Little preview ...

Our refinery (Antwerp Belgium) called in a few days ago asking us to write an article for the local magazine Actueel. Just to let the home front know what we do here in Saidi and how we cope with the culture, the temperature, the humidity and working atmosphere.
One of the guys wrote some tasty poetry, sauced it up with some fact and figures and we topped it of with a nice group-picture.

So for any of the colleagues of Antwerp reading this blog : here's a premiere for you then :-)

from left to right : Paul (the writer), Marc, yours truly, Karel, Gerrit (the editor), Mark, Johan, Guy, Lus, Eric, Richard, Tom and Joris (the photographer)

Quick link ...

Some news about the refinery here in Jubail ...

Time goes so fast ...

Damn ! I just see my last post dated 2 months ago already !
Sorry guys, didn't realize that.
It has been a bit 'busy' though, but in a good way. I went back home somewhere around the end of June to see the wife and daugther, but also to get some works done on the house, Just for a week. During that weekend we also had a family gathering. Something we do once a year and then the whole family just have a chat and a day out with some nice lunch and diner and something to relax. This year was family mini-golf and a walk in the woods. Impressive if you see about 35-40 people walking up to you  :-)
Since I don't have a car anymore, I had to rent one. And what better thing to do than rent one you would have like to have driven for a long time, right ? So, because a Lamborghini was a bit too expensive, I was thinking of a Maserati ... not available :-( So I went to Jaguar for the XJ. Also not available. My third choice was ready to go : the Porsche Panamera Diesel ! A great car ! I was really surprised of the comfort, the size, the space, the speed and the fuel-consumption. After 650+ kilometer and having tested the electronic speedlimit (240 km/h) a couple of times, the meter stopped at 42 liter of diesel ! Crazy how little it uses. I promptly made a reservation for the next visit to Belgium.

After another 3 weeks back in Saudi I took the airplane to Thailand to join my wife and daughter. Ramadan started in Saudi and almost everybody decides to go back home for a month or so, just to avoid al the difficulties that come with it : all shops are closed, you're not allowed to eat during daytime (in public that is), the Saudi get grumpy after a week (which you can't blame them for, because it's hard to obey the Ramadan rules, especially in this heat).
Huge difference and another cultural shock after a month in Thailand - green, food everywhere, smiling people and ... woman you can look at without having to fear punishment.

We also got our trainees this months and started with the lessons ... but I'll keep that for another post, because there's too much to say about this ;-)

Just a picture ...

Now who says we don't find happiness in our work ? This is 06.25 in the morning and ready for another day ! And NO, I'm not trying to kill myself by jumping in front of the car ... He could have cleaned the windscreen first though ...

The dangers of H2S ! (WARNING ! graphic pictures)

On May 20, at 12:30pm, Shaybah ISD control center reported that they received a telephone call from PMT reporting that 5 workers of GCS (Gulf cooperation SVCS (fell in the sewer at SBK-111 SAMSUNG Camp while they were fixing pumps and they needed a rescue team to respond.

The Samsung ambulance brought 4 injured persons and one person whom had already passed away to SHY clinic. They are under medical observation. 

Two Medevac flights requested to transfer them to Saudi Aramco Health Center at DH for further medical treatment.   At 20:45pm, the night shift reported that they found another three bodies floating in the sewer. At 23:40pm the Fire Rescue Team recovered the bodies to SHY clinic morgue for further investigation.

200 day celebration

Today we reached the 200 day mark before start-up. Or better said : Oil In First Topping Unit.
It went by pretty silent though. No actual celebration, not even an email.
But we just had cheer in the office ourselves.

No big difference either, because for us it's a party every day. We all like to come to work, because our team is doing so good. The supervisors are joining us and it 's almost like one big family here.

Temperatures could hit 70° celcius this summer !

Just incase some people think we are having an 'easy-going life' working here ...

LINK HERE

70°C expected during the next 2 months !

Overviewing the site ...

Just a picture my colleague took ...
(don't mind the distortion in the corners, it's a small camera ... or maybe it was the photographer, :-D)

It could be worse ...

Just received an email from a colleague here at work which I had to share with you, so, appologies to Lucien for using these pictures ;-)

Being in KSA in the dusty, hot and sometimes windy dessert isn't so bad. Okay, so now and then you sweat your butt off just going outside for a smoke (not me btw) or for a short strawl around the unit and you eat some sand, but apart from that, there's nothing else to really worry about.

NOT SO for our colleagues working in Qatar. There you are,walking around, minding your own business, doing your check-up rounds, looking at some gauges, temps, whatever and then ..... Hello !! You didn't expect this to be filling the oilreservoirs from the compressor, did ya ? It must have scared the h*** out of the field-operator when he turned around the corner !

So, you see ... the world of refining is more adventurous then you might think.

Bruised ribs ...

