Saman 12/12

Although I sense and suspect that summons for speeding on 12/12/2004 was to be expected, the word "damn it! And Sh*t!" was still uttered in frustration and remorse when confirming it via http://www.rilek.com.my. And I was driving! Urghhh!! We were on the way to KLIA to pick up my in-laws from holidaying in Medan. Idlan and I were in our car. KN was driving his dad's car. I was leading our two-car convoy. We were running a little late so I tekan minyak lah not realising the policeman under the flyover ready to "shoot" at speeding cars, which mind you was not really super-fast pun, 130 tops. Whats even worse is that my father in-law's car was also "shot" at. Now we have a whopping 300 to pay to PDRM. And we thought NAF9119 did not share the same fate as NBB9119 as KN was driving much slower just before he passed the policeman --> nahhh you thought wrong guys!
Urghhh... Big burn in our pocket for January 2005!!! What a "wonderful" way to start the year........

Berbudi bahasa budaya kita

I'm sure you've heard of the latest government campaign and I bet you've seen the campaign clip on TV where this guy in the LRT refuses to give up his seat to an elderly, pregnant lady and a blind man.

This is NOT an unfamiliar sight. Some people simply lack civic mindedness. They can just ignore, pretend not to see or pretend to be sleeping just to keep their butts comfortable, depriving deserving passengers of the seats. As we become a more mature metropolitan society, constantly busy with our daily lives and always on the go, we must never loose sight of the softer side of mankind --- VALUES. The Values that we are so proud of --> friendly, sopan-santun, berbudi bahasa, baik hati etc. A wholesome modern society is one that is economically rich, technologically advanced, technically competent, without compromising on our values.

Anyway, coming back to the video clip thingy. Yesterday on TV1 during the prime time news, they mentioned about the video clip and its feedback. Apparently one of the RTM crew on board the LRT to work witnessed a school kid saying to a man who did not readily give up his seat to a pregnant lady -->"Abang tak tengok TV ke?"
I came home by LRT today and was impressed when three people in a row stood up, practically berlumba-lumba nak kasik their seat to an elderly. Thumbs up guys! Lets move towards the new breed of Malaysians yg berbudi pekerti dan berbudi bahasa :-)

3. Introduction to LNG business chain (Tuesday, January 18, 2005)

A. Background to LNG industry
- 40 years old
- 2 major LNG markets :
a. Pacific Basin Market (70%) - Fully dependent on regasified LNG as fuel
i. Major suppliers
- Indonesia
- Malaysia
- Qatar
- Australia
- Brunei
- Abu Dhabi
ii. Buyers
- Japan
- Korea
- Taiwan
- India
b. Atlantic Basin Market (30%) - LNG as a fallback fuel
i. Major suppliers
- Algeria
- Nigeria
- Trinidad Tobago
ii. Buyers
- France
- Spain
- Belgium
- USA
- Greece
- Both markets have its own characteristics on supplies and price indexation

B. What is LNG?
- Natural gas (Methane +) liquefied at (-) 160C at atmospheric pressure
- Natural gas is liquefied to facilitate transportation in cryogenic tankers across seas
- LNG volume is 1/600 of Natural Gas

C. LNG chain from gas field to consumer
- Gas Field --> Gas Processing (liquefaction) --> storage --> Pipeline transfer --> Loading --> Transport --> Unloading --> Transfer --> storage --> Regasification --> Vaporised LNG to pipeline

D. Composition of LNG- LNG is natural gas at liquid state
- Holds the same composition as it is for natural gas
- LNG is largely traded after extracting higher hycrocarbons. However, now some of the buyers are demanding LNG with higher hydrocarbons

E. Details of the LNG chain
Supplier --> Shipper --> Buyer --> Offtakers / Consumer
- Liquefaction capacity
-> Under construction:
-- Egypt (12.2 MTPA) conducted to France, Italy
-- Australia (7.8 MTPA) conducted to Japan, Korea & China
-- Malaysia (3.4 MTPA) conducted to Japan, korea
-- Norway (4.1 MTPA) conducted to France, Spain
-- Nigeria (8.2 MTPA) conducted to USA, France, Spain
-- Russia (4.8 MTPA) conducted to Japan, Korea
-- Oman (3.3 MTPA) conducted to Korea
-- Qatar (4.7 MTPA) conducted to Italy, India
-- Trinidad (5.2 MTPA) conducted to US market
= Total capacity 53.70 (by 2007)
-> Proposed new liquefaction capacity:
-- Africa (49 MTPA) - start up 2008-09
-- Asia Pacific (41 MTPA) - start up 2008 - 09
-- Middle East (89.6 MTPA) - beyond 2010
-- North & South America (40.1 MTPA) - beyond 2010
= Total capacity 220
- LNG shipping capacity
-- 151 LNG ships operational on Oct 2003
--- 16 ships (less than 50K cubic meter)
--- 15 ships (50K to 120K cubic meter)
--- 120 ships (120K to 138K cubic meter)
--- 55 ships under construction
-- Tanker cost have diclined (1995 - US 280 million. Current - US 160 million)

