|
Facebook Update Our Brothers Facebook page now has over 2000 members! However our sisters over at FloPetrol already have 2,931 likes. Clearly this is not a tenable situation - come on guys, we have to at least pass FloPetrol's lead :-) Schlumberger in the GuardianI enjoyed this article about Schlumberger in the Guardian despite the fact that it is so biassed against the company. The lead photo sets the scene of a dark operator from the underworld... That said, descriptions of the challenging environments in which the company manages to do business made me proud - certainly sometimes we did business in countries and with regimes less democratic and transparent than at home - but often we were the only ones brave and flexible enough to do so and while I am sure there were lapses of judgement I think the record shows that our competitors have more often been caught in corrupt practices than Schlumberger. More than anything though, it was fun just to read about the company in a major newspaper. Quite how the company manages to maintain such a low public profile remains a mystery. Old PicturesThe old wellsite pictures sent in by Ana Maria Chouillet generated some discussion. Consensus seems to be that this is a seismic job:  Howdy All: The equipment in the old photos looks like a Seismic shot-hole driller truck (with derrick) and a shot-hole shooter (from the truck with the geyser shooting up).
The inside of the truck instrument cab, looks like a logging truck, but I don’t think it is one. I think it is recording the seismic shots.
CheersDick R Ghiselin (old wireline engineer, not to be confused with Richard R Ghiselin the old Dowell hand now working for Lime Rock). What are the odds? Why I Love Africa! 
Missing Presidents - ContinuedJean Louis Droulers wrote (in ALL CAPITALS but I have edited for clarity): For Sharon Jefferson and Lisa Stewart for your info Dowell Schlumberger Corporation was founded in July of 1960 as a 50%/50% joint venture between Dow Chemical and Schlumberger Limited. The first President was
- Guy Baboin from 1960/1962
- Jean Riboud 1962/1963
- Marc Demoustier 1963/1967
- Roland Genin 1967/1969
- Bill Bowen 1969/1972
- Jean Louis Droulers 1972/1978
- Ian Strecker 1978/1980
- Andre Salaber 1980/1988
- Heinz Denkl 1988/1993
In 1993 Schlumberger Limited aquired the 50% of Dowell Sclumberger and the Dowell Corporation from Dow Chemical.I have linked names to profiles where we have them. Perhaps someone would care to create the missing ones? Sharon, Lisa - Jean Louis is saying that neither Victor Grijalva (2 profiles) nor Jimmy Dale Callison were President - certainly he leaves no gap in his timeline. But since he was president (1972-1978) I am inclined not to doubt him! Fairchild Semiconductor I joined Schlumberger in 1987 - the same year that Schlumberger finally sold Fairchild to National Semiconductor for $122M. Fujitsu had offered double that amount the year before but the sale had been blocked on National Security grounds - plus Schlumberger had invested over $1B in Capex and R&D but seen the value of their investment drop by 70%. Everyone's profit sharing was hit by the loss and there was a lot of grumbling at the time. This left me with a lasting impression that Fairchild had been a lemon from the beginning. You can read a hard hitting criticism of Schlumberger's foray into semiconductors here. However I recently saw a much more positive article on Fairchilds contribution to Silicon valley and found it interesting. Now that I look back I am struck not by the hubris of the acquisition but how ahead of the curve Schlumberger were. If you look at a stock price chart for Intel you will see that their stock only took off around 1996 - 17 years after Schlumberger paid just $400m to get into that game. Ultimately neither they nor Fairchild had what it took to wrest leadership but it was an audacious gamble, and when you look at the juggernaught that Intel became, one that was perhaps worth taking. Lost your Password?If you have forgotten your password and are unable to access the site, there is a simple solution. Go to the home page at http://www.brothersreunited.com and click the link where it says "Click HERE to reset your password". Enter the email address we have as your private email address (the one this newsletter was addressed to) exactly as shown. Your password will be reset and the new one sent to you.
