TP Sharing Session - Understanding Hydrocarbon Phase Envelopes & How they affect Upstream Process & Operations (28 Nov 2023, MTeams): Be the Change.

 

Alhamdulillah, today I was granted the opportunity to conduct a Knowledge sharing session, on Phase Behavior.

The topic of hydrocarbon phase envelopes are one of the most important underlying concepts that are the bread and butter of upstream process engineering. Once I understood this concept, a lot of operational problems started to make more sense, seeing them through a new lens. Wet gas, crude stabilization, sampling problems, CV flashing, PVT fluid characterization - suddenly, they began to click!

But throughout the years, I realized that although there were lots of training materials, classroom sessions and textbooks on the subject, I've never really found many resources that fleshed out the topic from the perspective of practical application in day-to-day operational challenges. For many of us, we learnt the concept through trial and error (mostly error), and we didn't really understand the "big picture" of how they were related. I've always thought, wouldn't it be nice if we had training material that linked these concepts together in our daily work? 

Then it dawned on me: Create our own content lah, bro!

 

Now that I'm in a position of experience, have some knowledge and a platform to share, might as well seize the opportunity: Stop whining, step up & be the change we want to see. To carve out the kind of content that we wished we learnt back in our early years and boost the development of those around us. 

I challenged myself to go one step further: Simplify the concepts and make it easy enough so that even non-engineers (like HR or Finance) could also understand and appreciate. Just as Albert Einstein used to say, "you do not really understand something, unless you can explain it to your grandmother"

The session went a bit over time, at 2.5 hours, but Alhamdulillah we got an overwhelmingly positive participation, with over 150 participants joining the session.

Hope the participants found it beneficial. May Allah make it a source of barakah and benefit for others.

🛡️ Family: The Fortified Shield - Weekend Seminar by The Straight Path (TSP) #thestraightpathconvention 25-26 November 2023, The Club, Bukit Utama

💎INSPIRING GEMS & HIGHLIGHTS

Course Goals : to ignite communities that benefit humanity

🔭 Building the Righteous Family the Ideal Way. Where do we begin? What’s the first step to building a house? 

Most people would say the first thing is to lay the foundations. Some might talk about raising the pillars. But the first step starts before that: we need a blueprint. What kind of house do you want to build? 

Likewise: You need a VISION that inspires you!

Starting a family begins with having a picture in your head of the world you wish to see, on the day you are on your deathbed.

💖 Marriage is barakah - but it needs a society that raises mature boys and girls

🎯 5 Core Objectives of Raising a Righteous Family 

1. Follow Allah’s command (an ibadah)

2. Following the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ

3. Having Children - as a sadaqatul jariah (continuous charity) to benefit the ummah and humanity in the long term

4. To help us stay away from Haram: Marriage is the means to protect our honor and chastity

5. Assisting One Another: work together and one another upon goodness and righteousness. 

🛠️ It all boils down to one simple objective: Building Jannah, TOGETHER. Always keep this Goal in mind!

🏫 The first educational institution a human being will go through is their PARENTS. Listen up, young people: your parents aren’t old school, they are ORIGINAL school 

👂🏼Practice more LISTENING in the household: Acknowledge each other’s feelings, and provide that psychological safety.

A tightly knit family is one that enjoys emotional security inside, to one another. 

🎁 Appreciation and Gratitude - put in the effort to express gestures of genuine gratitude to one another. You may not recognize this but it has a HUGE impact.

🔥 Resolving conflicts - Some pointers:

1. YOU need to take the first step. Put ego aside! Remember your purpose in life: You are reconciling for the Sake of Pleasing Allah - not for the sake of that person. 

2. Conflict demands patience, wisdom and emotional maturity - Be methodical, be systematic. Use that prefrontal cortex, don’t allow your emotions to compromise your good judgment

3. Focus on the core of the problem, not just attacking the symptoms

4. Don’t forget the role that SHAITAN plays, behind the scenes: planting seeds of hatred and enmity, and induces waswas - overthinking, exaggeration, to paralyze you from taking action

🪜 Raising a righteous family might seem like a steep hill to climb. Focus on PROGRESS, not perfection. Allah wants to see you taking those baby steps. When you put in a little bit of effort, Allah will open doors of barakah (blessings) for you!

SKG16.3 Community of Practice (COP) Final Gathering 2023

 

It was our turn as Sarawak (Gas) Assets region as tuan rumah, to host the final gathering of the year for our Community of Practice for Process Technology fraternity.

I have always supported the idea of COP gatherings in professional circles: By practitioners, for practitioners.
It's a platform to share our lessons learnt, best practices, successes, challenging each other and sparking ideas within the fraternity to try out new approaches, rethink our existing practices, and explore new methods and ideas. It's particularly inspiring when the community makes the time and shows courage to step up and actualize this - as we witnessed in this gathering.

