Michal Křivánek, our colleague from the Engineering Department, was on a business trip in Suriname; South American country most of which is covered by rainforest and its economy depends on extraction and export of aluminum, gold and oil. Rationally you can ask: what he did there for Moravia Systems company? He answers in an interview.
Mr. Křivánek, what did you do for Moravia Systems in such an exotic place?
“In Suriname, there is a five-year-old state-owned Staatsolie refinery, built by Saipem company. Because of a lack of local experienced operators and technologist of optimization of operations, the operator of refinery hires the experienced experts from the world through an agency. He asked company Mc Dermot Engineering (formerly ABB Lummus Global), one of our customers. Professionals from this company looks various problems in the production unit and are looking for other designers who could identify shortcomings in the original project, submit or implement proposals to improve operation. They contacted me by acquaintance.”
What did you solve and what was the result?
“The task was to prepare an implementation project for measuring of the pressure loss on the floors of gasoline reactor. Several companies were asked for this project, but most of them submitted unsatisfactory price or deadline or imposed many further conditions. We are able to deliver the projects regarding to technology, measurement and control and machinery in three weeks. Subsequently, the customer will request valves, orifices and pipes. We can handle material delivery successfully.”
If you succeed what will this prestigious order bring to Moravia Systems in the future?
“If we are lucky we will also be asked to solve other specialized engineering problems - pipe vibrations, calculations of operationally unreliable (leaking) pipes, etc. Our business partner has already asked Staatsolie to sign a framework engineering contract with us.”
Allow me a personal question. What was the greatest impression or surprise for you in Suriname?
“The refinery operator hires experts from around the world and has a great deal of innovation in the plant. I would like to see such an open approach at similar operations in the Czech Republic. I was also surprised by the language skills of the local people. A young taxi driver from India spoke six languages and each worker or seller of goods at the stall spoke good English too.”
Thank you for the interview.
Irena Kalinová, Marketing and PR