However if you have changed email providers (or changed employers) drop us a line and we will update your details and reset your password for you. Of course you should not be reading this if we have an obsolete email address for you... |
|
ALLIANCE Schlumberger - Bali Reunion Oct 2015 We are pleased to announce formal support for the oldest association of ex Schlumberger employess - ALLIANCE Schlumberger. From their website:
"ALLIANCE Schlumberger aims to enable former Schlumberger field engineers to maintain the bonds of trust and friendship formed during their working relationship. ALLIANCE Schlumberger does this by providing contact details of fellow engineers, disseminating pertinent news and organising regular reunions.
Membership of ALLIANCE Schlumberger is open to all former field engineers, aged 50 or more, with a seniority of 5 years or more, of all companies in the Schlumberger group. Membership is subject to the approval of the Board of Directors."
If you are already an ALLIANCE member please log in to Brothers Reunited and update your profile to reflect that, so that others may find you. If you would like to know more you can contact ALLIANCE at webadmin@allianceschlumberger.org.
Traditionally ALLIANCE has been composed of (mostly European) ex Wireline engineers - but they are expanding to embrace more product lines and more nationalities and Asia has been selected as the first region to test that evolution. To that end a splendid dinner was recently held in Jakarta where the launch of ALLIANCE Asia was announced. Based in Jakarta, an ALLIANCE Asia committee has now been created. The first event for the Asia chapter will be a reunion in Bali, Indonesia from Oct 22nd-25th in Pan Pacific Nirwana resort.
Details can be found here:
- Registration Form
- Expected Costs
Because this is the launch event it is open to all Schlumberger Alumni (excluding current employees) with the hope that you will all choose to join ALLIANCE. This promises to be a fabulous event, and as I now reside in Bali I am greatly looking forward to meeting many of you here in October.
Malaysian Airlines MH-370 2014 was a terrible year for air travel with over 1320 fatalities - the worst for 8 years. Of the incidents that one that got the most attention was probably Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, whose wreckage has still not been located.
On that flight were two Schlumberger employees - Firman Chandra Siregar and Yuchen Li. We remember them here:
Firman Chandra Siregar
  Firman Chandra Siregar of Indonesia was on flight MH370 on his way to start a new job with Schlumberger D&M based in Korla, in Zinjiang province in the North East of China.
“He has so many good qualities. He’s cheerful, studious, always eager to learn, and intelligent.” Immanuel Siregar said about this younger brother, 24.
From North Sumatra’s capital of Medan. Mr. Siregar is a graduate of famous state-owned Institute of Technology, where he studied electrical engineering.
Dr Yuchen Li
 27 year old Dr Yuchen Li had recently finished his doctoral engineering degree at Cambridge University. Li began his PhD at Cambridge in October 2009 in the Department of Engineering, supported by a CSC Cambridge International Scholarship. He completed his studies at Cambridge last year.
Before pursuing a PhD, the Chinese national studied for a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
Li was returning to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur after attending a graduate training course organised by Schlumberger (PTS), which he began to work for in January following his PhD graduation.
"Yuchen was a hugely talented and likeable person with a brilliant career ahead of him," a spokesman at Cambridge said.
Dr Li had only recently married, but his wife, Mingei Ma, was not on the flight with him, Cambridge News says.
Panels, CSU-D and Maxis; Continued The letters continue to flood in from engineers who were (or nearly were) proficient on Panels, CSU units and Maxis in their careers. For example:
Peter Brown clains to trump most of those that have written already with experience on the nearly mythical CSU-80:
I started out on Panels.
I was recruited by MEA, but had to attend BTC 13 (the last BTC panel school) in Livingston since PTC in Iran was closed due to the revolution.
I broke out on panels (open hole and cased hole), and started off on workover, offshore Abu Dhabi.
I then quickly ended up in Bu Hasa running openhole on CSU-D (desert truck # 9908).
A few years later I was chosen as MEA field-test engineer for the CSU-D replacement, CSU-80, training on it in Austin. The first MEA CSU-80 desert truck was shipped to France, where I ran a few disastrous open-hole jobs at Melun (repeated CSU failures), until finally a (correct) decision was taken in Paris to cancel the whole project. The only good thing about CSU-80 (MicroVax based) was the colour inkjet log printer, which reappeared on Maxis years later.
Much later in my last year with Schlum, I was Field Test Engineer for S.A.F.E out of Aberdeen, which resulted in me running a couple of jobs on Maxis.