After almost 2 months of not training any martial arts at all, except for the daily fitness, we decided to pick it all up again. I made reservations for the animationroom for an hour on tuesday evening, so after work , me and Paul, went to exercise.
It only took us about 10 minutes to be out of breath. But we did manage to hang in there for about 45-50 minutes anyway.
We jumped rope, ran around the room, got warmed up and streched to avoid any injuries. After this we started pounding on the pillows ... pads they are called, I guess. Kicking and boxing ... pretending to be real pro's.
Then at the end we counted 15 kicks ... Paul must have counted 14 because when I dropped the pad, his number 15 came up knee-wise and struck me right above the pad straight into my ribs. At frist I didn't think too much about it and after jumping it off a little , I said to hit it again. That's when I felt it was more then just a kick in the ribs. Up to now it is hard to sleep on that side. Even fitness is out of the question, but I still go anyway. Maybe I should have it checked out, but then again, I am stubborn, I've always been. I'll just walk it off...

Some more drifting ...

This time we have an on-board camera so you can enjoy the thrill of sliding across the highway going about 180 km/u ...

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=04d_1338729695&p=1

Our Saudi friends are drifting again ....

Now, we all know how the Saudis drive on the roads (and off-road for that matter), but yesterday they outdone themselves again. Check it out, you'll be amazed.
Oh yeah, I should also mention that it is not me who made this video. It was put of the net by the locals.

btw ... it's not for the faint-hearted, so you've been warned. I've counted three.

Our Saudi friends are drifting again ...

Work permits training

Yes, here we are again ... back at TFO for another training. This time about workpermits.
Now you probably would have thought that a state of the art, brandnew refinery would have a state of the art, fully computerised and practical system for these kind of things. Well, guess again.
The system is old, it's all about paperwork and will take a lot of timeconsuming actions before anything can be put on to paper. And papers they have ! A3 sized ones ... and A4 ones .. and even smaller !
Let's just hope that ATI or some other computerised permit publishing system will make its entry soon.
The permits itself are wonderful, but it is not of this time anymore to have it all in hardcopy. Not in this day of age.
Anyway, another day tomorrow and I'll be certified, along with the other 20 Indians, a couple of French guys and some Malaysians. I just hope they don't have too many questions anymore on things that are not applicable here (ie. how to save someone who's stuck in a mansized hole and virtually unreachable ... this is something for safety and firedepartment, not for workpermits, is it ?)

Just off topic here : yesterday my laptop gave up ... can't find the operating program anymore. So if any computerwizards should read this, any advise is welcome ! If not, I'll need to get a new one, I guess. My Thai family will be happy to hear that, haha !

Fare-well party

On thursday we held a party for our super-intendant who's going to retire after a glorious and colorful career.  Paul Minard, from England, has made quite an impression  on me, eventhough I've only known him for 4 months. He's the kind of boss every one would like to work WITH, because I never got the feeling I had to work FOR him. He always leaves his office-door open and when you stand there and knock on the wall, you surely get the "it's open for some reason : just come in and feel at home" speech.
Even besides work he's one of the gang. He'll be missed by all of us, but for some reason I believe that it will be both ways. Some of the guys know eachother for almost 3 years, so that makes goodbyes a bit more difficult.
It was also Tom Harris' last day at Satorp. He won't be retiring, but he's been offered an office in Paris and Brussels. I didn't know Tom before this evening, but he's a joyful guy as well and it was good having him around.
Anyway, we all had dinner at the Meat House and after went to JJ's, an Irish pub with a live band, which by the way was excellent.

Paul, if you should read this : I'm glad I met you, I wish you a wonderful time during you well deserved retirement and I hope in the future our paths may cross again ! Enjoy !!
I'm sure Karl, Erik, Tom, Lucien, Ray, Leon and the guys who couldn't be there, would wish you the same !

Environmental awareness

Yep, you guessed right ... another cours we had to go to today. This time all the rules and regulations imposed by the Royal Commission were explained.
Nice, no doubt, if it weren't the hypocracy of the whole thing. There are rules for everything ... and the necessary paperwork that comes along with it ... and all this makes you wanna believe what a wonderful world the Saudis must live in.
But the truth isn't even close : everywhere you look you'll find hundreds of tires dumped randomly in the dessert, nicely topped with thousands of plastic bags that fly around until they stick like a fly in a spider's web on the fences along the roads. The landfill we pass daily while going to work is staggering : there are millions and millions of tons of debri and waste that can easily be recycled, but there just doesn't seem anyone to care enough. Just dump it somewhere and wait for a couple of weeks for another sandstorm to cover it all up.
I'll take a few pictures in the next days, because a picture says a thousand words ... and believe me, this will be an understatement !

PADI license ??? Check !

