P47 Jamnagar DTA refinery

P  47

Jamanagar DTA Refinery

Though I have covered the MTF layout freezing for crude storage already, that was one of pre-project activity. We should closely look at the evolution of this refinery right from fundamentals!

Since Reliance did not have any back ground past experience in implementing a crude processing refinery, they picked up personnel with vast experience in refinery projects, technical services and operating experience. Stalwarts like S/Sh KKM, SR Setlur, P K Kapil, Maurice Banniyan,Dr Partho Maitra, N B Deshmukh, P Raghavendran, J Rajaraman  and others were roped in as core team to conceptualize the basic configuration and processing requirements. There used to be bitter struggle to choose between the downstream plant requirements to arrive at whether to opt for Coke generation or to stop with bitumen. Finally , with the vast experience &proficiency of SRS, the management did the cost benefit analysis and chose to opt for Coke generation.

Then came the tricky issue ! The main refinery plants were categorized under Reliance Petroleum,a newly formed company  and the Aromatics plant were categorized under RIL. As the marine area was more than 16 kms away from plant area, they were grouped under RPTL- Reliance Ports& Terminal Ltd.

When it came for employees, to avail the State Govt. bonus of maximizing the locals,especially people of Gujarat origin, all others in the project were transferred to a new company REAL -Reliance Engg. and Associates Ltd.  But the management ensured that no employee will lose his stature or seniority.

The complete detailed configuration and stream balance finalisation credit should go to Dr Partho Maitra and N B Deshmukh only.  Then came the selection of Technology for various streams. There we did not have any issue at all.  By nomination M/S UOP was chosen for all the refinery plants including Aromatics and Coker Technology was chosen from M/S Foster-Wheeler, Houston.

Then came the crucial  issue of PMC and DEC selection ! As no one in the group had prior experience of managing such a large complex project execution, Reliance wanted world leaders to get in as both PMC and DEC ( Project Management consultant & Detailed Engineering Consultant) . The core leadership team developed an enquiry document and floated internationally. Five reputed agencies submitted their offer- 3 from USA/Europe and 2 from Japan. Almost all parties indicated a time schedule of 65 months from start to finish. But considering the urgency and financial stake, Reliance wanted the plant completion much earlier. You know in Reliance we have a slogan- World Class Quality- on Yesterday Basis at Zero Cost. Applying that, MDA asked SRS to work out the best optimum schedule, since he had back ground experience of working in Shell, India  and as MD of Bongaigan  Refinery at Assam. He came out that if somebody can work optimally, this project can be commissioned in 46 months flat. So that became the bench mark  and the management deliberated with all parties. Three parties walked out and only two remained to consider.            Contd.....

Key Aspects :- Critical challenge, Incident analysis, Lack of experience/exposure, Team building, Transfer

P 46 Jamnagar refinery Ph1 DTA

P 46

Jamnagar Refinery Ph1 DTA

MDA chided him stating" Wnen AR, walking encyclopedia on CCE Rules is there, who asked you to go directly and meet the statutory officials at Nagpur?  Hand over all the data/drawings to him and it is his responsibility". MSR accusingly handed over all the documents to me. Rest is history.

When I went to Nagpur, I met Sh Ghoshal only, since I already knew that Indian Statutes do not permit any thing more than 1,00,000 M3  for floating roof tanks in a dyke, where as the drawing produced by MSR was showing 1,60,000M3! During discussions.Sh.  Ghoshal made it clear- you have only two choices- 1)If Reliance is particular to go ahead only with 1,60, 000 M3 tank sizing, it requires fundamental rule amendment that too to be cleared by parliament &it may take years that too may get cleared or not,  2)Revise the design to 1,00,000 M3 tank sizing and bring; will be cleared across the table on the same day. As I was the person , considering safety,who prescribed these limits in the preceding year, I took the decision then and there to go for the revised design.

On reaching Bombay, I got in touch with Mr Raghavan, that time MD of M/S VTV, who himself was a tank design specialist. When I explained to him the back ground and our requirement, he was too happy to get involved in these challenging tasks.  From fundamentals, he calculated and arrived at the tank sizing of 92MDia.X 20M high floating roof tanks for crude , which are still India's big in terms of a single tank for crude oil service. Then came the MTF layout arrangement issue !! But by that time. the scenario got shifted to Bechtel, London.

With some back ground calculations, Reliance logistic team  (led by Sh J Rajaraman) arrived at the total crude inventory of  12,00,000 M3 for sustained operations of the refinery. It is to be noted that the refining capacity was envisaged to be only 9 MMPTA at that stage and no leverage was thought off for the crude mixing/blending/ balancing tank provisions etc.! So Bechtel and the project team led by me, concluded to make provisions for 14 crude tanks in MTF.  Then came the challenge in layout meeting all statutory obligations-CCE, TAC, Factory Inspectorate. My dear friend Mr Praful Sanghrajka was present in London during that stage and he came out with a brilliant idea. His suggestion was to stagger each tank forming Z shape layout, so that the tank to tank inter-distance meet the 1D stipulation of TAC and create inter-dyke service roads for emergency fire engine access. Though each tank dyke called for 270X195 M dyke space to meet the 1,10,000M3 spill volume for a tank break down, this zig zag arrangement ensured complete safety and even the statutory authorities got stunned during review. As promised Sh Ghoshal cleared &approved that drawing on the same day.
That cautionary layout came as blessing in disguise in future!That is a different story, which shall be addressed while talking about JERP-Jamnagar Ph2.                                           Contd.......

