompleks HDB yang bertengger kokoh di kanan kiri jalan. Intermezo sebentar, pics berikut memperlihatkan bagaimana cara untuk menjemur pakaian di HDB.

Picture 6 & 7. Cara Menjemur Pakaian

Setelah dikeringkan seadanya menggunakan mesin cuci, selanjutnya pakaian diletakkan di sebuah tongkat, bisa terbuat dari alumunium (atau sejenisnya) dan bisa juga dari bambu atau kayu berbentuk bulat dengan panjang berkisar 2-3 meter. Di bawah jendela sudah bisa dipastikan tersedia paralon-paralon dengan diameter berkisar 5 cm yang ditanamkan di tembok HDB. Paralon-paralon tersebut selanjutnya sebagai pegangan tongkat-tongkat untuk tempat menjemur pakaian. Cara menjepit pakaian perlu dipelajari terlebih dahulu. Nampak remeh, tapi bila kurang cermat maka Anda akan kehilangan pakaian-pakaian berharga. Sebuah pengalaman yang kurang mengenakan, yang entah kenapa musti dialami sendiri juga.

Untuk memarkir kendaraan di Singapore perlu memperhatikan terlebih dahulu tempat tersebut. Yang jelas sebagian tempat tidak menggratiskan diri untuk diparkiri. Salah-salah parkir maka di kaca mobil akan tertempel bukti pelanggaran parkir yang dendanya bisa lebih dari SGD 100. Si pelanggar tidak akan ditegur terlebih dahulu, langsung diberi bukti pelanggaran, atau ban kendaraannya akan langsung di-clamp, yang untuk me-release-nya diperlukan kocek sebesar $107.

Berikut contoh tarif parkir di kisaran Clementi.

Picture 8. Sample of Parking Fare at Clementi Vicinity

Melangkah beberapa meter ke depan, selanjutnya ditemui Bus Stop. Bus Stop di Singapore memiliki nomor Bus Stop diawali dengan huruf “B”, misal B01, B02, B13, dan lain sebagainya. Biasanya bila ada sebuah bus stop di sisi kiri jalan, maka satu bus stop lagi tepat berada di oppsite bus stop tersebut. Numbering-nya pun bisa ditebak, karena pihak berwenang memberi nomor bus stop ganjil dan genap selalu berseberangan. Misal B01 berada di sebelah kiri, maka B03, B05 dan selanjutnya akan ada di sebelah kiri ruas jalan tersebut. B02, B04, B06, dan selanjutnya berada di sisi kanan ruas jalan.

Picture 9 & 10. Bus Stop and Bus Fare

Nomor Bus yang berhenti di bus stop tersebut, rute bus beserta bus fare tersedia dengan rapi di sebuah bus stop. Hal ini sangat memudahkan para pendatang baru untuk bisa memanfaatkan sarana transportasi tersebut. Bila dilihat eksteriornya, wujud bus yang beroperasi di Singapore tidak kalah tua dengan bus-bus di Jakarta. Maintenance yang sangat disiplinlah yang menjadikan sarana transportasi tersebut sangat nyaman digunakan.

Picture 11 & 12. Bus di Singapore

Ada 2 perusahaan yang mengoperasikan public bus di Singapore, yaitu SBS Transit dan SMRT. Belum ketahuan bedanya dimana. Yang jelas menurut info dari seorang kawan, pemerintah Singapore akan mengganti secara bertahap bus-bus yang sekarang beroperasi menjadi bus baru (yang konon dipesan dari Europe). Bus baru tersebut memiliki lantai yang landai, tingginya hampir sama dengan trotoar. Akibatnya, bus akan terlihat lebih ceper sehingga orang-orang tua atau yang memiliki disability (misal menggunakan kursi roda) akan dengan sangat mudah menaikki bus. Hmm…benar-benar memperhatikan hal-hal seperti ini..

Di Singapore, pedestrian (pejalan kaki) adalah raja di jalanan. Di setiap persimpangan yang tidak menyediakan lampu indikator untuk penyeberangan pejalan kaki, maka kendaraan-kendaraan yang akan lewat sudah bisa dipastikan akan mengalah bila ada pedestrian yang akan menyeberang. Bila lampu indikator tersedia, maka pedestrian hanya boleh menyeberang saat indikator hijau menyala, dengan sebelumnya memencet tombol untuk meminta waktu melakukan penyeberangan. Tidak beda jauh dengan di Indonesia, ada sih bedanya..infrastructure tersebut di sini begitu terawat, bebas dari vandalisme.

