I just wanted to share something I heard on the radio today.
So I already knew that Louisiana offered a one-weekend tax holiday on all hurricane preparedness supplies in May. You can buy generators, batteries, flashlights, and all sorts of things without the 8% sales tax.
But.... apparently there's another tax holiday in September. For guns & ammo. Yes, in preparation for hunting season, you can buy all the firearms and munitions you want free of tax.
I guess the official state license plate doesn't say "Sportsman's Paradise" for nothing.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
Homeless and Sleepless
I can't recall if this blogging site automatically timestamps my entries. In case it doesn't, you should know it's 2:27 am on Friday morning. I am jet-lagged, and not the good kind of jet-lag that comes from traveling the globe; I have the kind of jet lag that comes from an immediate switch from the 6pm-6am shift on a rig back to daytimes at home.
I was summarily sent home from the rig on Sunday with the excuse "they're trying to get a jump start on evacuating non-essential personnel in case Hurricane Ana or Bill come by". This was before Ana became nothing more than a rainstorm and Bill took a right turn to sweep up the Atlantic coastline, so it was a very early jump start.
I was a third hand anyway, out there to give the 2 main MWD hands help since we were expecting the drilling runs to be short and fast, with little time in between. In our job, our heaviest workload is just prior to putting our tools in the hole and just after they come out, so with the responsibility of 4 tools on our shoulders, it was looking to be a rather strenuous time. Little did we know it would be about 5 days from the time we arrived on the rig to the time they actually picked our tools up to start drilling. I was helpful, but ultimately unnecessary and the Company Man eventually realized it.
So Sunday morning, just after I'd gone to bed at 8am, I got a call saying that I was leaving on the noon flight (which turned out to be a 2pm flight). I managed to stay awake until 9pm that day in an effort to switch back to days as efficiently as possible, but we all know how well that worked out. Sigh.
Now I have no idea what rig I'm going to next. I'm probably not going back to that huge monster rig, and I'm not slated for any other jobs yet. I have no home rig. I am homeless. And sleepless. I am full of 'less'.
I was summarily sent home from the rig on Sunday with the excuse "they're trying to get a jump start on evacuating non-essential personnel in case Hurricane Ana or Bill come by". This was before Ana became nothing more than a rainstorm and Bill took a right turn to sweep up the Atlantic coastline, so it was a very early jump start.
I was a third hand anyway, out there to give the 2 main MWD hands help since we were expecting the drilling runs to be short and fast, with little time in between. In our job, our heaviest workload is just prior to putting our tools in the hole and just after they come out, so with the responsibility of 4 tools on our shoulders, it was looking to be a rather strenuous time. Little did we know it would be about 5 days from the time we arrived on the rig to the time they actually picked our tools up to start drilling. I was helpful, but ultimately unnecessary and the Company Man eventually realized it.
So Sunday morning, just after I'd gone to bed at 8am, I got a call saying that I was leaving on the noon flight (which turned out to be a 2pm flight). I managed to stay awake until 9pm that day in an effort to switch back to days as efficiently as possible, but we all know how well that worked out. Sigh.
Now I have no idea what rig I'm going to next. I'm probably not going back to that huge monster rig, and I'm not slated for any other jobs yet. I have no home rig. I am homeless. And sleepless. I am full of 'less'.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Discrimination Everywhere!
No, I'm not talking about racism (I'm sure there is some, but I have no firsthand knowledge of it). I'm not talking about sexism (Women on the rigs typically have it easier. The men will bend over backwards to help us out!)
I'm talking about institutional discrimination. So in the rig hierarchy, the oil company runs the show. They are the managers and the supervisors. Next in the totem pole is the drilling contractor. They are the laborers, and they represent the highest number of personnel on the rig. And at the bottom are the 3rd Party contractors. As an MWD engineer, I count as 3rd party.
Now this hasn't really been an issue before, and the very first time I heard of such discrimination was from a friend of mine who works in Mexico. She told me that in PeMex rigs the mealtimes are split between PeMex employees and 3rd party hands. The PeMex employees are allowed to eat lunch anytime between 10:30am and 12:30pm, but the 3rd party hands are only permitted in the galley between 12:30pm and 1:00pm. I was astounded to hear this! When we are drilling, my responsibilities can be so encompassing that I might be hard pressed to find the time throughout the entire 2.5 hrs of lunch in which I can easily take a break from my monitors. I couldn't believe PeMex would be so
But sure enough, there's discrimination here as well. It took me by surprise because it doesn't affect me, but it's there nonetheless. There are these "temporary living quarters" which are big steel boxes with 12-man rooms stacked on top of the normal living quarters, and this is where they house all the 3rd party hands. As a woman, I have been placed in the standard living quarters in a rather large room (by rig standards) with 3 beds and an ensuite shower & toilet. I share with two other women, one coworker of mine, and one of the oil company's engineers who works on the production side of this platform.
