P 58 JMD DTA Contd.

P 58

JMD DTA Contd.

As I recollect the happenings during execution of DTA infrastructure/utilities and offsite, the story goes on like Hanuman tail!

Next I plan to narrate the happenings with respect to Cooling water system

On my first entry to Bechtel London office, I had the shock! After officially getting introduced to Reliance top management team then(M/S Mike Kinny and Maurice Banniyan),as OSBL PM, they gave me to review the cooling water pump data sheet , which has to be included  in MR for floating enquiry to market. I don't know what made me to look at the head value and temperature even before looking at the pump capacity in that data sheet!  To my surprise ,Bechtel process engineer for Utilities and Offsite  has indicated that as 9.5 Kg/cm2 g whereas it should have to be of the order of 4-6 Kg/cm2 g only.. None in the group have realized  or were able to understand what could be the implication if that  pressure value has been retained as such! Every one thought that since I am not a chemical engineer by qualification and only a project manager from India, my proposition should not be considered at all.
That forced me to carry out a detailed calculation for the potential loss in energy consumption, which came to Rs 1.2 Crores/day only on cooling water transfer from CT to plant area for circulation   and return back to top of the CT.and threatened them that if they are not ready to review my suggestion, I shall write to MDA by fax and report to him. Typical of Mike Kinny, he threatened me that he will throw me from the stairs and complained to D Murali.  DM in his own style tried to convince me to keep quiet and forget; but since it was in company's long term interest, I did not relent and made Bechtel to realize the fault.  That made Tony Kerren and Pratap Patel to check the data from fundamentals and then they negotiated with me to agree for 5.1 kg/cm2 g keeping some cushion in hand.

For  information, in DTA we had 7 C Ts each having 3 X 6000 M3/Hr cooling water pumps and my check has saved 7 X 3 X 500 KW /hour power consumption=10500 KW/Hr i.e 10.5 MW/Hr. These pumps run as long as the the user plant/s  are on line.

Minor issue: While carrying out the detailing engineering, the U/G to A/G, piping group had confusion in the provision of equalizing manifold at plant B/L  and difficulty in tracing the supply line vs return line. As in those days since 3D modelling was not in vogue, the piping group had difficulty in identifying line numbers  to release Isometrics.

DTA faced one of the biggest challenge before plant commissioning.  There was an unprecedented storm of about 180 km/hr wind velocity and all wooden cooling tower internals flew away in air.  Though Reliance could claim advance Loss of Profit from insurance company,on SOS basis we had the services of M/S Paharpur Cooling Towers to re-build all the disturbed towers and restore normalcy. Fortunately that has not delayed the commissioning of main plants
                                                                                                                                    contd....

Key Aspects :- Conviction, Critical challenge, Faith. Initiative, Surprise& shock, Technical issue

P 57 JMD DTA contd.

P  57

JMD DTA Contd.

As I said earlier, my water story during DTA days continued at different angles!

On my return from Chennai, with the help of Jamnagar engg. group I got the sacrificial anode introduced at all en route manholes in that 3 X 16 Km long sea water supply lines and return brine line and got over the mess.  Afterwards we never had any problem at all and all these lines are in service without any break for the last 17 years. Touch wood!

Having touched intake sea water, let us see what all difficulties we faced in sea water storage after the filtration unit  in MTF area. As nobody has carried out the engineering and execution  of this large capacity- 10500M3/Hr. of sea water intake, Reliance was forced to go with experimenting for filtration package selection. Not to take any chance at all, Bechtel went ahead with conventional classifier arrangement and placed the turn key order on M/S UEM, a Delhi party. Though it was one man show, Mr Bhatia put his heart and soul in execution of the same. Though he faced lot of financial constraints, Reliance backed him to ensure successful completion.

As good engineering practice and to take double benefit, the team conceived the filter water pond of 6 hours water capacity as reserve and utilize the same as fire water pond for Marine tank farm FW use. Typical of fixing the quantum for Fire Water at the bottom , the raw water level was on the top. So we ended with the storage volume of more than 100000 M3. For fire water objective, we used 10 X 1000 M3/Hr pumps standardized KBL model. It so happened that in all Reliance JMD tank farm, the MVWS spray requirement for the largest dyke called for 6600M3/Hr, keeping NFPA spec. of @10.2 lpm /M2 surface area. To meet TAC condition of 150% pumping capacity, it so happened that we ended with 5 Motor and 5 Diesel everywhere. There came the catch ! As  the order was placed for standard pump  meeting sea water service conditions, we did not realize that the vertical immersion of shaft height  in the pump house built within pond can come as an issue! It fell short by 1 1/2 M and we took up with KBL for necessary rectification. As we have an excellent working relationship even up to their chairman level, Mr Sanjay Kirloskar got involved personally , took up that challenge and executed as task force. Since then we do not have any issue at all in that aspect.