Picture 13, 14 & 15. Junction’’s Infrastructure

Maju beberapa langkah ke depan selanjutnya ditemui Clementi MRT Station. Clementi MRT Station masuk dalam jalur East West, atau jalur hijau, yang menghubungkan ujung paling timur (Changi Airport) ke Ujung paling Barat (Boon Lay). Seperti di public place lainnya di Singapore, keberadaan petugas sangat jarang ditemui, tidak ada petugas keamanan (seperti satpam), polisi dan sejenisnya. Untuk melakukan top up (pengisian saldo/balance) pun bisa dilakukan secara self-service di mesin-mesin yang terdapat di MRT (Mast Rapid Transit) tersebut. Eating, Drinking, Smoking are not allowed, baik di station-nya maupun di dalam train-nya. Jadwal kedatangan kereta untuk kedua arahpun dapat dilihat di media board.

Picture 16-21. Clementi MRT Station

Lepas dari MRT Station sebenarnya bisa langsung menuju Clementi Bus Interchange. Namun, karena mesti menemani seorang kawan untuk ke Bank, maka perjalanan dibelokkan sedikit. Di Singapore banyak sekali terdapat hawker center, atau di Indonesia dikenal dengan food court. Bagi muslim, mencari makanan yang halal merupakan suatu keharusan. Di setiap hawker center hampir bisa dipastikan terdapat halal food, biasanya di counter makanan tersebut terdapat tulisan “muslim food”, seperti terlihat di pictures berikut:

Picture 22 & 23. Hawker Center and Muslim Food

Di Singapore terdapat beberapa major banks, yaitu POSB dan DBS, UOB, dan OCBC. Urutan penyebutan menyatakan besarnya bank tersebut dibanding lainnya. POSB dan DBS merupakan satu group, dan satu group juga dengan Danamon di Indonesia. Bila kita buka rekening IDR (Indonesian Rupiahs) di Danamon Indonesia, maka kita bisa melakukan withdraw di ATM POSB dan atau DBS, dalam bentuk SGD (Singapoeran Dollars) yang telah dikonversikan dengan rate pada saat penarikan.

Setelah menyelesaikan suatu urusan di DBS, perjalanan dilanjutkan menggunakan public bus. Terminal terdekat adalah Clementi Bus Interchange.

Picture 24 & 25. Clementi Bus Interchange

Untuk bisa menggunakan public bus ada 2 (dua) methods of payment, yang pertama adalah menggunakan EZ-Link Card dan by cash. EZ-Link Card bisa diperoleh di Ticket Offices, baik di bus interchange maupun di MRT Station. Kartu tersebut bisa digunakan untuk MRT dan public bus, serta bisa pula digunakan di beberapa hawker center dan untuk printing di campus. Kartu tersebut bisa pula di-top up (ditambah nilai/balance-nya) di mesin-mesin self service (di MRT station) dan Seven Eleven (sejenis Circle-K di Indonesia). Selain menggunakan EZ Link Card, payment by cash juga diterima, namun akan lebih mahal dan bus driver tidak akan memberikan kembalian, bila kita membayar dengan uang lebih.

Picture 26 & 27. Bus Situation and Tap Machine

Entrance door sebuah public bus pasti melalui pintu depan, sedangkan exit access bisa melalui pintu depan maupun belakang (tengah). Begitu memasuki bus, setiap orang harus melakukan “tap” ke 2 (dua) tap machine yang tersedia di pintu masuk. Tentunya yang di-tap adalah EZ-Link Card. Bila menggunakan cash, bisa bertanya terlebih dahulu ke bus driver mengenai ongkos bus untuk sampai di tujuan kita, kemudian memasukkan coins ke dalam sebuah mesin dan selanjutnya akan muncul receipt yang bisa kita simpan. Dari Clementi Bus Interchange untuk bisa sampai di Kent Ridge Campus menggunakan bus nomor 96 dengan lama perjalanan berkisar 7-10 menit dan ongkos sebesar SGD 0,71.

