Slow Nights at the Office.

Just drilling is an interesting sensation. Everything is working; everything is transmitting as it should. Everything is being stored into the computer database as it should. Its almost like floating along on a cloud of expectation. Always expecting something to go wrong and waiting for something to happen. Sitting at the workstation in the cabin; quiet, serene, sedate and safe. The cabin is warm and snug. The white noise of the computers and other equipment rumbles on. The occasional Tannoy breaks the silence.
While we sit at our stations and wait for the next event we read, we play solitaire and we figure out what we will be paid in next months wage pack. Counting the days then subtract the tax and then the plans, the schemes and the lies we tell ourselves and each other. What will we spend all that money on? Selfishly, we are splashing out on our dreams. Allowing our fantastical imaginations to blow every penny.
Then we are rudely interrupted by our employer. Something happens. We listen to the rig as all its little divisions whir into life. Tannoys, phones and squawk boxes crackle and chirp instructions like a busy aviary at feeding time.
There are reports to update and logs to make. Everything must be done at midnight, the reporting hour. How much have we drilled and how long have we been circulating? What have the drilling parameters been for the last 24 hours? What type of drilling mud have we been using and is it in the same condition as we started? All questions need to be answered on the midnight report. What tools are there on deck? Who is coming to the rig and who has gone?
The return to calm is gradual. Cross checking data with colleagues and filing all the appropriate paper work soon surrenders to silence and inactivity. The cloud surfing continues and the air of expectation hovers around the floor.

The Small Red Light

Phone home…..the places to do this on a rig are scarce. Most of the rig phones don’t have the ability to get an outside line. The result is 40 guys trying to call home in an evening. The offshore solution is to limit the amount of time on the phone. Most rigs there is a small sign reminding you to show a little courtesy to your fellow man by limiting your call to 10 minutes. The result of over running is a hard stare from the persons waiting in a queue to use the phone. The alternative is the small red light. 6 minutes into the call the light will illuminate to let you know you will be cut off in 1 minute, giving you 60 seconds to say you farewells. There is a reciprocal light outside the phone booth, letting all in the queue know that you are on your last minute.

Working in an Oven

Working out in the North Sea in March with expected blizzards on the way. Most normal expectations would be to arrive to a freezing cold working environment. As I walk across deck and open the door of the pressurised unit which will be work for the next 2 weeks I am greeted by a blast of heat. The temperature inside the unit is at least 80F. I quickly strip off my fleece and everyone is wondering around the unit in t-shirts.
"Is the Air Con working then?" I venture an opinion. which is immediately shot out of the sky by a volly of sharp stares frome sweaty faces.
" You're on night's. It gets a little cooler at night."
As the shift goes on the heat cools to a bearable 69F and things start to mellow. Lets hope that nothing goes wrong. That will increase the pressure in this unit as Boyles law may explain a few blown gaskets and hotter heads!

Scott Fricasse

February Articles

Downtime and WOW (waiting on weather)

I am, as always, into “hurry up and wait” mode. The condition caused by working on a multi million dollar project. When the cost of waiting around for somebody to do something increases to a certain threshold the people who are paying the bills start to get a little twitchy. If there is nothing that can be done because, for example something has been broken, then the people onshore with there fingers on there wallets begin to ask this question. “What is happening next?” invariably followed by “Can we do anything to be ready for the next event?” This is not a bad thing planning ahead is good. Saving time and money is good. Unfortunately the end result is “hurry up and wait”. The end result means that additional pressure is put on to try and be ahead of the curve and that is usually when things get missed. People have a tendency towards panic and this is a perfectly normal response to pressure. But the truly gifted person is the one that can keep there heads while all around are losing theirs. The condition of hurry up and wait only seams to last a short while. People on the rig then settle down into “nothing worse can happen” mode. The example from this week is a broken drill line. All hands are mobilized to assist with slipping and cutting a piece of damaged drill line cable. The job takes place at a sensible pace to carry out the work safely and in the background everyone is saying “what’s next?” So we start to do some work which will get us “ahead of the curve” this involves testing some tools in our case. We get so far and the crane that is being used to fix the drill line is working right overhead of where we need to set things up. We retreat into our warm cosy cabin and wait. We sit here waiting for the drill line to be fixed asking ourselves “what’s happening next?” So the question maybe doesn’t just come from the people onshore with there itchy twitchy fingers on there wallets. Maybe it comes from every individual who has been brought up to ask the question “what’s next?” from drive and ambition to get things done and the satisfaction of getting to the end of a day and being able to say “we got something done, what are we going to do tomorrow?” so maybe the example of hurry up and wait isn’t an accurate representation of what is going on. We really aren’t hurrying up to wait we are hurrying up to get things done, to have achieved something and recognize that we have achieved something. Are we really being hurried? Or are we hurrying ourselves on? Trying to achieve by rushing. This doesn’t make any sense, to rush to achieve. Better to slow down and achieve. Then the achievement can be recognized and savored.

