J a p a n C o o p e ra t i o n C e n t e r, P e t r o l e u m

NEWS
No.

111

2012 January

Connected by technology, person-to-person

Topicsn Celebrating JCCP’s 30th Anniversaryn Message from a JCCP Graduaten Signing Ceremony for an MOU on a Special Cooperation Program with Petrovietnam
n Visit to OPEC Headquarters
n Executive Meeting with SINOPEC
n Signing an Agreement with the Ministry of Oil-Iraq on the Implementation ofa Special Cooperation Program for Iraq

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

Table of Contents
Celebrating JCCP’s 30th Anniversary.................................................................................................................................. 3
Message from a JCCP Graduate.......................................................................................................................................... 4

TopicsSigning an MOU on a Special Cooperation Program with Petrovietnam........................................................................... 5
Visit to OPEC Headquarters................................................................................................................................................. 7
Executive Meeting with SINOPEC....................................................................................................................................... 9
Signing an Agreement with the Ministry of Oil-Iraq on the Implementation of a Special Cooperation Programfor Iraq.............................................................................................................................................................................. 10

Personnel Exchange Programs
Administration and Implementation of JCCP Regular Courses in the Osaka Area........................................................... 13
CPO Seminar on Total Productive Maintenance Management (TPM) Held Jointly with Saudi Aramco............................ 16
CPO Seminar on HRD/HRM for PERTAMINA...................................................................................................................... 20
CPO Seminar on Maintenance Management for Petrovietnam........................................................................................ 25
CPO Seminar on Energy Saving and Maintenance for SINOPEC’s Tianjin Refinery........................................................... 27
CPO Seminar on Heavy Oil Upgrading Held at Vietnam Petroleum Institute (VPI)........................................................... 30
CPJ Seminar on Practical Training for Young Instrumentation and Control Engineers for Vietnam................................ 32
Report on the Training Cooperation Program: Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil.............................................................. 35
Report on the Training Cooperation Program: Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand............................................................ 38
Report on the Training Cooperation Program: Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia........................................................ 41
JCCP Regular Courses Completed in September – October 2011..................................................................................... 45
Fiscal Year 2012 JCCP Course Schedule............................................................................................................................ 47

Technical Cooperation
Researcher Invitation Program......................................................................................................................................... 48
FY2010 Long-term Researcher Dispatch Program............................................................................................................ 49
Signing Ceremony for Phase II of Treatment and Utilization of the Oilfield-produced Water in Oman........................... 51
Signing Ceremony with KFUPM for the Project on “Development of High Olefin Yield FCC Catalyst”........................... 53
Ex-post Evaluation Committee for Projects Completed in FY2010................................................................................... 56

Announcements
Please Help Us Update Our Roster.................................................................................................................................... 58
Personnel Change.............................................................................................................................................................. 59

Cover photo by Minoru Horike(Technical Cooperation Dept.).
Nikko Odashirogahara in early December.
The white birch tree among theother trees is called “Lady of the
Odashirogahara.”Celebrating JCCP’s 30th Anniversary
Masataka Sase
Executive Director,
Japan Cooperation Center, Petroleum (JCCP)
November 26 marked the 30th anniversary of Japan
Cooperation Center, Petroleum. I wish to take thismilestone occasion to extend my deepest gratitude to
everyone who has supported JCCP over these 30 years.
JCCP was established in 1981, prompted by the twooil crises that occurred in the 1970s. Around the time ofthese oil crises, Japan possessed hardly any petroleum
resources as a result of pursuing high economic growth,and depended on foreign countries, and particularly the
Middle East countries, for large volumes of crude oil. At
the same time, however, Japan was hit with the realizationthat it had neglected to foster close personal relationships
outside the relationship of trading oil with the Middle
East countries and other oil-producing countries. A strong
sense of urgency to correct this situation led to JCCP’sestablishment.
During these past 30 years, oil-producing countries
have achieved remarkable growth and prosperity as awhole. Today, oil companies in those countries haveemerged as world leaders in both oil-related technologies
and management. This is truly an achievement worthcelebrating.
Japan and other oil-consuming countries, for theirpart, have developed technologies for ensuring advanced
utilization of the precious resource, while also placing
greater focus than ever before on energy conservation andenvironmental technologies, which have yielded significant
results. Efforts have also been directed to cultivating new
fields with the aim of achieving the best mix of energy
use. Furthermore, the growth of emerging economies
such as China and India has dramatically increased theOpening ceremony in a regular course

presence of these countries in the energy scene. In sum, theenvironment surrounding JCCP has become more complex
than was even imagined 30 years ago.
JCCP has efficiently kept pace with constantly
changing needs in oil-producing countries, and has striven
to provide cooperation that is truly meaningful to bothoil-producing and consuming countries alike. With strong
support from the oil and engineering industries, whichwere the driving force behind its establishment, JCCP
has so far provided training opportunities in various oil
facilities in Japan to more than 20,000 participants from53 countries, and has dispatched over 5,000 Japaneseexperts to countries around the world over its 30-year
history. It has also implemented more than 200 technicalcooperation projects in conjunction with 22 countries,
with significant results.
Securing petroleum resources remains a prominent issue
in Japan today, as petroleum is not only a source of energy,
but also a source that widely supports diverse aspects ofpeople’s lifestyles. Over many years, JCCP has played acentral role in building close, personal relationships with
the Middle East countries and oil-producing countries
around the world, but the question now is how to further
extend and develop JCCP’s role in the future.
I shall take this 30th anniversary occasion as anopportunity to conduct a subjective review and assessmentof JCCP’s activities to date, and to establish JCCP’s future
direction, based on circumstances surrounding the global
oil industry today.
I thank you for your continued support and guidance.

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

Message from a JCCP Graduate
We are delighted to have received the following message of congratulations from a JCCP graduate on occasionof our 30th anniversary.

Ms. Juniwati Rahmat Hussin
Vice President, Human Resource Management Division,
PETRONAS, Malaysia

I am honored to be invited to contribute a short message to celebrate JCCP’s 30th
anniversary.
The first time I heard about JCCP was in 1987. I was one of two members nominatedby my company, PETRONAS, to attend the regular course on Essential Petroleum Refining for Process Engineersfrom 9th June to 3rd July 1987, along with Mr. Sabudin Bidol.
The course was very engaging, offering classroom training, simulation work and plant visits, and the lecturers
and trainers were a team of experienced and dedicated professionals who went out of their way to assist us. The
members of our group were from Thailand, Indonesia, Algeria, China, Peru and Malaysia—a very good mixof different nationalities and cultures—though I was the only rose amongst the thorns, as is usual in this maledominated oil industry.
Thankfully, our experience was not all work, as our trainers arranged for us to visit places of interest inside andoutside of Tokyo. I was struck by Japan’s rich tradition and culture and by the fact that a deep respect for the old
traditions still exists despite modernization.
What I learned during the month-long programme definitely helped me in my earlier years as a process engineer
at my refinery. Moreover, I learned not only from our JCCP trainers, but also from my fellow classmates. There
was a lot of sharing and networking amongst us.
I was delighted to be invited as a guest speaker for the 29th JCCP International Symposium held from 26th to27th January 2011. Revisiting the JCCP Office in the Sunshine Building was like a trip in nostalgia for me. I felt
I had come home!
I wish JCCP many more prosperous and rewarding years to come. Please continue the good work that has touchedso many lives and has benefited our careers in so many ways. Arigato gozaimasu, and happy 30th anniversary!

Pictures from Ms. Juniwati’s participation in a JCCP regular course in 1987



JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

Topics

Signing an MOU
on a Special Cooperation Programwith Petrovietnam

Signing ceremony with Petrovietnam:
Mr. Le Minh Hong, Vice President (left)

On August 1, JCCP and Petrovietnam (Vietnam
National Oil and Gas Group) signed a Memorandum of
Agreement (MOU) to further promote the cooperative
relationship between the two organizations.

• To survey needs for information exchange andtechnical cooperation programs• To hold regular meetings for achievement of theabove

1. Background

2. Signing Ceremony

JCCP commenced special cooperation programsfor oil-producing countries last fiscal year as a new
initiative aimed at providing concentrated support todesignated oil-producing countries. This fiscal year, theprogram was extended to Vietnam, in addition to Iraq,
which was selected last year as the first counterpart forthe program.
The two organizations ultimately came to sign the
MOU after holding detailed discussions about thecontent of the program and agreeing to the following
terms.
• To promote human resource development throughregular courses, as well as Customized ProgramsJapan (CPJ) and Customized Programs-Overseas(CPO)

The MOU signing ceremony was held on August 1,
2011 in a conference room at the Petrovietnam Head
Office in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Representing Petrovietnam, Mr. Le Minh Hong,Vice President, gave an opening address, first thanking
JCCP for its role in helping Petrovietnam employees
increase their knowledge and skills through the training
programs it has offered over the past 21 years. He thenexplained that Petrovietnam has to date made active
investments in the development of the upstream sector
both overseas and in Vietnam as one of its priority
concerns, but will hereafter also invest in the downstream
sector by planning the construction of its second andthird refineries following the full-scale commencementof its first refinery. After expressing his expectations of

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

• Topics •strengthening cooperative ties with JCCP through bothtraining programs and technical cooperation programs,
Mr. Hong closed his speech by wishing for JCCP’s
further international contribution and development.
Following Mr. Hong, Mr. Masataka Sase, Executive
Director of JCCP, also offered a few words of greeting,
beginning with a round of thanks to Petrovietnam formaking the necessary preparations for the signingceremony, not to mention its understanding andcooperation in past JCCP training programs. Mr. Sase
noted that JCCP and Petrovietnam have so far establisheda friendly relationship based on training programs, andsaid he expects the combination of training programsand technical cooperation programs will strengthen theirfriendship and promote greater exchanges. He ended
with hopes for Petrovietnam’s continued prosperity anddevelopment.
The two leaders then signed and exchanged the MOU,
and mutually confirmed their agreement to strengthen
their friendly relationship, in an amicable exchange ofviews among members of the two organizations. Afterthe ceremony, the JCCP delegation toured the Traditional
House (historical museum) and received a detailed
description of the history of the oil industry in Vietnam.
In the afternoon following the signing ceremony,

H.E. Mr. Yasuaki Tanizaki, Ambassador to Vietnam (left)

the delegation paid a courtesy call on H.E. Mr. Yasuaki
Tanizaki, Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam. After
giving a brief account of the signing ceremony, Mr. Sase
explained that JCCP will be making particular efforts tostrengthen JCCP activities in Vietnam, and Ambassador
Tanizaki responded by expressing his expectations that
JCCP activities will bring the two countries even closer
together.
<by Koichi Io, Operations Dept.>• Topics •JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

Topics

Visit to OPEC Headquarters(From the right) Dr. Hasan M. Qabazard, Director, Research Division, OPEC;
Mr. Masataka Sase, Executive Director; Mitsuyoshi Saito, Counselor for JCCPA JCCP delegation visited the Headquarters of OPEC
(Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries)
located in Vienna, Austria on August 24, 2011, on
their way to Turkey, Istanbul to attend the 36th Japan
Cooperation Forum for the Middle East. The objectiveof the visit was to hold an exchange of views between
Mr. Masataka Sase, Executive Director of JCCP, andOPEC executives as part of a series of JCCP’s executive
meetings with major international oil organizations.
During this time of the year in Central Europe, a slightchill usually begins to creep into the air in the mornings
and evenings, but due to unusually high temperatures in
Europe this summer, it was also hot enough in Vienna
to cause perspiration just by walking the streets. I
personally worried that the weather might adversely
affect the condition of the white wines that are the local
specialty of the city.
I remember that OPEC Headquarters was previously
housed in an office building located along the Danube
River Canal in Vienna, but I heard that it was recently
transferred to a southwestern area of the city. Away
from the bustle of the Ring Boulevard, the headquarters
now have an entire white building to itself in a quiet
neighborhood a block away from the Ring and in close
proximity to a number of universities and diplomatic
offices. Inside the building, I noticed a Chinese
resident of Vienna working as a secretariat among astaff of executives composed mostly of people fromoil-producing countries. The Chinese have certainly
expanded their presence far and wide.
Below is an overview of our visit to the headquarters.

1. Meeting with Executives
We had the honor to meet with H.E. Secretary General
Abdalla Salem El-Badri (Libyan) and other executives
including Dr. Hasan M. Qabazard, Director, Research
Division (Kuwaiti), and Mr. Abdullah Al-Shameri, Head,
Office of the Secretary General (Libyan).
It so happened that news of the fall of the capital cityof Tripoli to anti-Gadhafi rebels was first heard on the
day prior to our visit to the headquarters. Therefore, on
the day of our meeting, Mr. El-Badri, being a Libyan
citizen, as well as the Chairman of the former National
Oil Corporation (NOC) of Libya and the Libyan Ministerof Petroleum, had spent an extremely busy morning
holding telephone conferences with external sources, his
secretary told us. Considering Mr. El-Badri’s particularly
busy schedule, we were fortunate to even have had theopportunity for the meeting.

2. Sympathy Regarding the Great East
Japan Earthquake
At the beginning of our meeting, the OPEC officers
asked about the situation in Japan after the earthquake.

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

• Topics •They said they were deeply saddened by the earthquakethat struck Japan, but they also said they believe in Japanand its strength to rebuild. In response to their question
concerning the present state of the reconstruction
process, Mr. Sase explained in detail the state of affairs
concerning post-accident measures at the Fukushima
Nuclear Power Station and the reality of Japan today as it
works toward reconstruction from the disaster. Mr. Sase
also asked for OPEC’s support and cooperation.

3. Transformation of OPECThe OPEC side explained that various aspects of
OPEC, including its internal machinery, are undergoing
rapid changes and reforms on the occasion of theorganization’s 50th anniversary, and noted that OPEC
will also make greater efforts to promote dialogues
with oil-consuming countries. Mr. El-Badri added that
dialogues with Asian countries will be important as well,since Asia has emerged as one of the largest consumersof oil today.

4. JCCP Activities
As he has heard from Dr. Qabazard, Mr. El-Badri
commended the significant contribution that JCCP
activities have made to member countries of OPEC, andthanked JCCP especially for its broad-ranging activities
in the Middle East and African regions.

Much to our delight, Mr. El-Badri gave his word that
he will send an OPEC executive to give a commemorative
presentation at the 30th JCCP International Symposium
scheduled to be held in Tokyo in January 2012.

5. Other Exchanges of Views
In the meeting, we also exchanged views on a wide
range of other topics, including the oil and natural
gas situation in relation to the Middle East and North
African regions; the current state and outlook of resource
supplies in Russia; the state of affairs regarding North
Sea gas; and recent trends in oil prices, including in the
United States.
Just as I was writing this article, the next news about
Libya broke out. The media reported that Libyan dictator
Moammar Gadhafi, 69, had been captured and killedduring the siege of the city of Sirte in central Libya on
October 20, and Mustafa Abdul Jalil, chairman of the
National Transitional Council representing anti-Gadhafi
forces, announced that he would declare liberation of
the entire country in the next couple of days and begin
forming a new interim government as the first step in theprocess of full-scale political transition. Upon hearing
the news of Gadhafi’s death, citizens throughout thecountry celebrated the end of the dictator’s rule until
dawn the next day, the media reported. The Arab Spring
continues.
<by Mitsuyoshi Saito, Counselor for JCCP>

Photo published in OPEC Bulletin, the organization’s monthly magazine:
H.E. Secretary General Abdalla Salem El-Badri (right)• Topics •JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

Topics

Executive Meeting with SINOPEC

Mr. Dai Houliang, Senior Vice President (right)

On July 7 and 8, 2011, Mr. Masataka Sase, Executive
Director of JCCP, and Akio Yamanaka from theOperations Department visited the top management ofChina Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (SINOPEC)
with the following agenda.
(1) To pay respects to SINOPEC(2) To thank the SINOPEC managers for their concern
and support after the Great East Japan Earthquake(3) To explain the status of JCCP activities after
the earthquake and plans for resuming regularcourses(4) To hold policy dialogues about issues relating to
JCCP activities, etc.
We departed from Narita and arrived in Beijing on
July 7, and visited the SINOPEC Head Office at 10 a.m.
the following day (July 8). Mr. Dai Houliang, Senior Vice
President, Mr. Zhang Zheng, Deputy Director General,
and Mr. Rong Qi, Director, Foreign Affairs Dept.,
received us in the executive reception room.
Mr. Dai, after cordially welcoming our visit, expressed
his appreciation of JCCP’s cooperation, acknowledging
the friendly relationship that SINOPEC and JCCP haveestablished over the years based on technical exchanges
through JCCP regular courses and seminars. He said
SINOPEC has been keeping close watch on the situationin Japan after the March 11 earthquake, especially since
he heard that refineries also suffered severe damage, andwas therefore relieved to hear that Japanese companies
had begun to make a new start in a remarkably shortperiod of time in a testament to their resilience and highlevel of management expertise. As a member of the sameoil industry, he expressed his strong hope for the quick
recovery of refining companies in Japan.
Mr. Sase then thanked SINOPEC for its concern
and support after the March 11 earthquake, and gavean account of the magnitude of the earthquake and thedamage it left in its wake. He also assured the SINOPEC
side that a reconstruction framework is taking shape,that the nuclear plant is under control in a state of cold
shutdown, and that Tokyo escaped serious damage owing
to its distance from the disaster area.
In regard to JCCP, Mr. Sase explained that JCCP
is operating as usual without suffering any particulareffects from the disaster, apologizing for postponing
and/or canceling regular courses in April and thefollowing months and announcing that the September
to October courses will be held in the Osaka region todispel any worries and emotional stress on the part ofthe participants.
Lastly, in reference to JCCP’s 30th anniversary thisyear, Mr. Sase said it has been a pleasure to maintaina friendly relationship with one of the leading oil
companies in the world, and expressed his hopesof pursuing an even more cooperative and friendly
relationship with SINOPEC for the next generation,

