Nothing to hide

The National Weekender

By DAMARIS MINIKULA
A GULF man has made his mark as the first Papua New Guinean to be appointed production supervisor at PNG LNG’s gas conditioning plant in Hides, Southern Highlands.
Jay Lavapo began his career in the oil and gas industry over 15 years ago and has worked in several production plants around Papua New Guinea.
He appreciates the varied experiences he has gained along the way, experiences that he can now share with those who are only beginning their journey in the industry.
Early in his career, Jay landed jobs in small projects – production plants that were largely manually controlled but never to the scale that he is now exposed to with the PNG LNG project.
Today he works in an automated plant at the Hides gas conditioning plant and part of his job includes mentoring and coaching operations and maintenance trainees.
“Technology has significantly improved many aspects of the work in production plants, such as the use of remote sensing. This inspires me and keeps me motivated to train other Papua New Guineans.
“It is also exciting to see production plant trainees progress to where they are now compared to when they first started on the job. In fact, I am proud to have played a part in training the first PNG LNG national operations trainee to reach control room operator level.”
A new role is not all a bed of roses though.
“I worked in control rooms most of my time and I got used to pressing buttons to get machines to work for me. You can’t do the same with human beings. I find supervising people who work with me to be a challenge but I am fortunate to be surrounded by all the support I need to leverage a better work experience and build relationships.
“Personally, this process for me will only get better with training and development programmes offered by ExxonMobil PNG.”
Originally from Iokea, in Gulf, Jay started his journey with ExxonMobil PNG five years ago as a pipeline technician in the early stages of the PNG LNG project.
This role involved systematic work in the pipeline construction and eventually the commissioning of the LNG gas pipeline.
After the construction of the gas pipeline, Jay was reassigned to the gas conditioning plant as control room operator for the commissioning, start-up and regular production operations.
Jay was part of a team that was engaged in developing operations procedures and training packages that are now used at the Hides gas conditioning plant.
“When you work with a global company like ExxonMobil PNG, the opportunities for training and development programmes and job placements are endless,” he said.
“I am grateful for the opportunities that ExxonMobil PNG has given me to broaden my knowledge in the oil and gas industry in a short space of time.”
Achieving successful results was a result of the conducive environment created by ExxonMobil PNG for the national workforce, he said.

  • Damaris Minikula is the media and communications adviser at Exxonmobil.