22/3 – Phase C is upon us

The workload increases. Today and tomorrow we work on Phase C, surface development. As the only cost and planning engineer in the group, my skills are wanted. I don’t let on that my skills need some serious development of course. We have a good group for this phase, four surface engineers and a cost and planning guy, but we’re off to a rocky start. I’m no longer group leader and I’m also unable to convince the rest of the group to stick to the structure we used last session; not even a new group leader is elected. The results are not entirely satisfactory, it’s a pretty good morning, but after lunch all structure is out of the window. Perhaps it’s the strain of the work; the workload in EP00 isn’t spread out all that well and continues to increase. Still, this is not unlike real world conditions and especially in such situations you need to manage things.

However, all is not bad. I work with a Malaysian girl, Nyza, on risk management, stakeholder management, planning and scheduling. Nyza is a pipeline engineer who’s recently done a stint in Sakhalin, and apart from that she’s a very amusing person, so it’s nice working with her.



I didn’t plan on it, but since everybody has immediately started doing what he or she is best at, it leaves the cost estimates at the way side. Apparently it’s implicitly assumed that I take care of it, and to be fair, I don’t mind seeing how well I can do it. Let’s be fair, I haven’t had all that much practice so far. Work is eased by the addition of two spreadsheets, with work kind of like the CapCo$t program; fill in required capacities and the program translates it to the necessary quantities and costs. Nice, but a little more insight in the inner workings of such programs is more educational. To get this educational I spent a lot of time working out the formulas and values the spreadsheet uses. Work is slow, and it’s slowed down even more by the difficulties the rest of the group has in their specific jobs. Finally, getting the wrong hints regarding the value of the liquid flow rate doesn’t help either.

Around dinner time I have results, but I’m not happy with them. After dinner there are two deliverables for the group: report on the status of your total CAPEX (capital investment) amount and the date of First Oil. Both are my deliverables. Dinner takes about five minutes to consume for me, back to work quickly! A planning estimate takes 10 minutes. Then it’s back to CAPEX. Tan and I finally figure out the meaning of the liquid flow rate value, and my results finally make some sense. When I present them to Edwanee along with the First Oil date, I’m pleasantly surprised; they sound pretty accurate to him, although they are on the conservative side. That’s me I guess; accurate but conservative.



It’s 8:15pm and I decide to quit while I’m ahead. I’ve had trouble confirming my ticket to Kuala Lumpur all day, and I can call AirAsia until 9pm, so I decide to head back to the hotel and have it fixed. I drive home with Azwan, Albert and Frank, and we all agree: this phase is tough. At 9pm I get all my business settles, and I do some e-mail. It’s boring though, so I head over to the Sentosa hotel, where most of the others are staying, to look for some action. My timing stinks though; I meet Albert in the lobby who tells me most of them went out for coffee two minutes earlier. I decide to go see Frank, who has stayed behind, and we chat a bit about our experiences this day. Frank is desperate to go home and see his girlfriend, I’m sad that it’s almost over…

On the way back I pass a tiny shop, the last one that hasn’t closed its doors in all Seria I guess. I grab a coke from the not so very cold fridge. The old bearded shop owner animatedly holds up one finger when I show it to him. One dollar obviously. He takes the bottle, and hurries over to a fridge in the corner and replaces it for an ice cold coke. He holds out his hand, smiles and when I take it he shakes it wildly, saying ‘Thank you mate, good night, good night!’ Highlight of the day. I go back to the hotel to watch some more TV and update my blog, and sleep my last night at the Riviera hotel.