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

• Topics •while constantly giving consideration to what would bemutually beneficial to the two organizations.
In response, Mr. Dai once again offered words of
sympathy regarding the disaster, and said SINOPEC
highly respects JCCP’s decision to implement regularcourses in Osaka in the mean time to eliminate
participants’ emotional concern. Furthermore, Mr. Daicongratulated JCCP on its 30th anniversary, saying heholds JCCP’s efforts and achievement in high esteem.
He noted that many managers and engineers fromSINOPEC’s subsidiary companies have participatedin JCCP courses and acquired substantial skills andtechnologies from JCCP and its member companies. As aresult, SINOPEC has grown along with China’s economic
growth to become the second-largest producer of crude
oil in 2010 with a production capacity of 210 million tons.
However, global economic growth has increased demandfor oil products and has created a need for more advanced
crude oil processing technologies. Therefore, Mr. Dai
said he hopes to promote greater technical exchanges
with JCCP and its member companies particularly inthe area of refining technologies. SINOPEC’s Maoming
and Zhenhai Refineries have established ties with
Idemitsu Kosan, and the Gauqiao-Shihua Refinery hasa relationship with Cosmo Oil, but Mr. Dai said hewishes to continue these technical exchanges under thecooperative framework with JCCP. At the end, Mr. Dai
thanked the JCCP members for visiting and providing
detailed information about the present state of thedisaster and JCCP activities, and offered to contributein whatever way possible to the reconstruction processof JCCP and its member companies.
Through our visit to SINOPEC, we accomplished
our agenda and verified SINOPEC’s evaluation of
JCCP training programs and its stance concerning its
cooperative relationship with JCCP. Recognizing thecompany’s remarkable growth and important role in theoil industry, we reaffirmed the need to further deepen
cooperation with SINOPEC hereafter, particularly
in addressing environmental issues and energy
conservation.
<by Akio Yamanaka, Operations Dept.>

TopicsSigning an Agreement with the
Ministry of Oil-Iraq on the Implementationof a Special Cooperation Program for Iraq
JCCP is implementing two projects, the “Studyon Technical Support of Introduction of Produced
Water Treatment for SOC in Iraq” and the “Study on
Development of Asphalt Industry and Finding New
Applications in Iraq,” with the participation of oilcompanies and other relevant companies. They are being
implemented as part of the Special Cooperation Programfor Iraq under the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Tradeand Industry’s subsidy for oil refining technologies andprojects in oil-producing countries.
On October 5, 2011, an agreement signing ceremony
for implementation of the two projects was held in Tokyo,
honored by the presence of Mr. Iqdam M. R. Hashim
Al-Shadeedi, Director General, Training & Development

10 • Topics •Directorate, Ministry of Oil, and Dr. Kareem Abdulhasan
Alwan, Manager, Petroleum Research & Development
Centre, from Iraq, and H.E. Mr. Lukman Faily from theEmbassy of Iraq in Japan. Also with the attendance ofexecutive members from the participating companies,
Mr. Iqdam and Mr. Morihiro Yoshida, Managing Directorof JCCP, officially signed the agreement.
Mr. Yoshida said that he hopes to see the two
projects conducted successfully through the efforts
and cooperation of all parties concerned, and promised
JCCP’s best efforts to achieve its ultimate goal of building
a firm, reliable relationship between Iraq and Japan. He
also expressed his expectations that these efforts would,
in the near future, help Japanese companies engage in

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

Members of the signing ceremony:
Mr. Iqdam M. R. Hashim Al-Shadeedi, Director General, Training & Development Directorate,
Ministry of Oil (right), Mr. Morihiro Yoshida, Managing Director of JCCP (left)

successful businesses in Iraq. Mr. Iqdam said that the two
projects are extremely important to Iraq, especially as thecountry is trying to get its economy off the ground andexpand after decades of turmoil, and thanked all parties
on the Iraqi side, JCCP and participating companies for
implementing the projects in excellent cooperation witheach other. He also expressed his strong wishes for the
projects’ success.
Ambassador Faily congratulated JCCP and theMinistry of Oil on reaching such an important agreement,
and expressed his hopes that this will be the start of along and fruitful relationship between the two parties. He
also said he expects the two water and road improvement
projects to lead to direct benefits to the country, where
improving the oil sector is of primary concern to thegovernment and people of Iraq. As there are many
opportunities for Japanese companies in the energy
sector in Iraq, Mr. Faily urged Japanese companies andbusinessmen to invest in the Iraqi oil sector, promising
his embassy’s full support in answering any queries.
Representatives from the participating companies also
gave a brief address to introduce their company andexpress their commitment to the projects. They included
Dr. Takaji Akiya, Managing Director, Water Reuse
Promotion Center; Mr. Shunichi Shiono, Managing
Executive Director, Swing Corporation; Mr. Makoto
Kuramochi, President, JX Nippon Research InstituteLtd.; and Dr. Takemi Inoue, Adviser, Green Consultant
Co., Ltd.
In addition to the signing ceremony, Mr. Iqdam and
Dr. Kareem spent roughly one week in Japan attending
to other business, including a presentation session held
by Mr. Iqdam on October 6, which attracted an audienceof more than 30 from JCCP member companies who

wished to hear Mr. Iqdam’s views on the present stateand future plans concerning the oil situation in Iraq,
and a series of meetings about said projects and future
possibilities for other projects.

Overview of the Projects
1. Background
Since its establishment, JCCP has received participants
through the Ministry of Oil-Iraq for training programsin Japan, and has also sent Japanese experts to provide
training in Iraq on a continuing basis. In the areaof technical cooperation, the “Feasibility Study on
Emergency Restoration of LPG Bottling Plant in Iraq”
and the “Comprehensive Study for Reconstruction
Assistance” were implemented over a limited period
in 2003 to support the reconstruction process in Iraq.
Thereafter, given the gradual stabilization of Iraq’s
political situation, JCCP invited Mr. Iqdam (then Deputy
Director General of Training & Development Directorate,

Mr. Iqdam giving a presentation

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

• Topics • 11

Ministry of Oil-Iraq) to Japan in December 2009, when amemorandum of understanding (MOU) was exchanged
to reconfirm the significance of deepening mutual
understanding and of resuming and promoting exchanges
between the two organizations through JCCP training
programs and technical cooperation projects.
As per the MOU, a special cooperation programfor Iraq was newly launched in fiscal 2010, and two
issues of priority concern to the Ministry of Oil were
investigated in a preliminary survey to implementing
technical cooperation projects. The projects have sincecommenced on a full scale in fiscal 2011 upon signing
the agreement this October.

2. Implementation of TechnicalCooperation Projects
Below is an overview of the two projects.
(1) Study on Technical Support of Introductionof Produced Water Treatment for South Oil
Company (SOC) in Iraq
As an effective application of water produced in theprocess of crude oil production, South Oil Company (SOC)
has been seeking to re-use produced water as injection
water, so it was decided that JCCP would offer technicalassistance in applying Japan’s wastewater treatment
technologies to the treatment of produced water in Iraq.
1) Implementation period: April 1, 2011 – March 31,
2013 (2 years)2) Counterpart: Ministry of Oil-Iraq, South Oil
Company
3) Participating companies: Water Reuse Promotion
Center; Swing Corporation

4)

Goal: To establish a water treatment system foroilfield-produced water and propose a basic design
for a commercial treatment facility(2) Study on Development of Asphalt Industry andFinding New Applications in Iraq
In Iraq, asphalt is currently produced in the north,
mid and south refineries, by blending the bottom oil fromthe propane deasphalting unit (PDA unit) that is used
for lube oil production with residue oil in the vacuum
distillation unit (VDU). The asphalt is made to conformto the same standard in all parts of the country. As a result,various defects, including rutting, wear, and cracking,are occurring in many places in the country. To remedy
this problem, the project will propose measures such as
for improving the operations of asphalt production units
and the quality of improved asphalt.
1) Implementation period: April 1, 2011 – March 31,
2013 (2 years)2) Counterpart: Ministry of Oil-Iraq, Iraq National
Oil Company
3) Participating companies: JX Nippon ResearchInstitute Ltd.; JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corporation;
Green Consultant Co., Ltd.
4) Goals:(i) To create a pilot plant for the productionof improved asphalt and to examine its
application to other improved materials basedon data acquired from the pilot plant(ii) To verify operating conditions for the productionof straight asphalt and to propose operating
conditions suitable for the production ofasphalt and improved asphalt to the Iraqi side<by Hironao Naganuma, Technical Cooperation Dept.>

12 • Topics •JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

Personnel
Exchange

Administration and Implementationof JCCP Regular Courses in the Osaka Area
1. Background to Holding JCCP Regular
Courses in Osaka
The Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11 andthe ensuing nuclear crisis at Fukushima Nuclear Power
Station had left us with no choice but to temporarily
cancel the implementation of regular courses. Thereafter,
upon confirming a certain degree of progress in efforts
to contain the situation, we decided to resume thecourses in September and to hold all courses scheduled
for September and October in the Kansai region
instead of the Kanto region, to ensure their smooth
implementation and to mitigate any emotional concernsof the participants. We chose Osaka to be the base of ouractivities in the Kansai region, as it offers convenient
access from oil-producing countries and satisfies thevarious requirements of the courses, and we reviewed
the relevant course plans so that the content that would
have been provided in Tokyo headquarters could be
effectively provided in Osaka.
Lecturers of the relevant courses moved to workin Osaka, and other JCCP officers and staff members
divided their time between Tokyo and Osaka asnecessary.
JCCP’s primary consideration of participants’ safety
won the approval and appreciation of JCCP counterpart
organizations in oil-producing countries, so that there
was almost the same numbers of applications as usual.
This was the first time since JCCP’s founding that
regular courses were held outside of Tokyo headquarters,
but careful preparations for their administration andimplementation led to their successful completion
without incident.

Opening ceremony:
Welcome speech by Mr. Masataka Sase,
Executive Director of JCCP

Engineers (TR-11-11), attended by 14 participants from11 countries.
The second part spanned a period of 18 days, from
October 11 to 28, and included a course on Petroleum
Marketing and Oil Terminal (TR-12-11), attended by 17
participants from 10 countries, and a course on Advanced
Field Devices and Control (TR-13-11), attended by 15participants from 10 countries. In total, 66 participants
attended the four courses that were implemented in
Osaka.
The number of applications for the four courses
hardly differed from normal, with 30 applicants from
16 countries applying for TR-10, 28 applicants from 15
countries for TR-11, 41 applicants from 14 countries
for TR-12, and 23 applicants from 12 countries for
TR-13.

2. Overview of Regular Courses Held in
Osaka
The Osaka courses were implemented in two
parts. The first part spanned a period of 18 days, from
September 20 to October 7, and included a course on
Environmental Management for Refineries (TR-1011), attended by 20 participants from 13 countries,
and a course on Project Management for Mechanical

Opening ceremony:
Self-introductions by the participants

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

• Personnel Exchange Programs • 13

3. Selection of Hotel Accommodation andTraining Venue
Hotel accommodation and training venue in Osaka
were chosen based on a comprehensive survey that
included a number of criteria: price, accessibility
from Kansai International Airport, available facilities
and equipment, foreign hospitality, and participants’convenience and comfort, and their availability for theduration of the courses. As a result, Hotel Nikko Osaka in
the Shinsaibashi district of Osaka was chosen as the hotelof accommodation, and Hearton Hall, located within afive-minute walk from Hotel Nikko Osaka, was chosen
as the training venue.
Additionally, after a careful comparison of anumber of companies, we employed the services of
the International Hospitality and Conference Service
Association (IHCSA) to greet the participants upon
their arrival at the airport, provide orientation prior toeach course, and to assist JCCP in the organization andimplementation of the courses.
We owe the smooth implementation and successful
completion of the courses to the cooperation andcoordination of everyone at Hotel Nikko Osaka, Hearton
Hall, and IHCSA.

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

4. Course Details(6)
We strived to provide the courses at the same level
as those implemented at Tokyo headquarters, andbasically achieved our goal for all practical purposes,
as follows.
(1) The participants were greeted upon their arrivalat Kansai International Airport, from where they
took a limousine bus to Osaka Air Terminal

Lecture in a conference room at Hearton Hall

14 • Personnel Exchange Programs •(7)(OCAT) and a taxi from OCAT to Hotel Nikko
Osaka, and checked into the hotel without delay
or incident.
Upon arriving at the hotel, the participantsreceived a map of Osaka City, a guide to using
the subway, and a map of the hotel vicinity alongwith other necessary documents. They used theseresources to make the most of their free time.
In the orientation session held on the day before theopening day, the participants toured the attractions
around the hotel and around the Shinsaibashi,
Dotonbori and Namba districts on foot during
the morning, and visited major tourist spots inthe city using the Midosuji and Tanimachi railway
lines in the afternoon. Learning how to ride thesubway and purchase train tickets proved usefulin traveling to onsite training facilities and during
their off-days. It also gave them an understandingof Japanese culture and history.
The opening and closing ceremonies were heldin the same smooth and successful manner as at
Tokyo headquarters.
Lectures on “Japanese Language” and “Japanese
Economy” given by an Osaka-based lecturer
were highly well received by the participants,
who asked many questions and engaged in lively
questions and answers.
At the welcome and farewell parties, at whichhalal meat was available as it always is at Tokyo
headquarters, the participants enjoyed the friendly
atmosphere and established friendly relationships
with each other and with JCCP staff members.
Medical clinics and general hospitals near the
hotel and training venue were selected in advancein case of injury or illness among the participants.

Closing ceremony:Presentation of the JCCP certificate

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

(8)As it so happened, one of the participants came
down with a cold and consulted a clinic, but
thanks to the clinic’s quick and proper treatment,
the participant was able to attend the course in
full, without missing anything. We were relievedthat there were few participants who became illor were injured in Osaka.
Based on information and ideas we provided on how
to spend their off-days in Osaka, some participants
even headed off to Kyoto, Nara, and Kobe to enjoya cultural and historical experience.

5. Summary
As this was the first time for us to hold regular courses
away from Tokyo headquarters since JCCP’s founding,

we encountered many difficulties and uncertainties intheir arrangement and administration. However, owing
to the cooperation of all companies involved, we wereable to bring the courses to a successful completion.
We believe the experience and know-how we gained
through the implementation of regular courses in Osaka
could be put to use again if for some reason it ever
becomes necessary to implement regular courses awayfrom Tokyo headquarters in the future. Another good
aspect of this experience is that it has clarified both thestrong and weak points of conventionally implemented
courses in Tokyo.
In closing, we wish to extend our deep appreciation
once again to all companies and their employees who
gave us their generous cooperation and support in our
first attempt to hold regular courses in the Osaka area.
<by Yoshiko Kawashima, Operations Dept.>

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

• Personnel Exchange Programs • 15

CPO Seminar on Total Productive
Maintenance Management (TPM)
Held Jointly with Saudi Aramco

Personnel
Exchange

Participants of the seminar

1. Purpose and BackgroundA seminar on maintenance management basedon TPM activities was implemented for engineersof Saudi Aramco, in response to a request from thecompany’s Maintenance Council, which is responsible
for all company-wide maintenance technologies, and
the Professional Engineering Development Division(PEDD), the division in charge of training anddeveloping professional engineers. It is worth notingthat this seminar was the first to be formally registeredunder Saudi Aramco’s company-wide engineer training
program.
The very beginnings of the seminar go back to
September 2010, when Mr. Sami A. Iskandrani, Assistantto the Vice President, Refining and NGL Fractionation,
introduced JCCP to PEDD during JCCP’s survey on the
renewal of training courses. PEDD reviewed the lecturematerials from four seminars that JCCP implemented in
the past for Saudi Aramco personnel in the downstream
sector since fiscal 2008 and, in a meeting held in May

Al-Midra Tower

16 • Personnel Exchange Programs •2011 with the attendance of Mr. Nezar Al-Shammasi,
Director, Maintenance Council, announced that it wished
to register and implement the course on TPM-based
maintenance management as part of PEDD’s training
program.
The five-day seminar took place from September 10
to 14, 2011, in a PEDD lecture room on the second floorof the east wing of the Al-Midra Tower Building. FourJapanese lecturers were sent to Saudi Aramco to conduct
the seminar, including JCCP lecturers Kenji Saito andFumihiro Tone, and Messrs. Yoshisumi Tamao and Akio
Ishida from Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd.
The participants comprised 22 members from Saudi
Aramco’s maintenance sectors, ranging in experiencefrom 3 to 30 years and a wide hierarchy of posts.