Key Aspects :- Communication, Conviction, Innovative, Planning, Proactive approach, Responsible 

P 45 Transition to Jamnagar Refinery 1995

P 45

Transition to Jamnagar Refinery Project -1995

As the federal govt. eased the condition for Pvt. sector entrepreneurs to launch petroleum refining in India, Reliance was the first player to take that call. Sh.Dhirubhai being a dreamer who always thought BIG, commissioned a team to ensure the central Govt. approval is sought for putting a refinery at Motikavadi, near Padana! It took nearly three years for that team to succeed in overcoming all obstructions and legal tangle etc. DHA 's preference to locate the plant there, has some back ground implied reasons. The village Padana being Mrs Kokila Behen's (Mrs.DHA)native village, he wanted this factory to be Industrial Taj Mahal of India!! Of course, on date, it has beaten his expectations and it is the world Largest Refining&PetroChemical complex , processing 66MMT/Annum Crude processing and proving the term in Hydrocarbon Industry parlour -Bottom of Barrel processing!

Let us see what was my role &responsibility in fulfilling that dream ! In  Jan.'95, though I was still looking after the finishing requirements of Hazira Ph2 OSBL,  I have been dragged as one of the first few. On Jan.30th, a chartered aircraft was arranged to visit Jamnagar plant site (Group of 14 members) to go around the thorny bush area and get an idea of the acquired land for putting a refinery. That was a different experience walking around in thorny bushes. To take possession of the land area, M/S  SC Malhotra, Umesh Bhandari &Lakshminarayan  were the first to be stationed there.
In March itself, I was asked to hand over the remnants of Hazira task to Sh Sekhar Kale and transferred to Jamnagar Refinery project , shifted the office from Vakola to Ballard estate.

Here I have to bring out one important incident what I came across right in the beginning.. Company hired Mr M Subramaniam of ex L&T general manager , as construction manager for Jamnagar project execution. He, out of his enthusiasm and pro-active thinking wanted to seek the Marine tank farm Crude tanks layout clearance from CCE department. He picked up some design drawings of M/S CBI(Chicago Bridge& Iron), that time world famous tank contractors for 1,60, 000 M3 floating roof tanks for crude storage and went directly to Nagpur. As written earlier, by that time Dr H Mukherjee retired and Sh Ghoshal was in-charge of the department. On reaching Nagpur, MSR met 4 officers ( M/S Bhandopadhyay, MA, Bharadwaj &Ghoshal himself). As he was not known to the department, every one queried him- "What happened to AR and this department recognizes him only as Reliance representative. Ask him  to meet us for discussions/approval." MSR got really wounded and on reaching Bombay , he phoned me next morning. He , being a Tamilian  used all Tamil slangs and gave me gally. He questioned me asking "what Jadu you have done to that department and every one is only talking about you; even though I am GM&above your rank in company, how come they have refused? I am going to complain to Sh MDA about you". I responded politely, you should have hinted me before going to Nagpur, but now it is too late. You know, he did complain to MDA. Can anyone guess, what was the reaction/response&instructions to him on that?                            Contd.....

Key Aspects :- Incident analysis, Initiative, Motivation, Opportunity, Proactive approach, Recognition, Responsible Transfer 

P 44 CCE Committee Report

P  44

CCE Committee Final Report

Those two days at Peddar Road, myself and MA used to look into various sub committee monthly proceedings and chalk out the draft in series . Then used to have deliberations with Ghoshal and Dr Patel for their expert comments. Dr HM used to be an expert observer.  Once certain conclusions are arrived, we used to dictate the final  version to Ms Meena. Since she was the party who typed and compiled the monthly exchanges of all sub committees, she did not find difficult in taking notes.
 After those 2 day mind blogging efforts, Ms Meena did a wonderful compilation of all our dictation  and prepared floppy disks. She only took 4 days to prepare the final version.

By that time it was Oct. '94 end and Dr HM has to submit the final report to Ministry before his retirement in Dec.end.As MA was posted in Madras by that time, that being Deepavali approach time, he suggested that I should come over to Madras and he can organize to get them print compiled/ edited at Adyar Xerox, Madras. Madras being my home town I did not have any issue and celebrated Deepavali with my mother and brother family. Camping for 10 days, we could complete our task successfully, and the final Report prints were ready by Nov. end.

On 7th Dec.1994, in presence of the  Ind.Ministry Director Mrs Bharadwaj, Ghoshal, me, Dr HM presented the final Report to Mr Gupta, Secretary, Min. of Industries&Commerce.  After going through the findings and Recommendations by the Committee, the Govt. acknowledged the efforts of the committee members and appreciated. For info. substantial amount of this committee recommendations have already been incorporated in statutes.

Knowingly or unknowingly, this is one feather in my cap.

 Having narrated  about the overall committee proceedings, I have to cover one specific sub committee function and one notable incident.

During the course of the committee operations, Dr HM felt importance and necessity to visit a few marine ports and inspect the existing infrastructure , ship loading and unloading operation of hydrocarbon fluids. For that he formed a special task force- MA, AR, Sh Mishra of EIL, & Sh Muthu Manoharan of SPIC and assigned the responsibility. All these members went to Kandla and Tuticorin  ports.  In Tuticorin, our interest was to inspect and note unloading of VCM from the ship to spheres belonging to a company in Arumuganeri and in  Kandla, IOC operations of loading NGL in a ship.
In Tuticorin , the team did not find anything odd and ticked the operations.  But when it came to Kandla, everything was proceeding  towards unsafe condition! Though our official inspection was slated for next day morning, we wanted to make a surprise inspection in the late evening itself. When we reached there, we found that no loading arm was there; khalasi workers were shifting the loaded NGL hoses by crow bars so as not to get twisted! Opposite to that , there were instrument/ communication junction boxes without any cover- open state and  live. Typical of AR, I got alarmed and shouted loud calling for the Ship Captain and any engineer-in-charge present. The captain responded, stopped the operation and reported to local IOC management.  That night, the local Divisional manager Mr D'Souza called on us at guest house  and threatened that how can we stop IOC operations and he will complain to CCE and Ministry! Without any fear, I said 'Go ahead'.  This being a safety issue, when he complained, he was snubbed by his management itself.