Agar bus berhenti di bus stop yang kita tuju, salah satu tombol musti dipencet. Tombol tersebut tersebar merata di kolom-kolom tempat pegangan penumpang maupun di samping tempat duduk (menempel di dinding bus). Dan..sampailah di kampus baru, National University of Singapore, yang cerita tentang kampus ini ada di tulisan selanjutnya

–Singapore, January 18, 2009–

Tempat Tinggal di Singapore

Jaring — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 07:01:47 +0000

Satu item permasalahan yang paling perlu mendapat perhatian lebih bagi orang yang berniat untuk tinggal di Singapore adalah tempat tinggal. Di samping monthly rental rate-nya yang cukup signifikan jumlahnya, pertimbangan memilih tipe tempat tinggal juga perlu dipikirkan. Berikut sedikit cerita tentang tipe-tipe tempat tinggal di Singapore, address numbering dan kisaran2 harga rentalnya.

HDB….Merupakan kependekan dari Housing Development Board. Salah satu jenis tempat tinggal di Singapore. Secara umum kepemilikan tempat tinggal di Singapore berada di 2 (dua) tangan, yaitu Government dan Private. Melalui sebuah lembaga yang memiliki wewenang, pemerintah S’pore membangun perumahan2 rakyat yang disebut dengan HDB. HDB ini bisa dimiliki oleh Singaporean alias orang yang berkebangsaan Singapore. Setelah dibeli/dimiliki, HDB tersebut bisa dipinjamkan atau disewakan, baik per room atau sekalian per unit.

Istilah Room dan Unit. Room itu maksudnya adalah kamar, kamar untuk tempat beristirahat, bisa tidur, junpalitan, dandan, ganti pakaian dan kegiatan2 pribadi lainnya. Room-pun memiliki 2 (dua) istilah, Common Room dan Master Room. Common Room tidak memiliki kamar mandi (bath room) di dalam ruangannya, jadi sharing dengan penghuni Common Room yang lain. Master Room punya kamar mandi sendiri di dalam ruangan tersebut. Biasanya luas ruangan Master Room lebih luas ketimbang Common Room.

Istilah Unit, unit di sini maksudnya adalah satu rumah yang biasanya terdiri dari 2 Common Rooms dan 1 Master Room. Berikut photo2 Common Room dan fasilitas2/furnitures dalam sebuah unit HDB.

Picture 1. Common Room di sebuah HDB

Picture 2. Fasilitas dalam sebuah unit HDB

Picture 3. Kitchen’s Facilities

Picture 4. Bagian depan Unit

Selain HDB, ada yang disebut dengan “Private Room” yaitu berupa Condominium. Condominium ini bisa dimiliki oleh orang selain Singaporean. Dari namanya saja sudah bisa dipastikan kondisi fisik Condominium lebih baik daripada HDB. Selain itu dalam sebuah atau beberapa kompleks Condominium terdapat fasilitas swimming pool dan gymnastic room. Sedangkan di kompleks HDB fasilitas yang tersedia biasanya hanya berupa lapangan futsal, basket, voli, dan badminton.

Sudah bisa diduga juga harga sewa untuk sebuah room ato unit condominium pasti lebih tinggi daripada room atau unit HDB. Lokasi HDB atau Condominium sangat besar peranannya dalam hal penentuan rental rate. Room yang memiliki lokasi lebih dekat dari MRT Station bisa dipastikan (atau biasanya) memiliki rate lebih tinggi ketimbang room sejenis yang berlokasi jauh dari MRT Station. Hal ini hubungannya adalah dengan habit orang2 yang tinggal di Singapore, yaitu kebiasaan berjalan kaki. Semakin dekat dengan MRT Station, semakin dekat pula mereka bisa berjalan kaki dari tempat tinggal mereka ke MRT Station. Sistem transportasi yang sudah tertata dengan sangat baik memungkinkan orang bisa melakukan perjalanan dari manapun menuju ke tempat manapun menggunakan sarana MRT, sehingga keberadaan MRT Station dirasa cukup bisa memberikan pengaruh dalam penentuan room/unit rate.