2. Content of the Seminar
In the opening session on the first day, Mr. Nezar AlShammasi, Director, and Dr. Dahamman M. Al-Anaji,
Head (A) of PEDD, gave an opening address and spoke
briefly about how the seminar came to be held with
JCCP and what the objectives are. Mr. Al-Shammasi
particularly explained that the Maintenance Council
took an interest in JCCP’s TPM-based maintenancemanagement course because PEDD’s training program
has few courses related to maintenance. Dr. Al-Anaji

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

encouraged all participants to learn not only about
specialized maintenance technologies, but also aboutprinciples and methods behind maintenance activities.
The first lecture was given by Saito on maintenancemanagement in the refinery and maintenance optimization
by risk management. It was intended to promote
understanding that the seriousness of risks varies greatly
according to national affairs and corporate philosophies,
so that the same phenomenon might be regarded as aserious accident or a minor incident to different parties.
The lecture also aimed to teach participants about theimportance of accepting and understanding the best
possible solution for an organization by creating adecision-making matrix to find the optimum alternativefrom among many possibilities.
In the first half of the lecture, on maintenancemanagement in the refinery, Saito used photos anddiagrams to illustrate a comparison of differences in
the refinery maintenance management framework,
maintenance management software used, and worksafety management between Japanese refineries andrefineries in Middle East oil-producing countries.
In the second half, on maintenance optimization byrisk management, he focused on the corrosion of
distillation columns and countermeasures against it.
Participants were taught to predict risks by classifying
corrosion-related malfunctions into three groups andunderstanding the probability and extent of damage ofmalfunctions in each group, and to select an optimum
measure (maintenance method) based on a comparisonof multiple countermeasures.
On the second day, Tone gave a lecture on safety
management in the refinery and an overview of TPM
activities. Using actual data, photos, videos, and analysis
results, he described a number of major accidents thathave occurred in oil complexes in Japan, including a
corrosion fracture accident involving dead-end pipes, apressure vessel explosion accident caused by improper
renovation and poor change management, a plant
explosion and fire accident caused by human error, anda tank destruction and fire accident caused by longperiod ground motion. These are examples of cases
resulting from poor design, poor change management,
inadequate information and manuals, and natural
disasters, to illustrate the fact that most fundamental
causes are attributable to human error and improper
management systems, and explained that maintenancemanagement improvement activities and TPM came to
be introduced as a means for breaking away from thistype of adverse situation. Furthermore, after lecturing
about the management system in Japanese oil refining
companies and the important role of managers in boosting
motivations in the workplace, Tone laid the groundworkfor the third and fourth days’ lectures by providing an
overview of the TPM concept that has been refinedand upgraded by Japanese refineries and introducing
several representative small-group activities, including
the tool-box meeting (TBM), danger prediction activity,
point and call, and the 5Ss. Tone also took charge of thegroup discussion held on the fourth day, in the form of aworkshop where participants were told to diagram theirproblems in an easy-to-understand manner. By having
the participants give each other a clear presentation of
an issue they currently face, he effectively promoted
mutual understanding among the participants fromdiverse departments.
On the third day, Messrs. Tamao and Ishida from
Idemitsu Kosan gave a lecture entitled “Case Examplesof TPM and Improvement Activities for Refinery
Management,” and introduced TPM activities that are
implemented in Idemitsu’s refineries. Mr. Tamao firstgave a general outline of TPM activities, its framework,and key points for establishing TPM activities as partof regular maintenance activities. He also discussed
voluntary maintenance activities, and performed an
exercise on identifying defects using photos of pumps,
to make the point that “cleanup equals inspection” ininitial cleanup, which is the first step in maintenance.
In the exercise, about 70% of the participants were able
to identify no more than five defects. The objective of
the exercise was not only to identify the major defects
but to make closer observations and discover as many
defects as possible, however sufficient results were notobtained. Noting that young engineers at Idemitsu areable to find more than 100 defects in a single unit ofequipment, Mr. Tamao emphasized that finding as many
specific defects as possible leads to larger numbers ofimprovements. The exercise was a simple but effective
way to instill an understanding of the significance ofinitial cleanup.
Mr. Ishida lectured about maintenance management
systems and maintenance plans from the standpoint ofa facility maintenance engineer. He gave examples oftypical equipment maintenance and specifically explained
where the focus of maintenance should lie, with the goalof deepening participants’ understanding. The issues that
Mr. Ishida covered regarding maintenance management
systems were based on a prior request from PEDD

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

• Personnel Exchange Programs • 17

Mr. Yoshisumi Tamao (Idemitsu Kosan)

Mr. Akio Ishida (Idemitsu Kosan)

to introduce improvement examples of maintenancemanagement and quality assurance. However, Mr.
Ishida added his own ideas to the request, and narrowed
his focus to onsite activities that are implemented
in conjunction with the operations departments. By
doing so, he effectively captured the attention of themaintenance engineers and promoted understandingof the importance of working in cooperation with theoperations departments, as well as an understanding of
the development of activities down the line.
On the fourth day, the participants were divided into
three groups of six to seven members each to discuss
the gap (problem) between their “to be” ideal images of
the workplace and the “as is” reality, and solutions forbridging the gap. Each group was composed of engineersof various levels and positions, and was asked to select agroup leader and presenter from among themselves.
Firstly, all members enumerated issues they currently
faced and shared a common understanding of the gap
between “to be” and “as is.” Next, they sorted the priorityof these issues as a group and selected an issue that waseither relevant to all members or was judged to have the18 • Personnel Exchange Programs •highest priority. Then, they examined the causes of theissue according to the 5-Why, 4M analysis, and fishbone
analysis methods, and sought through discussion to
identify the principal cause. The themes selected by thegroups were “the handover of technical knowledge andexperience,” “extending the MTBF (mean time between
failures) of pumps,” and “the difference between planned
and actual maintenance man-hours.” In contrast to theprevious sessions, this group discussion exercise drewout the participants’ professional side as maintenanceengineers, as they discussed and probed their theme
in highly technical terms and dissected the cause of
the issue. Unfortunately, while the discussions did notyield an action plan for solving their respective issue,
they were meaningful in that young and experienced
engineers alike expressed and asserted their views on
an equal footing.
On the last day, Dr. Al-Anaji of PEDD gave a closing
address. He revealed that a participant had come tohim during the seminar to point out what he thought
were some problems with the seminar, but stressed thatthe seminar was not intended to be strictly a technicalacquisition seminar in the first place, but a management
seminar centered on the Japanese concept of TPM to gaina proper understanding of “owner’s mind.” Dr. Al-Anaji
also stated that the seminar will be held again next year
and onward, and expressed his appreciation for JCCP’s
cooperation. Before closing the seminar, Tone presented
a completion certificate to each participant.

3. Observations
As impressions and opinions of the seminar, half theparticipants said the content was beneficial and would
help them in their jobs. Others gave a poor rating, sayingthat they had expected strictly technical content but the

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

Group discussions

Closing ceremony

seminar did not meet their expectations. This disparity
may have occurred because the participants were fromdiverse job levels, and their evaluations may havediffered according to their level. Nevertheless, sinceengineers in higher positions seemed to understand thesignificance of TPM and emotional matters relating toan employee’s mindset, it can be said that the seminarsuccessfully conveyed the necessity of TPM at least to
the experienced engineers. In fact, one of the experienced
participants reproved the young engineers who claimed
TPM is unnecessary, by saying that when he was young
the young engineers did all the equipment cleaning,
painting and maintenance by themselves, but because
there is now a clearly defined job description for
operations, cleanup and other activities, there is a definite
lack of mutual interest in each other’s duties.
It is also worth noting that while Japanese refineries

principally do not employ maintenance technicians
and instead have their engineers conduct and manage
maintenance activities with the help of subcontractors,
Saudi Aramco undertakes all maintenance activities inhouse. For this reason, the development of maintenancetechnicians and the transfer of technologies from veteran
to young engineers is an extremely important issue to
Saudi Aramco.
Taking into consideration the views and suggestions
given by the participants, it is clear that measures need tobe taken to improve the seminar, perhaps by narrowing
down the target of the seminar to only participants ofcertain job levels, or by dividing the seminar into two
sessions and offering a general overview and basicsof TPM in the first half and holding a workshop on
actual application case examples in the second half. We
will explore these measures and others to improve theseminar for future implementation.
<by Fumihiro Tone, Training Dept.>

Presentation of the completion certificate

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

• Personnel Exchange Programs • 19

CPO Seminar on HRD/HRM
for PERTAMINA
A Customized Program-Overseas (CPO) on Human
Resource Management/Development was held from July
4 to 12, 2001, in Jakarta and Balongan, Indonesia.

1. Background
Human resource-related CPO seminars for
PERTAMINA were previously implemented in 2003 and2005, but no CPO—not even those on technical topics—
has been held in Indonesia since them. This recent CPO
originated in a proposal made to a participant from the
PERTAMINA Learning Center who attended a regularcourse on human resource development (TR-16-11) lastDecember. She took the proposal back to PERTAMINA,
and received the approval of the company’s internalmanagement.

2. Lecturers
Akio Hoshino (Training Dept., JCCP)
Bunsuke Kariya (Training Dept., JCCP)
Hiromasa Tanaka (Professor of Humanities,
Meisei University)
Takuya Saito (Personnel Dept., JGC Corporation)
Masanobu Kibata (Production Engineering Dept.,
Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd.)

3. Seminar Overview
The seven-day seminar was largely divided into twoparts. The first part consisted of a regular seminar on
human resource management/development (HRM/HRD)
at the PERTAMINA Learning Center (PLC) in Jakarta.
The second part consisted of a seminar on Kaizen heldat the Balongan Refinery, attended by engineers of therefinery in addition to participants from the first part ofthe seminar in Jakarta.
(First part) Following an opening ceremony, Hoshino
spent the first two days giving a lecture on general HRM
under the title, “Transition & Status-quo of Japanesestyle HRM.” On the third day, Mr. Saito from JGC
Corporation lectured on HRM and HRD systems in his
company, and on the fourth and fifth days, Prof. Tanaka
gave a lecture on training theories.
(Second part) All members of the first part of theseminar traveled to the Balongan Refinery, located some
170 kilometers east of Jakarta, where the first day was
spent on lectures on general Kaizen theories (Hoshino)
and Kaizen best practices in the refinery (Kariya). The
next day, which was the last day of the seminar, Mr.
Kibata from Idemitsu Kosan introduced Kaizen caseexamples experienced in Idemitsu Kosan’s refineries,
and implemented a new initiative in the form of a “tour”

At the PERTAMINA Learning Center:
Ms. Ida Halya, Leadership Development Program Manager (center)20 • Personnel Exchange Programs •Personnel
Exchange

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

for discovery of Kaizen ideas in the refinery. After the
tour, the seminar ended with a closing ceremony and thepresentation of completion certificates.

4. Seminar Content[Days 1 & 2]
“Transition & Status-quo of Japanese-style HRM”
(Hoshino, JCCP)The seminar began following an opening greetingby Ms. Ida Halya, Manager, Leadership Development,
PLC, with the first two days featuring a four-part lecture
by Hoshino.
(Part 1) Japanese history and the mentality of theJapanese people underlying Japanese-style
HRM(Part 2) Japan’s high economic growth and thecharacteristics of personnel management andorganizations in Japan(Part 3) Recent environmental changes(Part 4) Reality and issues of HRM in JapanThe lecture centered on Japanese-style HRM
practices, such as the lifetime employment and seniority
systems, and recent changes in social and corporate
environments. In the beginning, the participants appeared
rather reserved, probably because they were mostly
strangers to each other, but as time went on, they began
to more openly share their opinions.
As a breather and a brief break-in topic, Hoshinoprovided a glance at a typical Japanese company,
describing the organizational framework, office layout,
and the role and status of women in the workplace, andshowed a DVD on the active achievements of women in
Japanese society. The DVD captured the strong interestof the participants, and particularly the eight female
participants of the group.

Akio Hoshino, JCCP lecturer[Day 3]“HRM and HRD Systems in a Major EngineeringFirm” (Saito, JGC Corporation)
JGC Corporation introduced the performance-based
pay system around 2001 to align themselves with theflow of the times. In reference to this system, Mr.
Saito explained the company’s personnel system ingeneral, including the current ranking system, salaries,
evaluations, recruitment, and welfare benefits.
The participants asked many specific questions,particularly about the evaluation system, because
PERTAMINA is still struggling to establish theperformance-based pay system and position-specificallowance system that it introduced in 2008.

Mr. Takuya Saito (JGC Corporation)[Days 4 & 5]
“Training Program Development Seminar”(Prof. Tanaka, Meisei University)
This two-day seminar is a standard program given by
Prof. Tanaka in the regular course on Human Resource
Development. It introduces comprehensive knowledge
needed to implement education and training, such as
methods for surveying training needs, designing training

Prof. Hiromasa Tanaka (Meisei University)

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

• Personnel Exchange Programs • 21

programs, and evaluating training results. Owing in partto Prof. Tanaka’s proficiency in English, the seminar
was well received and captured the participants’ strong
interest. The latter half of the second day posed a challenge
to the participants’ individual powers of comprehension,
discussion and conviction, as Prof. Tanaka’s lecture
content was given in quiz form, and the participants,
divided into four groups, had to discuss their answers
within the group and reach a final group answer.
[First half of Day 6]“Kaizen General” (Hoshino, JCCP)
Following an opening greeting from Mr. Dadik
Pribad, General Manager of Balongan Refinery (aparticipant in a course on Refinery Management heldin 2007), Hoshino gave a lecture on Kaizen in therefinery to provide knowledge of the Kaizen concept
and the unique “Kaizen mind” of the Japanese people.
The lecture explained the process of introducing
Kaizen activities, the 5S method of achieving Kaizen,
and the “Toyota Way” as an example of the result of
accumulating Kaizen efforts, to explain what is needed
to establish a “Kaizen mind” in the workplace.

processes. Visual images of “before” and “after” each
Kaizen example were shown to facilitate comparison andpractical understanding of Kaizen. Giving consideration
to an administrative participant who continued from thefirst part of the seminar, the lecture introduced only one
technical example of energy conservation, and instead
placed emphasis on topics related to safety and efficiency
improvement of administrative tasks.
[Day 7]“Kaizen Idea Discovery Tour in the Refinery”(Kibata, Idemitsu Kosan)
In this session, Mr. Kibata gave an hour-long lecture
on specific Kaizen activities from a technical perspectivethat included safety and operational functionality in therefinery as preliminary knowledge. He then took therefinery engineers on a tour of the refinery to discoverpotential Kaizen points. Focusing mainly on the areaaround the pumps of the RFCC unit, he advised theengineers to consider what kinds of “Kaizen” could be
made, and whether there are any problems with existing
management methods. Improvement points proposedby the engineers were jotted down on post-its, whichwere then affixed to a diagram of the pump area that
Mr. Kibata had prepared in advance. Based on thisdiagram, everyone brainstormed for better ideas andheld discussions on the spot.
All in all, there seemed to be much room for “Kaizen”
in terms of ensuring safe operations and efficientmaintenance. The participants found that the grimysampling line, valves protruding out into the aisles,
steam trace pipes that lead to unknown destinations, andconcrete floors with many level differences could all use
some improvement.

Bunsuke Kariya, JCCP lecturer[Latter half of Day 6]“Kaizen Examples in the Refinery”(Kariya, JCCP)As a follow-up to the lecture on “Kaizen General,”which provided basic knowledge of the conceptof Kaizen activities, this lecture introduced actual
examples of Kaizen in oil companies. Beginning withthe background to introducing Kaizen activities, itfocused on the “8 actions to avoid,” examples of Kaizen
related to safety, examples of Kaizen for reducing manhours, and best practices in achieving energy-saving

22 • Personnel Exchange Programs •Kaizen discovery by Mr. Masanobu Kibata (Idemitsu Kosan)

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

5. Participants(1) The HRM/HRD seminar held at PLC in Jakarta wasattended by 19 participants, including eight women.
Eighteen were members concerned with HR at
PERTAMINA’s head office and its refineries/oil
terminals throughout the country—some from as far
away as Irian Jaya—and one was an engineer fromthe Balongan Refinery. Averaging 37 years of age,they represented a wide range of job levels, fromnew rank-and-file employees to supervisor-classemployees.
(2) The lectures on “Kaizen General” and “Kaizen
Examples in the Refinery” that were given at theBalongan Refinery were attended by 25 participants,
including the 19 participants of the first part of theseminar who transferred to the refinery along withthe lecturers, and six refinery engineers.

6. Summary(1) JCCP has held CPOs on HRM and HRD many times
in a number of different countries to date, but thisparticular CPO was different in that the classroom
lecture on general Kaizen theories was combinedwith a new initiative designed to provide hints
to discovering specific Kaizen ideas by actually
walking through a refinery in search of seeds of
Kaizen ideas and expanding on them on site. The
objective of this exercise was to cultivate a “Kaizenmind” among the refinery engineers.
(2) Because this was our first attempt at holding a
Kaizen idea discovery tour, there were many points
to be improved, or “Kaizen points,” in and ofthemselves. Namely, there were many things that

we did not anticipate. For example, it seemed thatthe purpose of this Kaizen Seminar was not fully
understood by the refinery side, and the lecturer’s
voice could not be heard above the sound levelin the refinery. Nevertheless, we are convincedthat this new program has promising potential
to offer extremely effective training to refinery
workers. In fact, in a meeting held at PLC after
completion of the seminar, the PERTAMINA side
requested continuous guidance of practical Kaizen
measures in the refinery in the form of a CPO.
For our part, we will improve various details of
implementing the program and make greater efforts
to convince refinery executives that cultivatinga Kaizen mind would bring many benefits in thelong run.
(3) Post-seminar evaluation results indicated that theseminar was a success. Participants who attended
both the first and second parts of the seminar
responded “good” or “excellent” in regard to therelevance of the program to their current activities.
They also evaluated the program content level as
either “good” or “excellent,” and expressed strong
interest in participating in a course in Japan.

