Industrial Attachment Undertake at the KNPC - Term Paper Example

Practicum Report in Kuwait National Petroleum Company Name Institution Abstract The report focused on industrial attachment undertake at the Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC), which is Kuwait’s national oil refinery. The company not only engages in oil refining, but also liquefaction of the gas, marketing, and distribution of petroleum related products. The reports analysed organizational mission, vision, organizational structure, and attachment coverage. The practicum took place at Mina Abdullah Refinery, which operates from the port. The port has several processing units: the Crude Oil Distillation Unit (U-11), the Delayed Coker Units, Atmospheric Residue Desulphurization Units (ARDs), Sulfur Recovery Unit (U-23), Central Control System, Transport and Storage of Coke, and The Sea Island. The report analyzed various learning outcomes from the company and university and established the link to ensure conformity of the theoretical experiences acquired in school and practical experience acquired at KNPC. CHAPTER ONE: ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS Introduction Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) is a national oil refinery company located in Kuwait. The company undertakes a series of activities including engagement in oil refining, liquefaction of the gas, marketing, and distribution of both petroleum products and gases. The company operates its gas station with the Kuwait local markets with the oil refinery areas including Shuaiba, Mina Al Ahmadi, and Mina Abdulla. KNPC operates as a subsidiary of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), which is owned 100% by the Kuwait government. KNPC’s business divisions involve oil refining, fuel products, and local marketing with its headquarter located in Safat, Kuwait. Established 1960, Kuwait gained extensive experience within the oil refinery sector and through the years, the company improved its operations and capacity to ensure adequate satisfaction of its potential clients and the ever increasing global demand for the oil products. With the rising technology, the company incorporated various engineering programmes in a bid to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and ensure a reduction in operational cost. Additionally, through the years, KNPC focused maintenance of its reputation as a means of obtaining the desired competitive advantage through ensuring high safety standards for which it received numerous awards owing to the quality of services that it provides. Vision/Mission/Aims & Objectives/ Organizational Structure KPC Downstream Sector Mission, Vision, and Values (MVV) are connected to the Vision of KPC through “Integration and Excellence are our path to Globality.”KPC managed to integrate MVV across the various Downstream Sector. KNPC is a subsidiary of the Downstream Sector where it is responsible for the Domestic Refining and Gas Processing (KNPC, 2016). The unparalleled growth in the global demand for energy presented the opportunity for the company to transform some of its business operations into the leading global force. The company’s Mission, Vision, and Values tend to embrace three different themes: Integration, Performance, and Partnership that show the methods of achieving the required vision. Mission The mission of KNPC is to maximize the value of Kuwait hydrocarbons through domestic and international refining, petroleum, and marketing of the products and services. Vision The vision of the company is to become the leading player within the global oil and gas downstream sector, which recognizes organizational strength based on its effective performance and admired for its immense contributions to the Kuwait State. Since the inception of KNPC, its objective has always remained the same: to become one of the leaders in the oil refinery and distribution industry both locally and internationally. Figure 1: Summary of Organization Mission, Vision, and Values Organizational Structure Figure 2: Summary of Organizational Structure CHAPTER TWO: COVERAGE OF THE ATTACHMENT Introduction Industrial attachment forms a critical part of the faculty’s curriculum as it enables the students to translate some of the theoretically acquired knowledge to actual environments. As a result, the process aims at instilling the desired work attitude and professionalism through ensuring effective interaction with the people operating within the organization. The attachment occurred in the maintenance department in Abdullah port. Description of the Mina Abdullah Refinery The installation at the port refinery plant covers a total area of 7,935,000m2 and established first in the 1958 when Sheik Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah still ruled. Initially, the American Independent Oil Company (AMINOL) ruled the refinery when it was a simple refinery plant containing the crude oil distillation unit, which had a capacity of 30,000 bpd. With the numerous expansion between 1962 and 1967, the plant’s capacity rose to 140,000 bpd (KNPC, 2016). The transition period made Mina Abdulla Refinery becoming a State Property managed through the national company under “Wafra Oil Company” and later the ownership transferred to KNPC in 1978. The port has several processing units: the Crude Oil Distillation Unit (U-11), the Delayed Coker Units, Atmospheric Residue Desulphurization Units (ARDs), Sulfur Recovery Unit (U-23), Central Control System, Transport and Storage of Coke, and The Sea Island. Figure 3: The Main Units at Mina Abdullah Refinery Description of Single Activities in Detail The Delayed Coker Units (DCU) The DCU within the refinery consists of unique