APPENDIX 8
Memorandum by PLATFORM
ECGD AND THE
BTC PIPELINE—SUBMISSION
OF 14 JULY
ON TECHNICAL
STANDARDS AND
MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
The further evidence submitted by the Baku Ceyhan
Campaign to the Trade & Industry Committee on 14 July 2004,
contained a statement by the Baku Ceyhan Campaign (of which my
organisation, PLATFORM, is a part), along with a statement by
me, and anonymous statements by four professionals who worked
on the project in Turkey. The four statements all report systemic
failings, including a culture of mismanagement, technical incompetence
and non-compliance with technical, environmental and safety standards.
They also give a number of specific examples of elements of the
construction are unsafe, and that may lead to serious environmental
damage and technical failures in the pipeline.
I understand from my colleague Nicholas Hildyard's
conversation with you that any witnesses would need to make themselves
known to the Committee in order for their evidence to be considered.
I have received the permission of the four professionals
to submit to you (enclosed with this letter) their original, named
(non-anonymous) statements. Three of the four (Micheal Morley,
Colynn Burrell and John Nakamarupinder) have requested that these
statements be treated on a confidential basis. They request
that if the Committee chooses to publish their statements with
its report, that it publish only the anonymised versions we sent
you previously. The fourth however (Dennis Adams) is happy for
his name to be used.
I asked whether providing you with these non-anonymous
statements would be sufficient for the the Committee's purposes,
and I should be very grateful if you would let me know as soon
as possible if you need the four professionals to contact you
in person, in which case I will ask them to do so.
Three of the professionals have also given me
permission to submit their curricula vitae with the statements,
also on a confidential basis, to help the Committee assess their
experience and expertise to speak on these matters.
The enclosed statements correspond to those
submitted on 14 July as follows:
— Michael John Morley (with CV)—Annex
2 of 14 July submission: Anonymised statement on violation of
construction standards in Turkey, 6 November 2003
— Dennis P Adams (with CV)—Annex
3: Anonymised statement of senior pipeline engineer, 14 March
2004
— Colynn Burrell—Annex 4: Anonymised
statement of pipeline manager, 2 March 2004
— John Nakamarupinder (with CV)—Annex
5: Anonymised statement of subcontractor manager, 23 June 2004
I hope this will be of assistance to the Committee.
Yours sincerely
Greg Muttitt
Memorandum submitted by Dennis P Adams
Statement, 14 March 2004
Resume attached.
While employed by STA JV on spread two of the
BTC Pipeline Project during the months of September and October
2003 as Engineering Manager, I had occasion to observe the failures
of the contractor to support my effort, and that of the engineering
department in general, in our duties of assuring that the quality
of construction and of engineering work was being accomplished
or performed according to international standards and best practice
and technological standards.
The failure to perform the engineering work
and permit the engineering construction supervision to proceed
appropriately and according to recognised and established engineering
procedures:
— jeopardizes quality control;
— may cause installation of materials
in regions exceeding engineering design capacity;
— may allow construction by methods
of convenience rather than to specification;
— may overstress materials if not installed
in an accordance within stress limitations;
— degrades fault tracking and repair
ability;
— compromises environmental quality
and future safety, reliability and integrity of the pipeline.
I personally witnessed that the Contractor failed
to provide the most basic and necessary tools, forms, copy equipment,
software, data, information systems, equipment, office supplies,
office space furniture, telephones, procedures, instructions,
transportation, work planning to enable effective engineering
work on the project.
Daily subsistence provision was insufficient
for the working personnel, and living and working environments
were inappropriate.
The Contractor also failed to obtain necessary
and recommended subcontract services and qualified or additional
personnel and, when such services were obtained, promptly degraded
the ability of those resources to provide expertise by lack of
payment.
I will give specific examples that occurred
in my presence.
SUBCONTRACTORS AND
STAFF UNDERPAID
AND UNDER-RESOURCED
The Contractor was paying many expat personnel
less than half of contract rates and paying late by 30 days or
more. Turkish employees were always paid late if at all.
The Cathodic Protection and Blasting Contractors
were not being paid, compromising planning and proper design.
The Geotechnical Contractor was not being paid,
compromising the design in the karst areas.
The Geophysical Design Consultant was not being
paid, resulting in much confusion on the method of construction
on the North Anatolian Fault crossing designs.
The Engineering Manager was not being paid.
The Contractor refused to hire recommended qualified
personnel to do the engineering work and alternatively refused
to hire qualified subcontractors.
Personnel were being hired and fired at all
times, resulting in poor performance from the entire project team.
Insufficient or underrated construction equipment
was a problem every day.