My male coworkers, however, are relegated to the TLQ. This seemed normal to me until I heard that each of the rig hands and oil company employees are given a 3-bed room with ensuite bath TO THEMSELVES! That's right: they each get their own room. The male MWD engineers get as many as 11 roommates.
Wow. Really. Wow.
I'm talking about institutional discrimination. So in the rig hierarchy, the oil company runs the show. They are the managers and the supervisors. Next in the totem pole is the drilling contractor. They are the laborers, and they represent the highest number of personnel on the rig. And at the bottom are the 3rd Party contractors. As an MWD engineer, I count as 3rd party.
Now this hasn't really been an issue before, and the very first time I heard of such discrimination was from a friend of mine who works in Mexico. She told me that in PeMex rigs the mealtimes are split between PeMex employees and 3rd party hands. The PeMex employees are allowed to eat lunch anytime between 10:30am and 12:30pm, but the 3rd party hands are only permitted in the galley between 12:30pm and 1:00pm. I was astounded to hear this! When we are drilling, my responsibilities can be so encompassing that I might be hard pressed to find the time throughout the entire 2.5 hrs of lunch in which I can easily take a break from my monitors. I couldn't believe PeMex would be so
But sure enough, there's discrimination here as well. It took me by surprise because it doesn't affect me, but it's there nonetheless. There are these "temporary living quarters" which are big steel boxes with 12-man rooms stacked on top of the normal living quarters, and this is where they house all the 3rd party hands. As a woman, I have been placed in the standard living quarters in a rather large room (by rig standards) with 3 beds and an ensuite shower & toilet. I share with two other women, one coworker of mine, and one of the oil company's engineers who works on the production side of this platform.
My male coworkers, however, are relegated to the TLQ. This seemed normal to me until I heard that each of the rig hands and oil company employees are given a 3-bed room with ensuite bath TO THEMSELVES! That's right: they each get their own room. The male MWD engineers get as many as 11 roommates.
Wow. Really. Wow.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Whatever Gets You Through The Day (or night)
Let's see. It's Wednesday night--nope, make that early Thursday morning. I arrived on this rig on Sunday afternoon, which makes this my 5th day on the rig. My first night shift was rather busy. I loaded and unloaded multiple sets of batteries, programmed various tools, and did all sorts of other pre-drilling run tasks required of me.
Monday night was slightly less busy. I had a to-do list of about 9 items that I shared with another engineer, and most of them were not very time-intensive.
Tuesday night left me with barely anything to do but sit around and watch the crane operators move our tools back and forth across the deck for a few hours.
Tonight: nothing. Just wait.
We were expecting to put our tools in the hole on Monday night and to start drilling on Tuesday morning. I would have thought that such a large-scale operation as they have going on out here would run more efficiently than what I am used to. That is definitely not the case. The crews out here move slower than the slowest land-rig crews I've worked with, and that is saying a lot. On the slow land rigs, if the company man told me it would take them 2 hours before they would be ready to pick up my tools, I would multiply that by a factor of 3 to get a more realistic estimate of 6 hours. Here the reality-factor seems to be more like 5. Considering the size of this operation and the number of people out here (~300), I don't even want to imagine how much this rig costs per day. As a reference point, my previous deepwater rig had a population of about 150 people and a daily cost of about $900,000/day (It should be noted that the daily operating costs are not directly proportional to number of personnel on board. This is just a benchmark).
Thus, I have had a lot of downtime. Now I'm more or less obligated to remain all shift in my logging unit out of peer pressure (there are 4 other engineers on shift with me, and they all stay in the unit) and a on-call atmosphere (must answer phone if/when it rings!). Most of the downtime is therefore spent on the internet. Despite the fact that everyone knows that everyone is goofing off constantly online, it looks a lot more productive than if I were, say, crocheting.
Here is what I do with my time:
My standard "keep up to date with the world" websites are CNN.com and facebook.com. I consider the content of each about equal in their quality, so I don't spend very much time on either. A few months ago I actually went on a facebook-hiatus as I realized that I had developed a slightly unhealthy habit of investigating my high school friends' lives without actually making any kind of contact. Now I just browse the social media benignly.
