P 85 JERP Execution

P  85

JERP-execution experience

During the interim period between DTA and JERP, as the marketing project team implemented GRP vessels for Petroleum retail outlets, the management thought we can utilize the large bore GRP pipes with sleeve joints as best choice for sea water transfer system. As M/S Amiantit , a Goa based company only  served that objective, they were contacted for exploring that possibility. But M/S Bechtel was dead against it since they had bitter experience with GRP piping implementation in one of their Chinese project. Reliance overturned that objection and decided to go with GRP piping.  Considering the transport logistics and number of trips/load factors etc.  It was decided that to opt for two diameters- 66" and 60" , so that they can be sleeved one in another and transport logistics were finalized. The party was given turn key contract as far as laying and testing; but the base civil works like trench cutting, bed preparation , load bearing points at turning radius etc. were in the scope of Reliance/Bechtel. Here came the crux of the issue! As the GRP pipe  supplier did not have engineering back ground of pipe laying, they were clueless. Added to the misery, none in construction applied the fundamental rule of pipe laying with sleeve joints. Moreover, since Jamnagar site soil is full of rocky strata, people concerned overlooked the need for smooth and uniform bed preparation before lowering the pipes. Over and above these, the construction management failed to understand that the sleeve piping should not be taken in patches! So they cleared the trenching contractor to carry out trench digging at various fronts thinking that the pipe laying contractor can proceed fast. But the misery was  that wherever the patch was ending, the end piping was projecting upwards; whenever sleeve was introduced to join the next pipe, it became a vertical cone. When a segment was taken for hydro-test, the joint was giving away and test failed. As the party did not have expertise, they failed miserably and as contractor they could not justify the faults in bed preparation.  The end result was that the system could not pass even the line operating pressure conditions in both the diameter pipelines and panic set in at site. That forced the top management to organize some by pass arrangement with DTA executed sea water lines and managed the commissioning of JERP.

Having seen the issues with sea water transport pipelines, let us move to Cooling towers! As we had additional plants of Alkylation and Clean fuel projects in JERP and planned 5000 M3/Hr MED desalination modules, the cooling water capacity requirement increased very much. Also since we had bad experience of wind storm blowing away the wooden construction CTs, we changed the design for concrete towers with the same cell capacity size of 3150 M3/hr/cell. As at that time M/S Paharpur did not have design/experience with concrete towers, tender was floated to various international bidders. There too we looked for sweet water and sea water as media. The sea water tower was exclusively for usage with Desalination requirement and discharge brine cooling.
The requirement was for 6 towers for sweet water and one for sea water and they were all geographically distance apart  and came under different plant areas and different construction management.                                                                                              Contd....

Key Aspects :- Critical challenge,  Incident analysis, Technical issue

P 84 JERP Execution

P  84

JERP Execution-  Experience and Challenges

Let me start from source point itself!
As already mentioned, there was clear mandate by authorities that DTA and SEZ has to be segregated and no exchange can take place without their clearance.  Added to that , post Kargil war, GOI made it mandatory that each refinery should have crude storage capacity of at least 28 days consumption.
As KP gained experience, he was given independent charge for tank farm execution but still CCE coordination was under me. That time Mr M Anbunathan was the CCE.

Additional Crude tanks
During DTA days though we had plot plan cleared for 14 crude oil tanks, we executed only 12 tanks in DTA period. But with Post Kargil mandate and addition of JERP we required 28 tanks.  During my absence ( having gone to GIS) KP interfaced with the department and pleaded the case. The issue was the land space availability in MTF area! Somehow they worked out and got the layout cleared by using the space left when we conceived Ph1 layout but with 4M dyke wall height.  As technical specialist I questioned CCE  for that final decision from safety point. Then only he realized  the involved issue of emergency escape though this height! But that  relieved us from ensuring enough crude inventory storage at MTF.