Incidentally, I still have my Rotring pen set (in working condition), and found a reason to use it just a few weeks ago!
All the best, and thanks for all you efforts on BrothersReunited.
Tony Smithson claims all 3 - and a 4th (PCU on CSU-D which I have fond memories of myself):
I think I might qualify for logging on all three: panels, CSU and MAXIS... and a fourth. I ran CSU-D first out of training center, but had to run panels for perforating and on occasion cores, running a bridle ES with Pandora's box (not many around who can claim that :-) !), and a few other exotic tools that were never ported to CSU. I wouldn't call my panel operation proficient but I could do it. I trained on MAXIS at the very end, and though I hoped I would never have to run it was "forced" to use that miserable excuse for a logging system for about a year. Even ran cased hole with it; a cased hole truck with a MAXIS took at least 30 min to start up. Can you image powering down the system, and then waiting 30 min before you could start in the hole with a gun (or even a core gun for that matter)? Neither could our customers.
I then trained JFEs at the Lafayette Learning Center, although I mostly taught completion specialists how to run CSU units because few others knew how to run a CSU. Was so happy to see the old MAXIS replaced with PC version, which took place while I was in Lafayette. So much better, faster, stable and easy to use. I broke a few rules and loaded the MAXIS software on a bunch of PC Clones so students could practice without tying up logging units. Got a couple of hand slaps for that but I really didn't care because our students came out some of the best trained I'd ever known.
As with panels, I wouldn't call what I did on MAXIS proficient but I could get a log (and taught others how to do same.)
Another iteration that was introduced to the CSU by Austin was a VPIX (sort of like DOS on UNIX) system connected to the CSU using the keyboard interface and a CAU connection. It ran on a modified Compaq. I field tested units 01 and 03 when I was in Alice, TX. That one addition greatly increased the power of the standard CSU (battery powered, could stay on when the generator was shut down so it came up instantly when you restarted power, scripts that you could load that would start the software and get you to log phase without touching the keyboard so you could start down hole without waiting for anything to come up) and I believe it was only killed because it made the MAXIS seem so cumbersome that the powers that be were afraid no one would upgrade to MAXIS or customers wouldn't want to have a MAXIS on location.
Memories.
Peter Boles reports narrowly missing out on my criteria:
I saw your request about those who used panels, CSU and Maxis. I was ATC-50 (the last) in Pau headed for Warri Nigeria (a real Club Med). They taught CSU, but for lab work there was no CSU and we used panels. I once had a failed induction that showed up on CSU and was later told by Joel Hache (still a good friend) that he checked it with panels and it was still working. The next day, I checked on the CSU and still had the same problem (CP-22.4). I broke into my free time, hooked up the panels as I was being laughed at. Yes – it worked. I pulled the cartridge and started the electronic diagnostics and was still told I was an idiot. That started making me angry. I short cut the process and went to visual inspection – that did not work – next I used my nose looking for something burnt. That worked – two smoked resistors from the previous trainee who never noticed and nor did the tutors. I got some respect after that. I was known as one of two Aussie party animals, both of whom topped the school. Then back in Warri, we had two CSU trucks and two panel trucks as backup. OK – the backup day came, we were short of engineers and I was officially CSU trained. I did grab one of those panel trucks and did a job. I later used them for shooting only (much faster), and my first job in Hassi Messaoud due to shooting my mouth off in 1985 was a panels shooting job 3 days drive west of base. I had tea with the Bedoiun 20km short of the rig.
I later ended up in Libya under the embargo. We could not import Maxis as a result. By that time we were logging using 7 year old CSU trucks belted up by the desert and repainted several times with many replaces axels. I never logged Maxis due to Libya, but ended up in Montrouge with the Maxis product manager (also from Libya).
I fell just short of your request. I think Africa was the last using panels.
While Anthony Smith would like to pose a new challenge: who has worked in the field, in manufacturing AND in Engineering?
Thanks for your newsletter, which I really enjoy reading. I still look back on my 7 years in Schlumberger as the most fun times of my career.
I have also attended some of the reunions, albeit my last one was in Bruges, Belgium in 2011.
Panels > CSU > Maxis?
