Principal Process Engineer
Amec Foster Wheeler
Total years of experience :14 years, 4 Months
Detailed Design Project - ICSS Upgrade: Modernisation of process control & shutdown system as part of a Brownfield upgrade to accommodate Greenfield BLP project. Process activities included:
•Cause and Effects: updates to incorporate client ESD Philosophy and ensure the shutdown logic meets required safety standards. Existing shutdown logic analysed to identify non-compliance and over prescriptive logic to maximise safety and production uptime. Resolved ongoing issues reflecting project phasing, inter-trips to adjacent platforms, existing facility equipment limitations (SDVs & process routing) and updating existing process shutdown and blowdown logic.
•P&IDs: updates to reflect Instrument SOW, LOPA report and client performance standard requirements.
•Process Control Narratives: input to provide process system & control loop function description sections and updating control logic as required.
•Alarm & Trip Schedules: updates to incorporate existing settings and provide several new settings when unknown using calculations (e.g. separator equipment level settings).
•Calculation input to determination of Process Safety Times for Instrument SIL validation report.
•SDV & BDV Study: Existing process analysed for additional SDVs & BDVs to meet standards including LOPA/SIL, client performance standards and international standards. Technical report produced to justify requirement for each valve e.g. an SDV/BDV replacing a dual function control valve. Sized isolated inventory fire case PSVs.
•Alarm Management Narrative: provide operator responses to alarms and calculate alarm response times.
•Blowdown calculation checking.
•Gas Compressor System decommissioning project (philosophy and P&IDs).
•Managing workload and time of 8 engineers to deliver all documents for baseline plan milestones, producing CTRs and attending project & client meetings, LOPA, HAZOP and Design Reviews, meeting actions, client document comments and technical queries.
I worked on the Enquest E&C project for 3 months producing a preliminary study report and completing engineering deliverables for the Thistle Up & Over project. I was transferred to Operations Support for day to day process operations support for several platforms solving process issues as required. I returned to OE&O to work on engineering projects
FEED Study Condensate System Reinstatement Project: Installation of new condensate booster pump, review of process system including Mol Sieve Unit and rerouting condensate to gas lift system. Organised and allocated project activities for 4 engineers and liaised with other disciplines & client as the project process engineer. Produced FEED documents including P&IDs, control and operating philosophy, HP/LP interface study, line, valve sizing & pump NPSH calculations, blowdown & PSV size check, FEED report process input, datasheets, BOD (Process), detailed design CTRs. Design engineer for HAZOP, SIL review and P&ID review.
FEED Study Montrose Bridge Linked Platform Brownfield Modifications for Greenfield Development: Segregation safety study to analyse existing philosophy and recommend additional shutdown valves. Capacity rating of existing separator trains and sizing a flow balance control crossover facility using multiphase calculations to increase throughput. Potable Water study analysing system capacity and options for capacity increase to allow for different construction phase demands. Contributed to FEED Report and acted as checking facility for various documents (calculations, drawings, reports, calculations & P&IDs).
FEED Study Oprisenesti FRDP (Produced Water Treatment (H2S Stripping & CFU/Nutshell) & Reinjection System (Pumps/Pipeline)) & Ticleni Water Injection Trial: Site visit (Romania) to existing Tank Farm facilities for the creation of new P&IDs & PFDs. Discussions with Site Managers to produce operating procedures for all facilities. Provided as a checking facility for FEED documents. Independent process engineer for HAZID, HAZOP and SIL.
Fuel Gas Scrubber & Fuel Change Over (Enquest): Created Hysys simulation and calculations to analyse high liquid levels in scrubber and fuel change over concerns. Produced report discussing the several issues and recommendations.
•Interstage Heater Control (Enquest): Performed two phase calculation to size and contrast options for back pressure control to increase heat transfer via downstream RO, control valve or both in parallel.
•Glycol Contactor (Enquest): Part of small study team investigating poor performance of the equipment and providing recommendations to improve process. Contributed towards calculation & simulation checks and wrote & checked sections of report.
•Cooling Medium Gas Leak (Enquest): Performed calculation to size and contrast options for controlling gas leak into cooling medium expansion vessel of unknown quantity based on limited information.
Hydrocyclone Feasibility Review: Investigated the feasibility & options for installing a hydrocyclone and pump in the produced water treatment system. Performed a hydraulic calculation to identity flowrates, number of liners, effect on position and any arising problems requiring solutions in the next design stage. Produced a multi-discipline study report summarising findings and making recommendations.