While dealing with fire water pumping and network- both in tank farms/ and refinery, it is absolutely important that I should share some of the inherent problems we faced.
1. Interface engineering did not envisage the valve pit size Vs interior arrangement to make provisions for split spools to drop&re-erect butterfly valves in the valve pit
2. Provision of necessary puddle flange in valve pits were goofed up during detailed engineering.
3. To take short cuts  and to meet the committed time schedule , the construction group raising SER to go with service test instead of hydro test of mains has caused more damage than benefit. The network system was never flushed to get rid of construction debris.
4. As the sourced butterfly valve disk end rubber rings were not properly embedded, they gave way during commissioning  and that has become a bitter truth even now.
5. In DTA days, Bechtel has also missed out the provision of flushing connection for under ground fire water network.                                                                           Contd......

Key Aspects :-Attitude, Codes& Standard, Critical challenge, Faith, Incident analysis, Technical issue 

P 56 JMD DTA Contd.

P  56

JMD DTA Contd.

When the MTF and Utility operations took over and attempted to commission, we were getting water fountains at all places and every one started blaming me. Rather it went to that extent , the management got the inputs suspecting my integrity! They all thought that I have colluded with the contractor and overlooked the job.  So keeping me out, the site construction management formed emergency task force. I was cursing my luck and fate.Their set task was to send people inside with brooms and torches and mark the holidays wherever observed. As the line size was 42" Dia., people movement was easy &flexible and they completed this update inspection as well as rectification in 28 days for all the three lines. By that time it was Oct./Nov.'99 and every one was under extreme pressure with time constraint.

Then came the chaos! When they restarted the system, once again the fountains were there. Though it was set back for commissioning, as an individual I got relieved from my mental tensions. Then only people understood my position and some people even came to the extent of consoling me.Sh MDA understood the seriousness of the situation- sea water transportation is life-line for the refinery operations; Immediately he called up his classmate Sh Raju Narayanan and sought his emergency attention. For info. Raju after his chem. engineering degree at UDCT, migrated to London, specialized in underground service and corrosion technology.

Raju Narayanan & Bechtel's corrosion specialist Trevor Osborne  landed in Jamnagar on Dec. 17th 1999. This day has some importance in my life as well, which will be disclosed as the flow goes. The team from UK came to site directly after lunch and I was asked to receive them at MTF.  On reaching MTF limits, even from a distance of 50 M , Raju uttered to me in chaste Tamil saying " Ramanathan, nobody can help the situation: It is the blunder of basic engineering  ; that people have not cared to notice the electrolysis effect  of valve shaft nobel metal with that of CS pipe internal lining be it cement lining or enamel coating." No inspection or holiday check can solve the issue for ever. Then ,as reaction , I questioned him, are there no solution at all for this impasse.  He asked me the details about the agency and contractor who has undertaken this coating contract.   As soon as I mentioned the name PSL, he asked me to call  Ahuja  to have direct talks. As Raju is in marine corrosion study business, he was aware that PSL deal with sacrificial anode also. He made Ahuja to talk to their Kandla factory and enquire the stock availability of sacrificial anodes and its type with dimensions. Things worked in lightning speed. Then the whole team moved to Desalination module area in utilities block. There M/S Sinhal, RM Shah and PB Patel received us and  they started narrating their bitter experience. Raju asked them to demonstrate the water movement in that local manifold. Things were no different from that of MTF end. That made Raju to come to firm conclusion. Once Ahuja got the input data from Kandla by fax, Raju generated  a hand sketch for suspending this sacrificial anode from the 42" dia. pipe manhole at every 250 M apart. By the time all these were over, it was 7.30 PM and we came to my office to wind up the day. Then came the bad news phone call from my wife at 7.45 PM- stating my mother has breathed her last at 7.25 PM at Chennai and rush back. Raju only controlled my grief and escorted me to guest house for moving to Chennai via. Ahmedabad that night.                                                                                                                                                                                               Contd......

Key Aspects :-Communication, Critical challenge, Human relations, Incidence analysis, Initiative,
Lack of experience/exposure, Surprise&shock, Reputation, Ups&down

P 55 JMD DTA Contd.

P  55

JMD DTA Contd.

