This Oil supplier is worried....

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

http://www.iea.org/ieay2k/Presents/keithsn.ppt

Looks like this oil supplier is more than a little concerned about their factory workers all skipping out come the new year. Notice in the presentation how they outline all the "comforting" they must give their workers so they don't bolt. Interesting.

-- CygnusXI (noburnt@toast.net), September 20, 1999

Answers

CygnusXI,

Care to quote a few snips? (Not all of us have PowerPoint).

Thanks,

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), September 20, 1999.


And on a different, but related, note...

Russia's gas exporting company is facing tremedous y2k-related problems. Greenspun doesn't think this will affect the economy, but 1/4 of Europe's natural gas supply might be shutdown for while early next year....

link is: http://invest.russiatoday.com/business.php3?id=93255

< LONDON, Sep 18, 1999 -- (Reuters) Millennium bug problems in the energy industry have the potential to disrupt Russian gas supply and the gas oil futures market shows evidence of worries over Russian deliveries, a leading oil analyst said on Friday.

Peter Gignoux, of Salomon Smith Barney, told a conference on world oil prices that gas monopoly Gazprom might face problems in supplying domestic and foreign customers.

U.S. intelligence officials have identified Gazprom's natural gas pipeline network as being susceptible to potential Y2K outages, he said.

Gazprom, which has assets including a quarter of the world's natural gas, supplies about five percent of Western European consumption so its impact there is expected to be small.

Much more vulnerable is Russia itself, which relies on Gazprom for 50 percent of its total energy requirements and Eastern Europe, which gets 15 percent of its needs from the company.

Among the potential problems U.S. officials had identified were Soviet-era mainframe computers used in Gazprom's pipeline operations centers, as well as satellite ground stations used to transfer data from gas-producing regions to the gas company's headquarters.

Unattended equipment stations in Siberia might also be vulnerable to disruptions, as might 600 compressor stations which pump gas through the pipeline network.

"Clearly not enough money has been spent in certain areas," Gignoux said.

He quoted the Russian military as saying in March this year that it had less than $4 million to tackle the computer bug in its strategic nuclear forces.

"By comparison, my firm has budgeted and will have spent some $950 million for Y2K preparation," he said.

The West's energy watchdog, the International Energy Agency (IEA), said in July it did not think Russian energy supplies would face major disruptions and that while some Russian energy firms were slow in starting Y2K preparations they were catching up.

Gazprom officials said earlier this year they were working to avoid falling prey to the bug and confident activities would not suffer from the transition to the year 2000.

Gignoux said the European gas oil futures market showed evidence that players were taking positions on the possibility of disruption to deliveries of Russian gas oil at the end of the year.

Prices for the December contract currently show a near $10 premium over those for March next year, by which time any Y2K problems are expected to be history.

The millennium bug is expected to cause computers using old programs to spew out incorrect data or crash altogether because they are unable to distinguish between the years 1900 and 2000.

(C)1999 Copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters Limited.>>

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), September 20, 1999.


Well here's some info.

The presentation was for the Trinidad/Tobago area. Dated May of 99. Oil companies represented were: Texaco,British Gas,National Gas,Petrotrin,Amoco,Enron.

The report said to let them (the workers) work the plan(y2k), then they will want to prove the plan right. It also lists THREAT: Unavailability of key competencies/resources. CONSIDERATION: Workforce unwilling to face plant risk. Workforces unwilling to leave family at risk. SOLOUTIONS: Communication stratigies.

A couple of theese Communication stratigies are defined as: A monthly y2k bulliten, a y2k Hotline, and this one really cracks me up, Face to face shop floor/coffee break talks.

Anyway if you get a chance check out the whole thing, it does raise some good ideas, but to say they aren't concerned is silly. They also list the other utillities that contributed/represented.

-- CygnusXI (noburnt@toast.net), September 20, 1999.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