We received excellent participation by all regions and center from IVA and OE, with process technical paper sharing from all regions PMA, SBA, and SKA covering wide range of interesting and practical topics from Dynamic simulation for process safety assurance, and meeting customer demand pipeline survival time during TA, Condensate Recovery system technology selection, Cooling System challenges, and Gas Turbine Generator (GTG) Optimization philosophy.

As the host and organizers, our team did a few little tweaks to enhance the overall experience for presenters and attendees alike to increase the engagement and enthusiasm throughout the learning experience:
 
1. Feedback forms for every presenter - we opened up feedback channels by making customized feedback forms for every presenter, to share their ratings and appreciative/constructive feedback. This allows audiences to play an active role to share their thoughts, for participants to gauge their performance for continuous improvement, and add a dash of competitiveness between presenters.

2. Awards - We introduced three categories of awards: Best paper presentation (by judges), the People's Choice Award (for the highest rated paper, as rated by the attendees in the feedback forms), and Best Participant (for active participants asking questions and contributing to others)

3. Managers as Emcee - To demonstrate our passionate commitment to the event and go the extra mile as hosts, the two process managers from Sarawak (myself & Ee) became the Emcees throughout the event.

4. Special tokens ☕ - As long-term memoirs, we provided custom-made mugs for presenters, game winners, and judges. (Man, wish I had one of those 🤤)

Really proud of the team for the successful event. Although we are only a small fraternity of 30-plus - among the smallest in the organization - the community is so active that we achieved among the top performing COP's in the whole PETRONAS.
With communities like these, it builds a solid foundation for us to collectively build sustainable competency development platform: to help each other grow, constantly grooming new experts without having to depend on specific individuals.

Keep up the awesome work! ❤️

👞 Inside the mind of a righteous man with a big heart: The story of imam An-Nawawi's stolen slippers

One time, Imam An-Nawawi finally saved up enough money to buy new slippers and wore them to the masjid. Upon leaving after prayers, he couldn't find his them. 

He kept searching and searching... Until he saw another man walking off with his slippers. 

He walked up to man. Noticing imam An-Nawawi going after him, the man picked up the pace and walked away faster. Imam An-Nawawi began walking faster to catch up with him. The man began running.

Imam An-Nawawi said out loud, "قل قبلت" - Say, "I accept!"

The man ran even faster, and imam An-Nawawi ran as fast as he could, until he could no longer catch up.. And finally, the man got away with the slippers. 

The next day, Imam An-Nawawi looked visibly upset and sad. When his students saw his condition, they consoled him, telling him "Ya Shaykh, it's okay we will get you new slippers."

He said, "I am not sad because of the slippers.

I am upset because I intended to give it to him as a gift, and all I wanted was for him to say "I accept". 

So that on the day of judgment, it's counted as a gift between me and him, in the sight of Allah."

(Note: it was the Fiqh view of Imam An-Nawawi in hadiah (gift) - that it's only counted as a gift if they declared they received it from you.)

So why was he upset? 

"Now I'm really sad, because Allah will question him on the day of judgment (because of stealing my slippers), and I don't want to be a means of difficulty for my brother on that Day."

SubhanAllah. Amazing. Truly, a righteous man with a big heart.

Tabletop Emergency Tier 3 Exercise, “Ex- Kidurong 2” Magherita Plaza Bintulu, from 14-15 Nov 2023, joint organized by PETRONAS and Majlis Keselamatan Negara (MKN)

 

Alhamdulillah, had the privilege of representing PETRONAS, role-playing as Incident Commander (IC) for our Emergency Management Team (EMT) on duty throughout this Table Top exercise roleplaying for the exercise. The event participated by all major government agencies in Bintulu/ Sarawak who are equally responsible for emergency response & preparedness, simulating a crisis Situation under Arahan MKN No. 18 (PENGURUSAN DAN PENGENDALIAN KRISIS KEGANASAN, @ Act Terrorism).

When the word "Table Top Exercise" was mentioned, I immediately got the impression that it was like the Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) table-top Role Playing Game, where a Dungeon Master played the role of churning out scenarios and storylines and triggering the players, what will they do in the situation. Turns out, that's exactly what it is 😂. 

Tuan Alif from MKN was our Dungeon Master, trigger "what to do" when different situations arise. And wow, this guy is good. He really put us under PRESSURE, man!

It was an awesome learning experience for me, for our organization, for all stakeholders on the effectiveness of our response coordination, revealing a lot of learning opportunities and rooms for improvement. 

Here are three of my big lessons learnt from the exercise: 

1. Tactical Communication

During a crisis situation, EVERYONE wants updates: leadership team at the center, next of kin, mainstream media, and pretty much anyone who wants a shot at "going viral" on social media. Who should you respond to? HOW should you respond? 