Key Aspects :-  Critical challenge, Incident analysis, Surprise&shock, Team building

P 43 CCE Committee Contd.

P 43

CCE  Committee Contd...

After Sh MDA issuing concurrence and endorsement , I conveyed the same to Dr HM.  Immediately, we convened the first meeting of all 5 sub committee leaders and worked out the  strategy and working methodology for each sub committee. At  that stage since Sh M.Anbunathan  was there in Nagpur, he was roped in as an active member. Since he had the profile records of all members, he and me allocated various members in each sub committee and got the concurrence of sub committee heads. After that , it was concluded that all sub-committees shall meet at least once in a month and deliberate to furnish their final report by Aug./Sept'94 positively.

Question arose, who shall host the monthly meetings of each sub committee &who will bear the expenses for travel and boarding &lodging for the members to attend. As the constitution of the committee was for national cause, it was concluded that each member in a sub committee will host one day meeting at their premises by rotation and all that sub committee members will travel and attend at their own company's cost.  So there was no question of lodging arose. Beauty was that every member cooperated with full heart , participated and contributed effectively.

Coming to operation of each sub committee:  Though each sub committee had its identified leader. AR took full control of the situation and acted like an orchestra conductor! I made it a point to be present in all sub committee meetings every month i.e attend 5 sub committee meetings every month at different venues across India. While conducting the meetings at each place, we used to identify several aspects concerning that sub committee's assigned task and raise debatable questions. As assignment,  it was expected of each member present to address and issue their versions of response  to my Reliance office secretariat by that month end- in those days, since computers and e-mail exchanges were not prevalent, people used to transmit by Fax or Telex. My personal secretary  Ms Meena Punjabi used to collect/correlate the data  immediately  and send back to all members of that sub committee positively by 2nd/3rd of every month.  People used to read and come prepared for valuable discussions during the forth coming meeting of that sub committee. It was  a treat to watch those proceedings.

 Here I would like to highlight two  important points.
In one of the meetings where Dr HM was the leader of one sub committee, when I was differing with him on a technical aspect, one of that sub committee member present cautioned me  that you cannot differ with CCE!
I reacted saying, DR HM is present here as leader of sub committee and not as CCE and when it comes to technical argument, official position does not matter. Dr HM being an excellent technocrat in Bureaucratic position silenced that person saying AR is right  &he can openly express.

On another occasion, one of the sub committee member cautioned me stating'what you are prescribing here may affect your own installation and be careful'. I responded to him,' I am not here to defend any Reliance interest and even if comes to cut my throat, I cannot violate the Technical importance'. The whole team clapped and appreciated my stand. Rather at the close of the entire Committee Report submission, Dr HM personally phoned MDA and expressed his thanks in deputing me for this assignment.

Final report preparation and how it got edited and printed:-  That is a big story. Dr HM did not imagine  that the final report will be  that voluminous! He convened a meeting at IOC Chairman  guest house  bungalow  in Peddar road with identified limited team of personnel.    Dr HM, Ghoshal, MA, AR, Dr Patel of TCS and my secretary Ms Meena were only present for 2 days to finalize the final report.                                                                                                                   Contd........

Key Aspects :- Critical challenge, Incident analysis, Leadership,Recognition, Reputation, Responsible

P 42 Hazira Ph2 &CCE Committee Contd.

P  42

Hazira Ph2 &CCE Committee Contd.

Here I would like to touch the peculiar and unexpected experience what I have gained in my career life! In 1993, though I was working in Reliance, a leading Private sector enterprise, I was nominated as Member-Secretary for an Industry Ministry convened  National Committee for Reviewing the Existing Rules and Recommend Revisions, under the Chairmanship of Dr H Mukherjee, then CCE.

Let me narrate how this happened !
As the project manager for tank farm at Hazira, I undertook the responsibility of coordinating  & seeking the layout approval, clearance of all electrical items meeting the Area classification requirements for all Reliance manufacturing facilities from Dept.of Explosives. By that I established good rapport with the department officials.   For that ,once I went to Nagpur, CCE Dr H Mukherjee  specifically called me  and gave a form.  He specifically told me to give that to Sh KKM and ask him to nominate two experienced personnel from Reliance to join that committee.

The task &assignment for that committee was to thoroughly review that time existing Rules and country Codes and identify the short-comings/recommend the required amendments/corrections.  This committee formation itself arose due to a major explosion in IPCL, Nagothane C2 complex in Nov.'1991 and the country went into shock mode.

That being a request from country's highest statute official for Safety , KKM  responded immediately and returned that paper. When I was handing over that filled form, Dr HM  requested Reliance to host the first meeting at Mumbai Leela Hotels for the committee formation. He indicated that there shall be about 50 industry experts drawn from all facets of Hydrocarbon industry. On return, with the permission of the management, I organised that meet on the fixed date. Yes, there was full attendance and experts from Manufacturing, Engineering consultants, Fabrication Industry Designers , Inspection Agency experts, other Allied Statute Department Leaders from both Central and State attended that meeting. The quorum was full and Dr HM/ Sh K Ravichandra -ex-GM  Visag refinery and that time OISD Chief and Sh Ghoshal ,Dy.CCE occupied the stage and initiated the meeting on time.  As expected, there were heated deliberations on the involved tasks  and how to go about addressing the lacunae  in, that time existing Rules and how they vary with the International Standards and Codes etc. Finally , just before lunch break , it was concluded that there shall be 5 sub-committees led by  relevant industry Statute Heads and all other members will be nominated in the committees where their expertise is called for. It should be noted, until then I was only a spectator and the host for the day's proceedings! I  was at sidelines of the hall.