Selanjutnya adalah mengenai postal address di Singapore. Alamat di Singapore biasanya memiliki format sebagai berikut: Block XXX #YY-ZZZ Clementi Street QQ Singapore 120103. XXX menunjukkan angka, misal 189, 609, dan lain2. Ini menunjukkan nomor Block. Block di sini adalah sebuah bangunan (berbentuk kotak) yang terdiri dari banyak lantai, bisa sampai 13 storey ato lebih. Dalam satu lantai terdiri dari beberapa unit. YY menunjukkan lantai, bisa 5, 6 atau 13. Ini menunjukkan lantai di mana unit kita berada. ZZZ menunjukkan nomor Unit. QQ menunjukkan nomor Jalan, misal Clementi Street 13 atau 12, dan sebagainya.

Selain HDB dan Condominium, ada satu tipe tempat tinggal lagi, biasa disebut dengan Landed House. Tipe dan bentuknya berbeda dengan 2 tipe yang diceritakan dalam tulisan ini. Landed House adalah rumah tempat tinggal biasa seperti di Indonesia, bentuknya benar-benar rumah yang menempel ke tanah dan memiliki lantai tidak sampai lebih dari 3 lantai (biasanya). dari ketiga tipe tempat tinggal tersebut, rate termahal adalah untuk Landed House.

Satu common room di sebuah HDB yang berjarak kira 500 meter dari HDB ke MRT Station adalah SGD 680 untuk bisa sharing dan SGD 600 bila akan ditempati oleh satu orang. Di lokasi lain, agak pinggiran Singapore, beberapa rekan ada yang bisa menyewa room per orang hanya dengan SGD 295, menyewa sebuah room share dengan 1 orang kawan.

Masa Peralihan

Jaring — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 01:27:52 +0000

Sudah banyak beredar di dunia per-milist-an (salah satunya) tentang bagaimana perjuangan sang kupu-kupu ketika dia harus berontak sekuat tenaga untuk bisa keluar dari kepompong demi menyambut dunia barunya. Dan juga banyak beredar cerita tentang perjuangan kupu-kupu yang dibantu oleh seseorang saat dia sedang berusaha keluar dari kepompong, hasilnya? Sang kupu-kupu tidak bisa terbang, karena otot2 yang seharusnya sudah terlatih (saat dia berjuang keluar dari kepompong) masih loyo. Loyo dan tidak terlatih karena perjuangan yang ia lakukan tidak sebagaimana mestinya.

Tidak jauh berbeda dengan masa peralihan dari seorang murid SMU menjadi seorang mahasiswa. Kenyamanan yang selama waktu SMU dia rasakan sedikit banyak harus ditinggalkan. Saat SMU, semuanya sudah diatur sedemikian rupa, sehingga tugasnya hanya berangkat ke sekolah, menuju ruang kelas (yang sudah tertera saat pendaftaran) dan guru datang silih berganti seiring bergantinya mata pelajaran. Kalo Mahasiswa? Dia harus selalu meng-update jadwal dan ruang tempat dia kuliah, karena setiap mata kuliah yang berbeda (biasanya) ruangannya juga berbeda. Itu hanya satu contoh kenyamanan yang hilang saat seseorang mengalami masa peralihan dari murid menjadi mahasiswa.

Lalu, apakah seseorang yang sudah lulus kuliah dan bekerja bisa juga mengalami masa peralihan? Tentu saja. Zona kenyamanan manusia bertingkat-tingkat, sama dengan deck di platforms. Untuk bisa naik dari level boat landing (atau sub cellar deck) menuju cellar deckperlu menaikki ladder (atau tangga). Ada bedanya? Tentu saja. Di boat landing (sub cellar) selain ruang geraknya sempit, dan terbatas, masih ada kemungkinan terkena percikan air laut akibat gelombang yang menabrak kaki-kaki platforms. Agar tidak kena percikan air tersebut lalu bagaimana? Naiklah ke level Cellar deck, satu level lebih tinggi dari boat landing. Tidak ada lift, atau escalator, harus naik melalui ladder atau tangga. Untuk bisa naik, dibutuhkan energi tambahan, dibutuhkan kemauan, dan tentunya ada ladder-nya (atau ada kesempatan).

