Production Manager - Salt Dome Operations

Description

• The Dow Chemical Company has an exciting opportunity for a Production Manager - Salt Dome Operations(SDO) Caverns located in Freeport, TX. This role is an integrated position which combines the caverns production engineer and SDO work Integration Leader responsibilities. The caverns Production Manager will also be administrative leader for the caverns technicians which support day to day operations.
• SDO is aligned to the Mining/Storage/Pipeline(MSP) value center within the Hydrocarbons and Energy Business. SDO is a key cornerstone for the success and reliability of Texas Operations. 70% of all products produced at TXOP’s hinge upon SDO’s ability to remain reliable and on-line in order to support the chlor-alkali and hydrocarbons envelopes. Due to the criticality of the asset, the business is in the middle of a significant reinvestment plan to improve reliability and longevity of the infrastructure. SDO is also a major player in the success of the Texas Gulfstream Projects, PDH-1 and TX-9. From 2010-2015 the business is projecting to spend $350MM-$500MM in capital to support the rehab and growth projects. Salt Dome is a very unique operation for Dow as we not only deal with the typical unit operations of a standard chemical plant, but we also work with drilling technology and geology as in the oil fields. The basic premise at SDO is to use pressurized water down-hole to solution mine salt which produces large underground caverns. This salt is sent to Chlor-alkali where they strip the chlorine away and use it for downstream derivatives. Once the cavern has been mined to its maximum size, SDO then converts the cavern for underground hydrocarbon storage. A typical underground storage cavern is 300’ in diameter by 900’ tall.
• As Caverns Production Engineer, the successful candidate will be responsible for the safe operation of over 30 active solution mining and hydrocarbon storage caverns. The caverns production engineer will have the unique opportunity within Dow to learn drilling and mining technology much like what is used in the oil fields. The caverns engineer will learn all aspects of how to drill a well, how to complete regulatory required inspections and any needed repairs, and how to generate the data(sonars, interface logs, etc.) needed to make business decisions for the ongoing use and maintenance of the cavern, etc. The value of the active caverns is in the range of $500MM-$800MM.

The key responsibilities for the caverns production engineer are as follows:

• Act as key technical interface between the plant and the MSP tech center regarding cavern operations.
• Accountable for the execution of all drilling and mining plans for SDO.
• In conjunction with MSP Technology Center, leverage industry best practices and knowledge from Salt Solution Mining Technology (SMRI)
• Track Mining Efficiency for every Mining Cavern. Ensure the Target of 70% is achieved on all Caverns. Conduct RCI if deviating from the 70% target.
• Maintain Daily logs on WKO's and Casing tallies for every Job at SDO.
• Standardize Mechanical Integrity Testing (MIT)on Storage Caverns.

As Work Integration Leader, the successful candidate will oversee and coordinate the execution of work in all of the following categories:

• Expense Projects
• Caverns Services
• Plant Operations
• Aggregate Capital Projects
• Large Capital Projects
• Pipeline work (both inside & outside of defined Pipeline Corridors)
• Site Pipeline Operations (SPO) Maintenance, GMISS, and Projects
• Gulf Coast Pipeline (GCPL) Maintenance, GMISS, IMP and Projects
• Maintenance Break-fix
• From 2012 to 2015, SDO will experience extremely heavy workloads in all of these categories. The Hydrocarbons Business will invest approximately $250MM in new capital alone during these years, requiring the vast majority of the Freeport Hydrocarbons Project Management Group resources to execute. The capital spending will be comprised of many different projects executed by different project teams with individual schedules. Pipeline IMP and GMISS work will add another $10MM over the same years. Caverns work is also occurring at an accelerated pace, with about $35MM budgeted over this time frame. On-site head count is anticipated to rise to about 250/day through these years. The number of individual companies on site can exceed 30 on any given day..
• The goal of this role is to Improve EH&S Performance, overall work execution efficiency, and improve internal and external communication between business, plant, and site stakeholders.

Some of the key job responsibilities include:

• Work with functional leaders, project leaders, SDO Integration & Logistics contacts and SDO Master Scheduler to improve & maintain the SDO Master Schedule.
• Works with scheduler to develop communication tools to improve the use of the Master Schedule for internal and external communications. This includes links from the Schedule to the Master Task List (MTL), SDO web site as well as various reports as needed by stakeholders. Ensure timely, accurate and appropriate levels of communications to all work groups
• Analyze the SDO Master Schedule to identify activity conflicts or scheduling opportunities, work load levels, etc. Based on this analysis, revise schedules as needed to balance work load or to take advantage of opportunities including shutdown windows.
• Work with SDO Leadership to ensure that work plans are synchronized with business and site needs and constraints. Work with the SDO Operations, Site Integration and Logistics contacts to maximize outage opportunities, minimize downtime and impact to SDO customers.

Qualifications:

• A minimum of BS Engineering is required; preferably Chemical or Mechanical Engineering.
• Petroleum or Geological background is a plus but not required.
• Previous experience in a production environment is preferred.
• Experience with petroleum industry, geological training or hydrocarbons background is preferred.
• Strong technical and interpersonal skills are required.
• Process control knowledge, and Ops Station experience is preferred.