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NALCO CHAMPION MAGAZINE

ISSUE TWO

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ISSUE TWO

During production, oil and water accumulate separately in production tanks that, together, form a tank battery. Atop this tank battery in Greeley, Colorado, Nalco Champion prepares to conduct oil quality testing to ensure oil buyer acceptance.

APRIL 2014

“IT IS OUR EXPECTATION THAT OUR PEOPLE WILL WORK IN A SAFE MANNER AND LOOK AFTER THEIR TEAMMATES’ SAFETY. IT IS OUR EXPECTATION THAT THEY WILL PROPERLY ASSESS RISK BEFORE STARTING ANY TASK, NO MATTER HOW ROUTINE. IT IS OUR EXPECTATION THAT OUR PEOPLE WILL BE SAFETY LEADERS.” JAMES DEES GENERAL MANAGER, DOWNSTREAM EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA, RUSSIA

NALCO CHAMPION MAGAZINE

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P R E S I D E N T’ S S 20 I SPSRUI N E GT W O1 4

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CONTENTS F R O N T

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PRESIDENT’S LETTER RE:SOLUTION CHALLENGE TECHNOLOGY LETTER

I N S I D E

10 CASE HISTORY 1 2 C O N V E R S AT I O N 14 INFOGRAPHIC 16 UP CLOSE

F E A T U R E S

2O WELCOME TO JURONG ISLAND Together, Ecolab and Nalco Champion successfully completed the single largest capital construction project in the company’s history — the Eastern Hemisphere Core Plant (EHCP). Having already achieved an enviable safety record (3.4 million safe hours to date), EHCP is poised to produce and planning an expansion.

3 2 B R A I N S , B E N C H W O R K , B I G FA B R I C A T I O N A N D T H E B R I G H T F U T U R E O F C H E M I C A L E O R As new drilling becomes increasingly complex and costly, a rising percentage of the world’s production is achieved through enhanced oil recovery (EOR). From the science behind the polymers to equipment fabrication and water management, explore asset-reviving EOR with Nalco Champion.

3 8 T H E N E W A N D N OV E L COVER STORY Sometimes the solution isn’t in our own galaxy, much less our own backyard. Practicing a “Think Differently, Act Differently” philosophy, Nalco Champion works with Research, Development and Engineering (RD&E) visionaries across industries — from healthcare to space exploration — to build the connections that lead to groundbreaking innovation.

C O M M U N I T Y

44 F R O M T H E A R C H I V E S 45 EXPERTISE 46 O P E R AT I O N A L E X C E L L E N C E 47 CO R E K N OW L E D G E 48 CASE HISTORY 50 S E E N A N D H E A R D 52 INFOGRAPHIC 54 E M P LOY E E P R O F I L E 55 RECRUITING

NALMET, ECOLAB, NALCO, NALCO CHAMPION AND THE LOGOS ARE TRADEMARKS OF ECOLAB USA INC. ALL OTHER TRADEMARKS ARE THE PROPERTY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS. © 2014 ECOLAB USA INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

“WE ARE ADDING MORE THAN 800 PEOPLE TO THE NALCO CHAMPION TEAM THIS YEAR TO PROVIDE EXCEPTIONAL SERVICE WHILE SUPPORTING CONTINUED GROWTH.”

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E X PA N D I N G O U R G L O B A L FO OT P R I N T W H I L E D R I V I N G A C U LT U R E O F S A F E T Y I am quite pleased to say that our business continues to grow very strongly across the Nalco Champion business groups and around the world as we move ahead with market-leading technology, personally delivered to our customers. This has been both an exciting and challenging first 500 days for Nalco Champion, and it is a credit to each of our employees that we have achieved so much through outstanding hard work and customer focus. We have a unique business model that has only been strengthened by merging the two companies.

In this issue of Nalco Champion Magazine, you’ll read about how we are investing to support our rapidly expanding businesses internationally, with the completion of our new Eastern Hemisphere Core Plant (EHCP) on Singapore’s Jurong Island. This represents our largest-ever infrastructure investment outside of North America and reflects our confidence in the prospects for the Eastern Hemisphere and our commitment to improving lead times for our customers and de-risking our supply chain from raw material, currency and potential hurricane events on the U.S. Gulf Coast. We look forward to opening the plant this October, and we are already commissioning its expansion having, to date, sold out its capacity.

OUR SAFETY FOCUS A key highlight of the EHCP project is the more than 3.0 million hours of safe work that have gone into its construction. We will celebrate this huge accomplishment with our team on site, thanking these outstanding people for their work in adopting our safety culture and values. Along these lines, we recently published our GOAL ZERO safety expectations policy. The document clearly lays out what we expect from all our employees and contractors across the globe and aligns with the safety policies of our customers. It emphasizes that each of us is personally responsible and accountable for working safely. We also are responsible for those around us — colleagues, contractors and the community. I ask our employees to read the safety policy and take it to heart. I remind our partners that we encourage all of our employees to use stop work authority at any time unsafe work conditions are observed or are likely to occur. I ask us all to remember that there is no job so important or journey so urgent that it cannot be accomplished safely.

E N H A N C E D O I L R ECOV E RY While many of our customers realize that Nalco Champion provides solutions from the reservoir to the refinery, too few are aware of our particular expertise in the field of enhanced oil recovery (EOR).

We’re pleased to remedy that oversight with a story

highlighting the specific expertise of two Nalco Champion companies, TIORCO and FabTech. From the RD&E behind our chemical programs to the equipment building capabilities necessary to feed chemicals for any application, TIORCO and FabTech collaboration is transforming EOR programs.

D R I V I N G I N N O VA T I O N A gathering in Sugar Land in September involved approximately 300 of our highly respected researchers and technical and marketing minds coming together for our annual Solvers Symposium. Together with key leaders of our organization, our teams collaborated on solutions to our customers’ toughest problems and shared some phenomenal achievements. Teams also heard directly from leading experts in the realms of space exploration and medicine on how we can adopt ideas from each field to advance our own unique innovation activities. For more on how we look outside of oil and gas for solutions to the industry’s most pressing challenges, take a few minutes to read “The New and Novel.” I think you’ll find it fascinating.

M A I N TA I N I N G O U R M O M E N T U M I am optimistic about our ability to continue our innovation, technical and logistics support as we do all we can to serve our customers. We are adding more than 800 people to the Nalco Champion team this year to provide exceptional service while supporting continued growth. This will present opportunities for new employees and development opportunities for those already on our team. I realize there are still areas for improvement as we continue to align inside Ecolab, and we will work through those areas to get to our “new normal” as soon as possible. I thank you for your support and the trust and confidence you place in our people, products and services.

S T E V E TAY L O R E X EC U T I V E V I C E P R E S I D E N T A N D P R E S I D E N T, N A LC O C H A M P I O N

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M A I N TA I N S I T U AT I O N A L AWA R E N E S S Don’t allow the “normalization of deviance.” Open your eyes to your actions and your surroundings, identify the hazards and take appropriate action for the safety of yourself and your colleagues.

Alistair Manifold Account Manager, Australia

FRONT

R E : S O L U T I O N NALCO CHAMPION MAGAZINE

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ISS U E TWO 2014 A PU BLICATION OF NALCO CHAMPIO N , A N ECOLA B CO MPANY

EDITOR Aimee Borders

EDITORIAL REVIEW BOARD Jim Chew Melissa Crocker Tina Dear Sandra Garcia-Swofford Julienne Herne David Horsup Debbie Kilen Mike Kilen Hector Montes Tara Mueller Bob Reynolds Kimberly Stauffer Angela Tosh Alice Wheelwright Martin Willis

CONTRIBUTORS Rusty Haggard Scott Redepenning

DESIGN Peggy Lauritsen Design Group Nalco Champion Creative Team

Nalco Champion Magazine 3200 Southwest Freeway Suite 2700, Houston, TX 77027 Telephone +1-713-627-3303 magazine.nalcochampion.com

Our people have made discoveries that enhance production, asset integrity, recovery rates and environmental compliance. But our real point of differentiation is our ability to collaborate with you to solve complex challenges. Through Re:Solution, we outline an industry challenge and invite you, our reader, to join us in solving it.

Identifying Novel Solutions to a Multi-Billion-Dollar Biofilm Challenge

BY V I C K E AS L E R, S E N I O R R D & E G RO U P L E A D E R MICROBIOLOGY AND GLOBAL BIOTECHNOLOGY ANCHOR

S I T U AT I O N Medical infections, equipment damage, energy loss and product contamination — biofilms cause challenges in nearly every industry. The petroleum industry is no different, with biofilms potentially leading to microbially influenced corrosion (MIC), biotic H2S generation and significant biofouling.

Penetration of a biofilm and removal of it from a surface is incredibly difficult as the organisms that make up a biofilm can be more than 1,000 times less susceptible to an antimicrobial treatment than the same organisms that are free floating in planktonic form.

CHALLENGE The goal of this challenge is to identify novel methods for biofilm disruption and removal. The solution could be chemical, biological or mechanical, among others, and would result in penetration, kill and removal of biofilms that are commonly found in the petroleum industry.

CALL FOR INSIGHTS Share this challenge with your friends and colleagues across industries and geographies. If you have a potential solution that could warrant further investigation, please submit to MicrobialSolutions@ecolab.com. A representative from Nalco Champion will get back to you to explore further.

STORY IDEAS? Submit your story ideas, feedback, questions and comments to nalcochampion@ecolab.com.

RE:SOLUTION CHALLENGE Share and solve.

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T H I N K D I F F E R E N T LY, A C T D I F F E R E N T LY: A N U N C O N V E N T I O N A L A P P R O A C H TO T EC H N I C A L P R O B L E M - S O LV I N G Today’s oil and gas industry leverages some of the latest state-of-the-art technologies to ensure the safe, reliable and profitable production and processing of hydrocarbon streams. Few industries require the level of sophistication and ingenuity that the petroleum industry implements every day in some of the most challenging environmental and geopolitical regions of the world. And few industries offer the excitement, technical challenge and opportunity that the petroleum industry provides. Success in this competitive marketplace demands staying abreast of technology developments and ensuring that technology portfolios are not just focused on solving today’s challenges, but are also proactively positioned to provide solutions for tomorrow’s.

The challenges the industry faces today and will face tomorrow are significantly more complex and demanding than those of only a few years ago, and providing a cost-effective chemically engineered solution can make the difference between project viability and projects mired in the pre-financial investment decision (pre-FID) phase. Conventional approaches to these technical challenges are seldom effective. Viable solutions require a different way of thinking. They require the seamless integration of chemistry, automation, diagnostics and delivery. At Nalco Champion, our role is critical and clearly defined: enable our customers to meet their production, processing, profitability and sustainability targets.

We launched the “Think Differently, Act Differently” campaign in 2014 to help facilitate a cultural change, adapting our thinking to better develop solutions geared to the increasing complexity of our customers’ technical challenges. In many cases, solutions to problems in the petroleum industry may be found through exposure to other diverse industries. The field of innovation is littered with many such cross-pollination examples: e.g., nature’s cockleburs were the inspiration behind the first reusable adhesive — Velcro™.

We believe, and we’ve seen, that giving individuals license to explore solutions beyond their home territory can truly lead to disruptive innovation. In September, Nalco Champion hosted the second annual Solvers Symposium, a forum whereby key technical leaders, scientists and engineers from energy- and non-energy-related market segments share technical challenges they are experiencing with their work and look across the enterprise for solutions. In support of the “Think Differently, Act Differently” theme, we invited leading professionals from the aerospace and

medical industry to participate. For more insight into how missions to Mars or cardiologists’ expertise provide unique insights into hydrocarbon production, transportation and processing challenges, we invite you to read “The New and Novel” on page 38.

In order to further accelerate the identification of the best available solution, we recently formed the Technology, Partnerships and Development Group chartered specifically with looking externally for solutions to major industry challenges. The group identifies opportunities for joint development, licensing or even acquisition. Furthermore, they leverage the power of crowdsourcing to solicit technical solutions via global communities of problem solvers. Our recent investment in an energy-focused venture capital fund will provide a constant stream of promising technology companies that may have novel offerings that can be leveraged into the oil and gas space.