Rutinitas kerja, berangkat jam 6 pagi, pulang jam 8 selama 3 bulan non-stop sepertinya bakal segera ditinggalkan. Apakah rutinitas tersebut terasa nyaman? Tentu saja. Karena semua sudah tersedia, dari transportasi yang sangat layak dari mess ke kantor, penginapan (mess) yang sudah tersedia dengan fasilitas2 pendukungnya, pekerjaan yang menantang dan tentunya ilmu konstruksi yang diperoleh. Sangat nyaman malahan kalau bisa dibilang. Lalu, kenapa musti beralih, atau kenapa musti mengalami masa peralihan lagi?

Jawabannya adalah “m i m p i”.

Ada mimpi yang selalu terbayang-bayang setiap saat. Ada mimpi yang menunggu untuk dijemput. Dan ada mimpi yang tak mau menunggu lama.

Tepat setahun (atau lebih beberapa hari) rasanya sudah “cukup” untuk merasakan kehangatan Pulau Kalimantan. Pulau di Indonesia kta tercinta ini yang sangat kaya, ibaratnya kalo kita iseng menggali tanah sedalam 1 meter saja sudah muncul minyak dan batubara yang tentunya bernilai tinggi. Tapi, bagaimana dengan kondisi alam serta infrastrukturnya? Nanti saja diceritain, di tulisan yang lain

Sebuah proses yang panjang menuju hari bahagia itu, ketika quote di YM yang biasanya “Superman, S.T. is online” berubah menjadi “Alhamdulillahi Rabbil ‘Alamiin”. Diawali dengan kegagalan memperoleh nilai TOEFL yang cukup untuk bisa menembus Erasmus Mundus Scholarship pada saat masih ngantor di bilangan Kartini, Jakarta Selatan. Sang Maha Pemberi Jalan rupanya memberikan jalan lain, ya…jalan untuk ke Pulau gemah ripah loh jinawi ini.

Monthly income yang “tidak wajar” sedikit banyak membangunkan atau membukakan jalan lain untuk menuju mimpi. Muncul jalan (yang sebelumnya tersembunyi) untuk melakukan self financing. Ya….mengambil Master dengan biaya sendiri. Setelah melalui beberapa pencarian di media2 dunia maya dan melakukan korespondensi ke teman2 yang sudah beredar di mana-mana akhirnya ketemu juga tempat yang pas, at least feasible untuk dijadikan “stepping stone” menuju mimpi itu. TIdak jauh2, di negeri tetangga, negeri yang berpuluh-puluh tahun lalu mengirimkan warga negaranya untuk bersekolah di Indonesia, namun sekarang berkebalikan. OK…”Boleh jadi saat-saat sekarang Warga Negara Indonesia yang berbondong-bondong belajar di negara sampeyan, tapi lihat saja 10 atau 20 tahun ke depan, warga sampeyan akan kembali ber-bedol desa ke Indonesia untuk belajar”. Mudah2an quote tersebut paling tidak terpikir oleh para penguasa Republik ini. Dengan segala macam kompleksitas permasalahan intern negeri ini sendiri yang mungkin tingkat kesulitannya bisa diibaratkan sebagai perasaan yang didera oleh seorang anak TK yang harus menyelesaikan soal Integral lipat tiga.

Kabar gembira yang datang beruntun, karena dari 2 (dua) Universities yang dilamar, kedua2nya mengirimkan Offer Letter. Sebuah perasaan bersyukur yang tiada duanya. Tidak ada yang lebih bahagia dari perasaan seseorang bila rencana yang telah disusunnya berjalan dengan rapi dan sesuai koridor yang telah dipetakan sebelumnya. Apakah hanya seperti itu saja? Tentu tidak, perhitungan yang beberapa kali meleset membuat actual budget ternyata sangat jauh melenceng dari pemikiran awal. Efeknya, out of budget. Mungkin bukan hanya bisa dibilang “out of budget” karena kekurangan bisa sampai 60% !! Lalu bagaimana?