Though my exposure and experience  with project engineering dealing with water can run into several volumes, I shall limit with 10 incidents only, which may give the reader the whole picture !

 In DTA days, the estimated consumption of fresh water was 3100 M3/Hr and this whole requirement has to be generated only out of sea water . In those days, there was no other source for fresh water in Padana area and even Narmada water availability at Sikka came only in the beginning of new millennium. As the Reverse Osmosis technology development has not taken place then ,membrane availability was scarce and the power consumption rate too high for RO process, the projects team opted for Desalination process and identified  the company IDE from Israel. Even on date, that is the company who are world leaders in Desalination technology.In DTA days, we have limited ourselves with 5 X 500 +1 X 600 M3/Hr desalination modules.  That party carried out the sea water analysis , its TDS etc. and specified the quantity and quality requirement of sea water for operating their modules in the refinery area.  Sea water requirement was 10500 M3/Hr. Bechtel/Reliance ordered turn key responsibility to IDE for setting up the desalination modules.

As sea water is so corrosive, all sections and tubing of desal modules are made of Titanium.
Though given as turn key responsibility, all of us were jittery because of Israel's local conditions- Gaza Border  fight between Israel and Palestine! But somehow IDE managed the situation  by undertaking all the fabrication in open yard near the sea coast and shipped them without causing any delay. We must say the whole credit should go to Mr Henry of IDE and at field end Mr Tuvia took all the care. On lighter side, Mr Tuvia can seek Indian citizenship as he has completed more than 20 years at Jamnagar- he has continued to stay here for Reliance DTA, then Essar, followed by Reliance SEZ and now J3.

Let us look into the messy /tricky issue what we have faced in handling/transporting sea water.
Here I have to narrate my bitter experience.Keeping the company's interest and cost saving as primary objective, I was the hero who vouched for internal epoxy coating against conventional cement lining. My colleague ( experienced in marine projects- civil engineer) Mr Gopalan was vouching for 1" thick cement lining Vs AR recommending Epoxy coat of 1.5 mm layer.  The said epoxy was developed by Dr Kurtz of Germany and that was the chemical used for coating the inner aspects of English Channel- London  Dover to Paris. My recommendation basis justification was to choose 3 X 42" dia. CS pipe of 16 Kms. long each  instead of  cement lined 3 X 48" dia. CS pipe of 16 Kms long each . Naturally everybody agreed with my recommendation  and the field execution- internal coating with jigs and mandrels, contract was placed on M/S PSL.  At the beginning ,to set the process in motion, Dr Kurtz himself was present in the field. From PSL side M/S Sehgel and Ahuja were the job managers and the field installation went smooth.  As per the process and procedure, coating inspection went on ,holiday identification and rectification process  went on. Unfortunately in midway schedule Dr Kurtz died. The whole system were boxed up and cleared for commissioning .
Nobody was aware and ready for surprise shocks!                                             Contd....

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

P 54 JMD DTA Contd.

P 54

JMD DTA Contd.

When that was the issue we faced for running the cooling water mains, we had an entirely different challenge when it came to main refinery fire water system! As I said in the beginning, the team assumed that there shall not be more than 5000 equivalent hydrants in DTA- including both ISBL and OSBL hydrants, Monitors etc. and went ahead designing 10X1000M3/Hr  fire water pumps in pond 2 pump house. As the engineering progressed we were in  for surprise shock! The total number of equivalent hydrants requirement crossed 6000 mark and it  called additional pumping capacity and storage pond. When the whole team was blinking for a workable solution, Mr Bob Green ,Bechtel Civil specialist came out with a brilliant  idea and  a workable resolution. He identified and suggested that there is a low lying area adjacent to ETP West of road A, which happens to be about 400M only from the pond 2 area. He proposed that can be developed as additional pond and required additional fire water pump provision can be done in that. With that lead we jumped with joy. Then we went into detail and configured the new pump house orientation such that both the pump house discharge can be clubbed into single manifold. That resulted to have two fire water ponds 2&2A combined into single discharge with 16 pumps- any 10 operating with 6 stand by thus meeting TAC conditions fully. Though we implemented 16 pumps in 2 ponds, every one in the team felt we are gross over designing ;but what to do! The national rules stipulate that. Even international majors like Shell  & international re-insurers M/S Munich RI commented that India is one country where empirical formula approach is prevalent. It is a different story that I have taken advantage of this excess margin while conceiving the fire water requirements in J3, which I will narrate when I address the J3 design basis.