In addition to our strong external focus on new technologies, we also mine our extensive portfolio of in-house technologies across the breadth of Ecolab. We have already had great success in leveraging antimicrobial technologies in the food and beverage industry into the unconventional production marketplace, and we are exploring several additional cross-divisional technologies. Furthermore, we are developing new foundational technologies to benefit multiple industries through our core Anchor Technology Groups. A new environmentally friendly surfactant formulation that was developed for lipstick removal from wine glasses may well be effective in removing paraffin deposits in pipelines!

Nalco Champion is fortunate to provide solutions across the whole of the petroleum value chain — from the perfs to the pumps. Being proficient in looking both internally and externally across a diverse array of industries for potential solutions is critical to enabling the continued success of our industry. By thinking and acting differently, Nalco Champion challenges the current approach to problem solving and commits to identifying and delivering the best available solution to our customers.

D AV I D H O R S U P V I C E P R E S I D E N T, R D & E , E N E R GY S E RV I C E S N A LC O C H A M P I O N

J E F F M O N TA N Y E V I C E P R E S I D E N T, R D & E , E N E R GY S E RV I C E S N A LC O C H A M P I O N

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SAFER MANUAL HANDLING Lifting, pushing, “taking and putting,” and climbing and carrying can lead to injury. Reduce your risk by modifying the workplace or the load, using mechanical equipment, using proper lifting technique or seeking help.

Presented at the Latin America Integration Workshop

“WE HAVE ANALYTICAL CENTERS AROUND THE WORLD THAT PROVIDE ROUTINE MONITORING TO ENSURE THE EFFICIENCY OF OUR CLIENTS’ OPERATIONS AS WELL AS ADVANCED PROBLEM SOLVING FOR THE CHALLENGES ENCOUNTERED TODAY AND THOSE ANTICIPATED IN THE FUTURE.” TINA L. TULLOS, PH.D. RD&E DIRECTOR, ENERGY SERVICES

INSIDE P R E S I D E N T’ S

SPRING 2014

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10 CASE HISTORY 1 2 C O N V E R S AT I O N 14 INFOGRAPHIC 16 UP CLOSE

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H I S T O R Y NALCO CHAMPION MAGAZINE

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NALMET ® SOLUTION MEETS HIGH MERCURY CRUDE WASTEWATER TREATMENT CHALLENGE THAILAND PLANT REDUCES PRODUCTION COSTS WHILE C O M P LY I N G W I T H S T R I N G E N T E N V I R O N M E N TA L R E G U L AT I O N S High crude prices, together with tighter refining margins, have driven more and more refineries to process challenging or “opportunity” crudes. Refineries can acquire opportunity crudes at a discounted price due to either known processing challenges or the unknown characteristics and properties of new crudes.

BACKG ROU N D Crudes from the Far East, particularly from the Gulf of Thailand, contain high levels of mercury and arsenic that greatly challenge Thai refineries. The Thai government’s strict industrial wastewater discharge regulations mandate a discharge limit of 5 parts per billion (ppb) for mercury and 250 ppb for arsenic. However, when refiners process opportunity crudes with high mercury and arsenic content, the mercury level in the wastewater may rise to as high as 10-3,000 ppb, and the arsenic level may reach 100 ppb to a few thousand ppb.

SITUATION Before beginning processing of high mercury and arsenic crude, a refinery in Thailand sought the support of Nalco Champion to treat the mercury and arsenic in their wastewater treatment plant in order to comply with discharge-related regulations.

SO LU T ION Nalco Champion conducted an audit in the refinery wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) to assess its mechanical setup and the feasibility of treating the arsenic and mercury. Based on the findings, Nalco Champion proposed a comprehensive chemical solution aimed at removing oil, total suspended solids (TSS), mercury and arsenic in the Induced Air Flotation (IAF) unit. The Nalco Champion team integrated patented Nalmet® technology into the chemical treatment program for primary wastewater treatment application.

R ESU LTS Nalco Champion’s solution effectively removed these pollutants in the WWTP primary treatment while also preventing toxicity from spreading to the downstream biological treatment system. The mercury and arsenic levels in the final effluent from WWTP complied with the discharge-related regulations put in place by the local government.

When the refinery began processing the high mercury and arsenic crudes, the mercury and arsenic went to the wastewater through the desalter brine and the crude tank drainage. The concentration of mercury in mixed wastewater was 10-160 ppb and the arsenic concentration was at 20-1,200 ppb.

FIGURE 1 Nalco Champion Nalmet program achieved good

FIGURE 2 Arsenic removal efficiencies

MONTH 12, DAY 30

MONTH 12, DAY 16

MONTH 12, DAY 2

MONTH 11, DAY 18

MONTH 11, DAY 4

MONTH 10, DAY 21

MONTH 10, DAY 7

MONTH 9, DAY 23

MONTH 9, DAY 9

MONTH 8, DAY 12

MONTH 8, DAY 26

MONTH 7, DAY 29

MONTH 7, DAY 15

MONTH 12, DAY 30

MONTH 12, DAY 16

0%

MONTH 12, DAY 2

0%

MONTH 11, DAY 18

20%

MONTH 11, DAY 4

20%

MONTH 10, DAY 21

40%

MONTH 10, DAY 7

40%

MONTH 9, DAY 9

60%

MONTH 9, DAY 23

60%

MONTH 8, DAY 26

80%

MONTH 8, DAY 12

80%

MONTH 7, DAY 29

100%

MONTH 7, DAY 1

100%

MONTH 7, DAY 15

120%

mercury-removal efficiency

CONC LU SION Nalco Champion’s solution allowed the refinery to safely and successfully treat mercury and arsenic in the wastewater treatment plant, enabling the processing of high-mercury and arsenic crudes while complying with environmental regulations and reducing production costs.

As REMOVAL EFFICIENCY

120%

MONTH 7, DAY 1

Hg REMOVAL EFFICIENCY

Since implementing the Nalco Champion chemical program into the WWTP primary treatment, the average mercury removal efficiency was 94 percent, resulting in WWTP effluent mercury concentration of less than 3 ppb.

The arsenic removal efficiency was impacted by limited chemical reaction conditions at the site and broad fluctuations in the influent arsenic concentration. The average arsenic removal efficiency was 75 percent. Despite the influent fluctuations and limited chemical reaction conditions, the Nalco Champion treatment program kept the arsenic concentration at the WWTP effluent stable at less than 180 ppb.

Eventually, both the WWTP effluent mercury and arsenic met the government wastewater discharge limits.

A Thai refinery challenged by opportunity crudes implemented Nalmet technology to reduce production costs while complying with stringent environmental regulations.

INSIDE

C O N V E R S A T I O N NALCO CHAMPION MAGAZINE

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The Sweet Spot Between Performance Improvement and Promotions We talk with Matt Schmidt and Christine Moore about enterprise-level talent development.

BY A I M E E B O R D E R S

MATT After rising through the sales organization, Matt unexpectedly found his passion in teaching and facilitation. As the business manager of the Nalco Champion Business Functions Group, Matt oversees talent development for Nalco Champion, with a focus on creating employee opportunities for both personal and professional advancement.

What is talent management?

M A T T : To me, talent management is, in a very literal sense, the components associated with the management of an employee’s career, including onboarding, developing technical and behavioral competencies, assessing performance, career planning and individual development. Does it apply to everyone in the organization?

Absolutely. I think we’d be failing ourselves if it didn’t.

C H R I S T I N E : From an enterprise perspective, we’re here to support our businesses and functions in how they develop and manage their talent.

We focus on the elements of attracting, engaging and growing our associates across their careers.

engagement and fostering a deep commitment to the customer and organization over time.

M A T T : The benefit for our customer is the assurance that we have a pipeline of wellqualified individuals to provide world-class, on-site expertise, even as our employees progress in their careers and move on to new challenges.

Now that we’re part of the larger Ecolab enterprise, we can afford people the opportunity to advance their career in multiple channels — whether a different discipline within the same business unit, a similar discipline in a different business unit or a completely different discipline in a new area of the business.

M AT T S C H M I D T Business Manager Business Functions Group BASED IN: Houston, Texas JOINED NALCO CHAMPION: July 1997

M A T T : One of the concepts that Christine and I continually discuss is that, while we’re in the business of providing solutions to our customers, we’re also in the business of developing our people, both personally and professionally.

How does talent management factor into a customer’s experience?

C H R I S T I N E : A lot of the roles that our people play require skills and capabilities that take time to develop, so one component of talent development is ensuring employee

How does talent management factor into an employee’s experience?

C H R I S T I N E : It’s a wonderful part of our story that our geographic diversity and the diversity of our businesses really afford almost endless opportunities for people who are interested in building a career here. And part of our talent vision is that we want to help people reach their full potential however they define it.

If full potential is growing into larger management roles, we want to make sure people have opportunities to do that.

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CHRISTINE With a background in organizational behavior, basically “how people show up in the context of their work,” Christine brings both consulting and workforce experience to human resources at Ecolab. Today, she helps the enterprise manage a “good challenge” — the talent development necessary to support impressive organizational growth.

If full potential is having a great life in the place where they grew up, we want to provide opportunities for them to do that as well.

M A T T : Exactly. Talent management is designed to result in individualized development plans for all employees throughout their careers — to help them advance both personally and professionally. The result is fulfilled employees, and fulfilled employees are, quite simply, better and more productive employees.

CHRISTINE MOORE Vice President Talent and Organization Development BASED IN: St. Paul, Minnesota JOINED ECOLAB: June 2012

What is the key takeaway?

C H R I S T I N E : One of the things I think is so cool about Ecolab overall and was at the heart of the integration effort was that our businesses are united by a shared value proposition: Very high levels of service combined with superior technology in the form of a human being who cares deeply about the customer.

That same formula applies in Nalco Champion, food and beverage, institutional business, etc. Having a shared value proposition creates opportunity for movement — for associates and for our leaders — across business boundaries.

We’re very clear that Ecolab continues to grow when our employees grow and have opportunities, and our employees grow when our customers grow

and do well, and so all of us are connected but very much anchored in customer growth.

M A T T : We’re doing this for the right reasons. We’ve got some great people in this organization with some very strong, specific skill sets, and those people have earned the right to develop themselves and move on wherever their careers may take them. So we want to continue to develop our employees without sacrificing the quality or level of expertise we provide to our customers, day in and day out, for literally generations to come. That’s the key takeaway.

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SPHERICAL SAFETY Pre-work safety analysis should include a 360° assessment including all affected personnel. Persons above, below and around you should understand the inherent risk of your team’s actions, and your team should understand theirs.

Amanda Davila SH&E Manager

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I N F O G R A P H I C NALCO CHAMPION MAGAZINE

GLOBAL SECURITY OF SUPPLY Nalco Champion manufactures and distributes specialty chemicals, manufacturing intermediates, concentrates and finished products worldwide from facilities in the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. We bring final production closer to customers by using reaction capabilities in our U.S. Gulf Coast, Europe and Asia Pacific global production hubs to supply intermediates to our regional blending and distribution facilities.

“In 2014 we’ll invest approximately $200 million in capital to expand, upgrade and maintain our infrastructure.”