Nyaris bisa dibilang nekat dan mungkin cenderung konyol. Lalu ngga jadi? Tentu tidak. Sekali layar terkembang, pantang disurutkan kembali. Berbekal keyakinan akan kuasa Yang Maha Kuasa, dan tentunya very2 limited budget, Insya Allah akan tetap berangkat. Berangkat dengan tambahan bekal yang abadi, tak akan surut dimakan apapun, “semangat”…ya…”Masih semangat klean Kuy??!!!!” –> “Semangat Kalipun Boss!!!!”

Berusaha komitmen dengan jawaban tersebut, itu aja pegangannya

Dengan membaca Basmalah, Insya Allah siap melewati Masa Peralihan lagi. Namun, kali ini dengan apa yang melekat di diri sendiri. Kali ini dengan apa yang ditanggung oleh 2 kaki ini. Kali ini sebagai manusia yang dewasa completely, tanpa sokongan dari orang tua. Lalu, bagaiman dengan kekurangannya? Jawabannya ada di sana, iya..jawabannya bakal tersedia di sana, Insya Allah. Yang penting berangkat aja dulu. Selanjutnya, “kesaktian” superman akan teruji pada saat2 yang critical.

Tidak ada satu helai daun pun di dunia ini yang jatuh tanpa sepengetahuan Tuhan Yang Maha Kuasa (quoted from bukunya Andrea Hirata). Tidak ada kebetulan yang terjadi di dunia ini, sesuatu terjadi pasti berhubungan dengan sesuatu2 yang sebelumnya. Atau bisa juga dibalik, apa pun yang terjadi hari ini, saat ini pasti ada hubungannya atau mendukung sesuatu yang bakal terjadi di hari depan. Satu kepakan sayap kupu2 sangat logis bisa menghasilkan tornado atau angin topan di suatu hari di depan, di tempat yang berbeda.

Selamat melewati Masa Peralihan kawan2, dan buatku juga. Karena zona nyaman di level yang lebih tinggi akan bisa digapai setelah melewati Masa Peralihan tersebut dengan sukses.

Selamat berjuang, selamat berkorban, dan selamat menjemput mimpi.

–Kutai Kartanegara, November 24, 2008– (masih di Indonesiaku tercinta)

Load Out and Sail Out of Peciko 5 Platform

Jaring — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:52:18 +0000

Dalam konstruksi offshore platform, aktivitas Load Out dan Sail Out termasuk dalam rentetan akhir dalam urutan kegiatan konstrusi dan instalasi. Keterbatasan fasilitas fabrikasi merupakan point yang paling penting kenapa sebuah platform difabrikasi jauh dari tempat platform itu akan diinstal. Kali ini cerita tentang SWP-F, kependekan dari “Satellite Wellhead Platform – F” yang merupakan rangkaian dari Peciko Field Development Phase 5 Project. SWP-F ini akan diinstal di Blok Peciko yang untuk tahu lokasinya ada di mana bisa refer ke artikel lain dalam blog ini yang bertajuk “Offshore Site Visit I (BL-Bekapai)”. Lokasi Blok Peciko tidak jauh dari blok Bekapai yang ditandai dengan lingkaran. Kedua blok tersebut terletak masih di sepputaran Delta Mahakam, Kalimantan Timur, tentunya dengan penguasa daerah tersebut adalah TOTAL E & P Indonesie.

Sebelum cerita tentang fabrikasi, mari berjalan2 dulu ke Blok Peciko. Blok Peciko terletak kira2 setengah perjalanan menggunakan surfer dari TOTAL Senipah Jetty ke Blok Bekapai. Bila ditempuh dengan tug boat berkecepatan 4 knots, Peciko area bisa diraih dalam kurun waktu 3-4 jam, dengan demikian berjarak 14.03 Nautical Mile dari Senipah Jetty. Sampai dengan sekarang di Peciko area terdapat 6 platforms yaitu A (Alfa), B (Bravo), C (Charlie), D (Delta), E (Eko), dan K (Kilo) sedangkan Peciko Field Development sudah mencapai phase yang ke-6. SWP-F sendiri yang baru sailed away dari Nippon Steel Batam pada tanggal 23 Agustus 2008 masuk dalam rangkaian Peciko Field Development Phase – 5. Dari ke-6 existing platform, NISCONI dan Gunanusa berbagi dalam proses konstruksinya. Platfrom A, B, C dikerjakan oleh NISCONI, kemudian D, E, K dikerjakan oleh Gunanusa Utama Fabricator, dan untuk yang F kembali di-awarded ke NISCONI yang kemudian proses fabrikasinya dikerjakan di Nippon Steel Batam.