Having got over the storage volume factor, then came the MOC(material of Construction as well as management of Change) for MVWS Fire water rings in MTF tanks. As the ring diameter were only 2" dia. using sea water, all the rings got corroded in 5 years time and needed change/ replacement. At the same time, there was requirement of potable water to be supplied to ships calling at Sikka port. As typical infrastructure project in-charge, I decided to combine both the issues and suggested to opt for 2X 4000M3 metal tanks for storing fresh potable water having 2X500 M3/hr transfer pumps.  The idea is to use those pumps both for transferring water to jetty for supply to ships as well as to line fill the entire MTF fire water ring main with fresh water. The fundamental objective is to ensure only fresh water is used for initial throw through the rings and if the fire rage continue and the demand goes more than 1000M3/Hr in a spot, the main sea water  FW pumps to cut in and fight the fire. This way we eliminated the header and rings getting corroded with sea water. The end user feed back says that they are relieved of the corrosion issue.

Then comes the big story of sea water transfer to refinery! As far as sea water in-take concerned, PMSP cleared the intake arrangement&pumps  and placed the order on VA Tech for sea water filtration module  using Lamella clarifier technology.  But having faced major issue of epoxy coating of sea water transfer lines in DTA phase, the management thought of a difference!
                                                                                                                        Contd...

Key Aspects :- Critical challenge, Delegation, Incident analysis, Initiative, Leadership,Technical issue

P 83 JERP Execution

P  83

JERP Execution Contd.

 Since PMSP became busy with Kakinada E&P projects, the Project Directorship mantle fell on Sanjay Mashruwala.  SM has established excellent rapport with Mr Scott Johnson- Project Director from Bechtel end, identified from their Houston office. Since all of them were new to Reliance refinery projects, MDA asked PMSP to ensure order commitments worth $1 Bn before 31st Dec. 2005  and then hand over the charge to SM. Since PMSP and I have excellent understanding in offsite execution, he asked me to list out large packages in utilities , where we had good services and excellent performance by various vendors. My first reaction was to start from MTF and go into plant area- so I included Sea water intake pumps on Dresser Rand , Sea water filtration with lamella clarifier (recommended to go with VA Tech instead of UEM- since Mr Bhatia of UEM died and there was no leader in that company), Desalination package on IDE, Utility air compressors on Atlas Copco, N2 package on Air Products, UK. and fire water pumps on KBL. By that time Mike Beech and myself had a rough estimate of utility balance with margin, we could spell out the requirements to Prasad. Since PMSP had personal touch with all these vendors' management, he took them into confidence and went ahead with in-principle commitments to ensure schedule meeting. That gave a head start for JERP engineering and order commitments.

Here it is important to note, the desalination package size got completely altered.  Though in DTA stage we had only 250/260 M3/Hr unit package, IDE came out very large module size of 1000M3/hr each. AR, being typical PM to meet challenges,  accepted that  and asked  IDE to furnish the design/GA drawing  and layout etc. for 5 modules- 4 to be executed with one future having manifold provisions.  Mr Henry of IDE took that input and came back with detailed offer and layout. There on the desalination execution went smooth, having Mr Tuvia, age old father of desalination field implementation at site. Tuvia, not only played the role of site in charge but even represented Reliance interest in ensuring the right material reach site in time.  For any sub vendor issue, he used to take up directly instead of Israel office initiating correspondence exchanges.

Having project managed J1(DTA) Utilities & Offsite successfully, I did not have any hang over with respect to size and quantum of jobs but had different challenges  in several fronts! There were several technical and human personality issues. In several cases we had the issue of inexperienced engineering manpower handling the detailing and there used to be arguments.

Let me attempt to share some of the incidents/ challenges faced in JERP. The list will be long and may take several pages to cover!                                                   Contd.......