Eric Seip Vice President, Global Supply Chain

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40% OF NALCO CHAMPION

EMPLOYEES WORK IN GLOBAL S U P P LY C H A I N

50+

M A N U FA C T U R I N G A N D DISTRIBUTION

FACILITIES

NORTH AMERICA EUROPE

MANUFACTURING CENTERS

MANUFACTURING CENTERS

Calgary, Alberta Nisku/Leduc, Alberta Carson, California Clearing, Illinois Broussard, Louisiana Garyville, Louisiana Port Allen, Louisiana Scott, Louisiana Tulsa, Oklahoma Ellwood City, Pennsylvania Corsicana, Texas Freeport, Texas Fresno, Texas Odessa, Texas Sugar Land, Texas Evansville, Wyoming

Elementis, Netherlands Geertruidenberg, Netherlands Aberdeen, United Kingdom Fawley, United Kingdom

AFRICA MANUFACTURING CENTERS

LATIN AMERICA MANUFACTURING CENTERS

Centenario Neuquén, Argentina Comodoro, Argentina Rincón, Argentina Macaé, Brazil Soledad, Colombia Quito, Ecuador Anaco, Venezuela

(Q4 2014) Cabinda, Angola Luanda, Angola Soyo, Angola Luba, Equatorial Guinea Escravos, Nigeria Port Harcourt, Nigeria

1.25

PRODUCED ANNUALLY

“Ecolab has played a huge hand in continuing to grow our manufacturing and distribution footprint by supporting us with the necessary capital to make these investments.”

Art Fischetti Vice President, Supply Chain Americas

million

$200

METRIC TONS OF CHEMICAL

ISSUE TWO

million

15

CAPITAL INVESTMENT

IN 2014 TA B L E 1

P RO D U CT I O N T Y P E BY G LO BA L R EG I O N PRODUCTION TYPE

NA

Ethoxylation

LA

EU *

ME

AP

High-Temperature Reactions Latex Polymer Blends Miscellaneous Reactions *EU Capability Includes Toller Partner

KEY TO PRODUCTION TYPES

GLOBAL EMPLOYEES: 10,500 PLANTS: 134 WAREHOUSES: 113 VEHICLES: 982

MIDDLE EAST MANUFACTURING CENTERS

Baku, Azerbaijan Alexandria, Egypt Basra, Iraq Dammam, KSA Yanbu, KSA Qatar EMOCHEM, UAE Dubai, UAE (Q1 2015) Yemen

ASIA/PACIFIC MANUFACTURING CENTERS

Brunei Dai-Ichi, India Pune, India Cikarang, Indonesia Citeureup, Indonesia Atyrau, Kazakhstan MECAS, Malaysia Kogalym, Russia Sakhalin, Russia Jurong Island, Singapore Rayong, Thailand Vietnam

• Ethoxylation: Products using ethylene and propylene oxide as major components • High-Temperature Reactions: Reaction products requiring high heat input, usually greater than 500ºF • Latex Polymer: Reactions based on monomer, including emulsions and solutions • Blends: Mixtures based on water or oil, with little to no heating or cooling required • Miscellaneous Reactions: Various reactions requiring substantial addition or removal of heat, resulting in new and different molecules

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ALLOYS Likely the result of erosion corrosion, this approximately 48 Âľ m-long corrosion resistant alloy particle was collected in a sample of produced water at a wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico. Erosion corrosion occurs when the relative motion of a corrosive fluid on a metal surface accelerates the rate of corrosion due to mechanical action, such as abrasion, impingement or cavitation. Depending on the degree of flow turbulence, the eroded surface can be stripped of a protective layer, such as a corrosion product and/or corrosion inhibitor coat, then becoming more susceptible to enhanced corrosion.

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ALLOYS Collected in the same sample as the particle on the previous page, this uniquely shaped corrosion resistant alloy particle measures approximately 25 Âľ m in length and is also the likely result of erosion corrosion. The bright particle on the left side is barium sulfate and the gray particle on the right is a silicate. Both images were captured on a variable pressure tungsten filament scanning electron microscope at our Sugar Land Technology Center.

WELCOME TO JURONG ISLAND

© 2014, HIGHWAY TO JURONG ISLAND BY WILIAM CHO, USED WITH PERMISSION BY NALCO CHAMPION / COLOR ALTERED FROM ORIGINAL

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NALCO CHAMPION

T H R E AT E N E D T O O U T G R O W I T S P R O D U C T I O N C A PA C I T Y A S E C O L A B ’ S I N C R E A S I N G LY G L O B A L C U S T O M E R B A S E R E Q U I R E D A N E X PA N D E D G L O B A L S U P P LY C H A I N .

T H E C O M PA N Y F O U N D I T S E L F AT A C R O S S R O A D S : E I T H E R C O N T I N U E S H I P P I N G P R O D U C T S H A L F WAY A R O U N D T H E W O R L D O R I N V E S T S I G N I F I C A N T LY I N N E W C O N S T R U C T I O N A N D FA C E E N G I N E E R I N G , L E G A L A N D E N V I R O N M E N TA L C O M P L E X I T I E S C O M P O U N D E D BY D I S TA N C E FROM ECOLAB AND NALCO CHAMPION’S GLOBAL HEADQUARTERS.

BY RUSTY HAGGARD

NALCO CHAMPION MAGAZINE

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EASTERN HEMISPHERE CORE PLANT JURONG ISLAND, SINGAPORE The Eastern Hemisphere Core Plant (EHCP) is the biggest capital construction project Ecolab has ever undertaken — by a factor of three. And it’s scaled to grow, with a 10+ hectare plot for expansion. The plant will supply all intermediate chemistries to the Eastern Hemisphere, support the local economy and speed delivery by up to 15–30 days for some products.

BEHIND THE CONSTRUCTION

3.0

MILLION SAFE WORK HOURS

9

MAJOR CONTRACTORS

1,400 EMPLOYEES AND CONTRACTORS ON SITE

+ 5

LANGUAGES/ NATIONALITIES

R AW M AT E R I A L S A N D F I N I S H E D P R O D U C T

140

RAW MATERIALS

HT REACTION PRODUCTS:

115+ GRADES

ETHOXYLATION PRODUCTS:

80+ GRADES

12–20 MM kg/year

10–22 MM kg/year

106,000 SITE AREA

75

EMPLOYEES

SQUARE METERS

INSIDE THE PLANT

NAMED PIECES OF EQUIPMENT

PIPING ISOMETRICS

3,900

(13 MILES)

PIPING

21 km OF PILING (14 MILES)

171

TONS OF STRUCTURAL STEEL

PIECES OF PROCESS INSTRUMENTATION

(3.3 MILLION POUNDS)

93 km

1,000

1,300

(58 MILES)

20 km OF PROCESS

1,500

TRANSFER LINES

OF INSTRUMENTATION AND ELECTRICAL CABLING

19,000 m

3

OF CONCRETE

(~ 2,500 CONCRETE TRUCKS)

“ W E R E D U C E O U R R I S KS T O O U R C U S T O M E R S BY H AV I N G T H E S U P P LY CHAIN CLOSER TO THEM IN THE E A S T E R N H E M I S P H E R E .”

BOB SMITH SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGER, ASIA PACIFIC

A CLEAR PATH Continued growth required smart investment. That investment, the new Eastern Hemisphere Core Plant (EHCP), represents an expansion of capabilities, a critical link in the global supply chain and a strong commitment to Nalco Champion customers around the globe. Now nestled into Singapore’s business and manufacturing hub, Nalco Champion prepares for the startup of the $150 million EHCP. BUILDING THE CASE FOR CONSTRUCTION More than six years ago, legacy Nalco company leaders began looking at capacity expansion options. One choice pointed to upgrading the 20-year-old chemical plant at Freeport, Texas. Two Gulf Coast locations, Freeport and Sugar Land, represented the beginning of a global supply chain that stretches to Europe, South America, Western Canada, the Middle East, China, Asia and the Pacific Rim. These two plants were the source of many intermediates and blends shipped to points east and west, north and south, supplemented by regional supply bases in Europe and Latin America. Proximate locations and worldwide transportation carried risks: namely hurricanes and typhoons. Distant travel routes and cost stood as additional obstacles.

Nalco Champion Vice President Supply Chain, Asia Pacific, Bob Smith cites reducing risks as one prime reason an alternative to an expansion seemed favorable. “We had forecasted years ago that we would be tight on capacity by 2015 due to the high growth of the business,” he recalls. “We could reduce our risks to our customers by

having the supply chain closer to them in the Eastern Hemisphere.”

The second option called for a greenfield project near the emerging growth markets of the Eastern Hemisphere. Strategically, markets in the Eastern Hemisphere are among the fastest growing anywhere.

And those willing to establish themselves through investment in new, sustainable infrastructure attract the support of the region’s customers, economic bureaus and governments. Analysis revealed transport times could be cut from three months to four to six weeks if Nalco Champion located a new plant close to the emerging markets.

MAKING A NEW HOME IN SINGAPORE Jurong Island in Singapore beckoned as an ideal spot. An amalgamation of seven offshore islands created through land reclamation, it is host to many of the world’s leading energy and chemical companies.

Not only could new construction at Jurong Island yield a plant equipped with the latest technologies to manage the production of blends and intermediates, but the stable political conditions in Singapore, the excellent reputation of its technical workforce to run the completed plant and the close proximity to booming markets presented an irresistible alternative to upgrades on the Gulf Coast.

However, several unknowns loomed.

Neither Ecolab nor Nalco Champion had experience planning and executing a $150 million capital construction project.

Neither had experience in Eastern Hemisphere construction, where projects are defined by multi-national workforces,

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ISSUE TWO

MYANMAR

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THAILAND MALAYSIA

CAMBODIA VIETNAM

PHILIPPINES

SINGAPORE BORNEO SUMATRA JURONG S

myriad legal issues and strict environmental permitting.

Fortunately, the companies knew a ready and willing local partner. Jacobs Engineering had successfully engineered and constructed previous projects for Nalco and Jacobs-Singapore offered invaluable local experience and knowledge. Selected

by Ecolab, the world-class engineering and construction firm then supplied its expertise to front-end engineering and design (FEED), detailed engineering and construction management.

Duc Le, the Nalco Champion project manager at the EHCP, is close to completing the largest project of his career. That project, for him and the company, will soon become larger. During FEED, company and engineering team members put a continuation and expansion of plant capabilities into place. Foundation and infrastructure for Phase 2 are already completed. Once the additional process vessels are in place, which could be as early as 2015, capacity at the EHCP will double.

The construction of the EHCP entailed complexity: building in an unfamiliar country, using a multi-national workforce and needing extra safety precautions based on a large workforce in a small area. In addition, Jurong Island is a secured manufacturing location with highly restricted access.

The Economic Development Board (EDB) of Singapore guided Nalco Champion through the myriad complexities. The EDB acted as an excellent governmental partner, providing help in locating and securing the land and later with various legal and permitting issues that preceded

G IN

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the start of the project. Jacobs-Singapore helped with selecting the numerous sub-contractors needed for the complex job, brought in the skills and crafts and managed the FEED, construction and execution phases. Le worked closely with the Jacobs team as project manager for Nalco Champion.

INSTILLING SAFETY ACROSS CREWS AND CULTURES Le is passionate about safety and worked tirelessly to instill the company’s safety-first culture. “The multitude of languages and cultures make a project like this very different than an expansion project in the United States,” he says. “Even value systems are different from culture to culture, so instilling a safety culture, with the help of the translators, was a priority. That safetyfirst culture was set from the moment the workers stepped on site.”

Nalco Champion engaged translators to facilitate communication between a workforce speaking up to six different languages on site. During construction of the two four-story buildings on the site, each floor grating was covered with a protective flooring to prevent tools and materials from falling to lower floors and causing injury. Any worker carrying a tool higher than 1.8 meters (about six feet) had to tie off that tool. Nalco Champion also built a designated and barricaded walk path for visitors. Once a visitor was on site, the workforce was not allowed to cross that pathway. Banksmen were assigned to every vehicle on site to further control traffic flow during construction. “The

INDONESIA

fact that all of our employees went home in the same safe condition they came to work in means everything,” Le says.

The company’s safety-first culture overcame differing languages, cultures and value systems to achieve a remarkable, award-winning effort. At peak, there were 1,400 workers on site daily completing construction that totaled 3.02 million safe hours. Add in another 400,000 safe engineering hours and the EHCP was completed with 3.4 million safe hours for the entire project. The Singapore Ministry of Manpower recognized the EHCP with an award for one of the safest construction projects in Singapore for 2014.