7. Courtesy Visit with the Human
Resources Director at the PERTAMINA
Head Office
After completing the seminar, the lecturers returned to
Jakarta to pay a courtesy visit to Ms. Rukumi Hadihartini,
Human Resources Director, at the PERTAMINA Head
Office. The JCCP members thanked Ms. Hadihartini for
PERTAMINA’s participation in JCCP training programs,
and gave an explanation about the cancellation andpostponement of the first half-year’s regular courses in
the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake and about
the resumption of courses in the second half of the year.
They also engaged in an exchange of views regarding
requests and proposals for JCCP training programs.

8. Meeting with PLC

With participants after the Kaizen discovery tour

On the last day of our stay in Indonesia, we helda meeting with PLC to acquire PERTAMINA’s viewsand expectations on future JCCP training programs
and points for improvement, and received the following
expectations for new courses.

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

• Personnel Exchange Programs • 23

(1) Course on the procurement-logistics-supply chain
in regard to crude oil, catalysts, chemicals, andmaintenance equipment(2) CPO on Kaizen in the refinery and CPJ on Kaizen
for human resource development(3) IT technologies
We explained that there are certain areas in which
JCCP is not capable of providing training in its present
capacity.

9. Conclusion
The past two CPO seminars for PERTAMINA were
held in Bandung, but this CPO that was held for the
first time in five years took place at the PERTAMINA
Learning Center in Jakarta. Participants who gatheredfrom various areas of the country to attend the seminar
established mutual friendships through the seminar,

Presentation of the completion certificate

24 • Personnel Exchange Programs •and were reluctant to part with each other and thelecturers after completion of the seminar to return totheir respective places of work. As members of thehosting side of the seminar, we were extremely pleased
to see that JCCP training programs not only benefit theparticipants in their operations, but also contribute tocreating personal friendships.
We understand that PERTAMINA provides many
diverse types of training. Perhaps this is one of thereasons why we receive many more applications to JCCP
regular courses than to customized programs.
New oil and gas field development projects areunderway in Indonesia, and the country is fast becoming
an important oil-producing country to Japan. Basedon this awareness, we will strive to plan and propose
customized programs that more closely match the needsof PERTAMINA and thereby strengthen our friendly
relationship with the company.
<by Akio Hoshino, Training Dept.>

Courtesy visit to Ms. Rukumi Hadihartini, Human Resources
Director (center)

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

Personnel
Exchange

CPO Seminar on Maintenance Management
for Petrovietnam

After completion of the seminar

1. BackgroundTwo years ago, JCCP implemented a seminar on
maintenance technologies for rotary machinery andstatic equipment under the title, “Refinery MaintenanceManagement,” at the request of the Zung Quat Refinery,the country’s first refinery. Last year, in a survey ofneeds for JCCP training programs in counterpart
countries, Mr. Tran Van Hoa, General Manager,
Training & HRD Division, Petrovietnam, requested aseminar on automation. In consideration of the above,
a comprehensive Customized Program-Overseas(CPO) on maintenance management was decided to be
implemented, with a focus not only on rotary machineryand static equipment, but also on field instrumentation

devices, DCS (distributed control system), and automatic
control technologies that use instrumentation devices
and systems.

2. Plant Tour
Since the beginning, we had been hoping to visit a
Vietnamese production facility associated with JCCP
training prior to implementing the above-mentioned
seminar. Since a Customized Program-Japan (CPJ
seminar on instrumentation) happened to be underway,
we consulted with the participants of the seminar, andreceived an invitation to visit the construction site of abioethanol plant by Mr. Ha Anh Triet from Petrovietnam
Oil Corporation (PVOIL). We gratefully accepted theConstruction site of the bioethanol plant

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

Seminar scene• Personnel Exchange Programs • 25

invitation and, prior to implementing the seminar, set out
to visit the plant, which we understood was about 150
km from the city. Due to traffic congestion in the city andslow driving on segments of unpaved roads, it turned out
to be a long journey that took us some five hours, but we
ultimately arrived at our destination. In Vietnam, ethanol
is made using the roots of a woody shrub called cassava
that is widely grown in the country. Parts other than theroots are used as boiler fuel, so the cassava is used in its
entirety without putting any part to waste. At the plant,
the steel framework of the cassava storage warehouse
was already assembled, the ethanol distillation tower
was installed, and other related facilities were underconstruction. Operations are slated to commence next
spring. With plans for the construction of similar plants
in northern Vietnam (under construction) and central
Vietnam, we felt we glimpsed the progress of a rapidly
developing country.

3. Seminar Overview
The five-day seminar took place in a hotel in Ho Chi
Minh City, from September 26 to 30, 2011.
In addition to lectures given by members of JCCP’s
Training Department (S. Miyawaki, H. Saito, andK. Suzuki), we enlisted the expertise of Mr. Haruo
Takatsu from Yokogawa Electric Corporation and Mr.
Sho Ushikubo from Endress+Hauser Japan Co., Ltd.
as outside lecturers and asked them to lecture on themaintenance of automated control systems and field
instrumentation devices that utilize DCS and advanced
control technologies.
A total of 20 participants attended the seminar fromPetrovietnam’s six companies throughout Vietnam,
including five members from Petrovietnam Energy
Technology Corporation (PVEIC), a maintenancecompany affiliated with Petrovietnam.

4. Seminar Details
The seminar incorporated Mr. Hoa’s request andincluded the maintenance management of instrumentation
devices and automation issues in addition to themaintenance management of rotary machinery andstatic equipment, which was previously covered in theseminar held at the Zung Quat Refinery. The lecture on
rotary machinery focused on the reliability improvementof machinery that contributes to loss prevention in therefinery. The lecture on static equipment explained

26 • Personnel Exchange Programs •Presentation of the completion certificate

the importance of material selection and of matching
operations to the characteristics of the material, inreference to trouble cases experienced in Japan. In
regard to field instruments, a description was given of thecharacteristics of radar level gauges that have begun to be
widely used in recent years. The lecture on automation
introduced model predictive control and other advanced
control technologies that are favored by refineries andpetrochemical plants. It not only focused on the functions
and methods of introducing these technologies, but also
explained the necessity and measures for maintaining
advanced control at high operation levels. Finally, thelecture provided CAI practice in a representative methodof tuning basic control loops (PID control), which isneeded for the effective introduction of advanced control
technologies.

5. Summary
The seminar covered a number of different technology
fields within the perspective of maintenance. Even
within this perspective, however, we thought thelecture on advanced control might perhaps be difficult
to grasp, but the participants demonstrated a high levelof understanding of advanced controls. In fact, someeven commented, for example, that the advantagesof introducing advanced control do not match theircalculated estimates.
In the post-seminar evaluation, many participants
expressed their desire to participate in a training
program in Japan or requested a long-term seminar. In
response to these expectations, we will continue to seek
opportunities to hold seminars such as this as a regularpart of our cooperation activities in Vietnam.

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

<by Kazuhiro Suzuki, Training Dept.>

Personnel
Exchange

CPO Seminar on Energy Saving and
Maintenance for SINOPEC’s Tianjin Refinery

Group photo taken at the opening ceremony

1. Background“Energy saving and maintenance activities in therefinery” has been one of the priority themes fortraining in the mutual cooperation program between
SINOPEC and JCCP. Therefore, it was decided to betaken up in a Customized Program-Overseas (CPO)
designed to introduce various case examples relating
to energy saving and maintenance issues. The seminar
was held from September 5 to 9 at SINOPEC’s Tianjin
Refinery. It was the first seminar in as much as 11 years
to be implemented in northern China since the previous
seminar at the Yanshan Refinery in 2000.
The CPO was made possible with the full supportof Mr. Zhang Zheng, Deputy Director General, who

At the seminar venue:
Mr. Wang Lixin, Vice President, Tianjin Refinery(fourth from right)

assumed a leadership role in planning and arranging
for the implementation of the seminar, and with thecooperation of Mr. Ron Qi, Ms. Li Bing Jie, and Ms.
Yang Fang from the Foreign Affairs Department. On theJapanese side, JCCP lecturers S. Miyawaki, T. Kubota,and H. Saito, and Mr. Hiroshi Sano from Idemitsu Kosan
Co., Ltd., who joined the group as a member company
specialist, successfully implemented the seminar asplanned.

2. Seminar Content(1) Opening ceremony
An opening ceremony kicked off the seminar on
the first day. Mr. Zhang, representing the counterpart

Opening ceremony:
Mr. Zhang Zheng, Deputy Director General,
Foreign Affairs Dept. (third from right)

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

• Personnel Exchange Programs • 27

department to JCCP, expressed his deep appreciation
regarding the successful completion of the seminar held
last year at the Zhenhai Refinery in Ningbo City, andalso regarding the continued relationship of cooperation
between the two organizations since the establishmentof JCCP.
Following Mr. Zhang, Mr. Wang Lixin, Vice Presidentof the Tianjin Refinery, delivered a few words ofgreeting, noting that this seminar is a commemorative
event marking roughly one year since the previous CPO
seminar held last year, and the 11th year since the lastseminar was held in northern China (at the Yanshan
Refinery in 2000). As one of the organizers of theseminar, he also expressed his relief and delight that a
far larger number of participants than expected signed
up to attend the seminar (approx. 90) even compared to
the last year’s successful seminar (approx. 60).
In response, we thanked the SINOPEC Head
Office and the Tianjin Refinery for making thevarious arrangements for implementation of the joint
seminar, and expressed our hopes that it will present
an opportunity to promote further cooperation between
SINOPEC and JCCP, and that personnel and technicalexchanges through JCCP activities will lead to future
development of the oil industry in both countries.
(2) Overview of JCCP training programs
First of all, we introduced JCCP activities using a
DVD with Chinese narration instead of our conventional
English version. This proved to be highly effective
in facilitating understanding among the SINOPEC
participants.
In regard to JCCP training programs, we explained
the differences between the two types of programs—
JCCP programs and member company programs—and
noted that member company programs might be easierto understand for those who are not too confident with
their use of English, because JCCP programs are held in
English while member company programs are usuallyaccompanied by a Japanese translator.
(3) Lecture on loss prevention activities in therefinery (Miyawaki)
In this lecture, Miyawaki gave an overview of thehistory and experiences of the oil industry in Japan in
the context of global developments, and explained thedramatic transitions that have heretofore taken place inthe environment surrounding the oil business throughthe period of high growth, the oil crises, and the largest-

28 • Personnel Exchange Programs •ever surge in crude oil prices after the collapse of the
bubble economy. He also described the process throughwhich Japanese oil companies have strengthened theirbusiness structure through repeated integrations andreorganizations, and introduced the series of initiatives
that have been implemented for improvement of refinery
maintenance management, including fundamental
technologies for efficient and stable refinery operations,such as loss prevention activities that have been adopted
to increase efficiency in the oil refining sector.
(4) Energy-saving technologies (Kubota)
In this lecture, Kubota explained the concept ofJapan’s energy conservation laws and introduced generalenergy-saving initiatives actually implemented byrefineries in Japan. By presenting various case examples
of energy-saving initiatives and explaining them basedon the actual experiences of Japanese refineries, heshowed that reducing energy consumption in the refineryis extremely important to refinery operations (including
profit improvement).
(5) TPM activities and energy saving in the refinery(Mr. Sano)
In this lecture, Mr. Sano provided actual caseexamples of oil companies’ efforts to introduce TPM
activities in their refineries, describing the processthat commonly begins with repeated trial and error
until the activities actually take root. In particular,
specific examples of company-wide efforts and factors
involved in centrally managing the activities of diverse
refineries within a unified framework contained many
lessons relevant to SINOPEC, as it is a company thatindeed manages diverse refineries. To facilitate greater
understanding, Mr. Sano used a case example to explain

Seminar lecture scene
Mr. Hiroshi Sano, Idemitsu Kosan (right)

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

that an effective method of promoting TPM activities
and energy saving in refineries is to adopt the top runnermethod, whereby the activities of the refinery producing
the most outstanding results are introduced to otherrefineries as a model of best practices.
(6) Examples of maintenance activities in Japaneserefineries (Saito)
The content of this lecture was arranged in response
to prior requests made by SINOPEC, and covered
issues relating to the maintenance framework and theactual management of maintenance operations in therefinery.
Among the topics covered, active questions andanswers were exchanged regarding the comparativeevaluation of maintenance costs. Particularly in regard
to the basis for calculating maintenance cost ratios (forexample, technical standards on whether or not refinery
personnel cost and fuel oil cost should be included), Saitoemphasized the importance of establishing a unified
standard as appropriate to the specific purpose of costcalculations.
The participants also had many questions regarding
individual cases of open inspection cycles, anddemonstrated particularly strong interest in pursuing
matters of concern they face in their actual work, among
other relevant topics.

Q&A with participants:
H. Saito, JCCP lecturer

A closing ceremony was held after the last lecture,
and a JCCP completion certificate was presented to eachparticipant. In his closing speech, Mr. Zhang expressed
his appreciation for the successful completion of theseminar, and urged all participants to apply the knowledge
they gained in the seminar to make improvements in theirrespective refineries. The seminar thus came to a close
after fully completing the scheduled agenda.
Because we lecturers had the opportunity tovisit a construction site of the Tianjin Refinery toassess the actual status of improvement activities
prior to implementing the seminar, we think that theadded perspective allowed us to provide lectures andpresentations that were especially pertinent to the
SINOPEC participants.

3. Summary
As mentioned by Mr. Zhang at the beginning of aprior meeting at the SINOPEC Head Office, this seminar
was the first JCCP seminar to be held in northern China
in as much as 11 years and a first for the Tianjin Refinery.
However, it was brought to a successful completionowing to the full cooperation of the SINOPEC Head
Office and the president and vice president of Tianjin
Refinery, not to mention all relevant personnel of therefinery.
Post-seminar evaluations by the participants showedstrong requests for continued implementation of theseminar in the future. When considering the conspicuous
decrease in opportunities for mutual exchange withSINOPEC and other state-owned oil companies in
China through JCCP programs, we feel it would be
realistically practical to make the most of the few
available opportunities and ensure each provides anideal forum for promoting mutual understanding throughthe communication and exchange of information. Such
opportunities would no doubt come to hold even larger
significance than ever within the greater scheme ofcooperation among the rapidly expanding East Asianmarket economies, as well as for the further developmentof JCCP activities.
Lastly, we extend our sincerest gratitude to everyone
in all relevant departments who kindly gave us theirsupport and cooperation in various aspects of theseminar.
<by Shintaro Miyawaki, Training Dept.>

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

• Personnel Exchange Programs • 29

Personnel
Exchange

CPO Seminar on Heavy Oil Upgrading
Held at Vietnam Petroleum Institute (VPI)

Opening ceremony

1. Background and Overview of the Seminar

2. Seminar Content

A Customized Program-Overseas (CPO) on heavy oil
upgrading was jointly held by Petrovietnam and JCCP
as a mutual cooperation project of the two organizations,based on the Memorandum of Understanding for the
implementation of JCCP training programs in Vietnam
beginning this fiscal year. As heavy oil upgrading isa priority issue at Petrovietnam, the basic frameworkof the program, including schedule and content, wascarefully arranged with Petrovietnam’s personnel andtraining departments, and detailed requests regarding
the program content were discussed with training
coordinators at Vietnam Petroleum Institute (VPI),
Petrovietnam’s Research and Development Center forrefinery processing and catalysts.
The seminar was held over a period of four days,
from September 5 to 8, 2011, in a conference room
of VPI in Ho Chi Minh City. Lectures were given bya team of six members composed of Takaaki Yuasa
and Tetsuo Arii from JCCP, Mr. Toshiyuki Karasawa
from JGC Corporation, Mr. Hidetoshi Tani from ToyoEngineering Corporation, and Messrs. Seijiro Nonaka
and Tran Viet Ha from JGC Catalysts and Chemicals
Ltd. The participants were a group of 27 people in chargeof research and development of refinery processes andcatalysts, and included three process engineers from thePetrovietnam Head Office (Hanoi) and five experienced
operators from Petrovietnam’s refinery.

The first day began with self-introductions by allparticipants, followed by an introductory presentationof JCCP using a DVD. Yuasa then introduced thehistory and present state of Japan’s oil industry andgave an overview of the characteristics and necessity ofheavy oil upgrading. Arii also gave a lecture on heavy
oil upgrading, focusing on the characteristics of eachindividual process in reference to actual examples ofcombinations used in Japanese refineries that flexibly
satisfy product standards and needs. Because theparticipants varied in their level of experience, the lecture
adopted an interactive style to constantly gauge theirunderstanding and proceed accordingly.
On the second day, Mr. Karasawa from JGC
Corporation gave a detailed lecture on the selection ofheavy oil upgrading processes and an overview of thethermal cracking and integrated gasification combined
cycle (IGCC). In particular, he discussed methods for
examining the economic efficiency of introducing
a heavy oil process to the refinery, and introducedcase studies of specific schemes to explain methodsof selecting heavy oil processes, major factors that
influence economic efficiency, and important points forconsideration when selecting a heavy oil process. The
advanced knowledge of processes the lecture provided
was well received by the participants, who said they lookforward to applying it to their actual work.

