Category: Sulawesi

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Bunaken! Another perks of being a field engineer

Yeap, this is a post for remembering my field engineer days back in 2015. As a field engineer, you got to travel, a lot. Somehow it brought you to the place so beautiful or so remote that you even do not want to go back again for the next job. Luckily, I got a jackpot for the Lahendong geothermal job in North Sulawesi. With a perfect timing, the job was finished on time (well drilled) so I got released then have time to explore Bunaken!

Bunaken is an infamous underwater park with beautiful corals ecosystem (even slightly damaged) and good snorkeling and diving spots. Unfortunately, we did not have GoPro at that time so we cannot get good picture of the underwater view. We hired a underwater photograph but seemingly that guy only took the pictures of us feeding tropical fishes and some not so good photo of us holding on to the corals whilst holding out our breath.

We visited on not peak day, it is a week day I think that I met no tourists group there. We rented a private speed boat, accompanied by two local guys that bring us to three snorkeling spots. We expected to meet the legendary turtle back there, but unfortunately we did not meet him. Basically, on the package they offer to you you will get three snorkeling spots, equipment rents, and lunch. As a fish eater, I loved the food there. You can choose the fishes you want to be grilled with Manado spice style. I love their chillies, they are so good that I eat more than one portion.

I’ve been snorkeling in Bali, and I can say that Bunaken is far better. It is less damaged, the fish species are more varied and more beautiful. I met some fish species that are weird, some baloon look alike fish, and rainbow fish. It was magical under the water, the time flew so fast there. I bet diving will be more exciting as you will go deeper to see more beautiful scenery and more fishes, weirder species one. Maybe met the legendary turtle! I really recommended this place as it is not that expensive, even could be cheaper if you travel with more people so you can rent bigger ships with cheaper price. We did not stay at the island because the price is high, we prefer to go back to Manado which is 45 minutes boat ride. There are lots of cheap inn and hotel nearby the port, so do not worry.

This is some of the evidence of our trips, can you imagine the feeling you got after finishing work at this place:

Drilling site of Lahendong Geothermal
Drilling site of Lahendong Geothermal

To have fun at this paradise:

Bunaken1 Bunaken2

I hope our government (specially North Sulawei government) can promote and support the local players of tourist industry, and we as Indonesian people should explore more places in Indonesia as travel destinations. If you travel there, you will help the local economics to grow! Please explore our local travel destinations.

Lahendong – Tomohon City , Future of Indonesia Geothermal Energy and North Sulawesi Tourism

Perks of being a Field Engineer : good compensation benefit  travel around the world.

My “green hat” job or people usually say as probation period as a field engineer was on a geothermal drilling well at North Sulawesi, Indonesia. It is exactly at Tomohon , the city of flower in Minahasa region. Tomohon is notoriously known for their traditional market that trade bats, cats, dogs, and rats meat. Seems like they hate rodents so much, they almost eat everything. Most of North Minahasa people are non-moslem so they also eat pork a lot. There is a annual flower festival in Tomohon which attracts many foreign tourists. Tomohon also famous of their native girls with their bright skin, slim, and westernized looks which are the favourable characteristics in Indonesia. Aside from girls, flower, cats and bats meat, and liquor (cap tikus), Tomohon is rich of geothermal potential.

Lahendong Geothermal Power Plant

Lahendong Power Plant, located in South Tomohon is one of the biggest electricity supply in North Sulawesi. The capacity of each phase is around 20 MW. Now the project has almost completed the third to achieve 60 MW. Lahendong area is suspected to have 200 MW of potential reserve. Yet the well development still run right now, only with steady effort. They only contracted one rig to did the well drilling for reserve development. I suspected the commitment of Pertamina Geothermal Energy (State owned) is still halted due to high cost of geothermal drilling costs. However on 2014 – early 2015, there were one drilling rig doing activites on Tompasso area for exploration. The Tompasso area still has not utilized right now for their steam.

Works at Kasuratan and Tondangow Districts

I had the opportunity to drill two wells each in Kasuratan district (Area 3) and Tondangow district (Area 13). Apexindo Rig #4 was contracted to drill there, they are the best crew I’ve known for drilling geothermal well. To complete one well, they only needed around 2 months. Compared to Sarulla geothermal well drilling rig, they could took up to 3-4 months to complete one well.

Geothermal well usually drilled in four hole size, 26″ – 17 1/2″ – 12 1/4″ – 9 7/8″ subsequently. That is for big hole production well, for re-injection well it usually use 12 /4″ and 8 1/2″. However the size should differs depend on drilling engineering calculation. MWD Engineers usually works from early size until second last size. On early size when the well direction is still vertical, our tools make sure the collision issue to nearby well is avoided. On kick-off section, we work full-time while building and turning the motor to desired path. On tangent section we still work to give correction for missing path. On last section we do not usually take MWD on BHA due to very high temperature. MWD tool has temperature limit around 150 degrees of Celcius. On last section, the temperature with mud circulation mode could reach 170 degrees of Celcius.

A list of popular tourists destination in Tomohon area:

  1. Bukit Kasih – religion tourist place for Christians.
  2. Tomohon Traditional Market – the place that sold bats and cats meat, and other traditional groceries. Only appears on early morning if you want to see the exotic meat.
  3. Tondano Lake – one of the biggest lake in Indonesia, not far from Tomohon city.
  4. Ragey Restaurant – pork satay restaurant, also serve Paniki (made from bats meat).
  5. Flower gardent – looks very good on festival time around August every year.
  6. Tomohon Night Market – flea market that sold traditional and hawker food.
  7. Tompasso – famous for its peanuts.

It should be more place that is interesting to visit, I’ve only known about the seven of them for two times visiting Tomohon. Plus, I only had time to wander when drilling is not commenced which means only on casing point break I can go around Tomohon.

It’s all wrap about my review for Tomohon City after three months total of living there. Hope you find it interesting!

 

ex-MWD crew of Lahendong Well Drilling