•Thistle Up and Over Project: Involved at the end of the project in producing final documentation including HP/LP interface report, P&IDs, line lists and alarm & trip schedules. Produced justification, operator guide and interlocking key strategy for the interlocking mechanism on the pig receiver.
Gas analyser installation: Produced P&IDs and performed hydraulic calculation to verify vendor design.
•Sample stations: Produced design review, calculation and P&IDs to analysis and verify client design.
•Closed drains connection: Produced option selection technical note, survey instruction and hydraulic calculation.
•Waste Heat Recovery Unit discharge downcomer: Performed calculation to size downcomer and study report to summarise work done, including original design, and discuss recommendations.
•DA Tower PZV: Produced technical note checking & summarising consultant study work and making recommendations on PZV. Performed detailed calculation to size PZV.
•Flowline and annulus LP flare depressurisation: Performed calculations and wrote study report to determine maximum depressurising conditions to LP flare system.
•Restriction orifice & control valve sizing: Performed detailed calculation of the seawater injection system to size an orifice for SRP bypass. Calculation involved modelling the seawater system and solving via iterative methods using excel macros.
•AGR project: Installation of preheater to avoid liquid drop out issues required for commissioning of the AGR unit.
•DA Tower upgrade: Produced study report to investigate the limits of the water injection system for the new flowrate & proposed control system.
I worked on multiple projects gaining engineering responsibilities performing a variety of tasks included but not limited to calculations & engineering documents, offshore experience, flow assurance and project activities. Major projects are as follows:
Produced basis of design, P&IDs, datasheets & engineer for HAZOP.
•Suction scrubber level control upgrade: Performed calculation to resize control valves which involved balancing gas blowby against control needs, P&IDs & datasheets.
•Coriolis meter upgrade: Produced basis of design, P&IDs, calculation to check pressure drop as new system had less capacity.
•Crude Oil Wash bypass for the prevention of sand build up: Produced basis of design, P&IDs, calculation for line size which required an intricate hydraulic model of the system to ensure flow and sand fluidisation.
•Spare hydrocyclone installation: Performed calculation to check line size and capacity of hydrocyclone.
•Compressor outlet PCV: Produced basis of design, P&IDs, datasheet & calculation to size valve.
•Cargo heat exchange nozzle stress loading: Performed calculation to check outlet temperature for added stress loop pipe work in heater system due to increased pressure drop.
•Other responsibilities: P&IDs for other disciplines (piping spool changes, minor instrumentation & process changes including checking, approving & as-building, ), attend leads meetings, interface with client, update of platform line list, inter discipline checks, minor calculations such as line sizing, creation and maintenance of CTRs & change requests.
for the remaining 7 months of an 18 month project for a FEED and detailed design project for the implementation for the PWRI topsides system including Reinjection Pumps/Caisson/Hydrocyclone/Process Control/PWRI Cooler. Managed workload, assignments and check printed deliverables. Organised and managed project deliverables. Responsible for the P&IDs & PFDs to be produced and up revved for each of the remaining stages of the project. Checked operating procedures, facilities reference document, trip and alarm schedule, cause and effects, technical notes and line list deliverables. Made alterations to deliverables in response to engineering changes due to construction issues, including line size capacity check due to line size reduction to allow construction through bulk head. Process engineer for SIL review, HAZOP action responses, Lloyds register CRS, client meetings, operating procedures. Other responsibilities include participating in leads meetings, interface with client, inter discipline checks, creation and maintenance of CTRs & change requests.
Gas lift system project: Created calculation for blowdown and minimum temperature, control valve max flow, pressurisation time of gas lift annulus (including heat transfer) & line size check. Produced P&IDs
•Gas analyser system project: Performed hydraulic check of inlet and flaring system. Produced P&IDs & PFDs.
FEED study for the implementation of the NW Seymour well field development including subsea and topsides engineering reception facilities. Carried out flow assurance for the subsea pipeline for gas flow using PipeSim (Expert mode) to aid in selection of the pipeline U value based on cool down times, maximum flow rate, methanol injection considerations & cool down times (prevention of hydrate formation). Wrote flow assurance report to present the results. Performed flow assurance verification of the subsea pipeline for multiphase oil & gas flow using PipeSim (Expert mode using Black Oil Model). Wrote verification flow assurance report to present the results. Performed topsides design activities which included system settle out pressure, choke valve sizing, separator slugging capacity checks, pipeline pressurisation time, line & orifice sizing & blowdown calculations, P&ID/PFD mark ups, valve & equipment datasheets and line list. Responsible for the update of existing platform operator guides & procedures and the creation of new operator guide for the NW Seymour facilities, temporary wax inhibitor system and black start up for first oil. Participated in HAZOP.