30 • Personnel Exchange Programs •JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

Tetsuo Arii, JCCP lecturer

Mr. Hidetoshi Tani, Toyo Engineering Corporation

On the third day, Mr. Tani from Toyo Engineering
lectured about catalytic cracking technologies (FCC &RFCC) and heavy oil hydrotreatment technologies. In
regard to catalytic cracking technologies, he discussed
the processes in general, including operational variables,
the impacts and countermeasures for impurities in
feedstock oil, and the effectiveness of new processes anddevices, and also discussed the characteristics of eachlicensor from a cross-cutting perspective. In addition
to FCC and RFCC, Mr. Tani introduced other related
processes such as the gasoline desulfurization unit andpropylene splitters, and explained the basic reactions,general process specifications, and characteristics ofheavy oil hydrotreatment technologies. A brief mention
was also made of the new technologies of OCR (onstream catalyst replacement) and the ebullated-bed slurry
phase process. The lecture elicited active questions andanswers and turned out to be an extremely productive
session.
On the fourth and final day, Messrs. Nonaka and Ha
from JGC Catalysts and Chemicals gave lectures on thetheory of fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) and the theoryof heavy oil hydrotreatment catalysts, respectively, andexplained reaction theories and catalyst productionand evaluation technologies. Participants who workwith catalysts engaged the lecturers in a lively Q&A
session.
In the closing ceremony, the Japanese-side members
thanked Petrovietnam for its cooperation in the
successful implementation of the seminar, expressed
their future expectations, and introduced the Customized
Program-Japan (CPJ) that will be held in Japan on thesame theme this coming December. Lastly, they urged
the participants to apply the knowledge they gained inthis seminar to Petrovietnam’s second refinery, which iscurrently under construction, and the third refinery thatis being planned.

3. Evaluation and Impressions of the
SeminarSeminar evaluations showed that practically allparticipants thought the seminar was extremely
meaningful and would benefit them in their present
jobs. Therefore, it seems the seminar appropriately
corresponded to the participants’ level of knowledge.
Attended by catalyst researchers and biofuel
researchers from VPI, as well as process engineers
with operational experience in a refinery, the seminar
was also meaningful in that it provided a broad range
of knowledge.
The program was designed to feature two themes:
to provide knowledge of methods for selecting optimal
process combinations in consideration of the necessityand economic efficiency of heavy oil treatment processes;
and to provide catalyst technologies that are necessary
for advanced treatment of heavy oil. With almost all
participants reviewing the seminar favorably, saying they
were able to acquire extremely useful knowledge despite
the short seminar period of four days, JCCP is relieved
and pleased that the seminar was a success.

Presentation of the completion certificate

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012<by Takaaki Yuasa, Training Dept.>• Personnel Exchange Programs • 31

Personnel
Exchange

CPJ Seminar on Practical Training
for Young Instrumentation and Control
Engineers for Vietnam

Participants of the course

The “Practical Training for Young Instrumentation
and Control Engineers,” which was newly launched last
fiscal year, was again implemented this year.
This seminar was established based on JCCP’s longstanding goal of providing ever-more-practical training,and on strong requests from participants of regularcourses on instrumentation and control for systematictraining that covers a broad range of topics, from basic
to applied technologies. In consideration of the above,a practical program that covers a broad range of basic toapplied themes in the two fields and that includes handson exercise was designed for young instrumentation andcontrol engineers in oil-producing countries.
After reviewing and improving on the program
implemented last year, the seminar was held this year
over a period of 32 days (net 24 days), from August 22
to September 22, 2011.

Course Overview
1. Participants
The course was offered to 12 young Vietnameseengineers (average age of 30) this year, as part of thespecial assistance program for Vietnam.
32 • Personnel Exchange Programs •All participants exhibited high levels of motivationto acquire Japan’s technologies, and diligently engaged
in training. They also showed good teamwork, actively
participated in discussions, and maintained a cooperative
attitude throughout the course.

2. Program Details
The program fundamentally placed emphasis onpractical exercises rather than on lectures, and covered awide range of basic to applied issues in instrumentationand control, in roughly equal parts.
(1) In the instrumentation field, basic topics included
the measurement of flow, temperature and pressure,the measurement of fluid levels which was newly
included this year, and the selection of control
valves. At the applied level, participants performed
exercises in equipment maintenance, the seriesof tasks that need to be performed from the basic
design to onsite construction stages, and theadvanced technologies of field bus designing andwireless instrumentation.
(2) In the control field, emphasis was placed on thelatest technologies, including refinery information

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

Control exercise using a computer

Exercise in the disassembly and inspectionof a liquid level gaugesystems, DCS, and safety instrumentation systems,
based on control theories provided at JCCP
Headquarters. This year, control technologies in
power generation facilities were added as a newfeature.
(3) Practical exercises were provided as follows tofacilitate theoretical and practical knowledge.
• Exercises in control theories using a computerand DCS, operational assistance systems, andmultivariable predictive control• System construction exercise using actual DCS
equipment• Exercise in using an actual safety instrumentation
system• Exercise in using a wireless instrumentation
device• Exercise in using analyzers and other onsite
measuring instruments• Exercise in the disassembly and inspection of
instrumentation devices (flow meter, liquid level
gauge, control valve)• Exercise in instrumentation engineering using
virtual equipment(4) Offsite training and training by outside lecturers
were provided as follows.
Offsite training (7 companies)• Yokogawa Electric Corporation (the latest DCS,
software overview, control systems of power
generation facilities) / Aug. 30 – Sept. 1• Endress+Hauser Japan Co., Ltd. (exercises inliquid level gauge engineering and maintenance)/ Sept. 2• Invensys Process System Japan, Inc. (overview
of safety instrumentation systems) / Sept. 7• Oval Corporation (exercise in flow meterengineering and maintenance) / Sept. 12• Yamatake Corporation (exercise in DCS andcontrol valve engineering and control valve
maintenance) / Sept. 13-14• Emerson Japan, Ltd. (DCS and wireless
instrumentation engineering) / Sept. 15• Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd. Tokuyama Refinery(refinery control and information systems) / Sept.
9
Outside lecturers (5 companies)• Toyo Engineering Corporation (overview ofControl exercise using a wet simulator

Exercise in the disassembly and inspection of a flow meter

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

• Personnel Exchange Programs • 33

instrumentation and control engineering) / Aug.
25-26
• Osaka Systems Planning, Inc. (overview ofrefinery information systems) / Aug. 29• Yokogawa Electric Corporation (exercise inconstructing an operational assistance system) /Sept. 16
• JGC Corporation (MPC exercise using a simulator)/ Sept. 19• Chiyoda Corporation (instrumentation design
and workflow, control and safety instrumentation
design, onsite instrumentation works) / Sept. 2021

generous cooperation of various oil-related facilities inJapan and outside lecturers, as well as to the outstanding
participants and their determination. We were especially
impressed with the participants’ sense of initiative inacquiring technologies and their quick adaptation tolife in Japan.
Their overall evaluation of the course was generally
satisfactory, but they seemed to have strong interest in
further pursuing regular instrumentation maintenance,
daily maintenance, and issues related to electric power.
Some discussions on maintenance topics did take place,but we regret that they may not have been sufficient.

4. Future Issues
3. Observations
The course was long, and the program was broad,covering both lectures and practical exercises in
instrumentation and control, but we were able tocomplete the program successfully, owing to theThis seminar is planned to be held regularly from thenext fiscal year, but based on the evaluation of this recent
program, we will conduct a thorough review and makefurther efforts to provide consistently more practicaltraining in the future.
<by Shigeru Matsui, Training Dept.>

3D virtual exercise

34 • Personnel Exchange Programs •Lecture on control systems in the refinery

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

Personnel
Exchange

Report on the Training Cooperation Program—Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil—
Two members from JCCP’s Training Department—
A. Hoshino and T. Kubota—made a round of visits to
Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil from September 27 to
October 6 under the Training Cooperation Program tostrengthen relationships with oil-producing countries
outside of the Gulf countries to diversify future energy
sources, and to exchange views toward a future renewalof JCCP courses.
Venezuela is one of the founding members of OPEC
and an important country as the world’s second-largest(2011, 01OGJ) petroleum market after Saudi Arabia interms of confirmed oil reserves. Brazil has the secondlargest confirmed oil reserves in South America afterVenezuela, and became a net exporter of oil in 2009. It
is also the world’s second-largest producer of ethanol.
Colombia’s oil reserves are smaller, but the country is thethird-largest producer of crude oil in South America.
JCCP enjoys a friendly relationship with Colombia
and Brazil, but wishes to strengthen the ties even further.
On the other hand, the relationship with Venezuela has
been gradually declining. While during the early years
after establishment of JCCP participants from Venezuela
had formed the second-largest group of participants to
JCCP regular courses among the countries of Central
and South America after Mexico, there were only twoparticipants from Venezuela in the past eight years.
Therefore, the visit to Venezuela was made with the aimof promoting cooperation in personnel training and reestablishing a liaison channel in the country.

1. Colombia(1) Ecopetrol S.A., Cartagena Refinery
The JCCP members visited the Cartagena Refinery,located along the coast of the Caribbean Sea some 700
km north of the capital city of Bogotá, and were greetedby Mr. Byron Miranda, Refinery Manager, and a large
number of JCCP graduates.
The refinery is currently undergoing an expansion
project to increase its crude oil throughput from 80,000
b/d to 165,000 b/d, and the construction of relevant units
including a fluid coker and hydrocracker is underway,

Mr. Byron Miranda, Refinery Manager (third from left)

Mr. Jorge Pederos, Commissioning & Start-up Director,
Reficar (left)
Ms. Marcela, Personnel Affairs Leader and coordinator
for JCCP (right front)with operations slated to commence in 2015. Mr.
Jorge Pederos, Commissioning & Start-up Director of
Reficar (Refinería de Cartagena S.A.), a subsidiary of
Ecopetrol, personally gave the JCCP members a tourof the construction site. Later, he noted that the refinery
has plans to bring in additional employees to operate the
new units once they are installed, but a major challenge
lies in providing technical training to all employees.
He therefore said he hopes JCCP will accept a large
number of Ecopetrol refinery employees to future regularcourses.
Mr. Pederos also requested a Customized ProgramOverseas (CPO) intended solely for Ecopetrol.

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

• Personnel Exchange Programs • 35

(2) Ecopetrol Bogotá Head Office, Management
Department
After visiting the Cartagena Refinery, the JCCP
members returned to the Ecopetrol Head Office in Bogotá
to pay a courtesy visit to the management executivesof the company. They met with Mr. Federico Maya
Molina, Vice President of Refinery & Petrochemical,
and other executives, and asked for their cooperationin further strengthening the friendly relationshipbetween Ecopetrol and JCCP. Mr. Molina and the othermembers were familiar with JCCP’s activities, and as at
the Cartagena Refinery, they said they will be looking
to JCCP for cooperation, particularly given the large
increase in employees at the refinery.
(3) Ecopetrol Bogotá Head Office, Human Talent
and Training Departments
Ms. Monica from the Human Talent Department in
the Head Office provided an overview of the department.
She explained that after a new organizational structure
was adopted last year, the department now has 152
employees.
With Ecopetrol being such a large organization, few
people seemed to know about JCCP activities, so the
JCCP members asked for some time to introduce JCCP
activities and give a spontaneous mini-seminar on humanresource management. Members of the Human Talent
Department listened attentively to the presentation,and expressed an interest in participating in a regularcourse on human resource development. To more
widely share information about JCCP regular courses
across the company, they asked for the JCCP regularcourse registration packet to be sent not only to Ms. Ana
Victoria in the Human Resource Dept., who is JCCP’scoordinator in Ecopetrol, but also to Ms. Claudia Rios,
Manager of Human Talent. We hope the continuation ofsuch efforts will lead to stronger mutual ties between thetwo organizations.
In response to a request from Ecopetrol, JCCP
implemented a seminar on heavy oil upgrading in
Colombia in 2008, and participated in an environmental
forum in 2009. This year, Ms. Gladys Lopera, Project
Leader, from the Barrancabermeja Refinery participatedin the first regular course (Environmental Management(TR-10-11)) held in Osaka after the March 11
earthquake. Through these and other interchanges, JCCP
is maintaining a good relationship with Colombia.

36 • Personnel Exchange Programs •2. Venezuela(1) PDVSA Head Office
JCCP formerly corresponded with the Human
Resource Training Department in the PDVSA Head
Office as its counterpart department in Venezuela, but
because it had become difficult to maintain steadycommunication with the department, the counterpart
department was transferred this February to thetraining center coordinator at INTEVEP, a state-owned
research institute for petroleum technologies. However,the coordinator was soon transferred to a different
department, and JCCP lost contact with Venezuela
because no replacement was appointed thereafter.
To realize the recent visit, JCCP asked JGC
Corporation’s overseas affiliate (JGC Venezuela C.A.),
a JCCP member company doing business in Venezuela,
to introduce a contact department in the PDVSA Head
Office. On the day prior to visiting the PDVSA Head
Office, Mr. Koji Sakurai, President of JGC Venezuela,
kindly took the time to brief the JCCP members on
basic information about Venezuela, and provided
valuable insight into the social and economic state of
the country.
On the day of the visit, the JCCP members first paid acourtesy call on Ms. Rosa Rodriguez, General Manager
Refining and Performance Control, who indicated strong
interest in JCCP’s training program for the refinery
department. They then took part in a teleconference withthe following four refineries.
(1) Center of Refinery Paraguana (CRP)(2) El Palito Refinery(3) Puerto la Cruz Refinery(4) Isla Refinery
Under the moderation of Mr. Plinio Arana, Refining
and Performance Control Department, the JCCP

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012PDVSA Head Officetheir warm support after the March 11 earthquake, andthen explained about the changes made to the 2011 course
program and plans for next year’s program. Mr. Tamara
expressed strong interest in the courses related to humanresource management and the environment, particularly as
he belongs to the Human Resource and HSE Department,
and promised to give greater consideration than ever toPetrobras’ future participation in regular courses andimplementation of seminars in Brazil.
Preparing for the teleconference

members introduced JCCP’s activities and this year’s
course program. Some of the participants of theconference seemed to have heard about JCCP’s activities
through the implementation of member-company
programs, but they were generally unfamiliar with JCCP
and its activities.
Under this situation, it was a significant achievement
to JCCP that Ms. Rosa Rodriguez agreed to serve as acoordinator between JCCP and PDVSA’s refineries,
and Ms. Gloria Montanez, Administration Human
Resource Department, agreed to serve as a coordinator
for administration and human resource matters. Needlessto say, however, continued efforts need to be madeto promote the establishment of stronger ties with
Venezuela.

The JCCP members completed their visits with a

In front of Petrobras University

3. Brazil(1) Petrobras University
Petrobras University is a corporate university thatalone provides professional training to all Petrobras
employees. It also serves as JCCP’s counterpart in Brazil.
With as many as 107 classroom facilities, the university
turns out 2,000 graduates every year. In 2010, JCCP
implemented a seminar on refinery offsite operations
for Petrobras employees, which was very well received
by all participants.
Upon arriving at the university, the JCCP members
were warmly greeted by Mr. Gustavo Tamara, Human
Resource Dept. International Coordinator, and a large
number of JCCP graduates. They thanked everyone for

Seminar participants and Mr. Gustavo Tamara, Human
Resource Dept. International Coordinator (third from left)

renewed awareness that even more active and continuous
efforts need to be made to deepen relationships with the
faraway countries of Central and South America.
<by Tetsuji Kubota, Training Dept.>

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

• Personnel Exchange Programs • 37

Personnel
Exchange

Report on the Training Cooperation Program—Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand—
A two-member JCCP delegation consisting of
Mitsuyoshi Saito, Counselor, and Koichi Io from theOperations Department visited Indonesia, Vietnam andThailand from July 27 to August 6 and exchanged views
and information with key figures in JCCP counterpart
organizations in those countries.

1. Purpose
In the wake of the March 11 Great East Japan
Earthquake, JCCP received heartwarming messages of
sympathy and encouragement from overseas counterpart
organizations and past participants of JCCP courses.
While JCCP was not directly affected, all courses
scheduled between April and July were either canceledor postponed in consideration of the aftershocks of theearthquake and the possible confusion that might arise
from planned power outages.
Under this situation, the recent visits were made with the
purpose of conveying JCCP’s appreciation for everyone’s
sympathy and support after the earthquake, as well as
to explain the status of the training program thereafter,
announce the resumption of regular courses in September,and to elicit requests concerning JCCP training activities.

