Technical Exchange with Kuwait

JCCP/KNPC Joint Seminar on Energy Saving

Introduction

This past October 20 to 29, 2007, a JCCP team visited Kuwait as part of JCCP's Expert Service (ES) program. The team held a four-day seminar on "Energy Saving at the Refinery" for engineers in Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC), with the attendance of 13 participants from 3 refineries. The JCCP team consisted of Messrs. S. Satake and S. Takahashi, lecturers from the JCCP Training Department, and Mr. Hisato Aoyama from JGC Corporation and Mr. Tsuyoshi Inoue from Cosmo Oil Group, as experts.

Seminar Program

Following Arabic custom, the ES team conducted the seminar from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day, without lunch break, and found that this intensive method is good for maintaining concentration throughout the day’s presentations. The first day of the seminar featured lectures on "Introduction of JCCP", "Oil industry in Japan", "Oil alternative energies", and "Energy saving activities in Japanese refineries". The second day included lectures on "Refinery energy saving 1", "Pinch technology", and a presentation on "Energy saving activities in KNPC" by a KNPC staff. The third day covered "Refinery energy saving 2", and "New energy policy in Japan", "New technologies for energy saving". The fourth or the last day offered lectures entitled "IPP at a refinery", "Utility optimization", "Estimation of energy saving and promotion", and "APC for energy saving".

A closing ceremony was held in the afternoon of the final day, with the attendance of Mr. Waleed Al-Hamad, Assistant Manager, and Mr. Ali Abdullah, Team Leader from the HR Department. JCCP presented completion certificates that had been prepared in advance in Japan to each participant, and took a commemorative picture with the entire group. Judging by the participants’ responses to a questionnaire they were delivered at the end, the joint seminar appears to be beneficial to them all.

The members of the JCCP team had the opportunity to visit the KPC Training Center before the seminar, and the Mina Abdullah Refinery, one of KNPC’s refineries, after the seminar, to exchange information with personnel from relevant departments.

Summary

Thanks to the meticulous arrangement of the joint seminar by KNPC’s HR Department, all necessary preparations were completed without problem, via e-mail. The KNPC side printed and prepared the necessary number of presentation materials that JCCP had delivered in advance, and sent to JCCP a list of participants and a detailed itinerary in a timely manner prior to the team’s departure to Kuwait. The seminar was completed in success, also owing to KNPC’s kind and efficient assistance and careful work throughout the course of the seminar. KNPC members were so kind as to provide our transportation, not only to and from the airport, but to other institutions and facilities the JCCP team had planned to visit, as well as to various historical and scenic sites on the weekend after completion of the seminar. From their arrival to departure, the members of the JCCP team have fully gained a precious experience. Despite the short duration of the attendance in the seminar, Mr. Urata, First Secretary at the Japanese Embassy in Kuwait, made an appearance on the third day of the seminar and closing ceremony, and inspired strong motivation not only in the lecturers, but in the KNPC participants as well.

An energy saving training course that will be centered on site visit in Japan is also planned for KNPC engineers, next February. JCCP is pleased to have many such opportunities like this for technical exchange with Kuwait, a country with one of the most abundant oil resources in the Middle East.

At the Headquarter of KNPC

Seminar scene

Presentation of JCCP Certificate

With seminar participants

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JCCP/KNPC Joint Seminar on Process Control

Introduction

From October 28 to 31, 2007, JCCP held a joint seminar on advanced process control (APC) with Kuwait National Petroleum Co. (KNPC), at a bijou resort hotel near the Head Office of KNPC and its 3 refineries.

In FY2006, when the Executive Director of JCCP visited KNPC to discuss future policies for cooperation between the two organizations, Mr. Sami Al-Rushaid (then chairman) expressed strong interest in the Expert Service (ES) and Study Tour (ST) training schemes. This led to the establishment of an ES/ST promotion team by JCCP and working-level discussions with KNPC counterparts. In the discussions, JCCP agreed to hold an ES seminar on APC, as requested by the KNPC side. As KNPC had also requested a seminar on energy saving, the APC seminar was decided to be implemented in the week following the implementation of the energy saving seminar.

The ES team from Japan consisted of Messrs. K. Saegusa, General Manager, and Y. Nito, Master Lecturer, from JCCP’s Training Department, and Messrs. K. Nishioka from Nippon Oil Corporation and Y. Noguchi from JGC Corporation, as experts.

Overview of the Seminar

The ES team was aware that KNPC had already introduced advanced control to its refineries, because there have been KNPC participants to JCCP-initiative courses on control. The team therefore designed the seminar as a forum for sharing the control process experience and practices of Kuwait and Japan. Specifically, the seminar featured case studies of refineries in the two countries, a Q&A session on development, introduction, maintenance, and training issues, a detailed examination of model predictive control (MPC), which is one of the mainstream control processes today, and key points for the implementation of control projects.

The seminar was attended by a total of 13 engineers in charge of APC, instrumentation, operations, and technical services in KNPC’s 3 refineries (the Mina Al-Ahmadi, Mina Abdulla, and Shuaiba Refineries). Unfortunately, not all participants were able to attend the seminar in full, due to their busy schedules, but there were consistently about 5 to 7 participants to each session.

The seminar showed that both Kuwait and Japan have a proven record in the introduction of APC, and that the application of APC to various types of equipment have produced significant results. One of Japan’s concerns is that maintenance tends to be neglected during personnel transfers among development staff members, but Kuwait does not seem to have this problem.
With questions ranging from basic questions concerning control to advanced technical questions on property estimation, the seminar covered a wide range of issues, and provided a technical exchange forum that was highly meaningful to both KNPC and JCCP.

Summary

On the day following the completion of the seminar, the JCCP team visited the Mina Al-Ahmadi Refinery, where Mr. Mohammad Al-Mutairi (Manager, Operations) hosted a presentation session on the history of the refinery and an introduction to its training system for refinery operations (unified management of operation manuals, emergency response training for
all types of emergency situations, etc.). The team then received a tour of the refinery. Despite the wide array of equipment that filled the site, the vast refinery was well-organized and
clean, and showed no trace of oil or steam leaks. Additionally, all the equipment and piping were free of rust, and appeared to be properly maintained. There are plans to expand the refinery, which is hardly a problem, considering the wide open land still remaining around the present refinery grounds. Mr. Asa’ad Al-Saad (Deputy Managing Director) spared some time from his busy schedule, which included an inauguration ceremony for the new KNPC chairman, to greet the JCCP team and join them for lunch.

In the afternoon, the JCCP team visited the Petroleum Training Center (PTC) of Kuwait Petroleum Company (KPC), and was introduced to the training center’s programs by Mr. Fouzi Al-Qassar (Team Leader, General Training). The PTC boasts a huge building, and offers 360 different types of programs in response to the needs of each KPC subsidiary company.

The JCCP team members wish to acknowledge the support and assistance of Mr. Ali Abdullah (Team Leader, Career Development) and his staff, in making careful arrangements for the seminar and above visits. The team would also like to extend its special appreciation to Ms. Haifa Al-Youha (Specialist, Career Development), for attending to the team throughout its stay in Kuwait. The successful completion of the program could not have been possible without them.