As the plant transitions from construction to production, safety continues to be guided by the principles of GOAL ZERO and is reinforced by the strategic siting of the plant on Jurong Island, where a highly restricted causeway is the only route from the city to the vast chemical infrastructure on the island. Because the island is secured by the government, the entire EHCP construction workforce rode transportation buses each day from housing in the city to and from the site.

Security continues upon arrival, when each worker must have their identity checked and bags scanned by security personnel before entering Jurong Island.

All visitors and short-term workers to the island must pre-register and seek admittance approval prior to arriving on the island, surrendering their passports until the day’s end.

Safety measures also reflect the precautions needed for the production of sensitive

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ISSUE TWO

“ I N S T I L L I N G A S A F E T Y C U LT U R E , W I T H T H E H E L P O F T H E T R A N S L AT O R S , WA S A P R I O R I T Y. T H AT S A F E T Y- F I R S T C U LT U R E WA S S E T F R O M T H E M O M E N T T H E W O R K E R S S T E P P E D O N S I T E .”

DUC LE PROJECT MANAGER

materials, including reaction and ethoxylation products. High-pressure steam and flammable warehousing round out detailed safety planning and preparation.

TRAINING IN THE UNITED STATES Training for the highly regarded Singapore technicians who will manage the plant is ongoing at the Freeport and Sugar Land locations. Approximately 40–45 trainees from Singapore have actively replicated every facet of EHCP plant operations since 2013. They make products exactly as they will be made at Jurong Island and are also trained in information sharing, controls, optimization and other processes with the same SAP systems used in the new plant.

For the first six months of operations, the plant will focus solely on production of legacy Nalco products. Eric Seip, vice president of supply chain at Nalco Champion, explains the strategy behind the decision.

“The plant was conceptually designed as a Nalco plant before the merger, and it will

The EHCP employs local workers and has engaged in long-term supply contracts with providers for critical raw materials, both supporting the local economy and strengthening the security of Nalco Champion’s supply chain.

operate on the N-SAP ERP system, so we followed through with the idea of starting up with Nalco products,” he says. “Those in training here in the United States have spent several months learning how to make these products specifically. It’s a natural way to work them into full-time operation in Singapore. We’ll add additional products as the market demands and the system harmonization completes,” he says.

Bob Smith has experienced eight greenfield projects in his career. His focus now shifts to the freshly trained EHCP team. “I keep pressing the point with the team that making one product in a vessel successfully is far from having a manufacturing plant running smoothly,” he says with a smile. “We have to get the raw materials through the plant, get that shipped out, have all the paperwork ready and get that product to the customer on time. There’s a lot left to do.” Smith has lived in Singapore the past four years and will be working full-time at the EHCP on Jurong Island.

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The EHCP offers dramatic improvements in speed to delivery, in some cases 15 to 30 days’ improvement in delivery times.

Designed to alleviate supply constraints and scaled for ready expansion, the plant’s capacity was sold-out upon its opening.

A CRITICAL LINK IN THE G L O B A L S U P P LY C H A I N The 20-month, 22-acre project hit mechanical completion in July with startup in September and is perfectly positioned in Singapore, a global chemical hub.

Alex Blanco, executive vice president and chief supply chain officer at Ecolab, singles out the EHCP as the centerpiece of the global supply chain moving forward. “Two things: We believe the Eastern Hemisphere is a real growth area for us.

Second, we need a balance of capacity,” he says, referring to the need for production in more than one location to enable more efficient loading of markets as needed. “Hurricanes can bite you. Singapore is the perfect place for us to service our customers in Asia, China and the Middle East. There is a stable political situation and a stable workforce. It has played out extremely well for us.”

As Blanco sees it, the EHCP will facilitate better responsiveness, better service and better value to customers, and streamline collaboration between the Ecolab family of companies. “You don’t sell the same products to a McDonald’s as you would an ExxonMobil,” he says, “but you’d be amazed at the overlap in terms of products and chemistries. We’re seeing opportunities at Ecolab, whether on the water or the energy side. Being in Singapore and having access to the Middle

East, China and Asia — the vast majority of the growth in the world — is exactly where we need to be.”

Ecolab is striving to ensure the supply chain will support what the company hopes to become by 2020: a $20 billion company.

The impact on Nalco Champion’s supply chain will be dramatic. Nalco Champion has shipped both intermediates and blends from Freeport and Sugar Land, but that will soon change. More intermediates will be produced and shipped from the online EHCP, making the company more cost-competitive logistically.

Proximity to many of its customers will result in shorter lead times for deliveries, sped by direct shipping channels from the port of Singapore that lead directly to supply chain customers in the region.

In addition, the EHCP frees up Texas operations and capacity, allowing Gulf Coast business leaders and operators to focus on the Americas and West Africa.

Already a model of safety and a reliable, secure and dependable source of state-of-the-art chemistries, EHCP is more than capital construction. It is a clear commitment to the region and to the company’s future in it.

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Expertly designed and safely implemented manufacturing and quality testing processes ensure consistent, sustainable, high-quality production of intermediate chemistries to Nalco Champion upstream, refining and petrochemical customers in the Eastern Hemisphere.

PRODUCTION PRIMARY R ECOV E RY SECONDARY R ECOV E RY

15% 20%

R E S U LT I N G I N

65%

T R A P P E D A N D U N TA P P E D O I L

33

“WE ARE HELPING C L I E N TS TA K E M A RG I N A L LY ECONOMIC FIELDS AND E X T E N D I N G T H E I R L I V ES BY T WO O R T H R E E D ECA D ES.”

ISSUE TWO

CHUCK NORMAN VICE PRESIDENT, GLOBAL TECHNICAL SALES, TIORCO

BRAINS, BENCH WORK, BIG FA B R I C AT I O N A N D T H E B R I G H T FUTURE OF CHEMICAL EOR

BY SCOTT REDEPENNING

E V E RY O I L W E L L I N T H E W O R L D E V E N T UA L LY STO P S PRODUCING. SOME LOSE P R E S S U R E A LT O G E T H E R , W H I L E OT H E R S B R I N G FO RT H S O L I T T L E O I L V O L U M E T H AT T H E Y C E A S E T O B E ECO N O M I CA L LY V I A B L E . T H I S D EC L I N E I S I N E V I TA B L E , A N D Y E T T H E H A R D T R U T H I S T H AT SOME 60 PERCENT OF THE O I L I N T H E R E S E RVO I R B E N E AT H T H E WA N I N G WELL REMAINS TRAPPED A N D U N TA P P E D. R I S I N G G L O B A L E N E R GY D E M A N D H A S O PE RATORS EYEING T H I S ID LE R ES O U RC E , A N D THE HIGHER OIL PRICES CLIMB, THE MORE THEY WA N T TO B R I N G I T TO T H E S U R FA C E . T H AT ’S W H E R E NALCO CHAMPION AND I N T E G R AT E D PA R T N E R S T I O R C O A N D FA B T E C H ENTER THE PICTURE.

At this moment, the vast majority of the world’s oil is produced “naturally.”

Basically this means new wells are drilled, and about a third of the oil beneath flows out due to pressures in the reservoir. However, as new drilling becomes increasingly complex and costly, a rising percentage of the world’s production is achieved through enhanced oil recovery (EOR), in which artificial forces are introduced to those same reservoirs to push out much of the remaining oil.

In order to do this, a second well is used to inject fluids into the formation that prod the oil toward the production well. Typically the first activity is to flood the reservoir with water, which re-pressurizes the formation and squeezes out about 15 percent more of the reserves. Next comes EOR. Various methods can be employed, including pumping steam, CO2 or chemicals down the injection well to coax out much of the most elusive oil. The use of polymers and surfactants is known as chemical EOR, and according to Chuck Norman, vice president of global technical sales for TIORCO, no other provider in the world delivers chemical solutions more efficiently and effectively than the one-two-three punch of Nalco Champion, TIORCO and Nalco FabTech.

“To solve challenges with chemistry you need a lab, but we are so much more than a lab,” he says. “We are the only company that offers everything a client needs, soup to nuts. We have scientists who develop amazing polymers, but we also have reservoir engineers who collaborate with the scientists to solve real client issues. Then we have FabTech on the team to fabricate exactly the right equipment to execute the solution in the field on any scale we need. And of course we have Nalco Champion helping the client on the production end. Nobody puts it all together like we do.”

TIORCO and FabTech, both industry leaders in their own right, were brought into the Nalco Champion family in 2008 and 2010 respectively, creating a fusion of knowledge and capability unmatched in the industry. Operators who embrace chemical EOR are benefiting from the synergy. “We are breathing new life into assets that would otherwise be dormant,” Norman says. “We are helping clients take marginally economic fields and extending their lives by two or three decades.”

PRACT ICAL , ASTO N I S H I N G C HEM IST RY Norman adds that not every reservoir turns out to be right for chemical EOR, a fact that is openly shared with the client. “After thorough analysis, we will only move forward if we believe the solution can be economically viable. Our first mission is to solve our clients’ challenges today. We are a practical solution provider. We are not here to run science experiments.”

That said, this very sensible approach springs from astonishing science. Imagine a porous rock formation, full of oil, deep underground. Waterflooding pushes some of this oil out, but during the process the water seeks the path of least resistance, creating rivers through the rock that bypass much of the oil. These are thief zones.

TIORCO designs polymers that activate at the right time and place in the formation to plug the thief zones and redirect subsequent flooding to the trapped oil. Other polymers thicken the floodwaters to dislodge thicker oil. Finally, surfactants (soaps) are introduced to scrub the most stubborn oil from the rocks. After all of this, about a third of the oil remains in the reservoir, unable to be economically extracted. Still, billions of incremental barrels are harvested through chemical EOR, and the numbers will inevitably increase.

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165

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17

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T H E U N I O N O F S O LV E R S Christine Staples is director of marketing and business development for TIORCO. Part of her job is to make sure the teamwork works. She says any given project may have up to 45 people in different locations reporting to different parts of the organization, but all working to solve one client challenge. “We have engineers who analyze real rock and fluid samples from the reservoir to see what chemistry we need, then we have geniuses who come up with the cutting-edge molecules,” she says.

“Next we test the reservoir conditions on a small scale in the lab to prove the chemistry, and finally our reservoir engineers simulate full-field results using complex mathematical models. FabTech designs and builds the equipment needed to get the chemical program effectively into the formation. Plus we have our Nalco Champion people right there in the field or on the platform servicing the job, managing the chemical programs and measuring the incremental oil. We work very hard to make the collaboration work, and make sure the customer sees only one entity.”

Senior R&D Manager Bill Andrews adds that the team works because its focus is always squarely locked on the customer.

“The more we all work together, the more risk is removed for them,” he says. “We have people coming at the problem from all points of view: engineering, chemistry, process, manufacturing. They may butt heads a little but they always come up with the right solution. And it’s always a custom solution to solve the client’s exact challenge. No square peg jammed into a round hole.” Andrews says that even more risk is eliminated because Nalco Champion is there to help the client on the receiving end of the EOR program. Remember, the

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ultimate goal is to get more oil out, at the highest quality possible. “What really drives it home is that our expertise goes beyond recovery. Our clients want clean oil.

We can adjust our chemistry to affect how the oil comes out. Plus, by having Nalco Champion resources on the team, we can use oilfield chemicals to solve emulsion and scale problems and deliver that quality end product.”

Staples says that as the team gets busy solving a challenge the enthusiasm is nearly uncontainable, and that’s a good thing. “This collaboration creates a lot of energy, which is infectious to the customer who then gets on board as a vital part of the team. The atmosphere here becomes pretty remarkable.”

BUILDING SUCCESS On the outskirts of Casper, Wyoming, sits the world’s premier facility for the custom design and fabrication of oil and gas field plants and equipment. FabTech occupies 17 buildings sprawled over a 34-acre complex where 165 exceptionally skilled team members build about 360 projects a year. The facility is 280 miles away from Denver-based TIORCO, but FabTech President Larry Rubis says from a teamwork perspective the two companies are in the same room.