process unit of the Refinery Modernization Project (RMP) launched in the mid-1980s in a bid to modernize the activities at the port. Besides, DCU is the first of its kind to be constructed in the Gulf area. The DCU has two identical trains with a total capacity of 76,000. The unit’s design is based on the thermal cracking of the residue that comes from the vacuum rerun unit to ensure production of more profitable products such as Naphtha, Diesel, Gas Oil, and Kerosene to produce a green coke as the final residue. The produced coke forms various porous solids upon cooling with the special drums, which is then removed by using the cutting tool equipment designed with the high-velocity water jets. However, the objective of the DCU is to ensure effective conversion of the barrel residue at the bottom to higher value products and properly processing the whole refinery slop oil. Delayed coking involves a thermal process that upgrades the heavy residue into valued distillate products. Within the process, cracking uses heat and sends the residue to coke drums. However, for effective completion of the cracking process, there is need for adequate residence time. The vapours emitted by the coke drums move to the fractionators for fractionating into the gas and liquid streams. Nonetheless, the coke product is removed from the coke drum after predetermination of the changeovers and sent to the coke handling plants. Figure 4: The Delayed Coker Units ARDs (Atmospheric Residue Desulphurization Units) At the port, the ARD Units are designed with the capacity of processing 65,900 bpsd of highly concentrated sulphur materials (HSFO) within the two trains sharing common fractionators. It is possible one train while the other is down for the catalyst replacement, which ensures adequate removal of the nitrogen and other metallic compounds. The primary aim of the unit is to ensure reduction in the sulphur content within the atmospheric residue to 0.5% carried in the presence of hydrogen over a fixed catalyst bed reactor. At the Mina Abdullah Refinery, the modernization project aimed at revamping the two ARDs units through the Stream Catalyst Replacement (OCR) technology, which ensures increment in the capacity of each train from the initial 33,000 bpd to 42,000 bpd. As a result, the process often results into higher cycle length for the fixed bed reactors to 15 months rather than 11 months (KNPC, 2016). The process also results in improvement of the light distillates. The major role of the ARDs process within the plant is to upgrade the heavy petroleum oils and residue to more valuable products, which are environmentally friendly during transportation. Moreover, the process also involves conversion of the residues with an aim of producing fuels with low sulphur contents and hydrotreated feedstock. The graded catalyst systems within the numerous reactors available in the process ensure the achievement of Hydrodesulfurization (HDS), hydronitrogeneration (HDN), hydrodemetallization (HDM), and effective conversion of the residues to the distillate at the desired levels (Marafi,Hauser & Stanislaus, 2006). The quality of the feed that enter the second reactor need to be strongly dependent on the operating severity within the initial reactor, which could have an impact of the performance of the catalysts, found in the next reactor due to different conversions and deactivation rates. Figure 5: Biodesulphurization Process CHAPTER THREE: PRACTICUM ANALYSIS Overview of the Roles played and benefits during attachment Oil refinery is one of the most delicate industrial setups considering the risks associated in the processing activities. The role of the engineers is to make work easier through development of mechanism that closes the gaps between various human efforts to get the jobs done. Mechanical engineers within the oil and gas companies including KNPC undertake various roles associated with various aspect of oil mining and refinement activities, which include designation, and installation of various equipment, overseeing the large projects, and undertaking the research and development concerning the new technologies. During the practicum period at the company, I realized the complexities in some processes involved in oil refinery; therefore, in such areas, the mechanical engineers often require level of education and training and experience. The experience acquired at the KNPC contributed positively through attitude change and focus which are critical in the life of a mechanical engineering practitioner. Maintenance engineering requires one to have an effective and efficient relationship with the employees. KNPC gave me the opportunity of learning how to interact with various employees which also forms the basis of engineering career. One of the roles that I was undertaking under my supervisor is ensuring that all the equipment within the plant were designed, selected, and installed properly based on the life cycle of the assets used within the plant. Frequent monitoring of the equipment to identify the parts that required replacements or changing was critical to me as it assisted in the development of monitoring skills and effective commitments due to the risks associated with system failures within the plant. While undertaking the maintenance role with oil refinery plants, teamwork is critical as it ensures increased coverage on the operational scope besides increasing efficiency and reliability of the monitoring activities. Considering the magnitude of the negative effects associated with the occurrence of the potential hazards within the oil and gas companies should there be occurrences, I learnt the significance of complying with the established occupation health and safety