Page 109 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

Turbine installation in Algeria
explains Andres Molano, president of Energy In- ternational—now SoEnergy. “If it doesn’t rain for weeks, then they have additional problems with energy production. So, we become a temporary utility for them. We sell them energy until they can build enough permanent capacity for them- selves.” The fifteen turbines at the San José site ran eight to ten hours a day during high-demand periods. Peterson provided support for all fifteen turbines during the contract.
GABON, AFRICA
In 2008, Jay Pleus (Peterson project manager) spent three weeks working on a generator at the Shell oil fields in Gamba, Gabon at a French-speak- ing compound in the middle of a national wild- life refuge. “I was there to disassemble a turbine and change out a 38,000-pound generator end,” explains Pleus. “The local technicians were good, so we did fine communicating with hand signals.” At one point a bull elephant ripped through the chain-link fence that surrounded the compound and came in to sniff around. Since elephants are a protected species, no one could touch or go near him, so they just had to wait for him to leave on his own.
IN AMENAS, ALGERIA
Perhaps the most dramatic project was in 2012 at the Tigantourine gas plant near In Amenas, Al- geria. The site was thirty miles from the Libyan border, in the Sahara Desert. “Solar was having delay issues with the eight turbines they’d sold to the facility, so they called us for temporary pow- er until they could get theirs delivered.” Jay Pleus handled all the logistics from his office in Eugene, Oregon, coordinating details for the Algerian port, the import-export facility in Houston, the freight company in Riazzino, Switzerland, and the Cat systems packager, also in Switzerland. It was truly an international coalition effort.
In January 2013, a nearby BP gas plant came under attack by an al-Qaeda affiliate known as Katibat al-Mulathameen—or The Masked Brigade. “Their intent was to hold the site hostage and force the Algerian government to pay ransom for its release. That’s how they fund their terrorist organizations,” says Pleus. “Once they learned that the govern- ment was not going to pay, they started shooting hostages.” After a tense four-day standoff, Algerian Special Forces stormed the compound. Altogeth- er, thirty-nine foreign contractors from around the world were killed, including three Americans.
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