Many construction consumables were being purchased
below specifications to save money.
The Contractor refused to allow the Engineering
Department use of the five vehicles assigned to it to follow the
engineering progress of the work. It could not send engineers
to construction sites, even when they wanted them there, due to
lack of vehicles and sufficient transportation.
DISORGANISED AND
MISMANAGED CONSTRUCTION
ACTIVITIES
Pipe was being left up above the ditch for time
periods much longer than the specifications allowed, exposing
the trench to fill with foreign and non-spec materials and possible
wash-outs and uncontrolled movements of the pipe.
Trenching was progressed in wet areas, despite
the lack of sufficient pumps for water control and flooding, and
sedimentation over farming areas was often the result.
The contractor was not accomplishing a proper
detailed investigation into actual subsurface conditions before
digging, lacked a metal detector, cut water line supplies to villages
that could easily have been avoided.
Construction machine breakdown was basically
completely out of control. Documentation was uncontrolled and
disorganised.
Inexperienced personnel were being employed
with no time for training or proper supervision.
ENGINEERING AND
DESIGN PROBLEMS
There were many questions outstanding on proper
burial depths, well after much of the pipe was installed.
Pipeline burial depths at overbends and changes
of direction were never checked for the prevention of upheaval
buckling effects.
Obviously, the engineering of the fault crossings
should have been totally completed before construction was initiated
in any of the fault areas. It is absolutely intolerable to think
that the construction contractor should propose the final method
to use for such crossings.
The use of so many pipeline wall thicknesses,
where normally only three or four would be used, was questioned
severely during the design based on complicated logistics and
placement during construction, number of automatic welding equipment
set-up changes and safety of the thinner wall pipe when buried
at increased depths.
I am not sure of the final locations of the
block valves, but during the design many of them were located
by use of a computer program based solely on the calculated volume
of oil contained between the isolatable pipeline segments. The
actual locations, to my knowledge, were never reviewed by a competent
engineer which resulted in several block valves in completely
inappropriate locations; some virtually at the peaks of the mountains.
ENVIRONMENTAL AND
SAFETY VIOLATIONS
Environmental Engineering Supervisor was intimidated
and badgered by a contractor manager to compromise environmental
certifications of the camp wastewater treatment plant.
Safety violations were occurring at all times,
including workers in deep unprotected and unstable excavated areas.
Trench boxes were not being used when there were personnel working
in unstable areas of the trench.
When forced to comply with safety standards,
quick rig modifications were made which were often less safe than
the original equipment configuration. Roll bars were required
to be installed in ATV equipment, so several vehicles were fitted
with roll bars in the interior of the vehicle. The bars themselves
were field fabricated, not approved by the vehicle manufacturers
and actually were less safe because they increased the probability
of head injury during an accident.
LIVING AND
WORKING CONDITIONS
The Contractor failed to pay the caterer, resulting
in three days of one loaf of bread, one tomato, one cucumber for
lunch and dinner.
The mess hall did not meet health standards.
The Contractor failed to pay camp generator
rental, resulting in electricity outages and cold temperatures
in accommodation quarters.
There was a lack of hot water facilities for
personal hygiene.
The contractor was not paying hotel bills, and
was banned from quartering personnel in the (two local hotels).
This overloaded camp resources.
There were a number of local businesses not
being paid, resulting in worker unrest, medical strikes, near
bankruptcy and at least one armed owner of a failing business
entering the construction camp and threatening the STA business
manager.
That's probably enough to give you an idea of
how the work was being done. As such, I don't have much hope for
the future integrity or proper maintenance and operation of a
pipeline of this kind of size and importance being primarily sponsored
by one of the largest petroleum companies in the world. It is
quite obvious that they are not in control of the Turkish section
of this pipeline.
14 March 2004
Resume of Dennis P Adams
29 YEARS OF
PIPELINE PROJECTS
ENGINEERING, OPERATION,
CONSTRUCTION
PERSONAL DATA:
Education: University of Texas Arlington
Marital Status: Married
Degree: BS Civil Engineering 1975
Nationality: United States
Professional Licences: Texas Engineering Registration
Languages: English & Spanish
Interests: Private Pilot, Scuba Instructor,
Fishing, Sailing
1/04 TO PRESENT
: ABV ROCK GROUP
KB, RIYADH, SAUDI
ARABIA
Title: Project Pipeline Consultant
Pipeline design management consulting for international
engineering co. subcontract. Construction, equipment and operational
method troubleshooting and recommendations of corrective actions.