At that juncture, Sh KR raised a general query, asking Dr., do you not feel  the necessity for an organizing secretary  for carrying out this mammoth task? Immediately Dr.&Ghoshal  realized its importance  and started looking at members present in the hall and they could not pin point anybody.
Since KR knew me and my background from my Visag days, he suggested 'Why not Ramanathan?"
Immediately Dr. jumped to that suggestion and asked me whether I can take up that challenge. I responded saying that I have to seek my management approval for that  and will revert shortly.
On return to office, I contacted Sh MDA directly and sought his concurrence. He jumped with joy and told me to take that as an assignment and enjoy. "Ensure to concentrate and bill all expenses to Reliance only."  That made me a task master !!                                          Contd........

Key Aspects :- Codes&Standards, Faith, Human relations, Initiative, Recognition, Team building

P41 Hazira Ph2 &CCE Committee

P  41

Hazira Ph2 &CCE Committee  Contd.

Though I did not have any material inspection experience, situation forced me to take the call. After seeing the limited stock at their Kalamboli yard  I devised my own QAC and moved forward.  Since the service was only discharge of effluent  that too in river bed, I decided to even clear the slightly pitted CS pipe.  As we were desperate to source requisite pipe quantity, after selecting some quantity from there, me and the party(Mr Shah) flew to Visag. where they had  a huge bulk quantity.  When inquired, we understood that these were excess stock after the steel plant completion and this party acquired them  in auction. That gave us confidence and identified enough quantity for our objective.
Typical of inspection group, Mr P Ethiraj criticized me  for clearing and accepting that second hand stock! But I did not heed to that , was confident and sure of my actions. The management appreciated my initiative and involvement. We could complete the erection in time to meet the ETP commissioning schedule.

Hazira Ph2 plants commissioning (except the cracker)
Since the C2 import terminal facilities were commissioned in 1991 itself,  the feed stock availability for MEG, HDPE and PP were assured. Though M/S Lummus was the principle contractor, Reliance management did not have full confidence  to line up the plants and utilities commissioning activity.
They hired out a task force team from M/S Fluor Daniel to check and inspect various plant B/L inter-connects and Utility packages box-up. As usual they played the consultant role only. Rather they used to listen to our presentation and learn  from  our experience . Typically, they used to wonder , how this Reliance project and Construction team  are able to meet these challenging demands of utility requirement fluctuations !

One thing I would like to place on record here. As Hazira was the launching pad for Reliance Petrochemicals growth, MDA used to add or enhance plant capacity  and introduce new plants  very frequently. As offsite project manager I used to have nightmares about the utility package sizing and capacity of pipeline transfers. Fortunately, since our fundamentals and design basis factors were strong, we could manage /face the fluctuating demands. M/S Fluor Daniel task force members were astonished  and looked at us with high regard.


 Extra jobs & Claim of the offsite consultant HGC
As there were continuous changes in offsite engineering, to suit to various ISBL design changes or new plant additions, the triangular project execution team had a work method understanding to record the variations and corresponding man hour efforts. As the changes were too many, the team thought that it is not right to amend the work order now and then for raising the invoice. So KSS took that responsibility and he used to share with me and PBMR periodically. As this was going on smoothly, a funny thing happened at H&GC end. They had some internal shuffle and some new senior executives joined their services.  As the new management wanted to show-off, they approached Reliance procurement head Sh BN and requested for project close out. When he discussed and inquired whether you have any outstanding claims to be addressed by Reliance, they said nothing outstanding.
As they were new and not knowing any back ground and not even consulting KSS they wanted the close out. Since BN was aware of every thing, he phoned me after their leaving and asked about my estimate. I told him that it will be about Rs 4 Crores; then I shared the situation with KSS. He was literally shaken and cried with  his MD Dr Dravid.. It is another matter that BN and Dr Dravid settled the matter mutually and H&G got paid for those extra jobs clocked.                     Contd.....

Key Aspects :-  Critical challenge, Faith, Incident analysis, Initiative, Reputation

P 40 Hazira Ph2 &CCE Committee

P  40

Hazira  Ph2 &CCE Committee contd.

Mr YR Trivedi of ex-IPCL Baroda was the chief operating manager of cracker then.  Typical of him, he made a big hue and cry at the spot when NRP and me were struggling to identify the trouble. Lucky for us, Sh HS Kohli , that time site president was taking his morning round and saw the situation. He stopped and shouted at YRT to move from that area  saying the projects and construction will find a solution and rectify; until then don't disturb them and leave them to concentrate. We could resolve the situation after lining up Fouress service engineer. He replaced an internal to resolve. On priority basis he replaced that component in all 6 pumps within  three weeks.
The same valves are functioning even now.

 Beauty pond conceptualization and Fire water pump house in South plot
To meet the raw water capacity to cater all plants  and augment fire water pond and pumping rate, introduction of pond in South plot became necessary. That was the time, the site management quarters including Chairman's rest house were under implementation.  Mr Kishore Pradhan,Reliance landscape architect along with me and PBMR  deliberated to conceptualize a beauty pond in front of Chairman's bungalow . We envisaged to beautify it even to install some beach umbrellas and swans/ducks to float. As PM , I took advantage of that pond and conceived to install a fire water pump house with 6 X 1000 M3/Hr pumping capacity to cater to South plot meeting that time TAC regulations, a statutory insurance requirement. With the services of M/S TechnoFire  I got the approval clearance  fast  and serve the upcoming naphtha tanks, cracker plant, already commissioned C2 terminal , jetty facilities etc. That dream conceptualization by the team  only sustains Hazira growth  even as on date.