procedures and standards. Besides, in organizations dealing in machinery in its operations such as KNPC, complying with occupational health and safety practices and guidelines majorly lie within the hands of the maintenance engineers. Plant mechanics tend to differ across the industries. Interacting with different machinery used within the plant assist me to enhance my knowledge on refinery plant mechanics, which is currently in demand in the global market. However, acquiring such is never easy, as most refinery plants do not allow inexperience students near the delicate machinery, which to some extent bar their professional development. Through the chance given by the company, I realized the significance upholding engineering professional code of ethics to ensure quality across the organizational units and compliance with the required standards. Oil refinery plants have several machinery whose operations are interconnected; therefore, failure in a particular system leads to failure in most organizational operations. Consequently, such factors points to the significance of maintenance engineers in the company. Learning outcomes from the University While in school, it is critical to note most of experiences acquired are theoretical based. However, in the job markets, the employers are looking for practical experiences. During my attachment period, I realized the following practicum efforts: technological and analytical, cognitive, and professional outcomes. Technology and analytical learning outcomes Practicum plays an important role in connecting the theoretical and practical experiences acquired in various learning setups; Through the practicum, the students clear their theoretical areas of misunderstandings; Practicum allows students to develop technical artefacts that require new technical skills; Assisting the students to use profession specific terminologies appropriately; Acquisition of expertise required in the job market such effective and reliable decision making skills; Learning practical engineering drawings; Ensuring performance of effective and informative user testing Cognitive learning outcomes Demonstration of understanding of the professional customs and practices; Ability to organize and maintain the information; Effective negotiations and arrival at the desired decisions; Learning the methods of working with diversified populations; Identification, understanding, and working within the professional standards; Effective improvement of problem-solving and critical thinking skills Professional learning outcomes Exercising leadership at all times; Behaving professionally; Effective listening, outstanding ethical behaviours, appropriate dressing, and effective allocation of time; Adapting to the changing conditions, compliance with workplace attitude, and effective participation in management issues Learning outcomes from the practicum The aim of any practicum activity is to assist the students apply their theoretical knowledge in the real life situations. KNPC offered me such an opportunity through which I acquired various expertise required for the development of a maintenance engineer. Through my industrial supervisor, I learnt: Methods of organizing the routine servicing schedules; Methods of allocating the work to the team of filters; Checking and calibrating various instruments to ensure accuracy; How to fit the new parts; Mechanisms of carrying out the quality inspections; Methods of effectively responding immediately to the equipment breakdown Fixing of the faults and arranging for installation of replacements; Methods of keeping the production managers within the plant informed of the progress of oil and petroleum refinery activities; Methods of ensuring effective and reliable teams for the 24-hour cover of the plant; Designing maintenance strategies, methods, and procedures; Methods of liaising with other engineers and departments to ensure effective flow of supply chain; Effective development of the Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS); Ways of promoting equipment standardizations; Consultation with the maintenance crafts employees on technical challenges. CHAPTER FIVE: CHALLENGES AND CONCLUSION Practicum challenge The major challenge experienced during the practicum was financial constraint, which to some extent made it difficult for me to meet some logistic activities. KNPC does not offer any form of allowances under the practicum, which demoralizes and create other associated difficulties. Despite such financial challenges, the production manager and the supervisor expected me to reach the company on time with serious consequences of lateness including termination of the practicum offered for frequent lateness and going back home to resume the following day. Besides the logistic expenses, I had to take care of other related expenses such lunch and engineering materials required by the organization. Another factor that hindered the development of my engineering skills was strict rules in place especially on the company’s computers. Inaccessibility to such computers made it difficult to learn the practical knowledge associated with engineering designs and programme such computer-aided diagrams (CAD) and AutoCAD. Too much work accorded to the students was another factor that contributed to the challenges experience with some being irrelevant to maintenance engineering such as setting up the office of the supervisor in order, which is much of a secretarial responsibility. Conclusion The report covered my industrial attachment report at Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) in its Maintenance Department located in Mina Abdullah Port. Through the practicum, I learnt various factors, which are