Not exactly, but hired in March 1978 I did:
- Panels and CSU
- Offshore and Onshore
- Open Hole and Cased Hole
- Field (EIC for WJV, Indonesia); Manufacturing (QA Manager in SWS); and Engineering (Manager for Production Logging) in SWS. (Not many people did all these three.)
Then I quit in May 1985 to start my own business with 2 colleagues (No, we didn’t make our fortune!)
So - that is my new challenge (and hopefully one that is less Wireline centric) - who worked successfully in the Field, in Manufacturing AND in Engineering?
Peter Sumner  Peter Sumner died on flight UTA-772 on Sept 19, 1989 when a bomb exploded in the luggage compartment over the Sahara desert killing all 170 people on board. The flight from Brazzaville in Republic of Congo to Paris was taking Peter home for days off. Peter, 29 years old, had been with Wireline and Testing since January 1983 and had been assigned to Chad for the last 6 months, after nearly two years in Gabon. 18 years later (2007) the association of the  victims families erected a spectacular memorial by the crash site. The memorial is constructed of black rock in the shape of a DC10 inside a compass, with one of the planes wings carrying the names of the victims. It can be clearly seen from the air on Google Maps. Only if you zoom out can you appreciate how remote the site is. There is a great photo essay on the construction of the memorial on snopes.com and some background on BBC.com. I reached out to some Brothers who were working in North Africa at the time: “You bring back good and sad memories. I will always remember Peter. I was with him in Chad during 5 weeks. We just finished a logging job the same night. He told me about his plans to get married and settle. We lost on the rig more than 20 guys on the plane that crashed over Niger.
I remember Peter up to today. Full of life, full of projects, respectful with everybody. I must have been one of the last one who saw him. It was very hard to be in the camp after his death and going to places where we used to chat and work. I was not sent back to Chad for this reason.”
“I was in that SLB base called 103-A after the Oxy concession name (radio call sign Quebec-20). We had to drive 6km to the Dowell camp to get breakfast, but we tended to settle for coffee and stuff like muesli brought back from days off in our own often sand filled rec room. We tuned into the BBC World Service at 7am just before official start of work using Sony multiband receivers (I still have my own).
We were sitting there and heard about the missing flight. We all knew it was a WAD (West Africa Division) crew change flight, and just all looked at each other in silence for a few minutes before heading off to work. A few days later we got the news by snail mail from Tripoli.”
Obituaries We were notified of the passing of the following members since the last newsletter:
| |  It is with a very heavy heart that I, Shaheryar Murtaza, inform you that my father, Ghulam Murtaza has passed away on 26th of August, 2014. May God rest his soul. 'Innalillah-i-wa-innailayehi rajeoon'. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and kept on fighting it to the very end, for more than a year. He was very fond of the time and people that he had met during his professional years. I want to thank you all on his behalf for being a part of his amazing life. "Murtaza was an amazing person. A bit rough sometimes on the outside, at least he seemed that way to the people who did not know him, but a great soul. I did not spend much time in Tengiz, but I truly enjoyed his presence and stories, and greatly respected his expertise." - Red Robert. More... | | | An ex-boss and friend has left us. Jimmy Dale Callison passed away at his home on the 19th of November 2014 at the age of 81. He was born on the 21st of February 1933, in Morris, Oklahoma to the late Floyd and Ester Mae Callison. He is survived by his wife Sharon; sons, Jon, James, Steven and wife Tammy, Ryan and wife Suzanne; daughter Kathy and husband Michael; 10 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren. "Jimmy was a member of the United Methodist Church. He was an ardent supporter of OU athletics, enjoyed fishing, hunting and had a special passion for golf, holding memberships at Champions, Lochinvar, Southern Hills, and was an active member at Lakeside Country Club for over 40 years. He especially enjoyed besting his age in scoring on multiple occasions." - Ricardo Castro. More... | | |  He died earlier this year after a very brief illness, aggressive brain cancer. As his good friend Etienne Danois-Maricq said "He decided not to have treatment and 'leave in first class' as he said. He was given the diagnosis late January and passed away on March 7th. We all tried to