It's important to know WHO are your primary recipients of information. By extension: Everyone else is irrelevant. Learn to filter the noise, know how to respond respectfully, and stay focused.

Also, turns out that what you DON'T say is sometimes just as important as what you DO say. 

Keep communications simple, and stick to the facts, without adding opinions, speculation or story. And, as much as it is important to convey as much information as possible, it's important to keep only facts which are relevant to the stakeholders around you, so that they know exactly how to respond. 

2. Have your go-to SOP References ready - and a great team to back you up

Having comprehensive SOPs really gave us the confidence to make decisions as a coordinated team. Yes, real life situations almost always call for improvisations - but we always have foundational fall-back plans, and correct ourselves as we go.

3. Remain Calm

Finally and most importantly: Remain calm. All the above can be completely thrown out of the window if we are emotionally compromised. 

This was "just" a table top exercise, but boy, was that stressful! Being put on the spotlight: "okay, IC - now the situation has escalated to so-and-so. What will you do? How will you respond? Who will you contact?"

The key to making sure we make rational, good decisions, is to keep our emotions in check so we can think straight. Be firm, bue decisive, but keep it steady. When you're playing the role of a leader, as IC, this emotional stability is important to inspire OTHERS around us to also keep steady. 

But of course, it's easier said than done. I'm grateful for those who gave positive feedback of how well I did and how calm I was. Though, truth be told, i was absolutely exploding with panic deep inside LoL. 

Truthful indeed are the words of our Prophet ﷺ who said, "true strength isn't in overcoming others by physical strength. True strength is controlling ourselves when we are in a state of anger" (Al-Bukhari)

Managerial Excellence (ME) Cohort 7 FINALE: 9th November 2023, Park Royal Collections, KL

 

Alhamdulillah it was great meeting everyone again, especially my awesome team members of Group 10: Amplifiers @ team RED 🔴 (yes, we came color-synchronized, and even did a WhatsApp poll to vote the color 😂). 

Unfortunately, only half of our Amplifiers could make it to the finale. But despite the manpower shortage, the team really pulled our weight for the final presentation. Even though we had the least team members, the team delivered a phenomenal and explosive presentation that drove us to win the Outstanding Presentation Team Award. You guys are the best! 👏🏼❤️

Coming into the finale, I was immediately greeted by many classmates who claiming - and 100% confident - that I was going to be awarded "Best participant".

In the end, no, I didn't win the award (that honor went to my good friends Adzmin and Azuria), but it was very touching and heartwarming to know that many of my colleagues were rooting for me and showing so much appreciation. 

A few of our colleagues outright vented their frustration and wanted to protest the result 🤣

Perhaps my workplace colleagues and subordinates rarely see this side of me, but in every training course and engagement I attend, I always make it a commitment to show up 100%, give it my best to create an exciting learning environment, uplift and get to know others around me, get relentlessly curious by asking lots of questions, sharing and contributing whatever knowledge I can from the books I read, and of course, don't hold back on my silly humor. (Or at least, my lousy attempts at humor, anyway 🤣). I was inspired by another junior colleague many years ago: This was his attitude during trainings and I always look forward to attend trainings with him. Every time I attend trainings with him, he just elevates the whole learning experience and leaves a mark. 

Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, "never belittle or consider insignificant any good deeds that you do, even if it is to meet your brother with a cheerful face" (Muslim) 

The finale marks the end of a 4-month development journey for us managers. And what a great learning and networking experience it's been! A lot of the stuff in there really elevated my perspective in leadership, especially the concepts of Multipliers vs. Diminishers. It really challenged the "traditional" manager mindset, providing a total paradigm shift to our long-term goals as leaders: Multiplying others. And about being more mindful of Accidental Diminishers: how our actions might accidentally "diminish" those around us, despite our "good intentions"!

But of course, it doesn't stop here. In fact, if anything, it STARTS here. ME may have ended, but our leadership journey has just begun. And knowledge is only "information" until we act upon it. 

I end this post with the closing words in our team presentation:

It’s time to walk the talk, step up and BE the MULTIPLIERS that PETRONAS needs.

Knowledge Sharing & Being the Change we want to see: How Adib made a huge positive impact on me and my career

 

Whoa.. has it really been 15 years? 

This week is Adib's last day at PCSB Sarawak Assets (SKA), and will be continuing his career in KL.

Adib & I, we go way back - We both reported duty the same year in 2008 here in Miri, formerly known as SKO. 

Adib has played a very important role and had a huge impact to my career, and as a tribute to him, I’d like to share how he influenced my thinking, attitude, and aspirations. 