“When TIORCO designs a solution, the client needs to know if that chemical recipe can be delivered in the field. Since we’ve been involved from the start, we can provide a quote very quickly so the client can assess the economics and expected returns,” Rubis says. “When a project comes in, we evaluate the polymer, the location and the operating requirements.

We design the right system to deliver the solution into the formation in the right

way. We build the plant, test it, deliver, install and commission it, and train the client’s people to run it.”

Oilfield economics are straightforward.

Operators want to produce more oil sooner.

FabTech Process Engineer Zach Logan says this organization is set up to deliver.

“Polymer injections are held to a very high standard, and they will shut down an operation if something is off-spec. Teaming with TIORCO gives us an advantage others don’t have,” he says. “If there are changes to the chemistry, we know early on and we can make modifications very quickly, sometimes on the fly, to adjust.

“When TIORCO is engaged with a customer, we are right there with them,” Logan adds. “The communication and adaptation is in real time, so when the time comes to build, we are ready. Plus TIORCO is better at designing solutions that will succeed in the field because they work with us. If they had to go to an outside fabricator, there would be a lot more hiccups along the way.”

So far, virtually all chemical EOR programs have been on land where equipment size usually isn’t a deal-killing issue.

The next frontier is offshore where platform space is severely limited, and FabTech and TIORCO are at the forefront. They are designing compact equipment units with enormous capacities that can feed multiple wells, and simultaneously creating innovative polymers that allow smaller hydration tanks and less storage.

Recent tests for a client in Brazil proved out a system that can pump a new polymer four miles down into an offshore rock formation without degradation. Plus, having the ability to dovetail the chemical program with Nalco Champion’s production program is a real advantage for the client, because the collective team can predict and

“ SA F E T Y I S EV E RY T H I N G TO U S . O U R U N I TS M U ST B E E A SY A N D S A F E T O R U N AND SERVICE, WHICH IS V E RY H A R D TO D O I N T I G H T O F F S H O R E C O N F I N E S .”

LARRY RUBIS PRESIDENT, FABTECH

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solve production challenges that may not arise for years. While Rubis never doubted the team could do it, he says this is no easy feat with a compact system, especially when factoring in safety and serviceability.

“Safety is everything to us. Our units must be easy and safe to run and service, which is very hard to do in tight offshore confines.

This focus is one of our biggest claims to fame,” he says. “Our people thrive on the quality and safety culture here.”

EOR = EXCELLENT OPPORTUNITIES RISING There is no more easy oil. The era of conventional supergiant discoveries has long passed. Now operators are taking on the difficult challenge of producing the huge reserves left behind in old reservoirs, and Nalco Champion is helping them get it done. One of the greatest obstacles has been finding acceptable water to blend with the polymers before injection. A typical mature oil well produces far more water than oil, much of it dirty enough to be mistaken for week-old coffee. Instead of fighting it, TIORCO is developing technologies to swim with the current.

Christine Staples says recent research and development has focused on putting the nastiest water to work. “We have adapted our chemistry to the trend, which is allowing us to perform with really bad water. Plus we are developing equipment that can handle widely fluctuating water quality so we can change the formulations without changing the equipment,” she says. “We call this approach ‘lock and key,’ and it is the essence of everything we do. We lock and key the chemistry to the equipment so it works together perfectly.

That’s how we provide value to customers where one plus one equals three.”

I N C R E M E N TA L O I L ( I N N A A L O N E )

SPECIALISTS

Chuck Norman says operators are coming to understand this value, some the hard way. “Some companies don’t like a single source. They want to break the pieces up and try to get the best price for each piece. What happens is you save a dime, but you spend a dollar when you try to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. With us there is no miscommunication, no misapplication, no mismatching of equipment and chemical, no finger pointing, no excuses. We verify our solutions in the lab before rolling them out. If there’s going to be a failure, we would rather do it in a test tube, not in the field,” he says. “We mitigate both technical and economic risks, and in the end we help clients achieve the production volumes and timing they expect. That’s what it is all about.”

#1 Neeraj Rohilla simulates reservoir conditions for chemical testing with the TIORCO EOR core flooding system. #2 FabTech-fabricated heat exchanger skid package, staged for shipping to Cabinda, Angola. #3 Baharak Barzegar Alamdari determines incremental oil production from a core flood experiment. #4 FabTech Field Welder Dave Burnett welds one of hundreds of stainless steel spools connecting CO2 Water Alternating Gas (WAG) injection/production facilities to the lines from the wellheads. #5 FabTech’s winch truck pulling an 18’ wide x 65’ long x 20’ tall WAG building from the shop. #6 TIORCO’s ASP conformance trailer, designed and fabricated by FabTech to assist in enhanced oil recovery chemical injections. #7 FabTech Quality Control Inspector Steve O’Neal inspects stainless steel pipe welds. #8 Cutting steel with FabTech’s 60,000 psi waterjet. #9 Danny Zhu prepares anaerobic polymer samples for thermal stability testing. #10 FabTech-built, CO2 WAG 16-well injection facility.

!

RIGHT OF W AY Right of way in a production unit is determined by kinetic energy and inherent ability. Pedestrians yield to railroad, heavy equipment operations and emergency vehicles.

All other traffic yields to pedestrians.

Kelly Lenz SH&E Advisor

COVER

I N N OVATO R S I N O I L A N D GAS, H E A LT H CA R E A N D S PA C E E X P L O R AT I O N I N T E R S E C T AT T H E P U M P S A N D P I P E S C O N F E R E N C E .

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T H E N E W A N D N OV E L

BY RUSTY HAGGARD

D U R I N G A C HA NC E E NCOUN T ER B ET WEEN SEATMATES ON A COMMERCIAL FLIGHT INTO HOUSTON, A SURGEON AT METHODIST HOSPITAL’S DEBAKEY HEART AND VASCULAR CENTER AND A DRILLING ENGINEER AT EXXONMOBIL DISCOVERED THAT THE CARDIOVASCULAR AND OIL AND GAS WORLDS DO INDEED HAVE MUCH IN COMMON. Strip away specialized terminologies from the two fields, and both agreed they were dealing with basically two things: pumps and pipes. That realization led to the development of a conference by the same name — an incubator for exploring and solving cross-industry challenges.

But for Nalco Champion, wide-eyed, open-minded collaboration isn’t a once-ayear thing. It’s built into the structure of the organization, and it’s integral to the company’s RD&E successes.

Just as the days of easy oil are gone, so are the days of easy solutions. Problems that can be solved with conventional thinking have been solved. Today’s challenges are more complex, more costly and more critical. Their answers may not be found within the company, or even within the industry. So Nalco Champion experts are looking to the outside. Can clean water technologies, food and beverage (F&B), or even the medical or space industries hold answers?

T E C H N O L O G Y PA R T N E R SHIPS AND DEVELOPMENT “We’ve realized that we don’t always have the best solution within our four walls.

Some company, university or entrepreneur has already found it. So we don’t necessarily have to solve internally,” says Vic Keasler, senior RD&E group leader and Global Biotechnology anchor.

Instead, the company is looking outside, often into other industries.

What is out there that the company can leverage? As it turns out, plenty. The search is on, and Nalco Champion researchers are

going after external answers — particularly external technologies — from many different angles: through cross-industry collaborations, open innovation forums and venture capital investments, and even through the structure of the organization itself.

Technology Partnerships and Development (TP&D) is the in-house group specifically dedicated to finding new external technologies. Ecolab’s innovation portfolio currently contains 10 percent technologies from external sources; the plan is to grow this to 25 percent, a substantial challenge. Ecolab, since acquiring Nalco and Champion Technologies, is a $14 billion company. Customers expect more than they did prior to the merger. Those expectations created a new resolve within TP&D: think differently and act differently.

Jeff Montanye, vice president, RD&E, Energy Services at Nalco Champion, knows that growth in external technologies will come from leveraging the suddenly bigger landscape. “We know we have to grow,” Montanye says. “Everyone expects it. That’s where our ‘Think Differently, Act Differently’ rallying cry rings true.

We have to change the way we think.

We have to ask what are the chemistries, technologies and solutions being used in vascular surgery, for example. How does that relate to what we’re doing in the oilfield? How do we take what’s being used in food and beverage and use it in energy and vice versa? We’re looking in areas we haven’t looked in before,” he says.

A small team of technology specialists, led by Montanye and David Horsup, also a

“ S O M E O F T H E G R E AT E S T I D E A S A R E F O U N D AT THE INTERSECTION OF D I V E R S E I N D U S T R I E S .”

DAVID HORSUP VICE PRESIDENT, RD&E

2013

COVER SOLVERS SYMPOSIUM

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vice president, RD&E Energy Services, comprise the energy portion of the TP&D group. They depend on divisions all across Ecolab to first analyze technology needs. Once those are known, the TP&D experts go after specific technologies that may fill the gaps identified.

For the initial analysis, division leaders use their own specialists, including market experts, to define the technology gaps.

The TP&D specialists then search through abundant resources, including ideas being developed by open innovation groups, individuals and entrepreneurs. They also investigate myriad technologies from innovators who fall into categories such as adjacencies, white spaces and step outs. The precise descriptions from the divisions provide strict criteria, and the TP&D team members adhere to the idea that possibilities abound, yet gaps will require specific solutions.

“Even though we may look at 1,000 companies in a given year, 95 percent of them may not fall into the gaps we’re looking at,” says Ravi Mukkamala. Mukkamala, an RD&E director of TP&D, works on the Downstream, WellChem and TIORCO sides of the business while his fellow RD&E Director, Chris Morrison, works on the Oilfield Chemicals side. Other TP&D experts are scanning technologies for food and beverage, and still others for breakthroughs in water technologies. “It might take several years for us to organically develop technologies,” Mukkamala says. He points to the company’s external reach made possible by open innovation sources and Ecolab’s limited partnership in Emerald Technology Ventures. These two initiatives provide a rich stream of potential technical solutions.

Open innovation sources connect clients like Nalco Champion with companies, researchers and individuals worldwide. They can link TP&D investigators, for example, to external problem solvers and enable sharing of knowledge to accelerate innovation. Emerald Technology Ventures is a globally recognized investor in the areas of energy, water and materials. Founded in 2000, Emerald has been a venture capital

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pioneer in these industrial sectors and has invested in 50 companies to date, managing one of the largest clean technology venture portfolios across Europe and North America with outstanding returns. The corporate initiative by Ecolab with these two resources dramatically extends the technology search and facilitates the TP&D researchers’ ability to vet candidate technologies against the precise criteria established by the many divisions within the company.

Shaking off any questions about pressure inside TP&D in its search for answers and in its efforts to grow the portfolio to that robust 25 percent in external technologies, Morrison says, “There is an understanding that the nature of research and development is such that often projects will not bear fruit. We’re not working in a zero-risk environment. Ecolab’s funding of research is a classic example of how to diversify the risks. By working on many projects, by having both internal and external technology components, and by being spread across so many different activities, by the end of the five-year period they’ve given us, our successes will outweigh the ones that do not work out.”

DNA SUMMIT When Ecolab and Nalco and Champion Technologies joined forces, the outside view held was that collaboration would begin with Ecolab’s strength in food and beverage and Nalco’s expertise in water rather than the energy sector. The energy side factored in quickly, however, in one of the first cross-company product launches: an F&B chemistry applied to an oil and gas need. Suddenly the focus widened and microbiology became a natural intersection to explore. The DNA Summit now brings the entire company together in a globalsharing platform.

What began at Nalco as a collaborative meeting to break down silos between energy services and the water group has expanded rapidly since its initial gathering in 2012. Analysis concluded the 2012 scope was too narrow. The next year all

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RESEARCHERS & SCIENTISTS

divisions, corporate groups, international scientists and marketers involved in innovation were invited, increasing attendance to 55. For 2014, global locations in Brazil, Australia, India and Europe phoned in to collaborate, again upping the group’s numbers.