F. Costs and economics of LNG chain
Component > Investment (Billion US$) > Price Range (US$/MMBTU)
Gas filed dev> 0.50 - 1.00 > 0.50 - 0.80
Gas treatment & liquefaction > 1.00 - 2.50 > 0.70 - 1.20
LNG shipping > 0.60 - 0.80 > 0.40 - 0.80
Regasification > 0.40 - 1.00 > 0.50 - 1.20
Total > 2.50 - 4.30 > 2.20 - 4.00

G. LNG conversions
1 Tonne of LNG is Equal to:
- 1380 cubic meters of gas
- 48.7 cubic feet of gas
- 52 Million BTUs
- 1.23 tonne of oil equivalent
- 8.68 barrels of oil equivalent
- 1.18 tonne of Naphta

2. Properties of Natural Gas ( Tuesday, January 18, 2005 )

A. What is natural gas?
- Natural gas is a mixture of light hydrocarbons in gaseous form. Colorless, Odorless & tasteless.

B. Formation of natural gas
- Both oil and gas are formed by the organic matter buried in sediments and getting converted to hydrocarbon due to subsurface pressure and temperature over the millions of years.

C. Production of natural gas
- Normally operates under the following scenario:
I. Concession - operated through government owned companies. Economic rent is levied by government with fixed returns on investment.
II. Product sharing Contracts (PSCs) - worldwide accepted options considering the commercial terms
- Natural gas is produced from reservoir as :
I. Gas associated with oil - produced with oil & separated from oil and sent for processing separately in pipelines. Very high economic viability
II. Non associated gas - reservoir holds natural gas only. Relatively low economics.

D. Combustion of gas
- Combustion takes place in presence of air or oxygen. On combustion produces CO2 and water
- The minimum amount of air required to complete combustion is called stoichiometric ratio

E. Composition of natural gas
Methane : 80 - 90 %
Ethane : 6 - 15 %
Propane : 2 - 6 %
Butane : 1 - 4 %
Pentane : 0.2 - 0.5 %
N2 : Nil to 2%
CO2 : Nil to 5%

F. Gas Processing
- Produced natural gas is treated for removal of sour elements, solids and non hydrocarbon

G. Gas Extraction
- After the processing of gas, it is subjected to extraction of higher hydrocarbons (value addition of these fractions is very high as they are sold in market as a high cost):
- Ethane & Propane - Feed stock for Petrochemical
- Propane & Butane - LPG

H. Pipeline flow of natural gas
- Gas is highly compressible and the large volume of gas can be transported in pipelines at given pressure
- Pipelines for gas transportation are designed based on throughput and compression pressure

I. Gas conversions - 1000BCM
- Equals to 3530 cubic feet of gas
- Equals to 0.9 tonnes of oil
- Equals to 0.73 tonnes of LNG
- Equals to 36MMBTU of gas
- Equals to 6.29 barrels of oil

J. Comparative heating value of gas
- Rich gas : 10 000 Kcal/kg or M3
- Lean gas : 9100 Kcal/kg or M3
- Crude oil : 10 20 - 10 600 Kcal/kg or M3
- Naphtha : 11 200 Kcal/kg or M3
- Furnace oil : 9500 Kcal/kg or M3
- Coal (indian), power grade : 3500 - 4100 Kcal/kg or M3
- Diesel : 10 800 Kcal/kg or M3
- MS : 11 300Kcal/kg or M3
- LNG : 13 000 Kcal/kg or M3
- Imported coal (Australian) : 6500 Kcal/kg or M3
- LPG : 11 800 Kcal/kg or M3

K. Thermal efficiencies of gas in power
- Gas (open cycle) : 38%
- Gas (combined cycle) : 52%
- FO (steam turbine) : 36 -38%
- Coal : 35%
- Naphtha (CCGT) : 48%