Pipeline hydraulic simulation and operational philosophy optimization
and improvement. Prime responsibility for five pipelines in various
regions of Saudi Arabia in desert, city and mountainous environments
for a confidential client. Projects incorporate combined operations
of two primary proponents of dissimilar operational interests
and their connecting pipelines, bulk plants, marine terminals
and refineries with five massive underground storage plants.
09/03 TO 10/03: STREICHER,
TIMMERMAN & HAASTADT,
ALARKO, GUYASIL,
STA JOINT VENTURE/ERZINCAN,
TURKEY
Title: Construction Engineering Manager BTC Pipeline
Project Lot B
Engineering Manager for the construction of
the BTC467 Km (280 mi) of 42 inch diameter crude oil pipeline
in central Turkey. Responsible for the application of engineering
principals of the detailed design to difficult and specific situations
encountered along the construction route, involving the crossing
of the North Anotolian fault, Karst areas, numerous archaeological
sites, access road locations and steep slopes in mountainous terrain
to 2,800 m elevations in erosion prone soils and maintaining the
work within contract requirements. Preparation of as-built drawings,
Document Control Department, engineered installation quality,
change orders, work method statements, access road and pipe storage
yard locations, construction camp design and maintenance and the
installation of 34 block valve stations, all material approvals,
cathodic protection, and over 1,000 river and road crossings.
Resigned when STA-PENTOM, Energie Projects Ltd, Jersey defaulted
on contract salary payments.
9/01 TO 6/02: UNIVERSAL-ENSCO/ATLAS,
ANKARA TURKEY
Title: BOTAS Engineering Representative/BTC Pipeline
Project
Assigned as BOTAS client representative to engineering
contractor designing the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline Project
consisting of 1,070 km, 46, 42 and 34" diam. crude line,
flowrates 100K-1,000K BOPD, elev to 2,830 m with four pump stations,
56 block valve sites and a pressure reduction station. Review
and checking of engineering work including scheduling, geophysical
investigations of faults, landslides and karst areas, 260 archaeological
sites tracking and recommending route changes throughout Turkey.
Review of alignment sheets, river and highway crossings, pipe
stresses, hydraulics, RoW reinstatement procedures, material and
construction specifications and construction package bid analysis.
2/97 TO 9/01: ABV
ROCK GROUP
KB, RIYADH, SAUDI
ARABIA
Title: SR Principal Pipeline Project Engineer
Project Engineer for final engineering and construction
of 240 km 14" multi-product pipeline system including a marine
terminal and supply pump station, two booster stations, storage
plant connection and design modifications to receiving area at
the distribution station in southwestern mountain region of Saudi
Arabia.
Construction through extreme geological conditions
with steep slopes and deep wadi crossings. Securing final client
approvals, construction approval, field design revisions, final
permitting, siting of block valve stations, government safety
evaluation, alignment revisions, road crossing stress analysis,
dynamic foundation design, anchor block stresses, wash out reinstallations
and erosion prevention. Projects included pipeline, right-of-way
and fiber optic cable installation involving construction from
0 to 2,820 meter elevations with numerous highway and deep wadi
crossings and a 12 km long tunnel at 2,800 meter elevation.
Equipment bid analysis and technical review
of all pipeline system components. Secured client approval for
Saudi Aramco first use of vibro-flotation soil treatment (stone
columns) and dynamic pump foundation designs at seismically active
region of costal supply terminal. Secured HCIS approvals for 240
km Pipeline installation.
Extensive Stoner Pipeline Simulator final hydraulic
modeling and operation sequences of 6 pipelines, refinery supply
systems, storage plants and bulk distribution plants all including
analysis of transient flows and pressures. Specific transient
condition simulations to solve pipeline control system initiated
shut downs. Beta testing and integration of Stoner's SynerGee
Schematic with Stoner Pipeline Simulator. And development of ActiveX
Tank Display for use within SynerGee programming environment.
Pipe Stress analysis programming for rapid hydrotesting
verifications with 0-45 C temperature changes including finite
element heat flow modeling through soils.
7/96 TO 7/97: GULF
INTERSTATE ENGINEERING,
PUERTO LA
CRUZ, VENEZUELA
Title: Sr Principal Pipeline Engineer—Assistant
Pipeline Project Manager Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela Office
Conoco-Maraven's Venezuela extra heavy oil project.
Thermo-hydraulic transient design, pump sizing, and start-up and
shut-down analysis of a 240 km 36" heavy oil pipeline 750
MBOPD at 190°F and a 150 MBOPD 20" diluent pipeline
using Stoner's Pipeline Simulator including modeling of transfer
pumps and station valves and piping. Additionally accomplished
route selection, alignment sheets, block valve stations, erosion
protection, road and river crossings, material lists and supervised
all pipeline drawing production.