2. Indonesia
2-1. PERTAMINA Learning Center (PLC)
On July 28, the delegation visited PLC in the morningand met with Ms. Ida Halya, Development LeadershipManager, JCCP’s counterpart training coordinator, and
JCCP graduates.
On behalf of JCCP, Saito first expressed his gratitude
to the Indonesian government and the people of Indonesia
for their generous support after the Great East Japan
Earthquake (in the form of relief supplies, donations,and the dispatch of rescue teams) and to JCCP’s friends
at PERTAMINA for their warm messages of support andencouragement. He then explained that regular coursesthat were scheduled to take place after the earthquake werecanceled or postponed in consideration of participants’concerns about the impact of the earthquake.
Ms. Halya said Indonesia had experienced a similardisaster, at which time Japan gave tremendous support.
38 • Personnel Exchange Programs •It has never forgotten Japan’s generosity, and simply
did what it could to help Japan after the March 11
earthquake. She expressed her hopes and conviction thatJapan and the Japanese people, whom Indonesia holds inthe highest respect, will overcome this difficult period.
Io then referred back to matters concerning JCCP’sregular courses, explaining that while seven out of ninecourses that were scheduled to be implemented between
April and July have been canceled and two have been
postponed to a later time in the second half of the fiscal
year, life in Tokyo has returned to normal. To provide
reassurance, he explained that the four courses planned
for September and October will be held in Osaka,
however courses in November and beyond will be
implemented in Tokyo as originally planned.
The JCCP members also interviewed the PERTAMINA
side about needs and requests concerning JCCP courses,
and received the following responses.
• The Customized Program–Overseas (CPO) on Kaizen,
held in July, was extremely beneficial. PERTAMINA
experienced the uniquely Japanese practice for the
first time, but would like to incorporate it into its
operations in the future.
• PERTAMINA would like to see the implementationof a course on financial issues. (JCCP plans to offer a
new course on financial issues in the FY2012 course
program.)
They also met with Mr. Suwardi Somatri, Vice
President, in the afternoon and gave a brief account of
the morning meeting at PLC.
2-2. PERTAMINA Head Office
After the visit to PLC, the JCCP delegation visitedthe PERTAMINA Head Office to pay their respects to
Mr. Waluyo, Director of General Affairs.
Mr. Waluyo offered his condolences over the March
11 earthquake, saying that he was stunned when he firstheard about the disaster, especially because he had neverimagined that the Japan he loves would be struck by adisaster similar to what Indonesia had experienced in
the past, but said with firm conviction that with Japan’s
history of reconstruction and advanced technologies,
there will always be paths to recovery. He also said
PERTAMINA has been awaiting the resumption of

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

At PERTAMINA Head Office:Mr. Waluyo, Director of General Affairs (left)

regular courses and would have participated even if
they were held in Tokyo, but holding them in the Osaka
region is a prudent decision.
Aside from talks about the disaster and the status of
regular courses, Saito mentioned that JCCP had reachedits 30th anniversary in November and is currently
preparing a special commemorative publication of
JCCP’s history. He noted that top executives of staterun oil companies overseas had provided congratulatory
messages for the 20th anniversary publication, and asked
if PERTAMINA would consider writing a complimentary
message for the 30th. Mr. Waluyo graciously assented,
promising PERTAMINA’s full cooperation.
2-3. Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources,
Directorate General (MIGAS)
On July 29, the JCCP delegation visited the MIGASHead Office and met with Ms. Evita Legowo, Director
General; Mr. Edi Purnomo, Secretary General, JCCP’scounterpart training coordinator; and JCCP graduates.
Ms. Legowo warmly welcomed the visit by the two
JCCP members, and said she had been looking forward
to hearing about the status of regular courses after theearthquake and plans for their resumption, because
JCCP’s training activities play an important part in
MIGAS’ training initiatives.
Saito responded by extending JCCP’s appreciation to
the Indonesian government and the people of Indonesia
for their support (natural gas, relief supplies, donations,dispatch of rescue teams, etc.) after the Great East Japan
Earthquake, and said that the many messages of supportand encouragement from friends and JCCP graduates
at MIGAS provided a reassuring reminder of the strong
bond of friendship between the two organizations.
The JCCP members then interviewed Mr. Purnomo,
JCCP’s counterpart training coordinator, and JCCP
graduates about needs and requests concerning

JCCP courses. In addition to a request for a course
on energy conservation, the MIGAS side requested
the implementation of courses on topics relevant to agovernmental institution (such as public investment,
energy policies and regulations, etc.).
Additionally, as the MIGAS side was concerned
about the impacts of the nuclear accident, the JCCP
members provided a detailed explanation about the statusof the affected nuclear reactors using reference materials
prepared in advance, and stressed the safety level inTokyo, where JCCP headquarters are located.

At MIGAS:
Ms. Evita Legowo, Director General

3. Vietnam
Details of the delegation’s visit to Vietnam areprovided in the article on “Signing an MOU on a Special
Cooperation Program with Petrovietnam.”4. Thailand
4-1. PTT Public Co., Ltd. (PTT)On August 4, the JCCP delegation visited the PTTHead Office and met with Mr. Pitipan Tepartimargon,
Senior Executive Vice President, Corporate Human
Resources, and other members of PTT.
Saito initially expressed JCCP’s appreciation for
Thailand’s generous support in response to Japan’ssituation after the Great East Japan Earthquake and for the
many messages of concern and consolation from friendsof JCCP at PTT. He said that ensuing circumstances
had required JCCP to cancel or postpone courses thatwere scheduled to be implemented between April andJuly, but that the courses for September and beyond will
resume anew. He explained that they had made this visit
specifically to announce this news and to personallyencourage the participation of PTT employees.
Mr. Pitipan thanked the JCCP members for their visit

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

• Personnel Exchange Programs • 39

At PTT:
Mr. Pitipan Tepartimargon, Senior Executive Vice President,
Corporate Human Resources (center)and for providing a detailed account of the situation in
Japan after the earthquake. He said PTT has been waiting
for regular courses to resume, as JCCP training activities
as a whole are important to PTT’s training scheme. He
added that as a fan of Japan he has visited Japan manytimes, so he knows the Japanese people are an honest,
hardworking and painstaking people who have overcome
numerous challenges to make their nation what it istoday, and said he believes Japan will once again emerge
from the recent disaster.
In response to questions from the PTT side about the
impacts of the nuclear accident at Fukushima, the JCCP
members used detailed reference materials to explain
the present state of nuclear decontamination and theprogress in cooling the nuclear reactors, and how Japanis devoting full-scale efforts to contain the accident
according to a specific timetable.
Thereafter, the JCCP delegation paid a courtesy callon Ms. Papinya Tansamrit, Vice President, Learningand Development Center Dept., and held a meeting
about regular courses with JCCP’s counterpart training
coordinator. The JCCP members were told that PTT
is satisfied with regular courses and has no particular
proposals or requests. The PTT side revealed that Mr.
Pitipan debriefs the PTT participants to JCCP regularcourses after their return to Thailand, to hear about theirimpressions and experience.
4-2. The Bangchak Petroleum Public Company
Ltd. (BCP)
On August 5, the JCCP delegation visited the
BCP Head Office and held a meeting with Mr.
Vichien Usanachote, Senior Executive Vice President,
Refinery Business; Mr. Wattana Opanon-Amata, Senior
Executive Vice President, Corporate Administration andInformation Technology; and Mr. Kiatchai Maitriwong,
Executive Vice President, Corporate Administration and40 • Personnel Exchange Programs •Information Technology. They also met with JCCP’scounterpart training coordinator and JCCP graduates.
After warmly welcoming the delegation, Mr. Vichiensaid he was saddened by the news of the earthquake
disaster, but with its history in overcoming numerous
trials in the past, he said he was certain that Japan has
the strength to recover once again. Additionally, Mr.
Vichien expressed PTT’s expectations of JCCP regularcourses as an extremely meaningful training program,
while revealing that he himself had participated in a
regular course in the past and holds fond memories ofthat experience. With that, the rest of the meeting took
place on a note of warm friendliness.
Mr. Vichien, Mr. Wattana, and Mr. Kiatchai probably
receive courtesy calls regularly but do not usuallytake part in working-level meetings regarding training
matters. However, as graduates of JCCP regular courses,
they joined in the meeting and lunch with the JCCP
delegation, as perhaps a token of their appreciation and
expectations of JCCP.

At BCP:
Mr. Vichien Usanachote (fourth from right);
Mr. Wattana Opanon-Amata (third from left); andMr. Kiatchai Maitriwong (second from left)

5. Conclusion
The recent visits to Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand
allowed JCCP members to personally explain the present
status of JCCP regular courses after the March 11
earthquake and to obtain requests and proposals fromcounterpart organizations in those countries. They also
provided assurance of the organizations’ appreciationand expectations of JCCP, and strengthened JCCP’s
awareness of the importance of deepening friendly
relationships with the organizations in the future.
We wish to extend our warmest appreciation to
everyone who supported and contributed to the visits.

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

<by Koichi Io, Operations Dept.>

Personnel
Exchange

Report on the Training Cooperation Program—Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia—
As part of the activities JCCP is undertaking to renew
the content of its training courses, three lecturers from
JCCP’s Training Department—T. Kubota, S. Matsui and
T. Sasaki—visited Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia
from July 11 to 20, under the Training Cooperation
Program.
With respect to Uzbekistan, JCCP began making
approaches last year to Uzbekneftegaz, a state-owned
oil and gas holding company, and recently was given
the opportunity to visit the company for the first timeto introduce JCCP’s training activities and request its
participation in JCCP’s training programs. In Kazakhstan
and Russia, the JCCP members visited KazMunayGasand Lukoil, with which JCCP has established a close
relationship, with the following agenda: 1) to thankthem for their support and encouragement after theGreat East Japan Earthquake; 2) to explain and win theirunderstanding about the changes made to this year’s
course program, as well as about the implementationof the first several courses in the latter half of the year
in Osaka and the initiatives being made for the fullresumption of the courses; and 3) to exchange views andpromote their participation in customized programs.

1. Uzbekistan: Uzbekneftegaz(July 13, 2011)
In 2001, Uzbekistan became the first country inCentral Asia to gain direct access to and from KansaiInternational Airport and Narita International Airport
in Japan. As JCCP has had little chance to acquireappropriate information and facts about the country sofar, the recent visit to Uzbekneftegaz was a precious
opportunity to introduce JCCP and its activities directly
to the company’s management personnel and potential
participants for the first time, with hopes of establishinga closer relationship with the country in the future.
Uzbekistan is a popular tourist destination as acountry that lies at the heart of the Silk Road. However,the capital city of Tashkent retains little of its Silk Road
legacy, as it was rebuilt into the urban city that it istoday after being devastated in a major earthquake in
1960. The streets of Tashkent were crowded with large
numbers of Korean cars as a clear indication of the close
relationship between Uzbekistan and Korea. In fact, we
had even arrived in the country on the same airplane asa large group of Korean VIPs.
With the kind cooperation of the Japanese Embassy,
JETRO, and other Japanese institutions based in
Uzbekistan, we acquired basic knowledge about thecountry’s relationship with Japan, and witnessed theactive cooperation between the two countries in ODA
projects found throughout the city and in the Japan
Center located in a high-rise building in the suburbs of
Tashkent.
JCCP’s relationship with Uzbekneftegaz began in

The International Business Building,which houses the Japan Center

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

Meeting at Uzbekneftegaz• Personnel Exchange Programs • 41

with Petronas in a gas-to-liquids (GTL) project andwith a Korean company in a joint polyethylenepolypropylene project, but has no specific projects
with Japan.

Presentation of a commemorative item from
Mr. Jamshidbek Kirgizov, Head Specialist

1998, when a JCCP member-company course was held
for the first time for a group of Uzbekneftegaz employees.
Since then, a cumulative total of 66 Uzbekneftegaz
employees have intermittently participated in training
courses in Japan, as of last fiscal year. At the same time,
however, only two members have ever participated in
JCCP-initiative courses, thus creating a large differencewith its Central Asian neighbor Kazakhstan.
We visited Uzbekneftegaz, located in the center of
Tashkent, on our second day in Uzbekistan, and were
greeted by Mr. Jurabek T. Mirzamahmudov, Deputy
Head of the Main Department for forecasting, resources
and investment programs, who coordinated our visit to
the company. After exchanging a few words of greeting,
we were guided to a conference room, where we weremet by Mr. Elmirza R. Turdikulov, Senior Specialist of
the Head Department of Regime & HR, who was himself
a participant in a regular course held last year, and morethan 20 other staff members. We were initially surprisedby the large gathering, but gave a general presentation
about JCCP as planned. The Uzbekneftegaz side also
gave a corporate presentation, as follows:– Uzbekneftegaz is a state-owned holding company
that controls the subsidiaries composing the
Uzbekneftegaz Group.
– It has two refineries—the Bukhara and Fergana
Refineries—respectively in the eastern and westernareas of the country, but places greater emphasis on
gas and gas chemical refining facilities, because thecountry has a larger abundance of natural gas thanof crude oil.
– It has an international cooperation agreement with
Gazprom and Lukoil in Russia, as well as with
China (CNPC), Malaysia (Petronas), and Korea, andimplements major projects with these countries. It
especially enjoys a strong cooperative relationship42 • Personnel Exchange Programs •In the Q&A session held toward the end of themeeting, questions mostly focused on gas processes andupstream operations, reflecting the general emphasisthat is placed on the gas refining and petrochemical
sectors in Uzbekistan instead of oil refining. However,the Uzbekneftegaz side showed strong interest in
JCCP’s regular courses, and promised its participationin the future. In fact, Mr. Jamshidbek Kirgizov, Head
Specialist, who gave the corporate presentation, attended
the regular course on Petroleum Marketing and Oil
Terminal this October.

2. Kazakhstan: KazMunayGas(July 15, 2011)
From Tashkent, we flew several hours and arrived
in Astana, Kazakhstan’s capital, where the cold rain
brought temperatures down almost 20 degrees comparedto the summer-like heat in Tashkent.
A total of 13 members gathered for the meeting at
KazMunayGas, including Mr. Nurlan Zh. Sirazhev, HSE
Director; Mr. Yerzhan Murzatayev, Acting-HR Director,
and other members of the HR Department; and various
members from the Group’s refining, transportation, andresearch departments (which includes a university).
The meeting proceeded in an extremely friendly
atmosphere, especially because six of the members on
the KazMunayGas side were previous participants of
JCCP training programs. As they were very familiar
with JCCP’s activities, they not only showed interest in
our proposals, but also identified a number of themescommon to all refineries. Detailed discussions will beheld continuously hereafter, but general requests were

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

Meeting at KazMunayGas

Members of the meeting at KazMunayGas

Members of the meeting at the Ministry of Energy

made for the following:– Level-based roles (senior engineers, process
operators, etc.) and organizational structure forregular repairs and maintenance– Procedures for revamping advanced process control
systems– Training of young instrumentation engineers– Petrochemical themes (as also requested by
Uzbekneftegaz)

would be possible for the ministry to offer guidance todomestic oil companies and urge them to participate in
JCCP’s training programs. The ministry side responded
that there is no framework for the collective managementof oil companies by the government, because oilcompanies in Russia are not state-owned, and also varyin size.

The discussion moved on to other topics, including
the feasibility of JCCP playing a role for providing advice
and consultation regarding company-wide improvement
activities for all upstream sectors of the KazMunayGas
Group of companies. This proposal can perhaps beinterpreted as an indication of KazMunayGas’s highexpectations of JCCP.

