Offshore Engineer: 2/18/07

Saturday, February 24, 2007

.....and then everything shut down and all was quiet

A power cut is often a disconcerting thing. Never quite sure if it is just you so after popping your head out the door you discover your neighbour on there doorstep with a polite "so is your power off too?"
It is very similar offshore. The power goes out. Then everything is quiet, a little strange on a drilling rig. Its like going from the middle of a big city at rush our to the rolling hills in the countryside in the flick of a switch. There is still light...even on night shift. Emergency lighting kicks in and bathes the rig in romantic soft light. All of the surrounding rigs sparkle like stars at the new moon. The supply boat bobs around with a halo. So what do you do?
First, report to the drill floor. Up in the doghouse all hell has broken loose. We can't move the pipe, we can't circulate mud this is the worst case scenario the Co-rep is panicking about the hole caving in and us getting stuck. Best to retreat from this area as soon as possible.
Next the phone rings.
"how are you getting on?" ask the Directional driller " have you got any power?" he asks hopefully.
"No nothing, we will need to get the air on first before we start up the unit."
"OK, well everything is pretty messed up here, call us when you know something."
"OK"
Meanwhile the data engineer is struggling with there unit and ask for help. I explain about the lack of air.
Then the Power is back on, but no air. We try to start the unit with no success. Wait for air.

The power restored and the rig returns to its usual drone, consuming masses of power to drill a hole which may yield absolutely nothing.

Eventually we get things up and running, re-boot PC's. Re-establish communications with the tool and go back drilling. during the whole event(about 1 hour) there wasn't a single Tannoy.

Scott the Powerless

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

What’s it all for

I am tiered, but then that seems to be my default position for the first couple of days away. Lack of sleep that’s caused by trying to reverse your body clock from 6am to 6pm. Going from an existence in the daytime to an existence in the darkness before finally emerging from the long 2 week tunnel into a world that has moved on a fortnight leaving you behind. The days following this rebirth are to be a mixture of 3am and 4pm with blackouts of sleep in between.

But so long as you expect all of this to happen to you and don’t allow things to be effected to badly by it you may survive.

I had better explain myself. I am an offshore engineer working in the North Sea. I have worked in remote locations for about 7 years since leaving the first job I had after university but I have only been a regular visitor to the North Sea for a year.

I hope that posts and articles on this blog will do a couple of things. One is to allow me to muse, ponder and “let go of” various thoughts and incidents which happen in the day to day life of this particular offshore engineer. Two is to attempt to explain how this affects the day to day running of lots of different aspects of offshore and onshore life. Three is to hopefully allow any other person to use this information to there advantage. Ok that may all seam a little ambitious and a little self centered but I know that there is a lot happening out here that has analogies to a lot that is happening on this rig. I believe that as this blog grows up it may be a source of information and a social outlet for offshore folks everywhere. A place they can describe there world and how it relates to them and everything else.

While doing all of this it is not my intention to harm or hurt any individual or company. I am not out to slander anyone or to “grass up” bad practices and such. I will try to leave out any information that may cause offence and will attempt to present a true version of what occurs offshore. By the same measure, if there is something going on out here that is grossly negligent and there is no other way for me to express this problem to the people that matter, it will appear here.
Scott

The times they are a changing - East meets West

With an increasing number of service companies employing workers from outside the UK the workforce in the North Sea is changing all the time. Africans, Eastern Europeans, Indians and others make up more of the service company offshore employees. This always makes for a multi cultural and very diverse atmosphere in the logging unit. They chat to each other in their pidgin and misunderstand each other, become more and more frustrated at each other and gradually wind each other up. Eventually they break and the ensuing argument and apology is as a result understood less and less. There is then a knowing glance or smile which lets the other know that above all else this is an apology and even if it all sounds like a face saving appeal and an attempt to get one up it all stays inside the cabin. The flipside to all this is that friendships are hard forged. It is a very cold and sterile environment and trying to get other to understand where you belong outside the unit and off the rig is often difficult and not possible in most cases.
The other amusing side to all of this incoming culture is the report writing and the grammatical errors that occur. These turn any dull morning report into a reason to smile and show a few teeth. Always good to alleviate the tension in this type of situation.

Downtime and WOW (waiting on weather)

Storm force 10 on the forecast......well that’s what is predicted for this location by the met office. Forecasts are treated like gold. They are never questioned if they are within 36hours. This is the accuracy of the maritime forecast for the specific spot that the rig is positioned. These forecasts are paid for by the drilling contractors and I'm sure if they were at all inaccurate there would be hell to pay at the met office. If they get it wrong on TV the worst that can happen is they replay that forecast for the rest of your life(thank you Michael Fish).

Home from home

Laundry - Yes, like the name suggest, the place you get your clothes washed. First find the string bag which is in your room. Make sure this has your room number written on it in permanent marker. Fill it to the top with all that needs boiled to death and shrunk. DO NOT PUT YOUR GO-ASHORES IN THE RIG WASH. Unless you want your favourite designer label to fit your 8 year old. The bag then gets dropped off in the Laundry in the bin marked for personal gear along with your towel. The end of the shift there is either a fresh washed set of clothes for you to wear or there is a nice set of clothes to go top the charity shop. Coveralls are washed separately. First make sure you empty your pockets of all tools and pens. Place the "honest I have checked these coveralls pockets" card in the top pocket of the offending oil drenched article and toss it in the big hopper for "Work Clothes". Again make sure you have ordered coveralls that are at least 5 sizes too big for you or you will only wear them once.

Offshore Engineer