SYNOPSIS

The oil & gas production processes (such as sand separation, produced water treatment, seawater filtration, crude oil and gas treatment) require reliable monitoring and control strategy to maintain optimum operational performance. Moreover, process operations are always being affected by disturbances, which negatively affect product quality and cause unplanned process shutdown. Therefore, a good understanding and competency on the major oil & gas production process operations and control are vital for the production personnel. This 2-day course is designed to educate the participants on the engineering design and process control practices in the oil & gas production processes, such as sand separation, produced water treatment, and crude oil desalting.

The course will cover the following major topics:

• Introduction to Oil & Gas Production Processes
  (such as offshore sand separation, produced water treatment, crude oil treatment, etc.);
• The Basics of Process Control;
• Process Characteristics: Static and Dynamic;
• Final Control Elements;
• Controller Algorithm and Controller Tuning;
• Single & Multiple Control Loops.

Upon completion, the participants will be able to understand the process control fundamentals related to oil & gas production processes.   Moreover, they will have the basic knowledge to apply the process control concepts in monitoring their production process performance, and for better controller tuning to optimize their production outputs.


BIODATA OF SPEAKERS

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Syamsul Rizal Abd. Shukor is an Associate Professor and Deputy Dean of the School of Chemical Engineering at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). He received his B.Eng (Hons) in Chemical Engineering from University of Bradford, UK in 1997. In 2000, he was conferred M.Sc (Chemical Engineering) by USM. He received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK and specializes in process control and simulation. His research areas are in process control and simulation, process intensification systems, and hydrodynamics of fluid flow in microchannels. He has conducted various training, workshops, seminars, short courses and consultation for chemical & process industries in process control and separation technologies. He has also participated in the Gas Treatment Plant Project Onshore Gas Terminal in Turkmenistan under PETRONAS Carigali, Acid Gas Removal Unit (AGRU) project in TNBR Sdn. Bhd., as well as handling process safety management (PSM) of PETRONAS Sarawak Operation (SKO). He is an active member of Society of Engineering Education Malaysia, Malaysian Automatic Control Engineers Society, and the President of Malaysia Process Control (MyPC) Society. He also a corporate member of IEM.

Ir. Prof. Dr. Zainal Ahmad  is presently the Dean of the School of Chemical Engineering at USM. He received his B.Eng (Hons) in Chemical Engineering from University of Surrey, UK in 1998. He obtained his M.Sc in Applied Process Control (distinction) and PhD from University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 2001 and 2005, respectively. He had previously worked as a process engineer in a petrochemical plant before joining USM in 2000. His main research interests include artificial neural network, process modeling, model-based control and neural network applications in chemical processes. He is also a certified trainer from PSMB (TTT/3749), and conduct training, workshops, seminars, short courses and consultation for the chemical & process industries, such as short courses on Aspen simulation, and the Fundamental Process Control and Beyond, Process Control training for UOP and NPK. He also involves in the “AGR System” for Energy and Lab Solution for TNBR.

Dr. John Eow is a Chartered Engineer (UK) and a Professional Engineer (BEM), with more than 16 years’ experience in the Oil & Gas industry, having worked with offshore sand separation, produced water treatment, crude oil dehydration-desalting, seawater treatment & injection, and gas processing technologies and equipment. John is also a HAZOP facilitator for oil & gas companies. He also conducts lectures and training in chemical and process engineering at Singapore Institute of Technology. John obtained his B.Eng in Chemical Engineering (1st Class Hons) and PhD in 1998 and 2002, respectively, from the University of Surrey, UK. His PhD work was on electrostatic water-oil separation technology. Over the years, he has worked as a technology specialist with oil & gas technology companies, such as Global Process Systems (Malaysia), Keppel Offshore and Marine (Singapore), Cameron Process Systems (Singapore, Japan and Malaysia), and EDES Technology Malaysia. His experiences cover a wide range from Technical and Commercial Proposal to Detailed Engineering to Commissioning to Production Improvement & Troubleshooting for oil & gas processes and technologies. He has also conducted technical training and process improvement work for Saudi ARAMCO, SABIC, PETRONAS, Sarawak SHELL, CNOOC, Murphy Oil Sarawak, Husky Oil Energy, GAIL India, Transwater API, CPOC, Boustead-Salcon Water Solutions, etc.