TravelStream™ news feed for member guruzers on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/guruzers en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:06:45 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guruzers/16/1244433600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guruzers/16/1244433600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guruzers/16/1244433600/tpod.html Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:06:45 -0400 The Chinese Pipeline Construction Project

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Tuzhu, Sichuan, China

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Tuzhu, Sichuan, China

Still working away trying to help out wherever we can, things get pretty frustrating for all of us at times. The crews have started Phase 2 of the project and still have 1600 deficiencies on Phase 1 to cleanup. They are being pushed hard by the Oil Company to do everything at once without enough manpower. The ditch has been open for 6 months in places with rainy season around the corner. The quality is not like Canadian standards. The crews are redoing work 4 and 5 times in places due to poor guidance. We have tried to shut the job down several times with no luck. If all goes according to plan they expect 1.3 billion cubic feet of gas per day out of 43 wells (big job). We are being pushed very hard to sign off on Phase 1 which is impossible with all the deficiencies and the time line in which they want to complete the project.
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Tuzhu, Sichuan, China

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Tuzhu, Sichuan, China

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Tuzhu, Sichuan, China

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Tuzhu, Sichuan, China

March 1
Phase 2 of the project crosses the river and this 30km of terrain will be even steeper than the first 15 km in Phase 1. Phase 2 is starting slow and it looks like the workers are trying to do a better job. That is, at least until the schedule gets tight, and they are forced to do more than they are capable of efficiently. Phase 1 is still a big mess and needs a lot of work to clean up. It gets a little frustrating repeating the same things every day but some of it is finally getting through. There are going to be some long days once the rainy season starts in May when we can't get out in the field.

March 5
Just plugging away here trying to make some kind of a difference. Had a meeting with a welding guy on site yesterday. He told me that there are 4-500 people in management alone including engineers on site, not counting head office in Beijing. It's no wonder that we are having problems making changes.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guruzers/16/1235522640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guruzers/16/1235522640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guruzers/16/1235522640/tpod.html Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:46:44 -0500 The Chinese Pipeline Construction Project

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Tuzhu, Sichuan, China

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Tuzhu, Sichuan, China

Jan 13/09
The government owns the oil company, most of the contracting companies and the supervision companies. There are probably 50 levels of different kinds of management and these people will not admit defeat for fear of losing face. Making changes is next to impossible unless we can deal directly with the crews on site and change them. There is a spring festival starting on Jan 26th so all the crews are trying to finish up so they can get time off, and change is not part of their mandate right now. Good thing they are friendly or this would be a nightmare.

Jan 18/09
This frog-like creature is the first wildlife we have seen since we arrived, not even sure what it is. Other than that work crews are starting to wind down with the Chinese New Year just around the corner.

Jan 26/09
Today (Jan 27 in China) is Leo's last working day of his first 9 week stretch. He had to stay in 1 extra week due to Chinese New Year filling all flights out. Tomorrow, he travels aprox 4 hrs by vehicle to Chongqing and spends the night there. The next morning (29th) he takes a 2.5hr flight to Beijing, 10hrs 40min to Vancouver, and finally 1.5 hrs to Calgary. When I asked him what kind of food he was missing the most, he replied without hesitation, "cheeseburgers". I'm thinking Wendy's will be the first stop once out of the airport. He's home sweet home for 3 weeks and we'll be off the air until he goes back for round 2.
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Tuzhu, Sichuan, China

Here are some work shots for your interest. Gunn is one of our interpreters and had to have a picture with these dogs,the rest are just day to day. Take a look at the methanol pumps, there are 5 on each skid. We had our sunniest day today since we arrived, it helps. Look forward to getting home.
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Tuzhu, Sichuan, China

We are seeing improvements in some places and none in others. It is very frustrating at times. We still don't know how long we're going to be here as there is a second part of the contract coming out at the end of February, and payment has to be made before we carry on. There are so many different levels of management, that we do not know from one day to the next if we are getting through to the people that matter. There are alot of things that are done with extremely poor quality as in some of the well site welding that have us very concerned on the long term quality. It is just a lack of education and experience that is causing a large part of these problems. Some of the things we are asking for are learned by years failures and experience in sour gas. As for now we will just keep doing the best that we can and try to keep getting through.
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