fuelforthought


Flow Specialists Appoint New Regional Sales Managers for Oil and Gas Markets in Europe and South America


In line with McCrometer’s (USA) ongoing commitment to provide world-class flow measurement products and services to its customers, the company is pleased to announce the appointment of two new Regional Sales Managers for the Oil/Gas Market. Carlos Alexandre De Souza will lead the company’s regional South American team, and Kieron McCann will manage the company’s efforts in the Western European and Central Asia regions.


Carlos Alexandre De Souza will manage McCrometer’s sales efforts by working with the company’s South American-based oil/gas manufacturers’ representatives. By adding De Souza to the sales team, the company is


well positioned to address customer needs in these key geographic and energy market territories. De Souza resides in Poa, Sao Paulo, Brazil and reports directly to Nick Johnson, McCrometer Area Sales Manager. De Souza brings six years of experience working for Emerson Process Management, Rosemount Division, where he was Sales Manager in Brazil. Previously, he worked for VCP Pulp and Paper in Maintenance and Project


Engineering for 11 years. The extensive knowledge and skills he has developed provide De Souza with a solid background to support McCrometer’s sales team and customers. He holds an MBA in Technological Innovation from Sao Paulo USP University and a Bachelor's Degree in Automation/Control Engineering from UBC University.


In his new role, Kieron McCann will be managing McCrometer’s Western European and Central Asia sales efforts by working with the company’s oil/gas manufacturers’ representatives based there. McCann’s addition to the sales team will solidify the company’s ability to meet and exceed customer expectations for the Western European and Central Asia regions.


McCann joins McCrometer with 14 years of product management, business development and technical sales experience, most recently working for ABB in the UK as Global Product Manager - Liquid Analysis, Automation


Products Division. The deep knowledge and skills he has developed will enable McCann to meet and exceed the customer needs in his new territory. He holds an Instrument Technologist diploma from the British Columbia Institute Of Technology, Burnaby, British Colombia, Canada, in Process Automation & Instrumentation. McCann resides in the U.K. and reports to Glenn Voss, Vice President of Sales.


Reply Card no 11


Some Oil and Gas Issues Relating to the Philippines


By Dr. Clifford Jones, Aberdeen University


The Philippines imports about 300000 barrels per day of crude oil. Domestic oil production is only about 20 thousand barrels per day and, for a period in the late 1990s, was significantly less than that and quite negligible. Part of the oil and gas activity of the Philippines is in the hands of the state owned Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC), which came into being by presidential decree in 1973 with its HQ in Manila. Shell and Caltex are also represented in the Philippines.


The ‘western’ oil companies in the Philippines have


very high standards of safety and of environmental and social responsibility. The vessel Solar 1, bearing heavy fuel oil for export, sank in August 2006 in waters close to the Philippines. It had been chartered by Petron, in which PNOC have a 40% holding. The vessel had 500,000 gallons of the oil on board. That released created an oil slick which affected over 100 miles of the national coastline. The livelihoods of local residents and the tourist industry are both likely to be heavily affected. Much sea life was destroyed. Outside aid – from Japan and from Indonesia – has been sought in the clean-up.


The Philippines has a major non-associated gas field


offshore, known to contain 1010 m3 of natural gas. Its exploitation began as recently as 2001 when a group including Shell, Texaco and PNOC began to obtain gas from the field and divert it to electricity generation. Eventually gas from the field will supply three power stations in the Philippines which will jointly produce 2.7 GW of power. This will of course lead to a reduction in crude oil imports. There is a possibility that Korea Gas will buy half of PNOC’s share in the enterprise.


It has been noted in one of the other mini essays that coconut can be a source of biodiesel. However in the Philippines where, as in so many ‘developing countries’, there are extremes in lifestyle, producer gas is made by admittance of air (or possibly air/steam) to a hot bed of coconut shells or fibre. The resulting gas has a calorific value of about 4 MJ m-3. Elsewhere ‘gas producers’, which owed their development to one of the Siemens brothers in the nineteenth century, had used coal or coke as feedstock and supplied fuel gas for industries including glass and steel. Gas producers have all but disappeared in the UK and the US although their revival in ‘BTU conversion’ is not impossible.


j.c.jones@eng.abdn.ac.uk Reply Card no 14 600th Gas Aspirator Shipped to Canada


Groveley (UK) has supplied its gas detection aspirators (sampling systems) to oil, gas and energy installations around the world since 1993, monitoring smoke, flame and toxic gases.


This unit, which will be installed at ATCO Power's Muskeg River cogeneration plant in


Alberta, Canada - will monitor a gas turbine enclosure for potential methane leaks. It is the latest aspirator of five supplied to ATCO Power in Canada for gas turbine monitoring.


The 170-megawatt gas-fired power station provides steam and electricity to the Muskeg


River Mine, with surplus electricity sold to the Power Pool of Alberta. Energy from the turbines' hot exhaust gas is captured for use in the mine's bitumen extraction process.


Groveley's system includes three high-temperature (up to 185ºC) duct probes, which


monitor different areas of ducting from the turbine by drawing gas samples to the aspirator cabinet and its three methane detectors.


The Muskeg River station's design enables it to generate electricity with minimal effect on


the environment. Both of the gas turbines are equipped with low NOx combustors to minimise the environmental impact of generating electricity. And it turns 84% of the natural gas's potential energy into electricity and steam - compared to an average of 33% achieved by conventional power


stations - while emissions of greenhouse gases are about one-third of a similarly-sized coal-fired power station. Reply Card no 12


New Acquisition Offers Further US Expansion To Leading Industrial Gas Providers


Matheson Tri-Gas, Inc. (USA) a global manufacturer and supplier of industrial, medical, electronics and specialty gases and welding supplies recently announced it has completed the acquisition of Western International Gas and Cylinders, Inc. a Texas-based manufacturer and wholesale supplier of acetylene, propylene, high pressure gases, cylinders, valves and related services. Matheson is the largest subsidiary of Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corporation (“TNSC”), which is one of the top five global producers of industrial, medical, electronics and specialty gases and is headquartered in Japan.


Hirosuke Matsueda, President of TNSC, said “The acquisition of Western supports TNSC’s ongoing strategy to increase market presence and capability in the United States. We see Western as an important factor in helping us pursue our U.S. growth strategy.”


“Western’s history of serving the wholesale fuel gas market safely and reliably through their innovative use of technology will continue to serve them well


in driving future growth of their business,” said William J. Kroll, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Matheson . “Western will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Matheson Tri-Gas and as an independent corporation with a separate Board of Directors comprised of MTG and Western representatives. Dan Hord III will serve on the Board of Directors.”


“We see this development as providing Western International Gas and Cylinders access to resources and products that will help us achieve higher rates


of growth” said Dan Hord III, President and CEO of Western. “We are now positioned to expand our wholesale model to supply a broader range of products and services to the retail and independent distributor markets.”


Reply Card no 13


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