9/91 TO 1/96: ABV
ROCK GROUP
KB, RIYADH, SAUDI
ARABIA
Title: Principal Pipeline Project Engineer
Planning of 3,000 km system of multi-product
diesel, gasoline and jet fuel pipelines, fuel receiving stations,
distribution terminals and storage plants for a national strategic
fuels storage and distribution program Simulated operations of
multiproduct systems batching, storage, turnover and distribution
operations to confirm adequacy of entire system civil and strategic
objectives.
Region five and Region six: Project Management
of Detailed Design contracts with Aker, Snamprogetti and ACEC/Stone
and Webster for the design of three pipeline systems totaling
400 km of pipelines, marine terminals in Jeddah, Riyadh and Jizan,
supply pump stations through desert, mountain and dense city regions.
Projects included underground booster stations and receiving stations,
underground storage plants, distribution pump stations connecting
with Aramco refineries and marine terminal facilities, the storage
plants and the receiving areas at both civilian and military distribution
terminals.
89-91: NORTHERN ENGINEERING,
INC, HOUSTON,
TX
Title: Manager Civil Engineering Department
Started the department from myself to a staff
of 25. Responsible for department organization and budget, project
proposals, staffing and technical requirements for the design
of cogeneration power plants and related fuel pipelines, compressors,
meters and gas fuel switching stations.
1989: WILCREST ENGINEERING
CORPORATION, HOUSTON,
TX
Title: Senior Project Engineer—Contracted
To Transco Pipeline Company
Civil engineering involved design of offshore
platform pipeline risers, cantilevered deck extensions and addition
of helicopter landing decks. Civil Project Engineer for Permit
planning, conceptual and initial detail design of a 12,000 HP
compressor station.
87-88: TRANSAMERICAN
NATURAL GAS
CO, LAREDO,
TX
Title: Sr Principal Pipeline Engineer
As the sole engineer for 750 MMSCFD, 562 well
gas gathering and transmission system with 860 mi of pipelines.
I was responsible for engineering design, technical operations
and construction of all treating, compression facilities, metering
stations and all gathering and mainline pipelines. Duties included
both design, construction, commissioning, and start-up of pipelines,
compressor stations, gas treating systems and metering stations.
86-87: OVERSEAS BECHTEL,
INC, BOGOTA,
COLOMBIA SA
Title: Senior Start-Up Engineer
Start-up, commissioning and operations of 200,000
BOPD Caño del Norte Pipeline from initial dewatering, commissioning
of production treating plants and power generation stations, tank
farms, pump stations and the sales meter station and offshore
buoy. Work involved mechanical completion checks of all equipment
and circuits, testing all equipment, initial run-ups and rectification
of faults, training local operators and turnover of all systems.
Operator of metering station and ship loading via pipeline to
offshore buoy system.
84-85 PIPE LINE
TECHNOLOGISTS, HOUSTON,
TX
Title: Senior Pipeline Engineer
Design of pipeline risers for offshore platforms,
sub-sea pipeline connections and underwater hot taps, 550 miles
of offshore deepwater pipeline survey, capacity determinations
of existing crude transportation infrastructure through private
pipeline systems for use by DOE Strategic Petroleum Reserves.
83-84 GLOBAL ENGINEERING
(USA), INC, HOUSTON,
TX
Title: Senior Pipeline Engineer
Design of pipelines, plant piping, oil and natural
gas gathering systems and treating stations, tanks, pump stations
both on and offshore. Design of a marine tanker unloading and
fuel distribution terminal.
77-83 NORTHERN NATURAL
GAS CO,
HOUSTON, TX
(NOW ENRON)
Title: Civil-Structural Engineer—Pipeline
Engineer
Project Engineering work included the development
of engineering and construction schedules, permit activities,
administration and on site supervision of geotechnical, on and
offshore surveys and construction services subcontracts. Detailed
Engineering work included sizing of pipeline diameters, flow analysis,
material specification and requisition, permit documents, pipeline
anodes, corrosion and weight coatings, pipe stress analysis, sub-sea
stability, free span and vortex shedding effects, lay stresses
and pipeline riser design for some 20 offshore pipelines in the
Gulf of Mexico and nine large onshore projects throughout the
mid-western USA.
75-77: FLUOR ENGINEERS
AND CONSTRUCTORS
HOUSTON, TX
Title: Structural Engineer
Design of petrochemical structures, pipe stress,
pipe racks and general structural design of compressor foundations,
river docks, pipe racks, maintenance buildings, garages, fire
stations, process structures, office buildings and warehouses.
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