important in ensuring effective development of a maintenance engineer. Practicum offered me the opportunity to relate some of the theoretically acquired skills to practical life experiences which the job market is seeking. The process provides an opportunity for the students to discover, learn, and familiarize themselves with the industry of their discipline and institutions within the industry. My attachment at KNPC enabled me to acquire interpersonal skills through interacting with professionals within the institution; it ensured the achievement of real life practices and implementation of the theoretical lessons and principles. More importantly, the practicum gave me the opportunity of determining whether the training programmes acquired in school meet industrial expectations. However, I experienced various challenges including financial constraints and organizational strictness especially on the computer, which made it difficult to learn some of the practical areas of my interest such as AutoCAD and CAD programmes. References KNPC. (2016). Mission, Vision & Values. Retrieved May 23, 2016, from http://www.knpc.com.kw/en/AboutKNPC/Pages/MissionVision.aspx KNPC. (2016). Mina Abdullah Refinery. Retrieved May 23, 2016, from http://www.knpc.com.kw/en/refineries/pages/abdullahrefinery.aspx Marafi, A., Hauser, A., & Stanislaus, A. (2006). Atmospheric Residue Desulfurization Process for Residual Oil Upgrading: An Investigation of the Effect of Catalyst Type and Operating Severity on Product Oil Quality. Energy & Fuels, 20(3), 1145-1149. doi:10.1021/ef050395d Appendix: Practicum Professional Development Log Name:……………………………………………… Student Number:…………………… Week Commencing: ………………………….... Date Significant Event Description Nov. 30 – Dec. 4, 2015 Orientation on organizational activities Learning the methods of operating organizational equipment The manager at Mina Abdullah introduced me to various staff members and assigned me a supervisor; the supervisor took me through various organizational operations and machinery 7th – 11th Dec 2015 Meeting with all the students with their respective supervisors for issuance of organizational entry cards and creation of rapport among the interns and supervisors The manager accorded every student with the supervisor depending on their areas of profession; the interns issued with the entry cards as their identities within the company; every students spends time with the supervisor to learn organizational desired behaviours 14th – 19th Dec. 2015 Visitation of various units in Mina Abdullah Learning how the units operates and their significances Visiting unit within the plant and learning their operations: the Delayed Coker Units, Crude Oil Distillation Unit, ARDs, Sulfur Recovery Unit (U-23), Central Control System, Transport and Storage Coke, and the Sea Island 21th – 26rd Dec 2015 Undertaking manual work within the compound; monitoring the performance of various equipment Sometimes the places of work, so the supervisor assigned me the responsibility of ensuring cleanliness of such areas; I also monitored organizational machinery and took records to ensure each was performing as required. 4th – 15rd Jan 2016 Reviewing the work procedures at various plant units; reporting the finding to the supervisors the company has adequate measures of ensuring compliance with the required regulations and various ethical codes; I was mandated to ensure that the findings reach the supervisor for appropriate actions should there be signs of likelihood of hazard occurrences 18th – 29th Jan. 2016 Seminars for the interns; replacement of various conveyor belts The company organized seminars for the interns to learn on the changing market trends and target of the employers; the motivators were from the organization and various renowned engineering firms; the conveyor belts are used in transporting various working tools and crude oil within the company 1st – 12th Feb. 2016 Visitation of the desulphurization unit to learn its processes; presentation of the learnt activities to the supervisors Desulphurization is a critical unit within the company that requires frequent monitoring; company policy requires assessment after a given duration between the intern and the students 15th – 24th FEB 2016 Days off The company gives the students a given duration to wrap up their practicum activities; seeking clarity on the areas they are difficulties understanding This Week’s most significant Event Situation-What happened Most of the activities undertaken occurred at the ARDs where I learnt much about the process, manner in which it upgrades the heavy petroleum residues to more valuable and environmentally friendly fuel transportation; I learnt much on various processes including the methods of achieving hydrodesulphurization (HDS), hydrodemetalization (HDM), hydrodenitrogenation (HDN), and methods of converting the residues to distillate desired levels. Affect-Why was this significant? Globally, companies are moving towards environmentally sustainable processes. Through the ARDs, the company ensures reduction in pollution of factors that negatively affect the quality of environmental conditions. Interpretation The role of engineers is to not only ensure advancement in technology, but also solve societal problems. Through the ARDs, the company contributes significantly in reducing global warming and production of acid rains associated with emission of sulphur compounds. Decision-What will you do? Effectiveness and competency are important within the engineering profession; these are some of the factors I learnt during the practicum period. As an engineer, I will ensure I utilize the lessons learnt from KNPC for maintaining environmental quality. Read More