Key Aspects :-  Faith ,  Lack of experience/exposure, Planning, Proactive approach, Team building, 

P 82 JERP Execution

P  82

JERP OSBL Activity

From Bechtel side,both Vi Patel and Laxman Odedra were identified as Project Leads- with Vi managing project management  & Laxman managing the engineering. Specifically Mr Ian Barton was designated as PM but Steve Wiggins as engineering manager took control virtually. Under Ian/Steve, Mike Beech played an important role during engineering stage. Of course we had the services of Bob Green, Jim Skipper, Dave Whatmore- champions of phase 1 in their respective disciplines. Bob being overall civil expert, his first task was to identify the contours and find the deep pockets for pond development. His concept being so clear, we could get 7 ponds in JERP itself thus ensuring enough water storage availability for SEZ plant areas. Jim being a piping specialist, with phase1 data, he could give the OSBL inter-rack piping bulk requirements and load factors at each stretch. Thus it gave quick start for arriving at large bore piping bulk requisition. Dave being underground engineering specialist, issued the initial cooling water mains drawings for route study in field. Then came the challenge for fire water pond and mains network for JERP !

Since by that time, the field operations and Jamnagar fire department gained operating experience, several opinion engineering arose! There were bitter deliberations, whether we should follow only applicable OISD guidelines or continue to stick with TAC Rules, since that was in vogue mandatory.
Added to that , since Bechtel was the engineering consultant, they suggested that we should also look into the applicable NFPA Codes.  From Bechtel side Mr Richard King was the HSE&LP lead for that project; he had his own versions- as he did not have enough exposure for mega projects that too in Indian context, he was recommending to go for only 3 X 1000 M3/Hr for fire water, whereas by that time Indian Regulations under BIS called for two largest simultaneous demand areas with 1 lpm  / M2 land area as fire water pumping capacity requirements with 50% standby pumping. It so happened that all relevant statutory bodies started abiding that condition. So Steve and myself took the decision to go with that and requested Dave Connolly, their fire engineering expert to arrive at the fire water demand and basic network header sizing to ensure that at the remotest point, the remnant  pressure has to be 7 kg /cm2 g. Dave with the help of Bob Green and Dave Whatmore came out with the requirement of pumps including standby, tentative header sizing and 6 hours pond storage volume. Bechtel initially thought it is prudent to locate the pump house on the width side of the rectangular pond so that the header sizing can be conservative for effective distribution.  But myself and Mr Dilip Koimattur of Techno Fire objected that for fundamental reasons- in OISD and PESO, there is a clause that the fire water pump house  has to be at least 60 M away from the nearest operating hydrocarbon unit area. In Bechtel conceived arrangement, it was hardly 20 M away from Merox units. So we forced Bechtel to revise and shift it to the length side of pond  and we had 12 X 1000M3/Hr pumps and two jockey pumps with pond capacity of 72000 M3 requirement. Without any hassle, Bob could ensure the same and then Dave Connolly carried out the network Hydraulic analysis. With Steve and Mike Beech at the helm, we could issue the Piping materials and valves PR in less than 3 months from kick off date. That helped us to commit the FW pumps on M/S KBL on nomination basis ,since we had very good services and satisfactory performance by that party in phase 1.
At this juncture I have to record some special circumstances!                                    
                                                                                                                        Contd.......

Key Aspects :- Codes&Standard, Critical challenge, Incident analysis, Lack of Experience/exposure,
Leadership, Proactive approach, Technical issue, Team building, 

P81 Start A new Project -JERP

P  81

Beginning of JERP

My shifting office to NHQ has coincided with start of JERP at Jamnagar. As RIL have succeeded in
executing the first refinery of such large capacity, with the favorable Government norms in developing a project under SEZ (Specified Export Zone), Reliance was the first to jump in undertaking that challenge.As they had an excellent and experienced project management and construction team,  and having established worth understanding  and operating relations with M/S Bechtel, the launch was smooth. The team formation took place in a jiffy  with Sh Sanjay Mashruwala as Project Director  and  Sh. N B Deshmukh as procurement director. As PMSP became busy with the oil exploration challenge at Kakinada, this change took place; but he was given the  task  of project initiation and initial commitments to the tune of $1 billion before December'05 end.