3. Russia (Moscow)(1) Ministry of Energy (July 18, 2011)
The meeting with the Ministry of Energy was realized
at the ministry’s request made a week prior to ourdeparture from Japan, such that the actual meeting date
was decided on the day we arrived in Moscow.
We met with Mr. Ilja B. Galkin, Vice Director, andMr. Yury V. Zolotarev, Division of Asia and Africa Headof Division, and explained JCCP’s activities in detail,including our relationship with Russia.
The ministry members said they are considering
planning a training program on energy conservation withJapan’s cooperation, and invited JCCP to participate in
an international conference scheduled to be held thefollowing week in Moscow, although we unfortunately
had to decline the invitation due to time constraints.
For our part, we asked the ministry members if it(2) Lukoil (July 19, 2011)
As the final destination of our mission, we paid avisit to Lukoil. We had advanced knowledge about thestringent security when entering the company premises,
but we were nevertheless surprised and impressed bytheir thoroughness. The strict security measures enforcedat the security gate ensured that no unauthorized personal
computers, mobile phones and camera are brought onto
the presmises.
Dr. Evgeny B. Shevchishin, HR Department, presided
over the meeting along with Mr. Sergey F. Zujev, Deputy
Head Global Refining, who lent his presence as atechnical expert at our request. As at KazMunayGas,

Group photo with members of the meeting in front of theentrance to Lukoil

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

• Personnel Exchange Programs • 43

Lukoil also identified specific themes common to allrefineries, and requested not only a general training
program on each theme, but also detailed training
on their actual applications. Further discussions will
follow hereafter, but their requests primarily included
the following:– Organization of a framework for regular repairs in
the refinery, and discussions and studies on bestpractices– Discussions and studies on specific cost management
practices in the refinery, including a Solomon
survey4. Summary
After roughly a year of planning visits to the countries
of Central Asia, we finally achieved a visit to Uzbekistan.
During the planning stage, the Japan-Uzbekistan
Association and pioneering Japanese companies in

Uzbekistan generously offered their cooperation,
providing us with information about the country andeven introducing a contact office in the publicly owned
company of Uzbekneftegaz.
Once in Uzbekistan, we also received assistance frommany Japanese people working far away from home.
We are especially grateful to the Japanese embassyin Uzbekistan, as well as to everyone at the local
JETRO office and Japanese companies who taught us
everything we needed to know about present affairs in
Uzbekistan.
Thanks to everyone’s support and cooperation,
our first interaction with Uzbekneftegaz yielded thecompany’s promise to send participants to JCCP’sregular courses in autumn, and in this regard, met witha certain measure of success. However, we hope tomake greater efforts to expand our first contact with
Uzbekneftegaz and establish a deep and long-lasting
relationship with the company hereafter.
<by Teruhiko Sasaki, Training Dept.>

44 • Personnel Exchange Programs •JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

JCCP Regular Courses Completed in September – October 2011
TR-10-11

Environmental Management for Refineries
September 20 – October 7, 2011

Lecturer: Bunsuke Kariya

Content:

Petroleum Industry in Japan;
Overview of Environmental Pollution Control inJapan and Japanese Industry;
Global Warming Countermeasures;
Measures for Controlling Global Warming
Management;
Waste Water Control and Soil Remediation in the
Refinery;Air Pollution Control in Refineries;
Case Study and Action Plan by each participant

Site visits:

Water Plaza Kita-Kyushu (Kita-Kyushu City);<13 countries / 20 participants>
Cosmo Oil Co., Ltd. (Sakaide Refinery);
JX Nippon Oil & Energy Co., Ltd. (Marifu Refinery);
Shimadzu Corporation (Kyoto Sanjo Factory);
Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth (Kyoto)

Countries:

China, Colombia, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Iraq, Kuwait, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan,
Thailand, UAE, VietnamTR-11-11
Content:

Project Management for Mechanical Engineers
September 20 – October 7, 2011
To improve the project management ability
and leadership of mechanical engineers in theconstruction or maintenance department at oil
refineries.
Project Management Activities in Oil Refineries inJapan;
Case Study of Problems and Countermeasures in
Participant’s Project Management;
Recent Technologies for High Pressure Vessel
Manufacturing;
Project Planning and Management in the Refinery;
Tank Inspection Planning and Execution & TPM Activity;
Recent Technologies for Turbine and Boiler;
Project Management for EPC Project & HSE Evaluation;
Project Schedule Management Practice;
Project Engineering for EPC Project by Utilizing IT;
Project Cost Management;
Project Risk Management and Contract

Lecturer: Fumihiro Tone

<11 countries / 14 participants>

Site visits:

The Japan Steel Works, Ltd. (Muroran Plant);
Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd. (Hokkaido Refinery);
Hokkaido Joint OIl Stockpiling Co., Ltd. (Hokkaido Office);
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (Takasago Works)

Countries:

China, Iraq, Kuwait, Mexico, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, Thailand, UAE, Vietnam

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

• Personnel Exchange Programs • 45

TR-12-11
Content:

Site visits:

Countries:

TR-13-11
Content:

Petroleum Marketing & Oil Terminal
October 11 – October 28, 2011

Lecturer: Kazuo Kojima

Petroleum Industry in Japan;
Management by Rational Thinking Process;
Crude Oil Terminal by Private Sector;
Production of Pipelines & Maintenance;
Delivery & Storage of Oil Products & Maintenance;
Shipping System & Maintenance at Refinery;
Crude Oil Terminal by Government Sector;
Jet Fuel Facilities & Refueling to Airplane at the
Airport; New Automobile Fuel & Vapor Recovery
Technology;
World Energy Situation<10 countries / 17 participants>
JX Nippon Oil & Energy Staging Terminal Corporation(Kiire Base);
JFE Steel Company (West Works);
JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corporation (Fukuoka Oil Depot);
JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corporation (Mizushima Refinery);
JOGMEC (Shirashima National Oil Stockpiling Base);
Central Japan International Airport (Centrair Fueling Facilities Company)
Brazil, China, Indonesia, Nigeria, Sudan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, UAE, Uzbekistan, Vietnam

Advanced Field Device and Control
October 11 – October 28, 2011
Design of Field Instrumentation/Design of TypicalControl Loop;
Latest Instrument Technology/Recent Trend of
Instrument and Control;
Latest DCS and Wireless Sensor/Operation Support
System Practice;
Process Control Theory/PID Controller and Tuning
Method & Practice;
Safety Instrumented System/Practice of SIS;
Vibration Measurements and Diagnosis/Practice ofBalancing Method;
Design of Control Valve/Practice of Maintenance;
Design of Flow Meters/Practice of Maintenance;
Design of Level Gauges/Practice of Maintenance;
Refinery Information and Control System

Lecturer: Shigeru Matsui<10 countries / 15 participants>

Site visits:

Yokogawa Electric Corporation;
Invensys Process System Japan, Inc.;
Shinkawa Sensor Technology, Inc.;
Yamatake Corporation;
Endress+Hauser Japan Co., Ltd.;
Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd. (Tokuyama Refinery)Countries:

China, Colombia, Indonesia, Iraq, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, UAE, Vietnam

46 • Personnel Exchange Programs •JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

FY2012 JCCP Course Schedule
In FY2012, JCCP will offer 24 courses, including 21 regular courses (TR) and 2 intensive courses (IT), as
shown below.
Course No.

Course Title

PeriodTR-1-12Petroleum Marketing

Apr. 9 – 26, 2012

TR-2-12Upgrading Processes of Heavy Oil

Apr. 9 – 26, 2012

TR-3-12DCS Fundamentals and Applications

Apr. 9 – 26, 2012

TR-4-12Essential Petroleum Technologies in the Future

May 8 – 25, 2012

TR-5-12Petroleum Distribution

May 29 – Jun. 15, 2012

TR-6-12Maintenance Management

May 29 – Jun. 15, 2012

TR-7-12

Refinery Management

May 30 – Jun. 13, 2012

TR-8-12

Practical Training for Younger Instrument and Control EngineersJun. 5 – Jul. 13, 2012

TR-9-12

Safety Management for Refineries

Jun. 19 – Jul. 6, 2012

TR-10-12

Diagnostic Techniques and Maintenance for Rotary Machinery

Jun. 19 – Jul. 6, 2012

TR-11-12

Human Resource Management (HRM)

Sep. 18 – Oct. 5, 2012

TR-12-12

Environmental Management

Sep. 18 – Oct. 5, 2012

TR-13-12

Project Management for Mechanical Engineers

Sep. 18 – Oct. 5, 2012

TR-14-12

Advanced Field Devices and Control

TR-15-12

Gas Processing for LNG

Oct. 30 – Nov. 16, 2012

TR-16-12

Material Problems and Their Countermeasures

Oct. 30 – Nov. 16, 2012

TR-17-12

Information and Control Systems Utilized in Refineries

Nov. 20 – Dec. 7, 2012

IT-1-12Turnaround and Inspection

Nov. 26 – Dec. 7, 2012

IT-2-12Finance and Accounting Management

Nov. 26 – Dec. 5, 2012

TR-18-12

Energy Saving for Profitability Improvement

Jan. 15 – Feb. 1, 2013

TR-19-12

Inspection and Reliability Evaluation

Jan. 15 – Feb. 1, 2013

TR-20-12

Quality Management of Refinery Products

Feb. 5 – 22, 2013

TR-21-12

Advanced Process Control on DCS

Feb. 5 – 22, 2013

TR-22-12

Human Resource Development (HRD)

Feb. 12 –Mar. 1, 2013

Oct. 9 – 26, 2012

Marketing, Distribution, HRM, FinanceRefining Process, LNG

Maintenance, Inspection,
Project Management

Control, Instrumentation

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

• Personnel Exchange Programs • 47

Researcher Invitation Program

Technical
Cooperation

As part of JCCP’s FY2011 Researcher Invitation
Program, three researchers from King Fahd Universityof Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) were invited
to Japan and engaged in the following studies under
the cooperation of the Japan Petroleum Institute andJapanese universities.
1. Dr. Mohammad Shamsuzzoha,
Assistant Professor, Chemical Engineering
Department, KFUPM
Dr. Shamsuzzoha studied “process control of divided
wall distillation” under the guidance of Dr. Hiroya Seki,
Associate Professor, Chemical Resources Laboratory,
Tokyo Institute of Technology, from June 30 to August
15. He visited JCCP on August 9 to present his study
results.

Dr. Mohammad Shamsuzzoha

2. Dr. Nabil Al-Yassir, Assistant Professor,
Center of Research Excellence in Petroleum andRefining & Petrochemicals, Research Institute,
KFUPM
Dr. Al-Yassir studied “materials design of complex
metal oxide catalysts” under the guidance of Dr. Wataru
Ueda, Professor, Catalyst Research Center, Hokkaido
University, from July 11 to August 19. He visited JCCP
on August 22 to present his study results.
Dr. Nabil Al-Yassir

3. Dr. Oki Muraza, Assistant Professor,
Center of Research Excellence in
Nanotechnology, Chemical Engineering
Department, KFUPM
Dr. Muraza studied “zeolite nanocrystals as building
blocks for improved refining catalysts” under theguidance of Dr. Takao Masuda, Professor, Graduate
School of Engineering, Hokkaido University, from July
11 to August 25. He visited JCCP on August 26 to present
his study results.
In future, JCCP has plans to invite researchers
from Venezuela, Iraq and Kuwait to conduct studies inJapan.
<by Sadao Wada, Technical Cooperation Dept.>48 • Technical Cooperation •JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

Dr. Oki Muraza

FY2010 Long-term Researcher
Dispatch Program
Since 2007, JCCP has been implementing a programof dispatching Japanese researchers to engage inadvanced research and guidance at King Fahd Universityof Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Saudi Aramco andKuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR), as an
initiative that combines JCCP programs (International
Joint Research Scheme and Technical Cooperation
Program). On September 5, a FY2010 briefing meeting
was held with the attendance of some thirty members.
Three researchers are currently engaged in research andguidance at the three institutions, and are contributing tostrengthening cooperation with oil-producing countries
through technical transfer and personnel exchange. The
profiles of the three researchers are provided below.
1. Dr. Hideshi Hattori(Professor Emeritus, Hokkaido University)(1) Host institution
Center for Refining & Petrochemicals ResearchInstitute, King Fahd University of Petroleum andMinerals, Saudi Arabia(2) Research theme
R&D of solid acid and solid base catalysts for
petroleum refining and petrochemical applications(3) Summary of activities
Dr. Hattori has been conducting research and guidanceat KFUPM’s Center for Refining & Petrochemicals
Research Institute since commencement of the Longterm Researcher Dispatch Program in 2007. In fiscal
2010, he provided counsel and proposals regarding
his research theme, such as for the establishmentof research policies and installation of devices,and prepared a research plan for “development of
catalysts for styrene and ethylbenzene production
through toluene side chain alkylation” that will
be submitted to King Abdulaziz City for Scienceand Technology (KACST) for application for
grant funding. Dr. Hattori also presented part of
the results of his study on “catalysts for alkane
isomerization and aromatic transformation reactions
for high-quality gasoline” at the TOCAT6/APCAT5
conference held in July as the only oral presentationfrom Saudi Arabia.

Technical
Cooperation

Dr. Katsuomi Takehira (front row, second from left)
Dr. Hideshi Hattori (front row, third from left)
Dr. Hidehiro Higashi (front row, third from right)

2. Dr. Katsuomi Takehira(Professor Emeritus, Hiroshima University)(1) Host institution
KAUST Center-in-Development (KCID) on
Transformative Research in Petrochemicals andPolymers Project Center, King Fahd University ofPetroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia(2) Research theme
R&D of catalysts for petrochemical feedstock
production by dehydrogenation(3) Summary of activities
Dr. Takehira has been providing research guidanceon the development of styrene production catalyst
by ethylbenzene dehydrogenation at KFUPM since
fiscal 2009. His study has been published in four
separate papers in Applied Catalysis A: General,and is highly acclaimed both inside and outside ofSaudi Arabia. Additionally, a KFUPM researcher
submitted to the academic journal Chemical
Engineering Journal a paper on the results of areaction engineering analysis of ethylbenzene
dehydrogenation in a riser simulator using a catalyst
prepared and structurally analyzed by Dr. Takehiraand his students, along with data from the structural
analysis of the catalyst, and acknowledged Dr.
Takehira’s profound achievement.

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

• Technical Cooperation • 49

3. Dr. Hidehiro Higashi(formerly from JGC Catalysts and Chemicals Ltd.)(1) Host institution
Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR)(2) Research theme
Research assistance on enhancement assessment
performance of pilot tests on direct desulfurization
catalysts and improvement of refinery operations(3) Summary of activities
Dr. Higashi has been active in improving the issue
in Kuwait where the reactors of existing direct
desulfurization units are extremely difficult tocontrol, and there is strong need for operational
improvement measures. He has begun making
preparations for the construction of a cold flow
simulator model that would allow replication offlows inside the reactor, examining flows insidea reactor equipped with a tracking device, andexamining the application of the nanobubble
technology to refinery wastewater treatment
unit. Dr. Higashi also engages in a wide range ofBriefing meeting held on Sept. 5

activities for improving refinery operations, suchas by assisting KISR researchers, providing advice
on test and analysis methods, offering decisions on
the selection and combination of catalysts for actual
operations, and promoting greater understanding of
catalyst performance.
<by Sadao Wada, Technical Cooperation Dept.>

50 • Technical Cooperation •JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

TechnicalCooperation

Signing Ceremonyfor Phase II of Treatment and Utilizationof the Oilfield-produced Water in Oman

Signing ceremony at SQU

JCCP commenced Phase II of Treatment andUtilization of the Oilfield-produced Water in Oman
this fiscal year with Sultan Qaboos University (SQU)
as the counterpart and Shimizu Corporation as a partnercompany on the Japanese side, and held a signingceremony with SQU on September 27. Phase II comeson the heels of a successful demonstration test conductedin the first phase of the project from 2007 to 2010.

1. Background and Technical Development
Overview
In Oman, three to six times more oilfield-produced
water is pumped up from the oilfields compared to theactual volume of oil that is excavated, and is one of thecountry’s most serious environmental concerns. The
southern oilfields, in particular, produce as much as
300,000 tons of water per day. This corresponds to 1.5
times the volume of water used daily in the capital cityof Muscat, and is clearly an enormous amount of water
resource. The effective utilization of produced water
would help solve the waste issue that accompanies oilfielddevelopment, and could also contribute significantly to
Oman’s vision of achieving sustainable development
through the cultivation of new water sources.

A feasibility study on the treatment of oilfieldproduced water was carried out from 2007 to 2009, andindicated that a number of different issues related to
produced water exist in Oman according to region andoilfield. Based on this study, a compact, container-sizedmobile pilot treatment plant was designed in fiscal 2010,
with future plans for its installation in various different
oilfields.
The first pilot plant was installed and operated ona test basis in the Mina Al Fahal (MAF) Refinery ofPetroleum Development Oman (PDO). Hereafter, it will
be moved to an actual oilfield where a demonstration
test will be performed toward application of the plantto oilfield-produced water in various oilfields in the
country.
The daily volume of oilfield-produced water ranges
from 1,000 to 300,000 m3, but is considerably larger
than what the pilot plant can treat. Therefore, a plan forincreasing the scale of the plant will be discussed during
FY2011, so that the plant can be applied to the treatmentof actual volumes of oilfield-produced water.
There are more than 2,000 oil wells in Oman.
The quality of oilfield-produced water greatly differs
according to each oil well, but most of the produced watercontains oil, phenol, and larger concentrations of boron

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

• Technical Cooperation • 51

than was previously thought, as well as heavy metals,
ammonia (which does not fall under any restrictions inJapan), and substances restricted by effluent regulations,such as barium and lithium. For this reason, measures
will be taken to assess not only the removal of oil content
from actual oilfield-produced water, but also the removalof restricted substances using adsorbents.
Various considerations have been given to dateconcerning the utilization of treated oilfield-produced
water for agricultural irrigation. However, someproduced water contains a high concentration of salt
and cannot be used for irrigation even after it is treated.
Therefore, studies are now being made to examine its
potential application to culturing algae. Algae culture
is attracting widespread attention in recent years as apromising new industry, and weather conditions in the
Middle East are said to be extremely suitable. Moreover,as it was found that some types of algae accumulate highconcentrations of vitamins and other types accumulatehydrocarbons and other alternative fuel materials, further
studies will be made into the possibility of developing
the algae culture industry as a new branch of the oil
industry.

2. Signing Ceremony
Phase II of the demonstration test will be performed
in a number of oilfields in Oman following the successful
completion of the test using the above-mentioned compact
and mobile produced-water pilot treatment plant at a crude

Pilot plant installed in the MAF Refinery

oil terminal. At the signing ceremony for Phase II held at
SQU, Prof. Amer Ali Al Rawas, Deputy Vice Chancellorof SQU, and Mr. Morihiro Yoshida, Managing Directorof JCCP, signed the agreement, and Dr. Ali bin Saud
Al-Bemani, Vice Chancellor of SQU, delivered a speechcommending the success of the project so far and thanking
JCCP for the continuation of the project as Phase II. Mr.
Shinichi Yamanaka, Counselor at the Japanese Embassyin Oman, also gave a speech in praise of the successful
technical transfer between Oman and Japan; Mr. Yoshidathanked the Omani side for its smooth promotion of the
project and asked for its continued support; and Mr.
Keiji Shiba, project leader from Shimizu Corporation,
thanked all parties concerned for their support of thedemonstration test and asked for their cooperation once
again in implementing continued tests.
News of the ceremony appeared in four newspapers(one English-language and three Arabic) the following
day.
<by Kenji Ikushima, Technical Cooperation Dept.>

52 • Technical Cooperation •JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

TechnicalCooperation

Signing Ceremony with KFUPM
for the Project on “Development ofHigh Olefin Yield FCC Catalyst”

Signing ceremony:(Front row, from left) Dr. Mohammad Al-Homoud, Vice Rector for Academic Affairs, KFUPM;
and Mr. Morihiro Yoshida, Managing Director of JCCP
(Back row, from left) Dr. Sulaiman Al-Khattaf, Director of KFUPM Center for Refining and Petrochemicals;and Mr. Masaki Ikematsu, Senior Vice President, JX Nippon Research Institute, Ltd.

