Last Tuesday (8 February), there was a industrial talk at DK2. The talk is about instrumentation of offshore oil and gas field. It is delivered by Mr. Wan Hassan Wan Mamat, GM from Petronas Carigali Sdn. Bhd. It is such a good chance for us as a chemical engineering student to take part in this talk. Mr. Wan Hassan was a very knowledgeable person in oil and gas field. He gave a speech about Petronas as well as the details of the instrumentation that take place on the offshore platform.

First half of the speech  was about Petronas. He started at Petronas around 1980's, when the company was only hired about 1000 employees. Now, Petronas have about 40000 employees around the world. But then, they still need more workers, especially in technical department. He also explain about the business that Petronas involved. It is not only in Malaysia, but also around the globe. Petronas have so many join ventures with other international oil company in many countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and so on.

The second half of the speech are more towards the details and technical aspect of the instrumentation on the offshore platform. In Malaysia, oil and gas are been discovered at the sea. Majority of our oil and gas are at offshore of East Peninsular and also in Sabah and Sarawak. Therefore, the offshore platform was the only way for Petronas to "harvest" the oil and gas. The speech was so detail. It covers from the planning, management, technical aspect, safety aspect, weather and also commercial aspect. It is so complicated. It takes not only month but years to make a plan to make an offshore platform. It is not only chemical engineering that involved in the plan, but also other engineering discipline such as electrical, civil, piping, mechanical and also structural.

Mr. Wan Hassan always reminds us that if we want to work at oil and gas industry, team work is the most critical aspect that needed. He also says that communication skill are very essential when we deal with others, especially from other country. But then, he urged that technical skill is the most important thing. It is okay if our English is not perfect. But the important is how to make sure others understand what are we try to say. He himself are not very fluent in English. He admit that he is not fluent at all when he first come to Petronas. But, experience is the best teacher. He always try to speak in English to improve his fluency.   

So, now we know which is more important. Communication skill or technical skill? We are engineers. We do it, not talk about it. We are realist, not a dreamiest. =)