As I was the project manager for OSBL- Utilities/Offsite &integration of  units in the first refinery at Jamnagar, that responsibility mantle fell on me! As initial task, I was given the charge to seek the in-principle clearance for the majority of goods listing(not only OSBL but all ISBL plant equipment and all other items), from  the Export Commissioner-Customs. As  SEZ facility are exempt from levy of excise duty, local taxes and free import duty, my task  became highly challenging. As usual , the commercial department were very possessive in sharing the data and values thereof. They were envying how come a technical person have been given this charge! But the officials in the Government Department were looking for my presence in every meeting and they made it mandatory
that I only should furnish the details and share the data. But the end result was  a roaring success.
That process launched SEZ project execution procedure and operations.

By June '05 middle, the project team leads shifted their base camp to London. To start with , the management declared that all base units in the refinery shall be of the same capacity in JERP but will have additional Alkylation and Clean fuel Unit. The Alkylation got added for enriching gasolene by converting LPG from FCCU. This change has taken place since the SEZ production has to be completely exported and cannot be sold in Indian markets; in that process, USA became the main importer of that yield. Next came the importance of reduction of sulphur content in the fuel- meeting Euro 4 specification. That technology was sourced from Exxon Mobil and UOP joint efforts. The end result was that Jamnagar refining facility became the world largest refining complex.

As OSBL project manager, my first priority task was to coordinate with Bechtel layout group to develop JERP layout initial revision and seek operations/ management approval and arrive at tentative utility balance for most of the repeat units. With the supervisory directions of Dr JVK, me/Samir Karnik/Momin/Lohia/Kirit Brahmhabhatt developed the utility matrix with +30% margin for  assumption errors and future developments. As we had an operating refinery at the same area, the data collection efforts became easier.  But there were some major changes in the design basis. Especially, since there was no requirement of HHP steam in operating a refinery, we limited ourselves with 42 bar g steam but with Frame 9 HRSG(GE) with 110 MW capacity.  With the development of higher capacity module by M/S IDE Israel, we opted for 1000M3/Hr from phase1- 260M3/Hr Desal modules.  With the bitter experience of having wind velocity impact and maintainability issues, we have modified the CTs to concrete type and went in for PP tower for sea water application.
Let me narrate the various project phase experience and important milestones achieved as well as challenges faced in next issue......                                                   Contd....

Key Aspects :- Conviction, Critical challenge,  Faith, Leadership, Multi discipline exposure,
Opprtunity, Proactive approach, Responsible, Technical issue, 

P 80 Continuation of GIS services

P  80


Continuation of GIS Services

Having established systems & procedure, my job as chief executive ran smoothly. I undertook extensive tour of all state capitals where our GIS state leads were present. Visited Delhi, Lucknow, Chandigarh on one long trip to address  the important cable junction points of national backbone to sort out the duct changeover from back bone to intra city routing. Having experienced that , carried out a survey of southern states- Madras(Chennai), Hyderabad, Bangalore, Cochi and interacted with state CTOs and corresponding construction teams.  Undertook one special trip each to Ahmedabad & Kolkatta. One can say, though my company responsibility was limited to GIS, we literally played the role of project engineering management.  Rather my network team helped M/S KH Mankad and Vipin Jain to develop an APP for intra city routing for last mile connectivity to homes. Things were going on and more&more intra cities  &towns were getting added for telecommunication services.  At that stage, we started looking into extending the services through microwave towers. Mr Gopalan and Mr Mallikarjun were literally on us to seek land base data for tower location identification and elevation requirements etc. So the service department of my group was always on their toes.

Somewhere in middle of 2004, Mr Lalit Jalan of BSES called me for  study of extending these GIS services for BSES power distribution within Mumbai city. Myself and Milind took the help of Mr Don Carson  to develop the job specifications and scope of work for ESRI,USA. On our recommendation, BSES recruited Mr Kale for handling that project. We effectively participated in finalising that deal and the project was launched. Unfortunately, that was the time Reliance Group split into two and we could not continue to contribute our expertise.

