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Disclaimer
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process engineering services have been utilized in the following areas within
the oil & gas production industry. It is in the first area listed
below - conceptual design and planning - that our services are now mostly
requested. The more detailed work we carried out in the past - such as in
detailed facilities design and construction - can be more appropriately handled
by younger engineers, while our role reverts to assisting clients with review
and management of such detailed engineering work.
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Conceptual design. Production managers in some of the smaller
and medium sized Australian oil & gas
operating companies sometimes need additional process engineering assistance to help
them screen development options arising from new discoveries. We assist in
this area, and also with investigation of options for gas plant "debottlenecking"
projects. Such projects are required during the growth stage of the gas production
cycle before a field reaches "maturity". Generally this work follows
an extra gas sales agreement that has been successfully negotiated by an operator's gas
marketers. This creates work for the
engineers to ensure adequate plant capacity is available to meet the commitments. Project preliminary
plans and schedules, budget cost estimates, and economic justification is
required, aimed at preparation of an "AFE" or authority for
expenditure. This upfront conceptual work is our specialty.
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Facilities
design & construction. Once a project's AFE has been approved by a
company's management and/or joint venture partners, detailed design and
implementation work can begin. We provide process engineering
assistance at an early stage of detailed design. We prepare preliminary piping and instrument diagrams (P&IDs). These diagrams define what equipment is required, how it is to
be piped together and what electronic and/or pneumatic instrumentation will
be used to control the process. The client may send these preliminary
P&IDs to a CAD piping design company where, together with engineers of
other disciplines (electrical & instrumentation, mechanical, piping) the
diagrams are completed in successive revisions, through teamwork and
consensus. We are experienced at chairing hazard and operability study
meetings (HAZOP
meetings) in which a multi-disciplined team reviews the P&IDs.
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Operations.
We have helped gas plant operators by providing professional assistance with identification and rectification
of operating problems We have also been hired to assist with shutdown planning and
technical review of operating
procedures.
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Process Safety.
This is an important area of responsibility for operators of oil & gas
production facilities. An experienced 3rd party engineer may be called
upon to undertake an independent process safety review, either on its own or
as part of a broader plant safety audit. We do simple
semi-quantitive risk assessment but are NOT
consultants in the specialized field of quantitative risk assessment (QRA).
We are not appropriately set up to consult in that area, nor in the highly regulated area of OH&S (occupational health
& safety). We
prefer to leave formal safety consulting work to others. Never the less, our
specialty is process design, and safety is the essence of process design.
Our knowledge of the appropriate codes and standards enables us to provide
key information and advice in relation to process safety. More notes on process
safety....
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Training. G
A McKee has developed a process engineering short-course for graduate
process & petroleum engineers in the oil & gas industry. This
course uses a process simulator as a teaching & learning tool to
increase insight into the conceptual design of oil & gas production
facilities. We initially developed the course in 2003 by invitation
from the University of New South Wales, Australia, for delivery to 3rd year
petroleum engineering students at the university's School of Petroleum Engineering.
More on our training
course....
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Independent
Engineer. Recently we have been hired in this capacity to assist a group of
investors with their "due-diligence". This involved traveling to
an Asian country to inspect new technology for processing waste oils
and waste plastics (converting them into transportation grade diesel fuel). The purpose of this work was to supply
independent technical and economic advice so that risks and potential profitability could be assessed by the
investors. A very important factor for investors is the independence and
objectivity of the advice they receive. Based on our developed technical understanding of the
process through liaison with the technology supplier in China, we were able
to carry out a detailed profitability analysis to assist the investors come to
a decision to import the technology to Australia.
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General/commercial.
We have received some interesting consulting assignments on the strength
of our general oil & gas industry experience and knowledge - and availability as an independent
researcher - rather than as a result of our specialist engineering skills per
se. One of our assignments in this area
has been to assist a large Australian law
firm with preparation of a federal court action against the Australian
government in relation to an offshore petroleum concession dispute in the
Timor Sea, to Australia's north. This work lead to economic analysis involving preparation of revenue estimates for potential offshore LNG
projects to assist a U.S. exploration company negotiate with the
world's newest nation (Timor Leste). The knowledge acquired through this
consulting work lead to a strong interest in the politics of petroleum
development in the Timor Sea. This is turn lead to public written
commentary designed to influence the course of events. Read more here.
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