Here I would like to emphasise that the whole management are having the wrong concept that executing ISBL projects are the biggest challenge when compared to OSBL and infrastructure build-up for a complex.They think ,specifying and designing equipment  like column,reactor , exchanger are the only challenges but forget the tricky issues like utility package sizing, specification and their distribution and yard piping interconnect for process streams and tank farm and how they can make or break the smooth running of complex!

All of us think ,water is the harmless media and any Tom Dick &Harry can handle their challenge. But nobody has analysed how&what can go wrong while executing utility packages for water and how many water types come into picture in a chemical plant or hydrocarbon processing.Added to misery, since Jamnagar is dry area, we are fundamentally dependent on sea water as main water source.  That adds its issue of transporting and handling water with high sodium chloride.
As OSBL project manager of DTA, though I had the main task of project engineering the main  inter-connecting pipe rack and interconnect piping running into thousands of kilometers, my focus and attention has been spent mostly on water systems and its transportation. Here I would like to bring out several incidents involving water only, which literally made or broke my career in Reliance.
                                                                                                                 Contd....

 Key Aspects :- Critical challenge, Incident analysis, Innovative, Multi discipline exposure,
Proactive approach, Technical issues, Ups&down

P 53 JMD DTA Contd.

P  53


JMD DTA Contd.

Having generally addressed the involved principles for arriving the overall DTA complex layout, let us look into how the engineering and detailing proceeded at Jamnagar.

Typical of Reliance that too with Bechtel back-up, the underground piping activity started even before the basic engineering was in place. The Cooling water mains and fire water are the two which took top most priority. As these two fall under OSBL scope, the team at Bechtel London and at Jamnagar  worked round the clock for accumulating the available indicated numbers by the licensors and prepared an estimated requirement. The Project,Process team , utility experts had two day mind boggling deliberations and arrived at the qty. requirements for cooling water  and strategic placement for cooling tower locations and number of cells and spare/future estimates. There used to be battle royal discussing which CT should cater to which ISBL and group of plants. As AR had executed similar multi plant requirements at Hazira, calling the shots with conviction became easier and every one got convinced to endorse. AR &Dr JVK having worked jointly at Hazira , took the practical gamble of having 30% margin and contingency and prepared the spread sheet. That became blessing in disguise later including to cater to capacity enhancement as well as new plant additions in that geographical contour. Even some of Bechtel engineers got excited to be in the team and gave the momentum for progress. When it came for fire water, since we developed the overall plot plan  displaying the units locations identified, the joint team- Bechtel LP, Technofire and ex-TAC officers, Reliance OSBL Projects(AR team) took the gamble of going for 10 X 1000 M3/Hr at each location- main plant area, Refinery tank farm and marine tank farm. That was because, in those days there was no specific rules for FW qty.from CCE or IS but only TAC Rules were the statutory guidelines.  The odd  thing in those days was- TAC rules arrived at pumping capacity based on summation of equivalent hydrant demand and 50% spare pumping capacity. The problem was that no one in the country imagined  that there could be this vast requirement that may arise!; but rule was the rule and we were forced to adopt. Though Bechtel LP specialists felt odd, to follow the national statutes they could not help to reduce the number of pumps as well as pond capacity. In those days since Jamnagar was practically desert area, we decided to opt for sea water as fire water media as much as possible; but at the same time , made sure that only fresh water shall be the media for fire fighting in all ISBL plant areas.  These considerations forced us to develop so many ponds and their corresponding fire water pumping system.  While conceiving the cooling water and fire water network all across, every member felt the experience of life term opportunity and relished.

Here I have to include two specific points that we came across in Cooling water network routing and Fire water pumping capacity in main refinery area.

Cooling water header routing:  Without realizing or having an idea of the main header diameter involved, that time Engineering  President ( himself managed field execution in his period) gave instructions to Bechtel Principal Piping Engineer to route the headers on pipe rack, since Jamnagar plant area soil is of rocky nature! Jim Skipper and PB Patel came running to me saying' Ram, what can we do? The President has given us this directive and how do we abide? Should we tell Civil team to enhance and engineer the rack elements to bear  2 X 90" dia. fully loaded water pipe load that too not one but in pairs?' Having heard that I laughed and told the team to go ahead buried design only and I will manage and convince the President. Every one of them were afraid how AR is going to face this challenging task.  But my job became easy. When they went and told him that AR has taken this call, immediately he changed and asked them to proceed with under ground only. I never touched this subject with him at any time.                                                                      Contd....

Key Aspects :- Accountable, Attitude, Conviction, Incidence analysis, Initiative, Leadership,
Planning, Technical issue, Team building