Created calculation for the maximum number of tubes in the condensate export cooler that can be blocked off due to corrosion. Performed calculation for line size for firewater transfer between platform and Flotel firewater tie in. Responsible for P&IDs for other disciplines (piping spool changes, minor instrumentation & process changes), attend leads meetings, interface with client & inter discipline checks.
Concept study for the Varg field development to the Armada platform. Performed calculations for separator sizing, line sizing and created datasheets for separator and heat exchanger.
FEED study for the implementation of the Maria well field development including the flare study and topsides engineering for reception facilities. Developed flare study using FlareNet to calculate maximum allowable flow rate for given flare design pressure. Produced calculations for sizing PSV, blowdown orifice & gas control valve sizing for multiphase conditions (including HEM method) and separator design.
FEED study for the implementation of Phase III of the platforms life Compression System change from parallel to series operation. Performed multiple calculations for the development of the project including: separator capacity check, blow down minimum temperatures, valve sizing, line sizing & system settle out pressures. Participated in the generation of P&IDs & PFDs and valve datasheets. Cooling medium optimisation trial: Preparing testing procedures for each piece of equipment, an offshore trip to action the trial and a report compiling the results.
I worked on multiple projects as a Process Engineer performing a variety of tasks. Projects include:
•SAGE Gas Import to FCA (Talisman): FEED Flow Assurance study assisting in the design of the new pipeline. Calculated pressure drop through the pipeline, using PipeSim in order to determine the optimum diameter. Performed a variety of tasks such as calculated valve capacity, drawings (PFDs and schematics), draft flow assurance technical note, cricondenbar & blow down calculations (Hysys), HAZOP secretary and report writing.
•Varg Arbitration (Confidential Client): Expert witness project. Reviewed the compression system design (including suction scrubbers) developed for a 3x33% configuration from the original information provided by the client, based on a 1x100% compression system. Industry standard reference was used for these calculations. This was done to prove that the suction scrubbers could have been designed using the original client data. Co-wrote the final technical document that explained how the calculation was done and provided the conclusions.
•BP Andrew Debottlenecking study (BP Amoco): Studying of the development of a field as a subsea field development. Liaised with vendor to collect relevant sizing data for basic volume sizing of hydrocyclones. Created large spreadsheets to model the performance of 4 separators for 3 phase separation incorporating fundamental equations based on Stoke's and Intermediate laws. Produced the PFDs and the filenote section on the separators including graphical representation.
•Gryphon Produced Water Upgrade (Kerr McGee): A study to increase produced water system and sand handling capacity to meet with future reservoir development plans. Line sizing of all major pipework, sizing of all major valves (liquid and gas). Constructed the mass balance and PFD. Produced options for the overboard dump line/control valve reconfiguration and sizing. Produced datasheets for each major equipment item including hydrocyclones (sand and oil separation) and a produced water polishing unit. HAZOP secretary for the project where my duties were to produce the report and action sheets.
First employment as a graduate, acted as an introduction to the oil and gas industry. I gained basic knowledge of corrosion. I was involved in a variety of projects including a Corrosion Control Scheme describing facility present strategy against corrosion, introduction to risk based inspection (RBI) and part of a team to develop a RBI strategy for pipelines.
Gas Compression System Liquid Drop Out Concept Study (FPSO Jubilee Field): Analysis of options to alter Gas Compression System operating conditions within the existing parameters to reduce liquid drop out at TEG Contactor at increased throughput capacity. Hysys used to assess impact of operating condition change on the process. Hysys used to produce process input for datasheets for new equipment (Deliquidiser & Scrubber Internals) for higher liquid flowrates.
Apache): Fluid release from a vessel during maintenance work. Produced calculation to determine possibility of explosion due to ignition of residual hydrocarbon.
•HP/LP Interface Study (Enquest & Centrica): Identified HP/LP interfaces on platform P&IDs and assigned priorities. Produced technical notes and calculations to check interfaces where required.
Chemistry (B), Mathematics (B), Physics (C).