convince him to seek alternative treatment etc but he was firm in his decision to the end." "RIP Pablo Del Amo, a very well know person from my years in Las Morochas." - Fatima F Kaser. More... | | | Sharing news on sad demise of, Ms. N. Latha, ex-Secretary / Admin, last night on 9/11/2014 around 2000hrs at Madras / Chennai. She was suffering from Cancer. She was admitted to hospital on Friday (7/11/2014) due to heavy breathing problem. She was spinster whole of her life. When Chennai / Madras office was closed down she end ( was told so ) her association with Schlumberger in 2009 December. She stayed back with her Mother & brother's family at Chennai / Madras. "Sad to know the demise of our beloved colleague." - Sriram ES Sathiyamoorthy (Dalai Lama). More... | | |  Asmund Boe passed away on Sunday, 25th January in Norway, after losing his fight with cancer. I believe his funeral will be this Friday. He leaves behind his wife, Sabrina, and two young children. Notified by Angus Armstrong. "He was a gentleman who always had a smile come what may. It was a pleasure having worked with him for a few years in the Middle East - am sure there are a lots of people who are going to miss him. Rest in peace my friend!" - Prabhakar Bhaskar (Prab). More... | | |  Jeremy Walker passed away on November 23rd last year after a long battle with cancer. "I had pleasure to be connected and see them visit Dubai office and deal with me in OFS Marketing events... Sad to hear this news as I see loosing some of the good people that I knew." - Koshy Samuel (Koshy). More... | | |  Jorge died on March 4, 2015 at his home in Austin, TX after a year-long battle against pancreatic cancer. During those months he engaged a large community of friends in pondering his fate with the sharp intellect, wicked humor and irreverence that we all loved him for. He was a good man, a good friend and he will be missed. More... | | | Steve was a recruiter for Dowell Schlumberger in the '80s. He died in England on 4 March from the dreaded "C". He leaves his wife, Anne, and two sons, James and Charlie. More... | | | "I also knew Oistein many years ago, I think in Abu Dhabi/Dubai around the same time. And to my great regret, I did not know he lived in Los Gatos CA, I have been regularly visiting there for the past few years, would have been good to catch up. Can you please make sure the news is also passed to Alliance Schlumberger, or let me know and I will do it if you prefer." - Gordon R Mowat. More... | | | "For those who knew him, Bob passed away from liver cancer at his home in Huntington Beach, CA on 13 Jul. I just saw the link to his obituary posted on LinkedIn. The link is here. Bob was my service manager in Lake Charles when I got my GFE in 1980. He was a good guy to work for and we had some great times together. He will be missed." - Gordon R Mowat. More... | | | Paul passed away after more than one year battle with a cancer. He had retired from Testing in 2009. More... | | | Donald Cranston passed away at the RockyView Hospital at the age of 66. He will be deeply missed by his wife Norma Whitney, his family, friends and colleagues. While working in Calgary Don became an accomplished curler with a great sense of humour, always ready with a quick sarcastic remark. One of his famous sayings was, Never give a curler of my caliber the same shot twice. He is survived by his wife, Norma; mother, Mae; sister, Sherryl; and nephew, Marcos. He was predeceased by his father, Jim; Aunts and Uncles. Don enjoyed his life and when asked if he was ever going to retire, would reply; Never, I have the best of both worlds. I sail for half a year and work for half a year. It doesnt get any better than that! More... | | |  Chris Daniel has passed away while on a business trip in Iraq from what appears to be a natural cause. "Chris and myself have crossed paths multiple times along our respective careers in Schlumberger. When in difficult times, he was always dependable and resourceful. His witticism will be missed. Way too soon to go..." - Pascal Sixdenier (p6x). "He was a gentleman in the real sense. Hard working and using his head when needed, he was also a great friend to have. Sad news. The wheel turns." - Michel J.R. Terrien. More... | | |  David Richard Terribile, 62, was born in El Paso, Texas, on April 21, 1953. He was the son of a military officer, so his formative years were spent in Texas, Turkey, Germany and Virginia. He passed away at his home in the Woodlands, Texas on Friday, August 14, 2015. Although his life has been cut short, he has left behind family and friends, who will remember his smile and personality. Details of Passing: here. More... |
Rgds
Ewan Makepeace
info@brothersreunited.com
http://www.brothersreunited.com
|