One lighter aspect !
Considering the pipe stress values, one OSBL-ISBL interface piping at cracker B/L called for 10S
SS piping only and anything higher in thickness was not acceptable. As Mr Charles D'Souza was the responsible construction manager for that ,he flatly refused to accept the 40S SS sourced by bulk  procurement group. To convince him to accept the available pipe (40S), Sh Mahesh Kamdar  and Sh PS Prasad approached me, since I was close to CD at Hazira site. They were telling me- "AR ,USKO
BHOLO, Hum Jadha Vajhan Maal detha hoon, phir bhi  whoh  kyon  maantha nahin; Usko samjhao ". Luckily I could slip out of situation and they did top-up with 10S pipe later.

PTA Sleeperette
This is a novel pipe rack! The designed pipelines support arrangement was neither a conventional rack nor a sleeper. This was required to pneumatically transfer feed PTA from PTA plant to Polyester plant ; we wanted to transmit the powder with least energy utilizing feasible slope in pipe configuration. The arrangement was conceived at North of PTA plant  and arrangement appeared as if a military band  on the march! Myself and NRP christened it as Sleeperette.

ETP outlet discharge to river
This task and assignment was tricky one. Site management Mr HSK was pressing for sourcing 450M  30" dia. pipe for that service, which has to be partially buried and to be routed deep into river water. Typical of Sh Mahesh Kamdar, he was looking for rejects and project excess &delayed action.. Real pressure came on projects group and I have to take the call. When I continuously chased him, he identified  some second hand pipe stock with a trader.But that party did not have records or certificates for them.  In absence of any certificates, he could not request any third party inspectorate to check them .  Inspection responsibility fell on me.                                                                                                                                                                                                                Contd.......

Key Aspects :- Critical challenge, Incident analysis, Initiative, innovative, Opportunity, Proactive approach, Technical issue

P 39 Hazira Ph2 &CCE Committee Contd.

P 39


Hazira Ph2 &CCE Committee Contd.

Hazira Ph2.

Here I would like to touch upon my learning from Sh KKM  and  review of project management.
Under Mr C W Joshi as central planning manager KKM used to conduct weekly review of all Hazira projects progress. That meeting attendance is compulsory for every personnel associated with Hazira projects including commercial and accounts. It was expected of every PM to prepare the weekly report and present there. The presentations should highlight the detailed report on Plan Vs Actual in each front, listing and reasoning for the lag  and plan &strategy to make up  each one of them. Considering KKM' s stature and style, it used to be a virtual viva-voce for each PM.  The meeting used to start at 9.30 Hrs and may go up to 3 to 3.30 PM every week.

Every week one or the other used to get completely ragged.But at the same time, we used to gain knowledge and confidence in project execution. His main slogan used to be- "Nobody can be an expert in all aspects of project implementation ; one can be subject knowledge expert in one discipline only, but should be capable of identifying  experts in every aspect of project execution  and develop relations with them to bank upon."

As part of ownership mentality, each engineer in projects used to take their assignments as if their personal task  and focus. In my team I had AVN Murthy, Pandya and SM Pathak &couple of junior engineers.  Of Course Yana was more experienced and used to guide them.Lead each one of them both in utilities package as well as in U/G and above ground piping engineering. For critical issues, he used to go  to H&G Prabhadevi office  and take up with concerned directly. The best thing is that he used to keep us well informed (AR/KSS/PBMR) so that there is no confusion among us.
OSBL team best feature is, all package vendors and piping contractors used to take the onus of responsibility , perform quality and timely execution. It was a team work and I got recognized as an outstanding team leader.

All my team members used to spend 3 to 4 days /week to interact with construction group, package execution contractors  and site materials  management. By that exercise, they could understand the field constraints and undertake the necessary corrective actions in time.

 I would like to share some of the mile stone achievements and notable incidents:

 Under PBMR management, M/S L&T have driven over 1 lac. precast piles in one working day. This is a world record!

Myself & NR Prakash faced a freak challenge in Cooling water pumps discharge in, that time world's biggest Forced draft cooling tower of 16 cell CT of each cell  3300M3/Hr capacity. This tower is serving the C2  naphtha Cracker & associated Aromatics plant. We thought that the integral NRV &isolation valve supplied by M/S Fouress can meet our discharge objective. Both of us assumed that we are saving some amount to company and sold that idea to Mr Mahesh Kamdar, the procurement head then &he obliged. But to our misfortune, the NRV did not synchronise with pump trip isolation and pump used to reverse rotate. That caused panic to operations!
                                                                                                                        Contd......

Key Aspects :- Communication,  Delegation, Incidence analysis, Initiative, Leadership,
Multi discipline exposure, Planning&Scheduling, Team building

P 38 Hazira Ph2 & CCE committee

P 38

Hazira Ph2  & CCE Committee
I would like to split this into two sections:
1) Reliance Projects OSBL execution- Challenges faced and execution experience
2) How I carried out the national responsibility of Member-Secretary under Dr H Mukherjee -Review of existing Rules and Recommendation for amendments

Hazira Ph2
Here  only I have realised Sh DHA's long vision  and  Sh MDA as chemical engineer by qualification  leading  the team in making the company's growth vertical and exponentially enlarged !
The company's slogan - Think Big and Growth is way of Life  have become TRUE.