As the split issue was family dispute, my company was in trouble and myself was in a fix! Discreetly I got in touch with MDA and VVB and they asked me to move out of company without any transfer letter. That made me to send a hand written request to ADA(Anil Ambani) to allow me to come back to industries group which he honored in couple of days. That was a great relief for me but got into an awkward situation!

It so happened, seeing our world class GIS development carried out in India, Saudhi Aramco were looking for our services and extended an invite. As I was on the move I hesitated how to convey the NO to them! But MDA intervened and  advised me to undertake that visit with a team  to Damman and Riyadh; at the same time do not commit any promises to undertake the responsibility. So a team of 6 undertook the journey and we shared our experience in developing the digital map of India and database administration + provisioning of new connections etc. The client understood our situation and thanked us making that trip.  That is how my GIS experience got wound up.  I shifted my office location from G Block to NHQ building within DAKC, waiting for some project assignment in RIL. That was sometime in the beginning of 2005.
                                                                                                               Contd......

KeyAspects :- Delegation, Incident analysis, Ups&down Surprise&shock 

P 79 Forming Reliance Digital World

P  79


Formation of Reliance Digital World

On return to India, as courtesy demanded I took the shields and certificates to MDA's office to share the pleasure and joy of company's achievements with him. He asked me one direct question!
Ramu, do you now realize your strength and values? Three years back, you said that you do not know the spelling for telecommunication but see what you have achieved!

But, with some other back ground at that time I was still morass He got annoyed and queried, what is wrong with you; why are you not enjoying the occasion? That forced me to bring out the facts about my pay scale, status in society &living conditions etc. On hearing that he was perplexed and immediately lifted the phone  and contacted  Mr V V Bhatt, that time HR chief of Reliance Corporate and enquired 'why this disparity issue have not been resolved yet! Ensure that is done today itself '.

After that when I returned to my office, there was a surprise message from VVB waiting for me!
His instruction to me was to develop a full fledged organisation chart  with responsibilities and available personnel filling various positions so as to form full fledged company for GIS services, not only for Reliance Communications but to serve others also. As my confidants were full of energy and enthusiasm, they could develop that chart and report in matter of hours on the same day. The company was formed on 1st Nov.2003 as a private company under company  law and registered.
We selected and christened it as Reliance Digital World and I was asked to head that set-up with job title Business Head. At the start, we had 48 employees spread all over India and balance manpower drawn from agencies to continue OSS /BSS services for Reliance Communication. Since it was formed under Company law, all statutory  and legal requirement formalities were established and operated as an independent set-up but within Reliance premises. So we were servicing both Reliance Communications and BSES- a power distribution company in Mumbai which was taken over by Reliance. By that time,operations were streamlined, the functioning was smooth  and our value in
GIS domain was growing day by day.

As GIS awareness and its utility functions usage in public was in early stages then, every Government department both at Delhi level and Maharashtra state level started utilizing our services for consultation. Even the local bodies like CIDCO and NMMC ((New Mumbai Municipal Corporation)used our expertise in land usage, infrastructure establishment, public gardens/park , water distribution network etc. DG Police Maharashtra used to share ideas for the city transportation network and signal establishments. Even the central Election Commission of India took our services for assembly constituency mapping and corresponding voter population statistics etc. booth wise. That took us to Education fraternity also.  PadmaSri  Dr Majumdar of Symbiosis contacted me through Mr Rajesh Mathur of ESRI,India and requested me to join the Board Of Governors for establishing a fresh curriculum named Geomatics . I was one of the person who participated in framing the syllabus and my team M/S Milind and Sanjay Shrivastava took classes on GIS at Pune.
                                                                                                                              Contd.......

Key Aspects :- Accountable, Communication, Conviction, Faith, Human relations, Initiative,
Leadership, Motivation, Recognition, Reputation, Surprise&shock Team building, Ups&down