Sustainably Powering Brunei

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Bringing Global Expertise Home

Brunei Shell Petroleum (BSP) has been a career hub for over 3,700 employees, ranging from technical experts to corporate professionals. Talent management and development planning have been essential in BSP’s People Strategy to ensure that the company continues to have a healthy funnel of talents to keep its operations running. To further enhance the capabilities of its workforce, and in the continuous effort to future-proof Orang Kitani (Our People), several BSP colleagues have stepped out of their comfort zones and entered the global scene through BSP’s Short-Term International Assignment (STIA) and Long-Term International Assignment (LTIA). International Assignment is a talent development tool open to selected BSP personnel to acquire certain business skills or exposures that are not available within the organisation. 

As the world emerged from the shadow of the pandemic in 2022, the lifting of travel restrictions brought renewed opportunities for BSP employees. Despite limited roles within Shell, the company’s nomination criteria allowed for the competitive acquisition of positions on a global scale. Since 2005, there has been a total of 227 employees sent on assignment in various parts of the globe – this year, there is a total of 68 active assignments. BSP’s commitment to nurture workforce

FEATURE: ORANG KITANI ON ACTIVE ASSIGNMENT

Charlene Bong, Senior Petroleum Engineer 
Assignment: Waterflood, The Hague

Charlene started her assignment in the Global Waterflood Team at the Hague in September 2023. Being part of the team requires her to provide expertise and solutions across the hydrocarbon lifecycle, including Carbon Dioxide (C02)/Hydrogen (H2) and energy storage. Charlene is currently working on projects for US Deepwater (Gulf of Mexico) and Kuwait. 

In addition to enjoying the exposure to Shell’s diverse global portfolio, Charlene has also enjoyed the opportunity being in the Hague to re-connect with many colleagues who previously worked in BSP. Outside of work, she has been busy getting settled into the Dutch lifestyle, getting acquainted with the biking infrastructure, and getting ready for the upcoming winter season.

Hamidah Mokhtar, Wells Performance Lead
Assignment: Global Wells Planning and Performance, Houston

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Hamidah’s passion for managing Wells Performance from a global perspective had led her to join the Global Wells Performance & Planning team in Houston, United States of America (USA). In her current role as a Wells Performance Lead, Hamidah has experienced strategic and performance management/improvement projects, which involves data deep-dives and analysis as well as structured approach to Industry-Leading competitiveness in line with the refreshed Wells Ambition Performance.

“The goals I have set for this assignment are to expand further my strategic thinking in Wells Business Performance and to make an impact in the business professionally, and personally, to adapt to a working and living environment outside of my comfort zone,” Hamidah shares. “This assignment has allowed me to grow as a professional and as a person, with the experience I would not have gained had I not been given the chance to be here.”

FEATURE: ORANG KITANI, BACK IN BSP

Ayuni Buang, Head of Portfolio Delivery, Decommission and Restoration (D&R)
Assignment: Wells Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) – Arctic, Houston, Texas

Recognising that such opportunities come once in a while, Ayuni made the most of her STIA experience in Houston, Texas. She took up the role of Wells FEED, working on a development project for a geographically and politically sensitive areas which tested her technical knowledge and experience. During her tenure in Houston, she had the opportunity to meet different professionals, including exceptional technical experts.

“The skills and growth gained from the assignment enabled me to challenge status quo for the better!” shared Ayuni. 

Nazrin Narawi, Commercial Advisor
Assignment: Process Optimisation Engineering department, Petroleum Development Oman (PDO)

Assigned to PDO in Muscat during the first COVID-19 wave, Nazrin spent nine months leading a team of local engineers in the Process Optimisation Engineering department within the Gas Asset. Nazrin had the opportunity to get to know PDO’s gas operation, working closely with different stakeholders – by the end of his tenure, the team managed to improve the asset’s energy efficiency by 10%, while optimising the production facility and operational costs.

“Upon my return, I took on the role of a commercial advisor where to this day, I still advocate for top quartile metering availability, more so now considering reputational impact to our gas customers. My experience in PDO has certainly taught me to adapt to new environments and challenges better as I navigate my way through a completely different field of work in commercial.”

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New V8-BSP Helicopter Takes Flight

It’s a bird, it’s a plane – it’s BSP’s new aircraft! It was a momentous occasion for BSP as the new Sikorsky S-92 aircraft, a medium-lift helicopter that seats 19 passengers, registered as “V8-BSP” safely arrived from the United States of America.