Dari Peciko Area, lalu mari kita terbang ke Batam island. Sebuah pulau yang tidak terlalu besar tapi mengalami perkembangan kemajuan yang cukup signifikan. Konstruksi SWP-F dan jacket-nya dilakukan di NS Batam. NS Batam ini masih satu group dengan Nippon Steel Engineering Corp (Japan), dan juga satu group dengan NISCONI (Nippon Steel Construction Indonesia), NSS (Nippon Steel Singapore) dan beberapa Nippon Steel Company yang tersebar di berbagai negara. Peciko 5 sendiri di-awarded (setelah melalui tender tentunya) oleh TOTAL E&P Indonesie DD (Development Division) ke PT. NISCONI. Lazimnya seperti projects lain (ConocoPhillips North Belut) proses fabrikasi dilakukan di NS Batam.

Dalam gambar di atas, terlihat suasana di lapangan fabrikasi milik NSB. Terdapat 1 platfrom milik Peciko 5, kemudian 2 platforms dan 1 jacket milik northbelut project di tempat tersebut. Sedangkan foto close up dari SWP-F bisa dilihat di photo berikut:

Platform tersebut berangkat dari nol kira2 12 bulan yang lalu sampai dengan kondisi seperti terlihat pada photo di atas. Fabrikasi melibatkan beratus-ratus orang dan berpuluh-puluh vendor. Untuk karyawan lapangan berasal dari NSB sedangkan office staff (sampai dengan project manager) berasal dari NISCONI Jakarta yang diinapkan di Puri Garden Hotel selama mengerjakan project di Batam.

Dengan segala kompleksitas permasalahannya, finally SWP-F ini siap untuk di-load out ke material barge “POE GIANT 17″

Dalam offshore industry, barge tersebut dikenal dengan istilah “material barge” ato “flat top barge”. Istilah material barge karena di barge tersebut memuat semua material yang mau di-hook up atau di-instal, dari paltform-nya itu sendiri, vent boom, consumable, welding machines, compressor dan segala jenis tools serta equipment yang akan digunakan saat hook up nantinya. Barge tersebut terbentuk dari beberapa kotakan2 kecil untuk menampung air, digunakan untuk ballasting. Tentunya Flat Top Barge (karena bagian atas barge ini rata) akan memikul beban yang tidak sama rata seluas area atas barge tesebut. Oleh karena itu perlu ada proses penyeimbangan antara bagian barge yang satu dengan yang lain, hal inilah yang dinamakan “ballasting”. Setelah melalui perhitungan ala offshore marine yang biasanya dilakukan oleh sebuah Marine Warranty Surveyor (diceritakan selanjutnya), kemudian barge akan diisi lambungnya menggunakan pompa, tentunya ritme pengisian harus dilakukan sesuai dengan perhitungan yang telah dilakukan.

Beralih ke Marine Warranty Surveyor (MWS) sebentar. Dalam sebuah project, terutama offshore, biasanya akan ada third party yang menggaransi kegiatan-kegiatan yang sifatnya critical, seperti load out, sail out, dan hook up/instalasi. Maksudnya, bila sudah dapat approval dari MWS untuk melakukan kegiatan2 critical tersebut maka CPY (sebagai client) dan CTR (sebagai pihak yang mendapat project) sudah bukan merupakan pihak yang “bertanggung jawab” terhadap hal-hal buruk yang mungkin terjadi. Si MWS inilah yang bertanggung jawab penuh sekaligus mengganti semua biaya bila ternyata terjadi kegagalan atau kecelakaan. Kompensasinya tentu dari CTR harus membayar fee kepada MWS ini. Untuk project dengan skala yang tidak terlalu besar (seperti di East Kalimantan) NISCONI menggunakan PTSI (PT. Surveyor Indonesia), sedangkan untuk Peciko 5 menggunakan NOBLE DENTON.