The DNA Summit has powerful leverage potential. That leverage might come from F&B, clean water technologies or energy services. “We’re looking at some of the latest microbiological techniques in the industry to see how to leverage them into Ecolab’s businesses, whether that’s oil and gas or all the different facets of Ecolab,” says David Horsup.

Vic Keasler agrees. “The DNA Summit gives us a good representation of the global company. We are sharing in a global way the innovations being developed within the company and leveraging what’s going on in other divisions,” he says. Over 100 representatives are expected to be involved in the 2015 edition of the DNA Summit, which will take place in April in Naperville, Illinois.

T H E S O LV E R S S Y M P O S I U M The commitment to collaboration is not only about internal exchanges. With energy the fastest growing division, the need to find solutions for oil and gas problems is a prime consideration. That makes another conference, the Solvers Symposium, a showcase for innovation and problemsolving that taps into individual knowledge sharing. Here the focus reverts to oil and gas, and posters are used to display problems and challenges that are openended and unresolved. Nearly 300 scientists and researchers gather from across all of Nalco Champion, with representation from Ecolab, to lend knowledge and experience to the myriad challenges detailed in the posters. The 2014 edition, held in Houston in September, was the second in the series.

Chris Morrison from TP&D helped to organize the effort. He emphasizes that the two-day Solvers Symposium is not about success stories. In fact, he and other symposium creators turned the concept

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SOLVE RATE

on its head in designing the event. “No one wants to talk about the 99 dead-ends they went down. At the Solvers Symposium, we don’t allow successes to be brought forth for display. We want the unresolved problems, the unmet customer needs,” he says.

The solve ratio is astounding. The initial symposium had 50 challenges that were shared via posters for the scientists to view, analyze, ask questions and then try to resolve. The successful solve rate was about one-third, which is extremely high according to symposium creators. This year 75 submissions were received.

This year’s Solvers Symposium featured keynote speakers: Dr. Allen Lumsden from Methodist Hospital, one of the founders of the Pumps and Pipes Conference; Rod Pyle, author of “Innovation the NASA Way”; and Dr. Jeff Davis, director of Space Flight Sciences and chief medical officer for NASA JSC.

“We’re on a much bigger stage now,” Horsup says, emphasizing doing things the way they were done in the past will not work for the new $14 billion version of Ecolab and Nalco Champion.

PUMPS AND PIPES Collaboration to solve problems is not limited to within Nalco Champion or Ecolab. Try cross-industry pollination.

As a sponsor of the Pumps and Pipes

Conference, the company helps bring the oil and gas, medical, and space industries together to exchange information on technological challenges they all face: fluid flow, whether oil or blood; vascular structures, both in production and in the human body; and space flight, where bacterial control matters just as it does in pipelines and surgery. ExxonMobil, Methodist Hospital and others also sponsor the Pumps and Pipes Conference.

“Some of the greatest ideas come at the intersection of different industries,” Horsup says. At Pumps and Pipes, that intersection involves innovators in oil and gas, the medical industry, and space. Horsup is a past speaker at the conference and sits on the conference’s technology board.

Pumps and Pipes does not fund or sponsor projects, but serves instead as an incubator for people to exchange ideas, collaborate and see where different industries might cross in solving a problem. One early exchange between ExxonMobil and Methodist Hospital came from their common need to increase the understanding of fluid flow: the petroleum engineers’ interest in rock under pressure and the heart surgeons’ study of flow patterns of blood through heart valves. The two sides discovered the control algorithms, which ExxonMobil had already developed from its work with load cells, were exactly what surgeons needed for a fluid flow

“ H O W D O W E TA K E W H AT ’ S BEING USED IN FOOD AND BEVERAGE AND USE IT IN E N E R GY A N D V I C E V E R S A? W E ’ R E LO O K I N G I N A R E AS W E H AV E N ’ T LO O K E D I N B E FO R E .”

JEFF MONTANYE VICE PRESIDENT, RD&E

vessel designed at Methodist. Such is the serendipitous nature of discoveries across industries.

It can be unnerving at times, however, to go outside the industry for solutions.

Keasler, the Global Biotechnology anchor lead, presented at the Pumps and Pipes Conference in 2012. “Regardless of whether you’re in oil and gas, medicine or space flight, microbial control matters in all three,” he says. A PhD who studied at Baylor College of Medicine, he saw then in academia the medical side of bacterial issues. Now in his work at Nalco Champion, he’s trying to solve microbial issues that cause pipeline infection.

“What this conference does is leverage the learnings and experience from all three industries,” he says. “We’re looking for technology partners who have different ideas and ways of thinking about things.

But when we see what these other industries are doing to solve microbial issues, it’s a little uncomfortable because you’re thinking this is not the way it’s supposed to be done. It challenges us to step outside our comfort zone and visualize game-changing solutions in a very different way.”

NEW PERSPECTIVE T H E D E T E R M I N AT I O N T O T H I N K D I F F E R E N T LY A N D A C T D I F F E R E N T LY I S O P E N I N G U P P O S S I B I L I T I E S I N P R O B L E M S O LV I N G A N D K N O W L E D G E S H A R I N G AT N A L C O C H A M P I O N . T H E S E A R C H F O R E X T E R N A L S O LU T I O N S T O B R I D G E T E C H N O L O GY G A P S I S I N T E N S E A N D C A N AT T I M E S B E U N C O M F O R TA B L E . B U T L E V E R A G I N G T E C H N O L O G I E S — F R O M E N E R GY A N D WAT E R T O S U R G E RY A N D S PA C E — I S B O T H E X C I T I N G A N D W O R T H W H I L E . E X P E C TAT I O N S A R E H U G E , A S ARE THE CHALLENGES. THE ANSWERS ARE OUT THERE. THE SEARCH TO FIND T H E M R E Q U I R E S T H E N E W A N D N OV E L .

FRONT

P R E S I D E N T’ S

L E T T E R

“WE ARE A TRULY GLOBAL COMPANY OPERATING IN UNIQUE AND OFTEN CHALLENGING ENVIRONMENTS. THIS DIVERSITY OF EXPERIENCE, COMBINED WITH OUR COMMON PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE, POSITIONS US TO SUCCEED BOTH NOW AND INTO THE FUTURE.” MARK ELEY VICE PRESIDENT, OFC, EASTERN HEMISPHERE

NALCO CHAMPION MAGAZINE

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44 FROM THE ARCHIVES 45 EXPERTISE 4 6 O P E R AT I O N A L E X C E L L E N C E 47 CORE KNOWLEDGE 48 CASE HISTORY 50 SEEN AND HEARD 52 INFOGRAPHIC 5 4 E M P LOY E E P R O F I L E 55 RECRUITING

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F R O M

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A R C H I V E S NALCO CHAMPION MAGAZINE

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A C R O S S - C O M PA N Y, EMULSION-BREAKING PIONEER V I R G I L S E A L E ’ S P I VO TA L R O L E I N B O T H N A L C O C H E M I C A L C O .

A N D C H A M P I O N T E C H N O L O G I E S’ R D & E H I S T O R I E S

1

MAN

VIRGIL SEALE

50+

PAT E N T S

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V I R G I L S E A L E ’S F I R S T S A N D FO R E M O S T S DRILLING, COMPLETION AND STIMULATION: • The first nonemulsifier for acidizing and fracturing operations

PRODUCTION: • Alkyl phenol/formaldehyde resin bases for crude oil demulsifiers

• Liquid latex friction reducers

• The first polyacrylate scale inhibitor

• High-performance formation stabilizers

• The first divalent brine tolerant scale inhibitor

• The first practical fluorosurfactant for well stimulation

• Water clarifiers in response to the Clean Water Act

• The first relative permeability modifier

• Novel corrosion inhibitors

• HPHT cement fluid loss additives

Virgil Seale would hate this article. Everyone who spoke about his legacy agreed on that. So while we’d like to focus on the man who was mentor to generations of chemists; a man who was a genius — not just about one chemistry, but about all chemistries; a man who hid a big, big heart behind a disciplined, humble, private exterior — we’ll focus instead on his work. As anyone who knew Virgil would tell you, that’s what he’d rather talk about anyway.

Virgil spent most of his life in Houston, Texas, working for both Nalco Chemical Company and Champion Technologies.

He pioneered the field of emulsion breaking at Nalco before eventually moving to Champion in 1987, where he built the research department at the Fresno, Texas, facility. His patents have influenced the development of the emulsion breaker lines for both Nalco and Champion for more than 40 years.

When you look at Virgil’s chemical knowledge, fieldwork and patents, the emulsion-breaking technology he contributed to equates to more than 20 million pounds of annual production used to treat a variety of oils all over the world. Addi-

“Nalco Champion owes a great deal to Virgil Seale. Much of the opportunity we enjoy, and the prestige we command, is rooted in Virgil’s foundational, innovative leadership in both legacy companies.

It is not a great exaggeration to suggest that we would not be here today, sitting as one company with a dominant position in our industry, had it not been for Virgil Seale.”

Sam Evetts Global Technology Operations; Research, Development and Engineering Thanks to Darlene Blair, Sam Evetts, Bob Gabel, Scott Knutson, Mike Jackson, Bob Reynolds and Tommy Rush for remembrances, and Debbie Kilen, Chris Morrison and Kimberly Stauffer for research.

tionally, if you have ever driven an automobile, taken a flight, gone on a cruise or even used lighter fluid to light your barbecue, you’ve benefited from Virgil’s work.

And while there’s no way to confirm that Virgil’s penchant for fine wines, chocolate bars and gallons of blueberry cheesecake ice cream were instrumental to his 90 years of life, more than 50 patents and his uncanny ability to break “unbreakable” emulsions, they are a perfectly fitting way to celebrate his lasting contributions.

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COMMUNITY

Papers and Presentations (Q1–Q2 2014) In the first and second quarters of 2014, Nalco Champion presented and published 47 papers addressing topics ranging from shale and scale to DNA and data mining. From the structure of our organization — tiered to address today’s challenges and tomorrow’s frontiers — to our commitment to staffing and equipping a global RD&E team with unmatched resources, we are uniquely positioned to provide practical thought leadership to a rapidly changing marketplace.

WELLCHEM

OFC

DOWNSTREAM

TITL E Evaluation of Surfactants for Oil Recovery Potential in Shale Reservoirs

T I T LE Interfacial Films and Stability of SAGD Emulsions: Effect of Reverse Emulsion Breakers

T IT L E The Potential of Chemical Additives to Increase Heavy Resid Processing Efficiency

BR IE F Most shale reservoirs have a low permeability, low porosity, oil-wet character with natural fractures that contributes to low oil recovery factors. In this study, various surfactants (non-ionic, cationic, anionic, and amphoteric) were studied for spontaneous imbibition into oil-wet shale cores in order to investigate the effect of salinity, surfactant concentration, electrolyte concentration and temperature on the wettability alteration and provide mechanisms.

BRIEF Reverse emulsion breakers (REBs) had three effects on film properties, which correlated well with lowering emulsion stability: (1) decreasing interfacial tension (IFT); (2) causing the film to be reversible, which destroyed the asphaltene cross-linked network and resulted in faster phase separation and (3) inducing drop detachment. Effective REBs formed complexes with natural anionic surfactants present in the oil phase that significantly lowered the IFT, replaced asphaltenes at the interface with a reversible film or weakened the irreversible film.

B R IEF The authors developed a versatile reactor unit for investigating relative fouling tendency of resid feedstock.

In their investigation, thermal resistance measurements were sensitive to various feedstock compositions, feedstock blending and additive application.

A multi-dimensional characterization revealed that certain feedstock compositions have greater preference for surface fouling over bulk coke formation, and this fouling tendency dictates design of chemical additive treatment programs.