On September 14, 2011, JCCP and King Fahd
University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) helda contract signing ceremony for implementation of thejoint research on “Development of High Olefin Yield FCC
Catalyst” at KFUPM in Saudi Arabia. In the presenceof Mr. Mitsuru Murase, Counsellor at the Embassy ofJapan in Saudi Arabia, the contract was signed by Dr.
Mohammad Al-Homoud, Vice-Rector for Academic
Affairs, who stood in for Dr. Sahel N. Abdul-Jauwad,
Vice-Rector for Applied Research; and Mr. Morihiro
Yoshida, Managing Director of JCCP. Also present were
Mr. Masaki Ikematsu, Senior Vice President, JX Nippon
Research Institute, Ltd., and Mr. Yasuharu Furukawa,
Managing Director, JGC Catalysts & Chemicals Ltd.,
representing the participating companies on the Japaneseside. News about the ceremony and details of the project
was published in a number of local newspapers.
In his opening speech, Dr. Al-Homoud described that
KFUPM has developed excellent ties with JCCP andother partners in Japan over the past two decades, and thejoint research on FCC catalysts is a continuation of thesuccess story of the fruitful collaboration with JCCP in

this important area. He also thanked all parties concerned
for their unified cooperation to achieve the goal ofenhancing KFUPM’s capability and expertise in catalyst
design for increased olefin production, and expressed his
expectation that the new project would deepen mutual
understanding, ties, and friendship and further expand
collaboration between the two organizations into a
broader range of other areas of mutual interest.
Mr. Murase commented on Saudi Arabia and Japan’s
mutually important relationship, and said the KFUPMJCCP joint study is expected not only to contribute to
Saudi Aramco’s intent and vision for 2020 by increasing
production of olefin, but also to strengthening thegeneral friendship of the two countries, including theircomplementary relationship in the energy sector.
Mr. Yoshida expressed his heartfelt gratitude for themessage of warm sympathy extended by the peopleof Saudi Arabia after the March 11 earthquake andtsunami, saying that their support and encouragement
gave Japan courage to overcome the disaster. He thentalked about the joint studies that JCCP and KFUPM
have implemented over the 18 years since 1993. In regard

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

• Technical Cooperation • 53

to the study of FCC catalysts for high olefin production,
he explained that while a previous project, which was
implemented from 2008 to 2010, placed emphasis mainly
on how to evaluate FCC catalysts, the new project thatbegins in 2011 will aim to enhance the technical levelof FCC catalysts to increase the production of olefins
not only from heavier feed oil but also from lighter
feed oil, naphtha. Project activities include supplying
a micro-activity test (MAT) unit for naphtha trial orderfor FCC test catalysts, and basic research up to thepractical research on the correlation between the design
specification of FCC catalyst and olefin yield.
Mr. Yoshida also said he hoped the project would
be conducted successfully as well, with the effort andcooperation of all parties involved, and reaffirmed JCCP’scommitment to build a firm and reliable relationshipbetween Saudi Arabia and Japan by conducting the joint
technical projects.
Messrs. Ikematsu and Furukawa introduced theirrespective companies, JX Nippon Research Institute and
JGC Catalysts and Chemicals, and expressed enthusiasm
for their participation in the project.

Project Overview
1. BackgroundIn recent years, Saudi Aramco has experienced anincreasing demand for olefins such as polypropylene.
Therefore, in order to increase olefin production, it has

asked KFUPM to conduct a study on FCC catalysts thatwould provide a higher yield of olefins from naphtha,
light oil, etc. compared with conventional catalysts.
Under such circumstances, KFUPM and JCCP haveagreed to carry out a joint R&D project on FCC catalysts
for high olefin yield from fiscal 2011 to 2013, basedon the results of a previous project on “Enhancementof FCC Catalyst Evaluation,” which was implemented
from fiscal 2008 to 2010.
The new project aims to enhance KFUPM’s technicalcapability to an adequate level for designing FCC
catalysts for high olefin production by assessing thecorrelation between FCC catalyst composition and olefinyield by using vacuum gas oil feed and naphtha feed.

2. Overview of the Previous Project
The new project is based on the results of a previous
project that was implemented over the past three
years with a focus on the introduction of FCC catalyst
performance evaluation technologies. In that project,an advanced cracking evaluation unit (ACE unit) was
introduced to KFUPM to evaluate FCC catalysts forgas oil and other heavy oil feedstock, and operational
training of the unit was provided at the Central TechnicalResearch Laboratory of JX Nippon Oil & Energy
Corporation. Additionally, lectures on FCC catalyst
evaluation methods were provided by researchers fromJGC Catalysts and Chemicals Ltd. The project came to a
successful conclusion after achieving the intended results

Members of the signing ceremony:(Front row, from left) Mr. Yasuharu Furukawa, Managing Director, JGC Catalysts & Chemicals Ltd.;Mr. Mitsuru Murase, Minister at the Japan Embassy in Saudi Arabia;
Dr. Mohammad Al-Homoud, Vice Rector for Academic Affairs, KFUPM;
Mr. Morihiro Yoshida, Managing Director of JCCP;
Dr. Sulaiman Al-Khattaf, Director of KFUPM Center for Refining and Petrochemicals;
Mr. Masaki Ikematsu, Senior Vice President, JX Nippon Research Institute, Ltd.; andMr. Kenji Nita, General Manager, JCCP Riyadh Office

54 • Technical Cooperation •JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

in introducing FCC catalyst evaluation technologies forgas oil and other heavy oil feedstock.

phase relating to the correlation between FCC catalyst
design and olefin yield will be studied.

3. New Project

FY2013:
Based on the results acquired in FY2011 and FY2012,
the practical research phase for applying the FCC
catalyst to high olefin production will be studied.

The new project that begins in fiscal 2011 will take
Saudi Aramco and KFUPM’s requests into consideration
and will focus on technologies for the developmentof FCC catalysts that would produce high yields of
propylene and other olefins not only from gas oil andother heavy oil feedstock, but also from light naphtha
feedstock. For this purpose, a naphtha micro-activity test
unit (MAT unit) will be installed at KFUPM.
The following is the basic outline of the project.
FY2011:An FCC catalyst design for high olefin production
will be created, and the test production of the catalyst
will be outsourced to a specified manufacturer. The
performance of the test-produced catalyst will then be
evaluated, and basic research relating to the correlation
between FCC catalyst design and olefin yield will be
studied.
FY2012:
Based on the results of the above, the applied research

4. Future Prospects
If the new three-year R&D project achieves theintended result in laying the foundation for creating
an FCC catalyst design that could be applied to acommercial FCC unit for high olefin yield, an order forthe production of novel FCC catalysts will be placedwith a specified manufacturer, and the catalysts will beapplied to FCC units in Saudi Aramco’s refineries. Then,by evaluating the performance of equilibrium catalysts,
improvements will be made to the cracking performanceand physical properties of the FCC catalysts. Ultimately,
it would be possible to develop novel commercial FCC
catalysts that deliver stable cracking performance andphysical properties for higher yields of propylene andother olefins compared with conventional catalysts,
and thereby contribute a great deal to Saudi Aramco’s
refineries for yielding large profits.
<by Hironao Naganuma, Technical Cooperation Dept.>

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

• Technical Cooperation • 55

TechnicalCooperation

Ex-post Evaluation Committee
for Projects Completed in FY2010
1. Overview
In fiscal 2006, JCCP established a system for theevaluation of all technical cooperation projects upon theircompletion. Multiple-year projects are comprehensively
evaluated in terms of their initial planning, management,
adjustment in response to the rate of progress and changes
in the external environment, and achievement including thedegree of satisfaction of the beneficiary country. The overall
results and direction acquired from the comprehensive
evaluation are then fed back into subsequent projects toconstantly enhance the general efficiency and effectivenessof technical cooperation projects.

2. FY2010 Ex-post Committee
The FY2010 Ex-post Committee held its first meeting on
June 13, 2011 and its second meeting on July 26, 2011. The
committee was headed by Dr. Ichiro Okura, Executive Vice
President for Planning at Tokyo Institute of Technology,
and was composed of three members, namely Dr. Yoshiki
Ogawa, Professor, Department of Policy Studies, Facultyof Economics, Toyo University; Dr. Masatoshi Sugioka,
Contract Professor, Faculty of Engineering, MuroranInstitute of Technology; and Dr. Noritaka Mizuno,
Professor, Department of Applied Chemistry, School ofEngineering, The University of Tokyo.

3. FY2010 Projects for Evaluation
The Ex-post Committee evaluated four projects
this year. The following are the overall results of theirevaluation, based on their assessment of each projectfrom four perspectives: “project goal and status,”“project management,” “degree of achievement of the
project goal,” and “practical application and spin-off
effects of the project.”(1) Project on Enhancement of FCC Catalyst
Evaluation Technologies (Saudi Arabia)
1) GoalThis project aimed to contribute to increasing the
production of high added-value gasoline base materials

56 • Technical Cooperation •by transferring Japan’s advanced catalyst improvement
technologies to Saudi Arabia.
2) Evaluation
Sufficient technical assistance has been provided
for installation of an FCC catalyst evaluation unit, andthe intended results of the project have been achieved.
Operational technologies for the evaluation unit havetaken root, and the unit is now being used on a continuous
basis in Saudi Arabia. The project has also provided
support for human resource development, and has
contributed to building technical capacities in Saudi
Arabia through the transfer of technologies related to
the FCC catalyst evaluation unit.
(2) Study on the Treatment and Utilization of
Oilfield-produced Water (Oman)
1) GoalThis project aimed to transfer technologies forprocessing oilfield-produced water associated with crude
oil production in Oman, so that produced water could
be reutilized in mining crude oil and any surplus could
be used for irrigation. It was also expected to mitigate
environmental loads by reducing the amount of produced
water that is discharged to the surrounding environment.
Thus, the ultimate goals of the technical transfer wereto eliminate the environmental constraints that accompany
crude oil production, contribute to increasing crude oil
production in Oman from both the environmental andeconomic aspects, and ensure a stable supply of crude
oil to Japan.
2) Evaluation
As a result of introducing a pilot plant for a lowcost wastewater treatment system and conducting an
operational test, the project demonstrated that oil content
in wastewater could be treated/recovered at low cost. The
pilot plant was unveiled in an opening ceremony attended
by H.E. Dr. Mohammed Saif Al-Rumhi, Minister of Oil& Gas; H.E. Mr. Seiji Morimoto, Japanese Ambassador
to Oman; Mr. Raoul M. Restucci, Managing Director of
PDO; and Dr. Ali bin Saud Al-Bemani, Vice Chancellorof SQU. News of the ceremony was reported by six
newspapers in Oman and also by Japanese broadcastingstation NHK, and garnered widespread attention about

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

Rendering of the oilfield-produced water treatment facility

installation or renovation were timely measures with highprobability of being executed hereafter. With ORPC’s
cooperation, the project has achieved its intended goal.
The project has addressed many problems and flaws,
and has thoroughly imparted to ORPC personnel not
only simple measures for addressing those flaws, butalso methods for establishing countermeasures basedon a fundamental analysis of their causes. In this way,
it has provided a large frame of reference to ORPC
personnel, and has contributed to the development ofOmani engineers.
* The company now operates under the name of Oman Oil
Refineries and Petroleum Industries Co. (ORPIC).

the project in both Oman and Japan.
The new treatment technology is far more advanced
than the conventional method of using an inorganic
coagulant to remove oil content. Therefore, if thetechnology’s practical viability can be proven by thesubsequent operation of the pilot plant, the technology
can be expected to take root in Oman. Moreover, oilfieldproduced water treatment and utilization technology
is sought not only in Oman but also in many otheroil-producing countries, so JCCP may be expected toplay a central role in transferring the technology to all
oil-producing countries in the future. Thus, the intended
results of the project have been fully achieved.
(3) Study for Process and Operational
Improvement in Mina Al Fahal Refinery (Oman)
1) GoalThis project aimed to improve and increase efficiency ofrefinery operations in Oman without undertaking a largescale renovation of refinery units but by implementing
small-scale works or modifying the operating conditionsof refinery units, and thereby allow refineries to increase
their production of high value-added products. The transfer
of technologies for the production of environment-friendly
gasoline was also expected to expand Oman’s gasoline
sales channels in Europe and contribute to increasing the
profitability of Oman’s refineries.
2) Evaluation
Project components were selected based on mutual
agreement between JCCP and Oman Refineries andPetrochemicals Company LLC (ORPC)*, in terms of
their relevance to issues that were specifically identified
by ORPC. Many of the components were implemented
immediately after the report, and those for which a
feasibility study was conducted from the perspective of(4) Technology Introduction for Improvement ofReactor Efficiency at Esfahan Refinery (Iran)
1) GoalThis project aimed to improve the catalyst loading
method for hydrocracking units in Iran’s refineries forincreased production of high-quality kerosene and gas oil
without requiring spending on equipment renovation.
2) Evaluation
Overall, the project has achieved its intended goal
regarding activities for the introduction of a catalystloading method, despite the issues that arose in the final
year of the project, which prevented Japanese project
members from traveling to Iran. The technology canbe expected to spread to other refineries operated by
National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Co.
(NIORDC) and eventually take root throughout Iran,but some type of follow-up activities need to be taken
toward this end.
The project has contributed to enhancing technicalcapacities in Iran, and has increased recognition ofJapan’s technologies. In fact, the technical transfer
and human resource development for catalyst loading
and operation of hydrocracker reactors are showing
sustainable effects in the country.

4. Summary
The members of the Ex-post Evaluation Committee
gave high marks to the four relevant projects, andprovided valuable recommendations and views for future
improvement. JCCP will give serious consideration totheir guidance and advice, and apply it to improving
the implementation and evaluation of future technicalcooperation projects.
<by Kenji Ikushima, Technical Cooperation Dept.>

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

• Technical Cooperation • 57

Announcement

Please Help Us Update Our Roster
Thank you for reading JCCP NEWS as always.
JCCP will reach a significant milestone in its history this autumn.
We will be celebrating JCCP’s 30 years of operations, during which more than 20,000 participants have attended
JCCP training programs.
In commemorating this achievement, we extend our deepest appreciation to you all for your support andcooperation in our activities.
All of you who have participated in a JCCP training program in the past (graduates) are a precious asset to
JCCP. We therefore wish to take this occasion to confirm your current addresses and update our roster of former
participants so that we may reconnect and maintain contact with you into the future.
Our current roster mostly shows information that you provided at the time you participated in a JCCP training
program, and could be outdated by now. If there have been any changes in your affiliation (position), email address,
or any other contact information, we ask that you provide the latest information on the attached registration form andreturn the form to JCCP’s Planning & Public Relations Group. Those of you who return the form to us are entitled
to receive the latest issues of JCCP NEWS and announcements and invitations to exhibitions and reunions.
Also, if you know of anyone who is a former participant but is not receiving copies of JCCP NEWS, or anyone
who wishes to update his/her contact information, we would appreciate it if you would forward this message andthe attached form to that person.
Thank you for your cooperation.

Hisayoshi Tanda
General Manager, Planning & Coordination
Masumi Kitahara (Ms.)
Manager, Planning & Public Relations

58 • Announcements •JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

Personnel Change
Outgoing Personnel
Technical
Cooperation
Department

Hiroshi IIDA

Thank you for reading JCCP NEWS.
If you have any comments or feedback you wish to make about
this newsletter, or if there has been a change to your mailingaddress, please email us at planning@jccp.or.jp.

Editorial Postscript
As mentioned in the message from Mr. Sase, Executive Director of JCCP, at the beginning of this issue, JCCP iscelebrating its 30th anniversary this year. More than 20,000 participants from oil-producing countries have received
training in Japan through JCCP to date, and many have gone on to assume key positions in oil companies in theirrespective countries. In celebration of this special occasion, we received a congratulatory message from a JCCP
graduate, Ms. Juniwati Rahmat Hussin, Vice President of Human Resource Management at PETRONAS, and haveprinted it on page 4. In the same way, we plan to publish messages from JCCP graduates in future issues of JCCP
NEWS to more widely promote understanding of JCCP’s long-standing history, activities and role in establishing
personal relationships among people in the global oil industry.
We thank you for reading JCCP NEWS, and hope you will continue to favor us with your readership.
Masumi Kitahara
JCCP Editor
Planning & Public Relations Group

JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012

• Announcements • 59

Japan Cooperation Center, Petroleum (JCCP)
Headquarters
Sunshine 60 Building 58F, 3-1-1 Higashi-Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo 170-6058, Japan• Administration Department• Operations Department• Training Department• Technical Cooperation Department

TEL. +81-3-5396-6000
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JCCP NEWS No. 111 January 2012