1. Knowledge Sharing Role Model 

Although he joined later, Adib actually got promoted to senior engineer before me. But he doesn’t keep the knowledge to himself - he puts in the effort to go the extra mile in upskilling and teaching others. 

And I can clearly remember the defining moment:

The year is 2016. I was desparate, and my self-esteem was at an all-time low. Still a junior engineer after 8 years, I was severely demotivated from my consistently poor performance in my ACD technical competency, as I was witnesssing my peers - and even juniors - getting promoted to managers and TPs. At that point, the Capability teams were about to revise the competency ruler again which would set my progress back even further, unless I made a progression in this one final assessment. This assessment in March 2016 would be the turning point that would either make or break my career. 

Seeing my troubled circumstances, Adib, recently promoted to senior, reached out to me and offered: why not, let’s spend this Saturday for a coaching and ACD? I can guide you in some of the basic concepts. Perhaps that would help.

We spent the entire day on a Saturday - from morning to evening - doing thorough coaching and study group. We covered topics like phase envelope, crude stabilization, separator adequacy, Stoke’s Law.

Thanks to his weekend coaching, I scored the best ACD result I've ever received. It gave me such a strong understanding on process engineering that it grounded my fundamentals the helped in so many other aspects, that eventually I ended up teaching these subjects to others, conducting classes of my own, and even developing in-house engineering tools.

In that one day, this guy, more than any other TP or SME at that point, had inspired me that teaching others, sharing knowledge, it can make a whole world of difference to someone's career and life. He didn't have a rank or authority. Neither did he get any credit or reward. 

All it takes is sincere drive and passion to develop others.

This is the legacy I want to leave behind: One that helps develop and amplify others around me, long after I leave. 

He inspired me to constantly step up my game to carve out opportunities to share knowledge and teach others, and as I stepped into the Managerial role, drive the team to conduct knowledge sharing sessions and platform for the engineers to help and develop each other.  

Whatever good that comes from these sessions, this is definitely his legacy. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever introduces a good practice that is followed, he will receive its reward and a reward equivalent to that of those who follow it, without that detracting from their reward in their slightest.” (Ibn Majah)

“When a person dies, all of his deeds are cut off except for three: a continuous charity, knowledge that is benefitted from, and a righteous child who supplicates for him” (Muslim)

 

2. Be change that we want to see: The seniors and TP's we've never had

Have you ever heard of, or been in a toxic work environment where the seniors trash the juniors, because that’s how they were treated by THEIR seniors. They perpetuate the toxic cycle, with the excuse that “that’s how I was treated by MY seniors, and I survived. And now it's your turn"

Adib is the opposite. His philosophy, if you’re in a toxic work environment: Break the cycle. Take the high road. Be the change you want to see. 

Recently, he said something that surprised me: “Let’s be honest la Faisal, back in our early years, our seniors didn't really do a good job (in terms of guidance).”

His statement surprised me. It was a hot take, but I totally agree with him. With all due respect to our seniors, I’ve always felt that they didn't really bother about us in our early years. They worked in silo, focused on their own deliverables, and we're left to figure stuff out by ourselves. 

But here’s the twist: When he made that statement, he wasn’t just whining. He was saying it to emphasize an important point: “Now this is our time to step up. To be the seniors we've always wanted and needed.”

And it wasn't just idealistic talk. He walks the talk. When he was given more autonomy to lead his team, he really embodied that aspiration. 

He consistently assists the juniors - including those outside of his team - to ground them in the basics, the fundamentals, grasp the big picture of the "why" we do our engineering work. He prompts them, proactively inquiring progress, organizing "focused discussion" sessions: to go through the work together. He proactively prompts other juniors on what they are working on: which eventually ends up becoming mentoring sessions. I remember walking pass by a junior engineer’s desk and seeing papers with scribbles of some graphs, formulas, and diagrams, and I immediately said, “this looks like Adib’s work”. The junior confirmed, “yup, that’s him alright”. 

But what’s inspiring is that his guidance goes even beyond that. He doesn’t just spoon-feed them: he challenges them, gets them thinking, grants opportunities to step up, take the lead, make presentations to high-level leaders, and gives them the spotlight to take the credit. 

I’m glad we could provide these opportunities to our young engineers, and to stay long enough to spark the change we’ve always wanted. Here’s hoping that they, too, return the favor to their juniors when they become leaders in the years to come.

During staff farewells, people often mention that we “lost” someone. Some have expressed their sadness that we lost Adib. But I prefer to see it differently: He is graduating into another phase of his career and life. And after 15 years, it’s about time. As for us here, it’s time to make space for new Adibs to rise, as we honor his contributions by carrying the torch of his legacy.

Adib will be missed, indeed. At the same time, we are happy for him, and wish him well, and all the best for his future endeavors.