AUTH ORS Duy Nguyen, Aderaje Oladapo, Jeffrey Sickorez and Brian Mueller, Nalco Champion; Dongmei Wang, Jin Zhang and Ray Butler, University of North Dakota P R ES E N TE D SPE Improved Oil Recovery Symposium, April 12–16, 2014 Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States SPE-169085-M

AUT HO R S Duy Nguyen, Vittoria Balsamo and Jenny Phan P R ESE N T E D World Heavy Oil Congress, March 5–7, 2014 New Orleans, Louisiana, United States

AU T HOR S Christopher Russell, Mark Ward and Ron Sharp PR ESENT ED Petrophase, June 8–12, 2014 Houston, Texas, United States

S CA N to see the complete list or visit magazine.nalcochampion.com/ expertise.

NUMBER OF PAPERS PUBLISHED Q1–Q2 2014

47

PAPERS PRESENTED AT SPE INTERNATIONAL OILFIELD SCALE CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION, ABERDEEN, UNITED KINGDOM

9

PAPERS PRESENTED AT 25TH INTERNATIONAL OIL FIELD CHEMISTRY SYMPOSIUM, GEILO, NORWAY

5

PAPERS PRESENTED AT SPE INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM AND EXHIBITION ON FORMATION DAMAGE CONTROL, LAFAYETTE, LOUISIANA, USA

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O P E R A T I O N A L

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E X C E L L E N C E

A N E W A P P R OA C H FO R A R I S K-AV E R S E I N D U ST RY O P E R AT I O N A L E X C E L L E N C E T O O L S A N D P R O G R A M S F I X T H E F L O W O F VA L U E BEFORE IT BREAKS DOWN B Y K I M B E R LY S T A U F F E R

When Nalco Champion first began working with an operating organization account in Iraq, the team discovered the account lacked any prior chemical management program (CMP) contracts. To help the customer team define their account needs, Middle East Regional Project Manager Binu Chacko and his team began with Operational Excellence step one, initiating a customer agreement plan (CAP) and a detailed technical study using CMP to set the standard for account management.

“This approach was presented to the customer, and it was quickly agreed as a strong path forward that would help both the customer’s understanding of its system as well as produce the right level of detail required for a stage-gated chemical program implementation,” Chacko says.

The CAP provided the necessary structure to understand how the Nalco Champion team could best move forward, beginning with a technical evaluation (TE).

“The TE process has been recognized as providing a solid framework for making and supporting program suggestions based on data collected,” Chacko says. “The format also makes it easy to present to the customer, who can see at a glance where the high-risk areas are and what strategies are being employed to mitigate the risks.”

Here, Operational Excellence (OE) CAP and TE tools helped the Nalco Champion team develop more in-depth knowledge of the contractual and workload requirements, opening discussions to address new approaches to existing problems.

OPERATIONAL

EXCELLENCE TOOLS.TRAINING. KNOWLEDGE-SHARING.

OE IN ACTION Operational Excellence tools and programs aligned under four key steps have improved and facilitated working relationships with our customers globally.

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SET

the standard for account management.

“Implementing a Customer Agreement Plan has allowed my customer and me to better understand each other’s needs and expectations. We have been able to eliminate unnecessary work and better schedule and coordinate complex projects while holding each other accountable.”

A D A M C O U LT E R M A N D I S T R I C T R E P R E S E N TAT I V E , A L B E R TA , C A N A D A

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DELIVER

account management standards to provide a strong foundation for every customer relationship.

“A lot of hard work went into resetting the focus and direction on a large account. The ‘Back to Basics’ workshop has delivered improvement in a short period of time with customer representatives indicating they have seen significant improvements from the Nalco Champion team, and we are starting to bring value to the assets. This all stems from the OE Service Plan, or SMART Matrix, and the tools created from that.”

GRAHAM BROWN BUSINESS MANAGER, A S I A PA C I F I C

3

CHECK

alignment to ensure our people, products and processes are delivering optimal value.

“During a workshop, more than 90 percent of participants did a Self-Assessment. The OE team used the results to form groups composed of people from different countries supporting different clients to determine best practices. The results exceeded expectations about the benefits the OE program can bring for our people and customers.”

EMERSON MACIEL O P E R AT I O N A L E X C E L L E N C E , L AT I N A M E R I C A

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F R O M W E S T TO E A S T: S A F E , S U C C E S S F U L D EG A S S I N G SIMPLICITY, ACCOUNTABILITY AND CULTURE Operational Excellence tools and programs contribute to Nalco Champion delivering a consistent, world-class experience for customers. They are built on three pillars: • Simplicity: Developing easy-toaccess turnkey templates based on proven processes with clear communications and tools.

• Accountability: Facilitating team reviews to link strategy with actions and providing constant feedback and gap analyses.

• Culture: Driving improvement through mentorship, training, developing case studies and sharing knowledge and best practices across our organization.

“Operational Excellence is a new approach to a risk-averse industry — fixing the flow of value before it breaks down,” says Ben Bromage, director of Operational Excellence, Business Functions Group. “The use of its tools and programs by our talented field teams is one of the key reasons customers do business with us.”

4

ACT

on Operational Excellence information and recommendations to deliver value and help our customers succeed.

“A Voice of the Customer survey revealed dissatisfaction. Determined to preserve the at-risk account, we contacted the people who responded negatively, presented a transition plan and set up meetings to clarify plans for programs. We conducted a survey of the customer’s reclaimed water cooling towers and developed a new cooling water product specifically for them. By demonstrating our commitment to the account, we eliminated the threat of losing the customer.”

JAMES KONS DISTRICT MANAGER, C A L I F O R N I A , U N I T E D S TAT E S

CONNECTING EXTENSIVE EXPERIENCE TO I M M E D I AT E N E E D T H R O U G H T H E C O R E K N O W L E D G ESHARING NETWORK

BY M E L I SSA C RO C K E R

Today’s oilfields demand detailed chemical expertise in a wide variety of applications and environments. Nalco Champion’s global footprint allows us to provide one-on-one help to our customers, backed by the experts in our global knowledge network. In this feature, we highlight in-the-field examples of the cross-functional collaboration and efficient problem solving made possible by connecting our global subject matter experts through CORE knowledge-sharing.

T H E S I T UAT I ON Tatsuya Inoue, a Nalco Champion account manager in Japan, sought detailed information to help a customer develop a cleaning and degassing program to support the closing of an oil quench tower in Chiba, Japan.

Inoue knew the procedures could be very hazardous, particularly during the cleaning process when pyrophoric iron sulfide, an extremely reactive substance, can accumulate in the tower. It was imperative that the advice he provided the customer was based on comprehensive knowledge of the risks and how to mitigate them.

“Japan as a whole does not have as much experience with degassing in CPI, so I do not have many people to ask about it,” Inoue says. “From the training manual, I understand the cleaning procedure is different by unit.”

He posted his question on the Chemical Processing Industry (CPI) network to draw on Nalco Champion’s global knowledge.

THE INSIGHT Ted Arnst, a senior research scientist, assured Inoue that his decision to seek out knowledge from experts was a good one.

“I learned the hard way from helping somebody who made a mistake in the past that there are certain things you must do in order to have a successful cleaning and degassing on that particular piece of equipment,” Arnst says. “Taking shortcuts can be very hazardous. I know what to do because I’ve had to deal with the aftermath of one not done correctly.”

Lisheng Xu, manager of the CPI network, says, “The technical details provided by those who are more experienced in this area allowed Tatsuya to put this project on the right technical path from the start.

Details like how to remove coke fines and deal with emulsion are valuable tips for anyone not experienced in OQT cleanings.”

T H E RES U LT Responses from experts in the United States and Spain gave Inoue exactly the knowledge his client needed to proceed safely with the program on a timeline that met the customer’s requirement.

Global knowledge-sharing provided Inoue the direction to guide his customer through this challenge, and this collective knowledge will remain in CORE to help others who need it in the future. Javier Florencio, an innovation marketer who provided insight from his experiences in Spain, says, “Traditionally, we used to have all these discussions within email, which in the end are lost over time. I think it’s very valuable that these discussions are recorded in CORE and kept for future interest.

That’s where the value is.”

Localized corrosion is a prominent concern in the infrastructure of many subsea systems due to metallurgical differences of the pipe, heat-affected zones and weld material.

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S U S TA I N A B L E C H E M I S T RY C O N T R O L S C O R R O S I O N A N D WAT E R - Q UA L I T Y ISSUES SUBSEA S F P E C 1 5 8 9 A D E M O N S T R AT E S I M P R OV E D C O R R O S I O N I N H I B I T I O N P E R F O R M A N C E A N D E N V I R O N M E N TA L P R O F I L E .

S I T UAT IO N The operator of an offshore gas-condensate field in the UK sector of the North Sea managed corrosion in three high-temperature, high-pressure, high-shear subsea fields with a proven, umbilical-certified corrosion inhibitor (CI). The treatment program called for injecting CI downstream of the subsea wellheads to protect system pipelines.

For a period of time, quality tests of produced water to be discharged overboard following separation found oil-inwater (OIW) concentrations exceeding 2,000 ppm, well beyond the 30 ppm allowed by the Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC), which oversees environmental protection in the UK North Sea. Additionally, DECC had classified several chemical components of the incumbent CI for substitution warnings.

The operator needed new corrosioninhibition technology that could perform as well as or better than the incumbent CI, be formulated with active chemical components not targeted for substitution under environmental rules, and enable more effective operations by not contributing to the stability of emulsions in the production stream.

conditions with the rigorous Nalco Champion SurFlo® Plus umbilical certification process.

Based on the comprehensive qualification data set compiled, Nalco Champion identified SFPEC1589A as the most promising candidate to replace the incumbent CI. After comparing the potential of SFPEC1589A and the incumbent CI for inhibiting localized corrosion in highshear conditions, results of emulsification testing showed the emulsion tendency of SFPEC1589A was significantly lower than that of the incumbent CI, as illustrated in Table 1.

Emulsion testing confirmed the low OIW properties exhibited by SFPEC1589A, a performance characteristic that would enable it to comply with the 30 ppm ceiling

SO LU TIO N Nalco Champion incorporated advanced testing protocols and the accumulated knowledge of technology centers in Europe, Asia-Pacific and North America to investigate the potential of developing chemistry to replace the incumbent CI. We performance-tested candidate formulations for emulsification tendencies and stability under extreme temperature fluctuations. Chemistries that passed initial tests were subjected to high-level corrosion testing in extreme conditions, including low-shear and high-shear conditions and high pressures. Nalco Champion established the critical pitting temperature of each remaining candidate chemistry and evaluated each under simulated subsea

discharged overboard to less than 30 ppm, allowing the operator to comply with DECC quality requirements and avoid: • DECC fines for overboarding out-ofspecification wastewater.

• Potential costs associated with storing wastewater on-board the host platform while awaiting pick-up by a support vessel.

• Risk of upsetting the production system by reinjecting wastewater downhole.

SFPEC1589A also proved to be compatible with the incumbent chemistry, ensuring that SFPEC1589A could be introduced to the same storage tanks and umbilical or capillary lines without fear of subsea system upset.

TA B L E 1

INCUMBENT CI AND SFPEC1589A EMULSION T E S T R E S U LT S W I T H C O N D E N S A T E Incumbent CI (200ppm) Time

Water (ml)

SFPEC1589A (200ppm)

Oil (ml)

Emulsion (ml)

Water (ml)

Oil (ml)

Emulsion (ml)

30 seconds

24

12

114

74

70

6

1 minute

50

32

68

75

75

0

2 minutes

7

72

6

75

75

0

5 minutes

73

75

2

75

75

0

10 minutes

74

75

1

75

75

0

15 minutes

75

75

0

75

75

0

set by the DECC for oil contamination in wastewater discharged offshore. Additionally, DECC had approved SFPEC1589A for use in the UK North Sea with no componentsubstitution requirements.

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T EST YO U R P P E

R ESULTS In addition to demonstrating better corrosion-inhibiting performance, the comprehensive qualification data set compiled by Nalco Champion showed that SFPEC1589A also exhibited a significantly lower emulsification tendency, which reduced oil contamination of wastewater

Personal protective equipment (PPE) is the last line of defense, including retractable lanyards.