Mission The mission of KNPC is to maximize the value of Kuwait hydrocarbons through domestic and international refining, petroleum, and marketing of the products and services. Vision The vision of the company is to become the leading player within the global oil and gas downstream sector, which recognizes organizational strength based on its effective performance and admired for its immense contributions to the Kuwait State. Since the inception of KNPC, its objective has always remained the same: to become one of the leaders in the oil refinery and distribution industry both locally and internationally.

Figure 1: Summary of Organization Mission, Vision, and Values Organizational Structure Figure 2: Summary of Organizational Structure CHAPTER TWO: COVERAGE OF THE ATTACHMENT Introduction Industrial attachment forms a critical part of the faculty’s curriculum as it enables the students to translate some of the theoretically acquired knowledge to actual environments. As a result, the process aims at instilling the desired work attitude and professionalism through ensuring effective interaction with the people operating within the organization.

The attachment occurred in the maintenance department in Abdullah port. Description of the Mina Abdullah Refinery The installation at the port refinery plant covers a total area of 7,935,000m2 and established first in the 1958 when Sheik Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah still ruled. Initially, the American Independent Oil Company (AMINOL) ruled the refinery when it was a simple refinery plant containing the crude oil distillation unit, which had a capacity of 30,000 bpd. With the numerous expansion between 1962 and 1967, the plant’s capacity rose to 140,000 bpd (KNPC, 2016).

The transition period made Mina Abdulla Refinery becoming a State Property managed through the national company under “Wafra Oil Company” and later the ownership transferred to KNPC in 1978. The port has several processing units: the Crude Oil Distillation Unit (U-11), the Delayed Coker Units, Atmospheric Residue Desulphurization Units (ARDs), Sulfur Recovery Unit (U-23), Central Control System, Transport and Storage of Coke, and The Sea Island. Figure 3: The Main Units at Mina Abdullah Refinery Description of Single Activities in Detail The Delayed Coker Units (DCU) The DCU within the refinery consists of unique process unit of the Refinery Modernization Project (RMP) launched in the mid-1980s in a bid to modernize the activities at the port.

Besides, DCU is the first of its kind to be constructed in the Gulf area. The DCU has two identical trains with a total capacity of 76,000. The unit’s design is based on the thermal cracking of the residue that comes from the vacuum rerun unit to ensure production of more profitable products such as Naphtha, Diesel, Gas Oil, and Kerosene to produce a green coke as the final residue. The produced coke forms various porous solids upon cooling with the special drums, which is then removed by using the cutting tool equipment designed with the high-velocity water jets.

However, the objective of the DCU is to ensure effective conversion of the barrel residue at the bottom to higher value products and properly processing the whole refinery slop oil. Delayed coking involves a thermal process that upgrades the heavy residue into valued distillate products. Within the process, cracking uses heat and sends the residue to coke drums. However, for effective completion of the cracking process, there is need for adequate residence time. The vapours emitted by the coke drums move to the fractionators for fractionating into the gas and liquid streams.

Nonetheless, the coke product is removed from the coke drum after predetermination of the changeovers and sent to the coke handling plants. Figure 4: The Delayed Coker Units ARDs (Atmospheric Residue Desulphurization Units) At the port, the ARD Units are designed with the capacity of processing 65,900 bpsd of highly concentrated sulphur materials (HSFO) within the two trains sharing common fractionators.

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