Zen Master Scott (from the Tao of Cox)

Home from home

You arrive out to the place you will eat, sleep live and work. You expect you will never see anything as bad as the last rig you just left. When you are handed the card and the medic says “Your on nights”
“No” you reply “I am on days, didn’t my employer let you know what we are out here to do?”
“Sorry mate, lifeboat 3, the briefing is at 08:20hrs” military time suggests you respect his authoritie!
You wonder into the cabin, stow your gear, and then go to stick your toilet bag in the head. The smell meets you as you open the door. Glancing into the shower tray you see enough mildew and mould to grow potatoes in. You dump your bag and lift the lid of the toilet seat to be met by your cabin mate’s dinner. “hmmmm”, this will be what you call home for a week or two.

Scott

International Bright Young Thing

The industry is changing. Everyone wants to maximize profit and there is a shortage of people to work offshore. This usually means getting whoever will put on a hard hat. The net result of this is a truly multicultural, multilingual crew. All of whom speak varying degrees of English( the common denominator in the North Sea). It would be tremendously bigoted of me to suggest that our Serbian mud loggers have worse English than some, but yesterday he told me that his colleague had gone for meat. This said our driller from “the Broch” has his share of problems getting the message across too. With his thick Doric it is often a good thing to ask “Sorry could you repeat that please?” to be met with “am aff fir ma tatties”.

Ghengis McCann

Mr Angry

Anger is a good thing, or so all the psycho-analysts seem to advocate. Release your anger, don't keep it in. Anger kept in will hurt and harm you. So why does it provoke such a negative response from those on the receiving end. The net result on the recipient is usually guilt, another "negative" emotion.
How does this all relate to offshore life? My example is being woken at 4 in the morning by a trainee looking for a cost estimate for our equipment over the last 24 hours. The trainee had been shown where all this information was available and had been asked for the costing at 01:00hrs in the morning. The Co-rep had been in receipt of the costing for the last week and it hadn't changed for a week. So when I was woken at 4 in the morning for this, slightly less than critical, information I felt a lot of anger. I wanted to grab the trainee and shout at him "why didn't you look at the sheet for the last week?" I felt like marching up to the co-rep and shouting "Is this really critical at this time and what makes you think it has changed today after it has been the same for the last week?" But I lay in my bed and woke up. I got dressed quickly and went down to the co-reps office and said " were you looking for the costing for today?" "Sorry about that, you would like that at midnight?" I was timid, restrained an subservient to the client, just like a good service hand should. I came out of his office carrying even more anger and guilt. So what is the solution to all of this? How should I release this anger and prevent this guilt, which is doing nothing but harm to me? Should I care less about my job?
I will probably do what I always do and bury it all. Move on to the next day. This will bring another group of problems to be solved. Will I be able to solve them all? Probably not but I will always try to and if I don't get them all done then some of them will slip till tomorrow. If I resolve not to try to solve all the problems will my anger and frustration subside? Maybe. I should just continue to do all that is in my power without taking so much on that It makes me feel ill, which is how I feel now.

Mr Angry (Scott)

Then....The wheel fell off.

Maintaining your kit when you are offshore really isn't as straightforward as it seems. Your tools and equipment are usually scattered around the rig in various inaccessible positions which require a harness, fall arrestor, tools aloft register and a good knowledge of limbo dancing. So that as you limbo between the doghouse roof* and the geolograph line* you manage to stop yourself and your toolkit from falling on the driller.
When it breaks, and something always breaks, the first question anyone will ask you is, "how long will it take to fix it?" My standard answer is "about 20 minutes". If the same person asks me again the second answer is "as long as it takes" and if someone asks me a third time they will be in a harness as fast as there arms can carry them into it. Then they will find themselves up a ladder holding a torch.
The example from today is a wheel that measures a cable which is attached to the rig. This cable moves as the rig moves and measures depth travelled into the well. The depth wheel is under constant stresses from the wire and a bunch of pulleys the wire goes through. it is held onto the rig with 2 grub screws and vibrates off more than once a hitch. Once it falls off you are knacked! Well until you get your self into the harness and limbo it back onto the rig.



*Rig equipment associated with MWD that breaks down a lot.

.....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