A diligent employee at the Ellwood City Plant tested the arrest mechanism and found it to be defective. The unit was replaced immediately.

Carrie Birckbichler-Smith SH&E Supervisor

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HOUSEKEEPING Order, tidiness and cleanliness are essential factors for the prevention of accidents and maintenance of health in the workplace. Make a daily commitment to keeping work areas organized and free of unnecessary clutter.

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Juliana de Andrade Marques SH&E Latin America

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May 2014

#1 Deer Park Team Wins Safety Excellence Award Nalco Champion’s Deer Park team recently won the prestigious Houston Safety Excellence Bronze Medal Award in the Large Company Technical Support category for 2013, presented by the Houston Area Safety Council in partnership with the Houston Business Roundtable.

Nominated by Shell Deer Park, the award recognizes outstanding safety performance from contractors who work cooperatively to improve onsite safety, eliminate accidents and reduce employee injuries.

The award involves a sixmonth-long audit process that involves hundreds of volunteers.

After receiving nominations from clients, contractors are evaluated to verify safety performance data for the past calendar year. The process also encourages the sharing of best practices to improve industrial safety overall in Houston and the Gulf Coast region.

Members of the team, which included Hank Hamberg, Christopher Agostinelli, Ross O’Dell, Adam Dillard, Jake Henley, Peter Lofgren, Tom Champlin, Jim Germundson, Armando Trevino, Kent Harrington and Lance Broussard, were proud to be recognized for this accomplishment at the HSE Awards Banquet in May. FE BRUA RY 20 1 4 #2 Nalco Champion Sponsors Alberta Children’s Hospital Nalco Champion recently committed to its largest charitable pledge to date in Canada with a five-year, $150,000 sponsorship agreement with Alberta Children’s Hospital. The Alberta Children’s Hospital, the largest public children’s hospital in the western provinces, is one of the few facilities with the

resources to provide valuable health services to the majority of our people in Canada.

The funds will be directed to Extracorporeal Life Support (ECLS), based on the results of a Canadian staff poll conducted late last year. ECLS is an artificial heart and lung system that takes over pumping and oxygenating blood for children suffering from life-threatening conditions that destroy the ability of these organs to function properly. Nalco Champion’s $150,000 donation helped the hospital reach its $500,000 fundraising target for this vital life-saving equipment.

The first check for $30,000 was presented to the hospital foundation February 5, 2014.

J UN E 20 1 4 #3, 4 Heroes of the 500 Honoree: Paul McNeill Paul McNeill, a senior process engineer at Nalco Champion’s Freeport, Texas, facility, was recently recognized in Fortune magazine’s “Heroes of the 500,” which spotlighted 50 people from the top 500 global companies who found creative ways to help others.

McNeill founded Mission McNeill, a formalized 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, in 2012

as part of his global volunteer efforts. His trips to remote, underserved villages and schools in countries like Cambodia and Peru to build bathroom and clean water facilities helped earn him the No. 14 spot on the magazine’s list.

“It’s imperative that these people, especially the kids, have clean water. One of the reasons why most children die in the world is from a lack of clean water and sanitation,” McNeill said. “I’ve seen poverty from a different perspective, and I’ve been inspired to make a difference in the lives of these children.”

AU G U ST 201 4 #5 Visions for Learning Grants to Texas Teachers Nalco Champion recently awarded $75,000 in education grants to teachers in Fort Bend County through the Ecolab Foundation’s 2014 Visions for Learning program.

Created to help teachers enrich students’ experience through increased engagement and innovative classroom instruction, the program awarded 33 grants to teachers in Fort Bend County, the planned corporate home for Nalco

Champion. Grant recipients and their school principals were recognized at a small reception at the Fort Bend Chamber of Commerce in August.

AU G U ST 2014 Ecolab Donation Aids the Fight Against Ebola in West Africa Nalco Champion parent company Ecolab recently sent several truckloads of aid supplies from the United States and United Kingdom to West Africa to help in the fight against the Ebola virus. Ecolab donated soap, hand sanitizers and disinfecting cleansers to Sierra Leone and Liberia.

The coordinated effort began in early August when the company received a call from an infectious disease specialist at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Several hundred employees joined the effort to help battle the disease by coordinating production and shipping while Ecolab worked with World Emergency Relief to move the donated items from the ports to aid works in area hospitals and health clinics.

SEPT EM BER 2014 Nalco Champion Magazine Wins International Design Award Chosen from more than 3,600 global entries, Nalco Champion Magazine is one of eight editorial winners honored in the prestigious 55th Annual Communication Arts Design Competition. Selected for creative excellence by a jury of leading design professionals, Nalco Champion Magazine was the only business-to-business winner in the editorial category, standing alongside winning spreads from publications including GQ and The Alpine Review.

INSIDE

I N F O G R A P H I C NALCO CHAMPION MAGAZINE

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PA R T N E R I N G TO H E L P S O LV E GLOBAL CHALLENGES E V E RY W H E R E I T M AT T E R S ™ — I N C LU D I N G O I L F I E L D S , REFINERIES AND PETROCHEMICAL PLANTS Ecolab is the global leader in water, hygiene and energy technologies and services.

Across Ecolab companies, 45,000+ associates deliver the programs and services that protect people and vital resources. They bridge specialties as diverse as cleaning and sanitizing, pest elimination, equipment maintenance and production and refining.

How? Ecolab’s family of companies leverages core technologies, including antimicrobials, water, dispensing and monitoring technologies, to solve related problems in widely varied marketplaces. Additionally, each business benefits from access to Ecolab core capabilities like global deployment and exceptional training.

Once you strip away the specialties and take a closer look at how each of these businesses manages to solve the global challenges of their industries, their commonality is expressed in a simple, shared formula: High levels of service + superior technology delivered by a team who is deeply committed to customer success.

The formula is as true in energy services as it is in food and beverage. It’s consistent, it’s cultural and it’s core to Ecolab’s success.

37%

GLOBAL INDUSTRIAL FOOD & BEVERAGE

Provides a comprehensive set of solutions that help increase food safety and product quality, enhance sustainability and boost operational efficiency for global food and beverage processors and manufacturers, dairy farmers and manufacturers of pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.

TEXTILE CARE

Provides personal service, superior cleaning solutions and data-driven technology to manage the wash process and optimize plant performance for commercial laundry operations.

PAPER (NALCO)

Provides water and process applications for the pulp and paper industries.

WATER (NALCO)

Provides products and programs for water treatment and process applications aimed at combining environmental benefits with economic gains for our customers.

32%

GLOBAL INSTITUTIONAL INSTITUTIONAL

Delivers comprehensive products, programs and services that help customers protect their brands and ensure guest satisfaction in restaurants, hotels and long-term care facilities, schools, commercial buildings and military facilities.

HEALTHCARE

Provides infection prevention and other healthcare-related offerings to acute care hospitals, surgery centers, dental offices and veterinary clinics.

SPECIALTY

Delivers customized programs to meet the unique food safety and sanitation requirements of the QSR (quick service restaurant) and Food Retail (supermarket and grocery) markets.

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IASPSRUI EL T 2W 0 1O4

!

ASSESS FOR HAZARDS

HOW WE FIT IN...

2013 SALES BY REPORTABLE SEGMENT

37%

GLOBAL INDUSTRIAL

Bernice Seah HR Representative, Asia Pacific

5% OTHER 32%

26%

GLOBAL INSTITUTIONAL

GLOBAL ENERGY

26%

GLOBAL ENERGY ENERGY SERVICES (NALCO CHAMPION)

Our Global Energy segment provides on-site, technology-driven solutions to the global drilling, oil and gas production, refining, and petrochemical industries.

WellChem Technologies™: Drilling, Cementing and Stimulation

Aquasign®: Subsea Markers

Oilfield Chemicals: Upstream Production

FabTech: Custom Oil and Gas Equipment

TIORCO: Enhanced Oil Recovery

Downstream: Refining, Fuel Additives and Petrochemicals

Even if you work in an office environment, you should assess for hazards (e.g., any boxes obstructing the way that could cause you to trip) and manage them.

5% OTHER

PEST ELIMINATION

Delivers scientifically proven protocols to not only control pests, but eliminate them for institutional and commercial customers.

EQUIPMENT CARE

Provides equipment repair, maintenance and preventive maintenance services for the commercial foodservice industry.

COMMUNITY

E M P L O Y E E

TODD WOLF DIRECTOR, TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT HOMETOWN ARLINGTON, TEXAS BASED IN HOUSTON, TEXAS YEARS WITH NALCO CHAMPION 17 INTERESTS TIME OUTDOORS S W I M M I N G W I T H F A M I LY, SAND VOLLEYBALL, F I S H I N G A N D WAT E R F O W L HUNTING

P R O F I L E NALCO CHAMPION MAGAZINE

“To use a sports metaphor, Nalco Champion University programs build our bench. They help prepare new sales engineers for the majors.”

“For 2015, I’m most excited about the Learning and Talent Management System we’ll be rolling out. It will give each employee a real-time, online resume of their Nalco Champion learning experiences. Talk about a powerful means to leverage talent corporate-wide!”

“We are working to scale our training and development programs globally to give every employee both a clear development plan and easily accessible training to support the achievement of career goals.”

“Nalco Champion is growing rapidly and on pace to hire >1,000 new employees globally every year. What an exciting challenge to onboard and provide a platform for proper safety, sales, technical and leadership training.”

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“Every time I do a college recruiting social, I’m reminded of what a great organization I work for. Watching my colleagues share their passion for what they do with these young candidates is a differentiator in attracting talent to the organization.”

“When I first interviewed with Nalco, I did a ridealong inside of Amoco Oil Refinery. I recall Gary Garcia pointing to a cooling tower and asking ‘Do you know what that is?’ When I replied, ‘No,’ he said, ‘Oh boy, have we got a long way to go with you.’”

R E C R U I T I N G

Experience Our Growth The oil and gas industry is changing quickly . . . so quickly that our company has experienced significant growth, doubling in size in the past five years. In turn, our employees have also experienced significant growth in their career opportunities at Nalco Champion.

ENGAGE IN MEANINGFUL WORK We offer an environment where there’s a new challenge around every corner, every day, and our employees experience the satisfaction that comes from engaging in meaningful work.

We help address the world’s energy needs with an unwavering commitment to safety and the environment in everything we do. Our programs, chemistries and services make it possible to maximize production in safer, more efficient and more environmentally sustainable ways than ever before.

Whether transporting chemicals, testing products or partnering with customers to solve a challenge, Nalco Champion employees play a vital role in producing the world’s energy.

A N E S TA B L I S H E D L E A D E R Nalco Champion is an Ecolab company. As the global leader in water, hygiene and energy technologies and services, Ecolab is routinely recognized for its industry-leading solutions, service, innovation, entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to sustainability.

A sampling of recent recognition includes the following awards: • • • •

Forbes magazine included Ecolab on its list of “The World’s Most Innovative Companies” for the third consecutive year.

The Ethisphere Institute named Ecolab one of the world’s most ethical companies for the sixth consecutive year.

Global Water Intelligence named Ecolab the water technology company of the year.

Dow Jones Sustainability World Index included Ecolab on its list of the world’s leading sustainability companies.

AS P I R E TO YO U R ST R E N GT H S Are you a problem solver? Have you been called curious, inquisitive, determined?

To be successful at Nalco Champion, you must: • • • • • • • •

Love to learn Work well in a team but take responsibility as an individual Set goals and meet them Have a passion for the environment and a desire to improve safety Knock yourself out to satisfy the customer Value our longstanding client relationships Greet new challenges with enthusiasm Respond well in dynamic situations

SOUND LIKE A GOOD FIT? We need to connect. Please contact us through nalcochampion.ecolab.com/careers.

S CA N for more information.

Nalco Champion Magazine 3200 Southwest Freeway Suite 2700, Houston, TX 77027 magazine.nalcochampion.com