Yesterday we had our tests for the PADI Open Water Diver certificate.
The tests we had learned in the pool the day before had to be repeated in the open sea this time. All of us succeeded and we had a nice dive in the small laguna next to the hotel beach.
We are all fully aware that this short diving course has made us far from experienced divers. It felt like "too easy" and we were very surprised that the instructor said that "this was it, now you are all certified divers". We sure don't feel like that after only one dive in the ocean.
The six of us will schedule other dives with instructors as fast as possible as soon as we recieve the PADI card and license number. Now I guess it is up to us to improve our skills and try to get more aquainted to the under-water-life before we go up to the next level.
Practise makes perfect, and in this kind of hobby you can't afford to make a mistake.

Caught me by surprise ...

After work we went home fast to get a grab to eat. At 18.00pm we were expected at the divingshop for our first lesson in the water.
First there was a little test about the things we were thaught yesterday. Everybody had to get 80% to succeed, which we all did.
Then off we went to the pool. The floor around it was all broken up for restoration so it was kind of a mess to walk around. Anyway, after a few minutes we were al geared-up and ready to jump in ... so far so good.
Then we had to submerge and there I suddenly got a flashback to when I was about 8 or 9 : my breath stopped and I panicked.
Strange ... as I didn't expect that at all. I remember I almost drowned when some-one jumped of a board and landed on my back. I couldn't get to the surface as I was momentarily paralised and I didn't have any air in me anymore. Luckily a man dragged me out of the pool in time. It's been so long ago, but it struck me like it happened yesterday.
I tried submurgeing again but I just couldn't calm down. It took me about 8 to 10 times before I finally got it and started to relax ... up to the emergency-exercises that is ... because #BAM !# and there I was being 8 years old again.
We were in the water for about 3 hours and I must say : I was getting used to breathing under water only in the last hour. Maybe the swimming part relaxed me and put my mind to other things. Anything better then just sitting on the bottom waiting for your turn to remove the goggles and putting them on again, right ?
Again tomorrow, I'm not giving up that easy. I wanna see fish in their habitat, and nothing's gonna stop me. We'll see what happens.

Diving course

A bunch of us guys gathered and decided to go on a diving course this week. All 6 of us have been wanting to do this for a long time, but actually never got to it due to lack of time, other hobbies, etc...
So Jens, one of the german collagues, made an appointment with a diving instructor, Rashid Moqbel, at the Intercontinental Hotel in Jubail. After signing the neccessary documents for insurance we are ready to go. After some exams we will receive a PADI license for open water certified by the UK bureau.

Normally the hotel charges 2000 SAR per person, but groups of minimum 6 get a discount. A short inquiry led up to 6 very fast : 2 germans, 2 french and 2 belgians. The course now costs 1500 SAR per person, which is a nice discount we can use to buy goggles, fins and other scuba-gear.
Yesterday was the first lesson, 6.00pm untill 8.30pm, explaining some physical and biological terms, the dangers that can occur while diving, the signs to make yourself understood, how the breathing apparatus works, what kinds there are, etc.
2.5 hours is a short time, but it was a brief summary of what we will learn during the next couple of days. Tonight we'll get the first lesson in the swimming pool and all of us are looking forward to it.

First Aid training ...

This morning at 08.30am we went to the First Aid training at TFO (Training Facility Offices).
Keeping the previous courses in mind and having been a Red Cross member for over 12 years back home, I wasn't expecting too much of it.
And my thoughts weren't realy that far off. There was a pretty quick overview of CPR (cardio pulmonary resusitation) with hardly any practical exercises and an even more concised summary of typical injuries and what to do to stabilise the victim.
But all of this was done in the morning, so I was looking forward to the practical stuff in the afternoon. It was a course from 08.30am till 03.30pm, so enough time left, right ?

... No ...

There was one Resusci Anne (Annie), as we call the doll, to perfrom CPR and one baby Anne (Annie). The trainer asked groups of 4 to come forward and do the exercise. Some guys only managed to blow air into the lunges once and the trainer found that sufficient enough and sent them back to their chairs.

To be honest, I hope I don't need to be rescued when they are on their shift...
At the end we got a "multiple answer"- test with 24 questions which by most of the group was solved in consultation with one-another.
We did get a nice book though, so hopefully some of them will read it.

Resusci Anne was developed by Norwegian toy maker Asmund Laerdal, based on the research of Peter Safar and James Elam, and was first introduced in 1960. The distinctive face of Resusci Anne was based on l'Inconnu de la Seine (the unknown of the Seine), the death mask of an unidentified young woman reputedly drowned in the Seine River around the late 1880s.

Got the Mitsu !

Today I finally got the car. Date to date it has taken 3 months exactly.
Me and Mark went to Al Khobar after I received an email stating the Mitsubishi Pajero Sport was waiting for me to be picked up.
I like the "color", I like the interior and it smells brand new, so what more can a guy ask for ! Thanks to my employer for the (temporary) gift.

