I am working at present on an assignment in Tengiz in Kazakhstan. Since everybody would like to know what it is like in Kazakhstan, I will tell you a little of what I experienced.
Actually we do not get to travel around in Kazakhstan. When flying in from Amsterdam we land in a town called Atyrau. From there we travel by train for four hours to a small train village called Kulsary. Then by bus to Tengiz. The roads are not really in a good state for travelling. The locals travel mostly by train.
The Tengiz field is one of the largest oil fields in the world and was discovered in 1979. In 1993 the Tengizchevroil (TCO) partnership was created between the republic of Kazakhstan and Chevron. Today the TCO partners include KazmunaiGas, Chevron Texaco, ExxonMobil LukArco. I am working for Patterson Fluor Daniel (PFD) which is the management contractor on the Second Generation Asset Development Project.
The project is already 18 months on the go and completion date is planned for late in 2007.
The people working here say the winter was a bit cold this year with long spells of -40°C. During this cold, work is carried out inside the big sheds wherein portions of the plant are built. When I arrived here the temperature varied between -2 and +2°C. Ice was melting quite fast. In the safety talks I was told that the temperature in summer reaches 40 to 45°C. What worries me the most is the warnings that we must be careful of the serpents, scorpions and spiders that crawl around here in summer. Apparently the hairy spiders are very big and very poisonous.
The instrumentation team is headed by Nigel Easts, a South African with the instrumentation construction superintendent, a South African and I, as C & I engineer, also South African, together with three other engineers from England and US respectively. Then there are a couple of instrument technicians mostly from the Philippines. The main subcontractor is Senimdi Kurylys LLP, a Turkish company. The rest of the workforce working on the project is of the local population. The three main languages spoken on the project are Kazakh, Russian and English.
Accommodation is provided by PFD in five domes surrounded by blocks of flats/rooms wherein a total of 6520 residents can stay. Each dome has a mess hall, a gymnasium, shops, indoor basketball/cricket court and recreation facilities like a bar and function rooms.
Now for some branch news
As you are all aware our March meeting was dominated by the SAIMC National Council AGM, where our sister branch, Zambia, took the Branch of The Year award. This formal meeting was followed by a brief presentation followed by interesting discussions: 'Is Ethernet a fieldbus?' This most debated subject was presented by Eric Carter and added new dimensions to our already confused fieldbus situation.
The evening concluded with snacks, drinks and a lot of network interaction. Please make an effort to attend meetings held monthly on the second Wednesday of the month at the Rivonia Country Club - 18h00 for 18h30. Should you require more info or directions or would like us to include your name on our monthly e-mail list, please feel free to send us an e-mail.
Kind regards, your remote branch chairman, Jan van Wyk, [email protected]
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