The company engaged M/S Lummus as overall management consultant  and signed licence agreement with various international technology suppliers like M/S Shell, BF Goodrich , Du Pont etc. For strategy sake formed Reliance Petrochemicals  to put HDPE &  PP , in colloquial term called Illu/Pillu. But when it came to offsite &utilities, every thing was common.
The mother plant cracker was finalised last that too engineering borrowed from an abandoned project in Far East. It was real challenge for OSBL to freeze the Design basis  for utilities packages and offsite interconnect piping! At one stage, even Lummus team got perplexed in freezing them.  This aspect was true even for freezing the unit locations in the overall plot plan and identify the Battery Limit interconnects and provision of isolation valves /Block&Bleed arrangement.

As luck would have it, Dr JV  Kelkar , a technology expert with project execution experience joined Reliance. He and me performed as team  and based on licensor tentative layout/s, with card board cut pieces to type and sizes, froze the layout.  He being a process system engineer, we could ensure the validation of plant streams continuity/relative geometric placements and placed them on an A0 drawing sheet. Then with Lummus process system engineers and H&G piping engineers  we identified the B/L interface requirements.  One can say we both learnt to play the LEGO game by that exercise. As computer technology and 3D modelling were not there in those days, our manual exercise only brought fruits.

H&G took the responsibility of developing the overall plot plan of Hazira based on our above inputs and M/S Lummus validated it. Then only H&G Process system manager Mr Dabholkar  with Mr Samir Karnik of JVK's team  developed the design basis for all utility packages and interconnect network piping sizes for both process fluids and utilities distribution. After developing the interconnect diagram by piping specialist Mr Krishnan of H&G, the process team carried out the hydraulic analysis and froze. After that only the detailed P&IDs were developed and approved by Lummus. Though it is more than 25 years back this exercise was carried out, every old timer in Reliance still relish that experience.

 The construction management was headed by Mr Lokheshwar and Sh GR Singh was his number two.  In between Mr Krishna Kumar came in picture but he could not face the pressure and demand of the work. For offisite and Utilities PBMRao  was identified as the overall construction manager.
He had the assistance of ace construction managers M/S V V Bala, Pushpanathan, Prasad, Kanniah,Madhu Narayan, Devaraj...... Each one of them was a champion  and they played their roles
effectively and H&G engg. office used to struggle in releasing the drawing deliverable.  Mr Yanamandra  was my ace champion .Lummus team used to wonder how this team is progressing so fast. From H&G side ,they identified Mr Kiran Shinde, the present Sr Vice President,Projects in Reliance as their PM  and we used to have a wonderful triangular basis understanding- Projects/Construction/Engg. consultant. Seeing our coordination and progress, Lummus management rarely interfered in project progress review of OSBL.                                   Contd.........

Key Aspects :-  Attitude,  Critical challenge,  Faith,  Leadership, Multi discipline exposure,  Team building

P 37 Hazira Ph1 C2 terminal Contd.

P 37

Hazira Ph1 C2 Terminal Contd.

5. In Hazira project formation days, Reliance did not have formal PSSR but used to have field checks carried out by respective subject matter specialists. Under that context NRP performed the field inspection along with Fernandez of L&T. They gave some punch list to construction team to modify/add a few supports in expansion joints. But no one in the whole team thought C2 at cryogenic state will be at -104 Deg. celsius and instead of expansion ,there will be contraction only. That realization got exposed only  after  NRP experiencing ankle fracture at the time of first charge of C2.
The piping contraction hit him when he was checking in position.
After that self and Fernandez visited him at home and completely reviewed/re-engineered the complete supporting arrangement for cryogenic C2 service. and executed the corrections.

C2 terminal system was commissioned on 8th Jan. '91 and my assistant SK Sharma took over as operations manager of C2 terminal. During commissioning at Jetty end Hugo was attempting to click
a photo of loading arm connection to the lighterage barge. Capt.Puri as area in-charge snatched the camera from him and wanted to throw it in river. Capt.Puri justified his action citing area classification factor and nobody argued with him.

Having fully shared my miserable experience as PM for C2 Terminal execution, I have to bring out some  lighter aspects experienced while closing out the project. As usual in any project, LGA had some extra claims to be directly settled by Reliance  as L&T was not a party to those changes/inclusions. So a meeting was arranged at Remagen, LGA HQ at Germany. Myself and Sh RK Sundaram went to LGA for final negotiations and settlement. RKS was President for Procurement and Contracts in Reliance. The meeting and settlement took place very cordially  and smooth.Everyone present was happy and LGA wanted to honour him with a gala dinner at Cologne.
Both of us are vegetarians at home and do not touch even eggs at home. LGA took us to a Chinese restaurant  and ordered only vegetarian dishes. The atmosphere was smooth and all enjoyed. The waitress brought a basket of wafers white in color looking like South Indian Sabudana chips.
We both ate them sumptuously and wondered how come a Chinese restaurant that too in Germany
know the recipe for SI Sabudana wafers! Inquisitively I asked that lady about that when she served the refill. Can somebody guess what was  her response? She responded that it is made of prawns and one of specialty of that restaurant. I felt sorry for RKS and I could not see his face. RKS being one of the finest gentleman, did not raise any issue ,enjoyed the balance food and made the day.

In summary, though the C2 Terminal execution was full of challenges, it made me strong in tank farm project execution and authority in Statutory rules and codes in hydrocarbon storage and handling.
As soon as C2 Terminal project was completed, the assignment of Hazira Ph2-utilities&offsite projects were waiting for me to take over, since HPR retired by then. During that phase I had entirely different responsibilities except that H&G and PBMR were associated with me throughout.