The S-92 aircraft has been the cornerstone of Brunei Shell Petroleum’s (BSP) air transport services since 2007, and this latest acquisition will further enhance the efficiency of the company’s operations by standardising its aircraft collection.

Currently, BSP has two different types of aircraft in the garage – the S-92 and the AgustaWestland AW-139. Through this standardisation, the team will be able to have consistent training and maintenance plans. This move is part of the Air Fleet Optimization (AFO) initiative aimed to align current process with the BSP’s Bersatu Goals in creating simplified processes.

The “V8-BSP” had its first flight in mid-October 2023. With the optimisation of the aviation fleet, there will be a significant transformation to the “Backbone Flight” schedules, which serves as the core flight infrastructure supporting the essential transportation needs within BSP’s operations. The goal is to maximise resource utilisation and enhance “worker-on-platform” time, which refers to the time employees spend actively engaged on the offshore platforms – this improves overall efficiency.

The arrival of the “V8-BSP” S-92 aircraft introduces a new era of efficiency and cost-effectiveness for Brunei Shell Petroleum. These strategic changes are perfectly aligned with BSP’s unwavering commitment to achieving its BSP Bersatu goals, ensuring safe and sustainable production. The changes will also see the increase of seat utilisation by 20%, resulting in more efficient use of resources. 

Since the first purchase of the S-92 fleet in 2007, this addition will bring the total number of S-92 helicopters to four, comprising of three passenger aircrafts and one search and rescue aircraft. To date, the entire fleet has flown nearly 231,000 flight hours and achieved more than 1,090,000 take-offs and landings, carrying 5.4 million passengers safely to and from offshore platforms!

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Find Small, Fix Small: How Minor Repairs Prevent Major Fixes

Corrosion is like a broken skin; it does its damage slowly and if overlooked, can escalate into a bigger and more expensive problem. External corrosion of structures and process equipment has been the single biggest reason for repairs in Brunei Shell Petroleum’s (BSP) assets, resulting in operational and capital expenditure – and, often, the need to shut down production to carry out the repairs (a process known as turnarounds). 

Currently, 70% of turnaround scope is related to repairs of external corrosion. Recognising this as an issue, BSP’s Operation Asset Integrity (OAI), in collaboration with asset Fabric Maintenance focal points, took up the challenge to lean down the current external corrosion remediation process.

Thus, the “Find Small, Fix Small” approach came about – an early intervention of rust or coating breakdowns, way before they can develop into critical anomalies requiring repairs. 

Example of external corrosion that was fixed by First Aid Painting.
(left picture – as found ; middle picture – after surface prep; right picture – single coating applied)

The initiative was started by organising a Value Stream Mapping (VSM) workshop to streamline the existing end-to-end process. Using an Agile approach, a project management methodology that involves breaking the project into phases, an implementation strategy was produced.

As a step to ensure a successful outcome, the team ventured to engage all stakeholders. This was executed prior to the strategy roll-out, a crucial move to keep all players on the same page. A weekly cadence was also set up to drive development of the new process, subsequent implementation, and monitoring of actions identified for improvement. 

As a new approach, the initiative did not come without challenges. The project required the mobilisation of Inspection and First-Aid Painting teams to the assets, which means this can be a tricky juggle between managing logistics as well as the number of offshore People on Board (POB). This is on top of other challenges such as the shortage of painting material at the start of the initiative, difficulties in accessing piping or structural steel, and the varied abilit to read isometric drawings in the First-Aid Painting crew. 

Through meticulous planning, and collaboration with different stakeholders, the project saw the simplification of First-Aid Painting process from 24 months to merely days, conducted more than 20,000 minor fixes within eight months across BSP assets, and a reduction in the requirement for major repair and unnecessary production deferment due to unmitigated external corrosion.

“This initiative embodies our BSP Bersatu mission to “Simplify and Integrate” as the end-to-end process was significantly leaned down leading to faster mitigation of external corrosion anomalies. In the long term, this will result in improved asset integrity for BSP’s facilities and a reduction of major repairs due to external corrosion,” shared Robert Warmerdam, BSP Production Maintenance and Excellence Manager. “It is also a great testament to the capabilities, accountability and focus demonstrated by Orang Kitani.” 

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