Sunday, June 12, 2011

Trials and Tribulations

At long last I am finally started to settle in here at Saudi Aramco. The group that I work with is fabulous and our mandate is one that will definitely foster a leadership role in the energy industry. That part of the adventure is very exciting! The home front is still developing ... and the latest developments are:

  • My dishwasher is broken and will be replaced at some indeterminate date.
  • The air conditioning went out last night, making for a rather miserable sleep
  • Transportation remains an issue with cabs in short supply (i.e. unable to get when needed) and buses are on limited schedules
Next week I hope to get a 50cc moped for camp transportation, which will make life much easier for me! I also hope to make it to SACO some time this week to get the tools necessary to get my bicycle fully operational by next week too. Then I can start going to the gym - it is simply too far to walk to the gym and the bike ride will be a terrific warm-up and cool down.

In a few months we will move to a new building here for work. It will be quite exciting since it will be an entire complex that has everything close by, including a dining hall, some important services, and a gym! The building is very beautiful and constructed to LEED standards ... and being Aramco they are taking it one step further and are placing solar panels on top of the covered parking, enough to generate 10MW of electricity! Talk about a green energy company.

On my list of "to do" items here are to make some suggestions for energy efficiency based on my experiences in Houston. I think these would significantly reduce their maintenance costs and energy demand.

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