
Well, here I go again. A week or so ago, I found myself watching Bloomberg television and they had chosen to broadcast a Presidential news conference. Former President Bill Clinton was speaking, quite authoritatively, on a number of various topics. It seems current President Barack Obama had given Mr. Clinton the chance to explain some of his latest passions.
I laughed as I realized I was also back working for my former employer which I began working for when Mr. Clinton was the sitting president (1999). It was surely a trip back to the past in more than one way.
A friend or two had given me a heads up about a project they were working on where my background could be of help. It seems a customer from 2006-2007 was expanding a plant I worked on back then. The plant is built in a very harsh environment and has lots of special design features to make the power equipment last longer.
I accepted their offer of employment and I began work in December. I was doing some initial research just to get an idea of the latest information about the project. Wikipedia had a great article about the region and the project itself. In fact, I found this great video that features the project.
The news show "60 Minutes" features the Shaybah project as part of a story on the Saudi Arabian effort to increase oil production. More than just critical to Saudi Arabia maintaining their standard of living, the effort to keep producing oil in harsher areas like Shaybah takes on a more epic light when the man being interviewed, Mr. Ali Al-Naimi, mentioned the real struggle to keep hostile regimes from increasing oil prices at will. By expanding the plant, oil prices can be reduced or maintained, and oil prices and profits are prevented from unduly enriching these regimes.
It sounds like a mission from a movie or a great book when I think about it that way. I am ready for the next adventure. I can't wait to get back.... to the future.