World Traveler 2

When I became Principal Process Engineer for Phillips Petroleum Company in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, my responsibilities became international and I took many all expense paid trips all over the world. On most of the trips, I took a little extra time so I could see the local sights and enjoy parts of the world I had never seen before. Some more of my experiences follow.

World Traveler 2

 

Trinidad and Tobago

Phillips licensed the Process for the large Atlantic LNG ( Liquified Natural Gas) Plant to British Petroleum and part of the package was a pre-startup process review and report. I was part of the 6 man team sent there to complete the review and prepare a report. There was one long road from the airport area in Trinidad to the Plant at the other end of the island and the local drivers drove like a bat out of hell. It was a scary trip both ways. The only thing nice about the area was the large hotel near the airport. We stayed there on the way home. They had a local band playing calypso music on drums made of steel barrels that was quite good. I wouldn’t recommend spending vacation time at Trinidad, however.

 

The Atlantic LNG Plant at Point Fortin in Trinidad that we conducted the start up review for.

 

Stavanger, Norway

The Phillips giant North Sea Ekofisk Offshore Platform Complex is managed by the Stavanger office. They were having trouble with the huge oil, salt water, and gas separators on the Ekofisk main platform, so a team of engineers was sent over to assist with solving the problem. We attended meetings and helicoptered out to the platforms, then spent two weeks working in the Stavanger office. We pretty much got to see the sites after we finished our report and recommendations. I made two additional follow up trips that weren’t quite as stressful as this one. Stavanger is a nice place to visit.

 

The giant Ekofisk Oil Production Platform Complex in the North Sea.

 

The Hague, Holland

I attended many partner meetings as a Phillips technical representative at The Hague to review pending projects for offshore oil holdings in the Caspian Sea. These were generally one or two day events that kept us pretty busy. The tulip fields on the train ride from Amsterdam to The Hague were beautiful. This is a nice place to visit.

 

The tulip fields photographed from the train between Amsterdam and The Hague, Holland.

 

Calgary, Canada

I flew up to Calgary to help them with a project to test capacity of an existing Natural Gas Liquids Plant plant and recommend modifications to expand the capacity of the NGL plant. I found Calgary to be a delightful city. It was also the home of the famous Calgary Stampede Rodeo. On a subsequent trip I flew from Calgary to a remote sour gas and oil field in Northern Saskatchewan to conduct a process review of the facilities since Phillips Canada was considering purchasing the facility. Please stay away from this area, between the bears and sour gas, the place is kind of dangerous.

 

The Calgary Stampede Rodeo area with the Calgary City centre in the background. The rodeo is awesome.

 

London, England

Phillips decided to set up a booth at the International LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) Conference held in London. I was selected as one of the Phillips personnel to man the booth. There were six of us manning the booth,including one Sr Vice President, two Vice Presidents, my boss Ken, the licensing rep Don, and I. On the flight over, Ken and I had made our reservations early so we were sitting in first class. Two of the vice presidents were sitting in business class. it bothered my boss Ken, but it didn’t bother me a bit. It ended up being mostly Ken, Don, and I for most of the manning duty. We had some free time to explore a little. London is also a nice place to visit. In four years when the LNG Conference came around again, I was scheduled to go to Niese, France, but I got bumped by a Vice President at the last minute. I guess they got me back for the first class ride.

 

The Tower of Big Ben In London, England.

 

Edinburgh, Scotland

When we were working on the Ekofisk oil, water, gas separator problems, we commissioned Edinburgh University to do some test work modeling the separators. We came to Edinburgh to review their findings and prepare recommendations to finally resolve the problems. I dearly loved the rolling bright green hills with the fat white sheep scattered over them. The best part of the trip was the fantastic pints of beer that were the best I have ever tasted. This was my favorite spot to visit of all the places I travelled.

 

 

The Edinburgh Castle near Edinburgh, Scotland.

I had a lot of trips to Alaska including the North Slope of Alaska that I also enjoyed. but after
all this travel, there is no place like home.

Thanks for reading World Traveler 2,

Hawg Jaw Bill