Hazira Ph2 Utilities&Offsite project went on from '91 to'96, but I was withdrawn from there by March'95 itself. In between this period I had the envious responsibility  of performing the role of
Member-Secretary in Review&Amendment committee for Hydrocarbon Storage and Gas Cylinder rules  under Chairmanship of Dr H Mukherjee  formed by Govt.of India..   Hazira Ph2 experience and CCE Committee roles shall be continued  in next........
Both these functions were handled simultaneously.

Key Aspects :-  Conviction, Incident analysis,  Lack of experience&exposure, Multi discipline exposure, Responsible

P 36 Hazira Ph1 C2 Terminal Contd.

P 36

Hazira Ph1 C2 Terminal contd.

3.Sulzer Boil-off compressor Coupling miss out. This is one more case where the supplier as well as the purchaser have missed out to include this while packing the consignment at the factory in Zurich!
But this item was reflected in packing list and we at site searched for it in the field throughout night.
Self, PBMR and Charles D'Souza read the drawing and conveyed to field workers to search for something equivalent to a pair of flanges coupled. The effort and exercise for search went on until 3.30AM that night and then we abandoned. Next day early morning we requested Sh PS Desai to get in touch with Sulzer factory and order for a replacement on SOS basis.  LGA also deputed their person for expediting the same. The funniest thing was that the original coupling after third party inspection was neatly packed for shipment to India but left out in factory and stored. The factory regretted for this lapse and arranged air freighting immediately. As usual we had to struggle to convince customs authorities during clearance.

4. Now comes the famous C2  cryogenic piping issue from Terminal to jetty and back.
In basic engg. LGA designed them as A312 8" Dia. line with re-circulation of same diameter for vapour balancing and to keep the line cool at all times. As the detailed engineering was in L&T scope
they did not issue the piping specification. L&T being turn key contract ,went ahead sourcing the pipe as well as fabricated fittings from indigenous source( M/S Rathnamani).  Pipe laying , supporting using M/S Swastik developed supports and radiography progressed very fast. Parallelly cold insulation job also started by M/S Lloyd Insulations. As good practice ,Reliance had the system of reporting daily progress and inspection reports to concerned. Mr P Ethiraj, that time chief of Inspection noticed in Mr Vyas daily reports that some fabricated elbows have failed in radiography and the field replaced them. After seeing the repetition for 2/3 days , he raised an alarm and Sh KKM
viewed that very seriously and brought to attention of MDA. Panic was set-in since L&T have gone ahead with fabricated longitudinal weld pipe and elbows out of them. KKM demanded that only seamless pipe should have been used for this service and L&T have taken us for a ride. Here also I became a target victim.When MDA have asked AM Naik and BN to substitute them with seamless pipe, they both responded that it will cost Rs 7Crores and Reliance has to bear the cost and delay.
Then PMSP was asked to get in touch with international majors like Lummus, Shell etc. and find out their methods and practice for handling cryogenic C2. His feedback collection only saved the situation. Then a management decision was taken that L&T will strip open all the insulation so far done and carry out 100% radiography of all the longitudinal welds also. During that crisis situation we had the Radiography shots interpretation expertise  non availability in India to manage such quantum . As God's gift, Kuwait war took place and many inspection engineers of Indian origin
were returning via Bombay. VVB was asked to place personnel at airport to identify and pick up the qualified personnel directly on landing. Reliance was lucky to get Mr Bhattacharya ,Lakshmipathy and two others. On crash basis the whole inspection exercise was carried out in flat 40 days. Meanwhile Sh NR Prakash was asked to check the pipe supports design.  Dr N Srinivas of Lloyd insulation came out with  precast puff insulation.  Meanwhile as basic inspection requirement, Reliance asked L&T to furnish the source  Factory heat certificates for the billets from which plates were rolled.. MrBambani of L&T did not understand the seriousness of the situation and was fooling around. Moreover M/S Rathnamani had some IT raids in their factory and godown and they have destroyed all the records/ certificates. So once again chaos set in. Finally AMN got himself involved
and found out these plates were sourced from Salem Steel plant and he could get certificates from their records.  Then only hydrotest of complete loop could be performed.        
                                                                                                                                          Contd........

Key Aspects :-  Accountable, Critical challenge, Incident analysis, Technical issue, Ups &down

P 35 Hazira Ph1 C2 Terminal contd.

P  35

Hazira Ph1 C2 Terminal Contd.

Though I had 20 years back ground experience in projects implementation then, the execution of this assignment  gave me some nightmares. The team-be it Reliance or L&T or LGA faced several issues in the course of this project implementation. As per customs and practice of import restrictions then, LGA had the scope and responsibility of complete basic engineering design-upto development of detailed P&IDs, tank design and furnishing the specials like cryogenic valves/apertunances, compressors and in-tank pumps only. The flare package was committed by L&T. When it came to loading arms, Reliance placed the order on M/S FMC, since that had relation to the fabricated cryogenic barges. LGA did participate and co-operated in the development of cryogenic barge and their deck boil-off compressor and selection of loading arms etc. The detailed engineering and the rest of items sourcing was on L&T scope. In these aspects, since L&T did not have enough project engineering and execution exposure, failed in many instances.

Here I have to record ,PBMR was the only supporter in Reliance who backed me like a rock. Like
a preset alarm clock we used to get connected over phone daily morning at sharp 7.15 hrs  and the conversation exchanges used to go for 1/2 hour daily.  The subject topic used to be the daily progress status, engineering mistakes, field material want list, suggestions to overcome the hurdles and whom should be contacted for what at either end etc.