Kembali ke masalah load out, garis besar dari aktivitas ini adalah untuk memindahkan platform yang sudah jadi dari darat (jetty) ke atas FTB. Tentunya setelah semua persiapan selesai dilakukan. Oopppss..ada satu lagi istilah yang terlewat, “ship loose”. Yup..ship loose adalah daftar inventaris barang2 (yang masuk dalam scope of works CTR). Ini merupakan dokumen pelengkap sebelum proses sail out berlangsung. Dari tiap disciplines musti mempersiapkan ship loose-nya, fungsinya sebagai pengontrol. Pihak lapangan (material ato lainnya) akan mengecek barang2 yang ada di FTB di-compare dengan data yang ada di ship loose.

Kembali ke load out (lagi)… Ada satu aktivitas lagi yang dinamakan dengan “Weighing”. Penimbangan barang yang mau diangkat. Dari MTO dan spek teknis memang theoretically bisa dicari berapa berat barang2 yang akan diangkat tersebut. Namun, weighing tetap musti dilakukan dan major sifatnya. Dengan dilakukan weighing tersebut, maka akan diperoleh berat aktual dari platform (beserta isinya) tersebut. Berat platform bisa terbaca di sebuah “Load Cell”, semacam monitor yang menunjukkan berat material pada saat diangkat (tidak menempel dengan support apapun). Kalibrasi rutin dan valid certificate harus dimiliki oleh Load Cell yang akan digunakan. Dan ternyata…..theoretical weight SWP-F adalah 1,167 MT (Metric Tons), dan ternyata hasil weighing menunjukkan angka 1,200 MT. It means actual weight is weigher than theoretical weight. So…..?? Structural Engineer-nya dapat jackpot, dia musti menghitung ulang lifting gears yang akan digunakan, re-check musti dilakukan dari pad eyes (diceritakan selanjutnya), shackles, slings, temporary support di FTB, dan lain-lain.

Pad eyes adalah lifting lug atau perlengkapan lifting. Biasanya sifatnya temporary (ada juga yang permanent) yang setelah selesai lifting activity-nya barang tersebut akan dibuang. Tentunya ada juga perhitungan untuk menentukan diameter pad eye, perlu tidaknya cheek plate, dan tebal plate yang digunakan. Pad eyes yang dipasang di top deck SWP-F seperti ini bentuknya:

Setelah semuanya dipersiapkan dengan baik, termasukmempersiapkan temporary support of platform yang berada di FTB. Load out pun dilakukan. Load Out of SWP-F menggunakan ASIAN HERCULES II, yup…sebuah crane barge dengan kapasitas 3,200 MT. Platform Support, HERCULES, selama load out bisa dilihat di photos berikut:

Totally hanya membutuhkan waktu 40 menit sang Hercules memindahkan SWP-F dari jetty ke atas FTB. Alhamdulillah semuanya berjalan sangat mulus dan lancar. Kegiatan-kegiatan yang sudah berulang berkali-kali di yard tersebut membuat orang2 di situ tidak terlalu heboh dan tentunya melakukan aktivitas tersebut dengan sangat baik.

Sequence selanjutnya adalah Sail Out. Memberangkatkan material barge dari NSB (fabrication shop) menuju ke tempat instalasinya, yaitu di Peciko Field, East Kalimantan. Berikut marine spreads yang digunakan:

Ada 3 marine spreads yang terlibat dalam pemberangkatan dan sekaligus perjalanan SWP-F dan perlengkapannya dari NSB Jetty ke Peciko Area. Tug Boat PACIFIC ARIYO (belakang), FTB dan Tug Boat MARITIME PERKASA (depan). Beberapa orang (dan juga marinir) juga ditempatkan di atas FTB untuk menjaga material yang ada di barge tersebut. Perjalanan laut Batam – Peciko bila lancar akan memakan waktu 5 hari sampai dengan 1 minggu. Sail Out of SWP-F sendiri dilakukan pada tanggal 23 Agustus 2008.

Sequence selanjutnya adalah hook up of SWP-F ke jacket (yang sudah terbenam di laut peciko), dilanjutkan dengan comissioning segala macam piranti2 di platform tersebut. Hook Up akan dilakukan oleh Kuroshio 1 (yang sekarang sudah anchored di dekat jacket). Mudah2an ada kesempatan baik untuk menyaksikan hook up platform ini.

Kutai Kartanegara, August 29, 2008.