Sid

Ever so often, one goes through one's work without fully understanding or absorbing what its really offering.. then one fine day, in a seemingly esoteric conversation, you realize you know so much more about things you never thought you'd have the slightest clue about! 

Okay, heres some background first! For the past five months, I have been working on this HUGE project for an Oil and Gas Company that has operations in several parts of the world. I say huge, not just in terms of revenue or value for the client, but also because it was a huge effort to understand and bring together all aspects of the company together - right from exploration of oil to production to transportation to refining to retail and marketing!  The final goal of the project is to essentially analyze each 'business unit' of the company right down to the process level, and prepare a Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Inventory for the company as a whole. We are a team of 10, spanning over 4 Trinity offices, and between the 10 of us, we cover all aspects of this company's worldwide operations.  

Now here's the interesting part.  All this while I knew I was learning a lot about GHG gases and GHG reporting - you know - understanding what processes can lead to GHG emissions, getting exposure to softwares like SANGEA, all that good stuff.  What I didn't realize, and essentially what sparked off this blog is that there is just SO MUCH MORE that I know now about how the Oil and Gas Industry works! What's 'upstream' versus 'downstream'? What's a 'working interest'? Are exploration rigs typically owned, chartered or leased?  What is a capital lease, is it different from an operational lease? How does crude travel within the US - is it pipelines, trucks or barges? What is the volume of a typical tanker truck? What are seismic vessels? Do companies actually flare natural gas cos they couldn't sell it? What in the first place is a flare?! Are contracts in Malaysia similar to those in Ecuador? What does a company's annual report contain? Aaaaaaaah!  So much 'non environmental' knowledge for no cost! And to think that this is just one of the projects that I am working on right now!!  Wait till you hear about what all I have learnt from my other ongoing projects - one takes me into the 'little known' world of Asphalt, and the other takes me right into the heart of the power industry!  I'm telling you, by the end of it all, I would know as much about the world that we live in, as I would know about the 'environmental stuff' - and thats a perk they don't list in the benefits package!

After three months of senseless pondering over "What my first blog should be about", common sense has prevailed.  So here I am, putting down facts in plain simple english!

My name is Sid, or as my Trinity business card puts it -  Siddharth (Sid) Rajmohan.  I happen to be a Mechanical Engineer (Undergrad from India, Masters from Cincinnati), and have been with Trinity for close to 5 months now.  In all honesty, my journey so far with Trinity has been nothing short of a jump-start to life, and I'm loving it!  Just out of grad school, I was like freshly prepared dough (its a metaphor, stop picturing it!) - ready to be molded in whichever form available, and Im glad Trinity happened to be my first molding vessel (Yes, still continuing with the bad analogy.. but its true!) The work culture at Trinity is truly remarkable.  Everyone around me (and now me too..) seems to have a certain sense of pride in their work, and a sense of responsibility towards the 'deliverable' that goes out to the client.  And a lot of this 'faith in what you're putting out there' comes from the faith that the management has in you.  As my office manager here in New Orleans puts it - "We have hired only the best, and we expect nothing less from any one of you".  So doing a 'good job' at Trinity isn't a special one time event, its what you do every single day.  Sounds like a daunting task in the beginning, almost like a roller-coaster you wanna ride or a peak you wanna scale but are scared of. But trust me, the satisfaction you get out of it all, is worth the plunge.  I think every new college graduate who has recently joined Trinity will agree with me when I say this - "its truly a jumpstart to life"!