I shall attempt to bring out some important facts that arose during that period.They are as below:

1. PBMR being a civil engineer by qualification applied his experience in concrete tank pad setting and curing.  Both L&T and ECC members in the field could not think and appreciate the necessity of placing tonnes of ice blocks on the concrete slab of 37M diameter,900mm thick!When he proposed that requirement, they poo-pooed him and were not ready to organise. Then he took that initiative and arranged. That only saved us the occurrence of cracks in slabs while setting.

2. Famous 'C' washer missing for in-tank pumps. This  is a big story by itself!This is one case of anybody/somebody will take care. The pump supplier has clearly reflected its requirement in their assembly drawing  and indicated under the scope of client. Both LGA and L&T missed out to notice the same; the pump specialist has arrived at site for installation and to carry out no-load run. When he started checking the consignment received, he brought that to attention of PBMR. As usual neither L&T nor LGA were able to bring any resolution for that issue; then PBMR passed on that responsibility to me over phone. The pump specialist visit was on man-day basis and he had other appointments to go. The pressure on me was on. Fortunately Sh S Narayana came to my rescue. Once I explained to him my requirement, he convened Mr Doshi to take that task on SOS basis; no commercial was discussed. Doshi searched Mumbai market for that special metal bar stock and sourced in a day.To check its quality we arranged to carry out the material testing in a Ghatkopar lab and Doshi swung into action to fabricate the 64nos.  C washer overnight and brought on Sunday evening by 5.30PM or so. As it called for post fabrication heat treatment, I swung into action. Contacted my friend Kalyan of ELCA lab and enquired. He said that owen charging for this small quantity will cost much. Without rethinking, self with Doshi and Ravi Chimata of procurement rushed to Elca and the job started. The heat treatment process was finished by 3AM and then Doshi phoned me where to deliver. I took the decision of him dropping the gunny bag at Vakola office and Sh HRMeswani   took the responsibility of picking the same and carry in chopper. On Monday morning at 8.30 AM PBMR and the pump expert acknowledged and confirmed its suitability.
                                                                                                                        Contd.......

Key Aspects :- Critical challenge, Incident analysis, Lack of experience&exposure, Team building

P 34 Hazira Ph1 C2 Terminal

P 34

Hazira Ph1 C2 terminal

Since I was the project manager for tank farm at Hazira, the implementation of this Ethylene terminal was entrusted to me with PBMR and Charles D'Souza as my counterpart in construction.  The turn key contract was awarded to L&T and LGA. The corresponding leaders were A S Deshmukh and Hugo Baumgartner. My team was SK Sharma, Manpreet Singh, AVN Murthy and SM Pathak. PBMR had the services of Sai,Kanniah, Anantha Narayan for execution and AJ Vyas for inspection. Hugo was supported by M/S Boltze, Shulte, Hermann. ASD had the back-up of L&T stalwarts -AM Naik, S Venkatramanan, Bhambani, VP Bajaj, Dakras, MR Shankar. In his project team he had Arvind Kumar, Fernandez, Dani, Shette, and many juniors. As that was the first turn key project to L&T GroupII in India, the complete focus was there in the execution but at the same time inexperience and lack of exposure in project implementation showed off.

Fortunately they left the tank design to LGA and VTV- that time Mr Raghavan,MD was personally involved in the design with Mr Shulte of LGA and they took complete care. When it came to civil, the project group left that aspect to ECC- that time a group company of L&T, and Mr HM Desai oversaw thecomplete task right from design stage. The team arrived at cost effective solution of selecting 9%Ni plate for inner shell of the double walled tank with only three layers of outer shell with 9% Ni and  the rest killed carbon steel and outer blast proof concrete  wall.  Without going through any argument or check , we .struck to shell height of 20M high, the national statutte for tank height. Even on date, the debate is still on in design circles, whether that tank design will fall under single integrity or double integrity factor!! But the tanks are still in stable operation for the last 25 years. Also the project team selected in-tank submersible pumps from M/S Ebara. These decisions were arrived at to minimise the nozzles at shell side of the tanks.With enough back ground experience, Mr Shulte recommended to engineering to raise the tank pad by 1.2 M from grade level  and make reinforced concrete pillars to rest the pad bottom. This he explained to us , such an arrangement will facilitate enough air circulation and will prevent the cryogenic cold temperature to go to mother earth. Of course the perlite insulation between the two shells was the obvious choice and turn key order was placed on a party from Ahmedabad . Mr Shreyas took complete charge and implemented. In those days M/S John Zink was the sole supplier of flare system and Mr Thiruwadi took care of the same.

When it came to fabricated equipments like drums,exchanger etc. typical of L&T they classified them into A,B,C category and sub ordered the B&C items on parties like Mistry Prabudas. There the trouble started.  Though LGA was impressing L&T at every stage  implying that ethylene in cryogenic state is a different animal and enough and due care has to be taken when choosing the tubes for exchanger in terms of metallurgy and tube sheet thickness and surface area calculation etc. L&T did not realise the seriousness of them. Mr PD Samant, head of exchanger design in L&T became a silent spectator and his voice was not heard by L&T  top management. That made my life miserable and I had to pay a heavy price in my career growth!

Similarly , since no one other than LGA had any exposure in Detailed engineering  of cryogenic state C2 transfer line, the issue cropped up for pipe supports and cold insulation. L&T identified M/S Swastik Engineers for pipe supports and M/S Lyoyd Insulation for cryogenic pipes insulation.
                                                                                                                         Contd.........

Key Aspects :- Critical challenge, Lack of experience&exposure, Proactive approach, Technical issue, Ups&down