I'm back !

Hey y'all, I'm back. 2 weeks ago I finally got my multiple re-entree visa and took the first plane home to see my wife and daughter after 2,5 months. So that's the reason it went quiet on here for some time.
The vacation in Belgium was good, but exhausting : as of the first day family and friends were dropping by or asked to come over. But it was fun. It felt so good to finally hold my wife and daughter again and seeing everyone. It hit me by surprise how much I missed them ...
The weather could have been a little nicer though. Coming back from a sunny 37 C into 5 C and raining wasn't that nice, was it ?
I had to take care of some belgian administration, and it made my stomach turn. I realy hate the way those people act ... lazy, unrespectful, careless, ....
Those days flew and before I knew it I was at the trainstation again, trading in my e-booking for a ticket on the Thallys from Antwerp to Amsterdam airport.
And guess what  ... the reservation I had was for a train that didn't exist and a seat that wasn't there as well. What a great way to start the journey. The guy at the counter said I had to call the KLM-desk because he couldn't help me, even when I showed him I had payed for it. No-one picked up the phone as was expected. But at the end I got another ticket on another train and made it to the airport just in time.
At the airport, customs did not accept my tax-refund ticket because I couldn't show them the item I had bought. It was in my luggage which had to be checked-in before you could enter the tax-free zone where the customs are !?! So how could I show it then !?! Man, ... I couldn't wait to get on the plane and get out of here.
When I arrived in Bahrayn after 17 hours, the taxi driver to bring me to KSA hadn't shown up. And I culdn't call them because the SIM-card we have from work doesn't work in Bahrayn. So far for their security policy of being reachable at all times huh. After 20 minutes some-one showed up and old me they had made a mistake : they went to the wrong airport. Strange, because I had confirmed the day before. Anyway, I finally dropped in bed around 02.30am. At 06.00am the first working day started, so I had to regain my strength a little, hence the late post.

As kinda promised the day before ...

So, here we are again. First an appology is due as I promised to write about the women's dress on Saterday, but didn't. I probably did to many things and was too tired to put up a post. Never-the-less, here it is ...

Women's dress

- All Saudi women wear the "abaya". A long, black robe which is opened like a coat. This robe can be embroidered and/or embellished with shiny areas or silver or gold threads. In the early days only black was allowed, but even the Saudi women are attracted to fashion, eventhough for us westerners it's still seems extremely little.

- Under the "abaya", Saudi women can wear all kinds of clothes : from pyjamas to the most extravagant garments. And these clothes are way more fashionable then we'd think. Just take a walk in the many shopping-malls and you'll be surprised.

- Allthough predominantly black, the Islamic veil comes in a variety of types and is even considered by some Saudi women as a fashion accessory. The Islamic veil is called a "niqab" when it only shows the eyes and a "hiyab" when the entire face is visible.

- The "batoola" is a rigid mask made from fabric (and not metal as one might think). It is becoming rare, but the elderly ladies can still be seen wearing them.

- Saudi women love accessories : sun-glasses (even for those who wear the "niqab"), gold, silver, diamonds, handbags, either brand names or fakes (often multi-colored), etc ...
- just like men, the quality of fabrics as well as the value of the accessories are the most visible signs of the socio-economic situation of a Saudi woman.

The Saudi dresscode ...

Its the first thing that attracts attention : the way the Saudi people dress is far from our western style.
Okay, I admit : if I see the men walk around in that white cloth, and the women in the black ones, I start to wonder if it has something to do with their religion or more with the weather. Dumb, I know, so that's why I wanted to dig somewhat deeper and share it on here.

MEN's dress

The Saudi dress is made up of the following garments :

- a "thobe", also known as a "disdasha", is a long white robe. There are fashionstyles aswell, in particular the colors. You can see grey, brown and different shades of white.

- the "bisht", a ceremonial coat made of cotton or camel wool is worn in winter time, and is often embellished with gold or silver braiding. It covers the "thobe".

- on the head , the "ghutra" is held in place with the "aqal", a double twisted, thick, black cord. The "ghutra" may be white or red and white, its color doesn't hold no specific meaning.












- underneath it is a (mostly) white "taqiya", a small cap to help the "aqal" keep the "ghutra" in place so it will not slide of. It has probably also an hygienic purpose.

- Saudis wear sandals and hardly ever wear socks, although the western influence can be seen as a great deal of them wear normal-day-shoes.

-a range of accessories round up the national dress. There is the "masbaha", also known as "tasbi". It's a rosary used by Muslims while reciting the 99 names of Allah. Originally a religious item, it is also used nowadays as an accessory and a way to pass time.

It is common to see the Saudi man dressed in western-type clothes, but whenever there is an official happening, they will always wear the national dress.

Tomorrow I will talk about the women's dress.