The vast majority of my news reading comes from Slate.com. It is an "internet magazine", whatever that means, founded by the Washington Post. I enjoy it for it's more-balanced-than-average reporting, and it's commentaries and opinions that leave me thinking "That is just what I think!". Alas, on days like these, it cannot post enough articles to keep me satisfied.
My next favorite thing to do is the crossword. I am a true amateur crossword-er, and the Yahoo! Games version is at a perfect level for me; I can almost finish a couple of puzzles per week. This version also wins top praises from me due to the fact that they leave the last 2 weeks of puzzles posted online, enabling massive binges of crossword-ing when it strikes my mood.
If you've got a friend (or if you're interested in playing a stranger), try this online multiplayer Scrabble game. Alas, my former night-shift scrabble partner quit and went back to school.
Then there are the webcomics xkcd and phd, both very familiar to any MIT alum. If you like nerd humor, they're aces. Unfortunately they both post new strips only a few times a week, and their relative time-killing power is low. That also goes for postsecret.com, which nonetheless keeps me enraptured for a few minutes every week.
When I worked alone on the night shift I would practice memorizing monologues from Shakespeare or learn the lyrics to "La Vie en Rose" by Edith Piaf. This, alas, has been set aside for the benefit of my coworkers (I currently work in a roughly 8 feet x 20 feet box filled with 5 engineers, twice that many computers, desks & cabinets). Proprieties of behavior must be observed for sanity's sake.
Does anybody have any suggestions for additions to my repertoire? Unfortunately the limited bandwidth (and occasionally the client's regulations) disallow any use of video or audio streaming, so I cannot surf Youtube or any radio station. Suggestions would be appreciated!
Monday night was slightly less busy. I had a to-do list of about 9 items that I shared with another engineer, and most of them were not very time-intensive.
Tuesday night left me with barely anything to do but sit around and watch the crane operators move our tools back and forth across the deck for a few hours.
Tonight: nothing. Just wait.
We were expecting to put our tools in the hole on Monday night and to start drilling on Tuesday morning. I would have thought that such a large-scale operation as they have going on out here would run more efficiently than what I am used to. That is definitely not the case. The crews out here move slower than the slowest land-rig crews I've worked with, and that is saying a lot. On the slow land rigs, if the company man told me it would take them 2 hours before they would be ready to pick up my tools, I would multiply that by a factor of 3 to get a more realistic estimate of 6 hours. Here the reality-factor seems to be more like 5. Considering the size of this operation and the number of people out here (~300), I don't even want to imagine how much this rig costs per day. As a reference point, my previous deepwater rig had a population of about 150 people and a daily cost of about $900,000/day (It should be noted that the daily operating costs are not directly proportional to number of personnel on board. This is just a benchmark).
Thus, I have had a lot of downtime. Now I'm more or less obligated to remain all shift in my logging unit out of peer pressure (there are 4 other engineers on shift with me, and they all stay in the unit) and a on-call atmosphere (must answer phone if/when it rings!). Most of the downtime is therefore spent on the internet. Despite the fact that everyone knows that everyone is goofing off constantly online, it looks a lot more productive than if I were, say, crocheting.
Here is what I do with my time:
My standard "keep up to date with the world" websites are CNN.com and facebook.com. I consider the content of each about equal in their quality, so I don't spend very much time on either. A few months ago I actually went on a facebook-hiatus as I realized that I had developed a slightly unhealthy habit of investigating my high school friends' lives without actually making any kind of contact. Now I just browse the social media benignly.
The vast majority of my news reading comes from Slate.com. It is an "internet magazine", whatever that means, founded by the Washington Post. I enjoy it for it's more-balanced-than-average reporting, and it's commentaries and opinions that leave me thinking "That is just what I think!". Alas, on days like these, it cannot post enough articles to keep me satisfied.
My next favorite thing to do is the crossword. I am a true amateur crossword-er, and the Yahoo! Games version is at a perfect level for me; I can almost finish a couple of puzzles per week. This version also wins top praises from me due to the fact that they leave the last 2 weeks of puzzles posted online, enabling massive binges of crossword-ing when it strikes my mood.
If you've got a friend (or if you're interested in playing a stranger), try this online multiplayer Scrabble game. Alas, my former night-shift scrabble partner quit and went back to school.
Then there are the webcomics xkcd and phd, both very familiar to any MIT alum. If you like nerd humor, they're aces. Unfortunately they both post new strips only a few times a week, and their relative time-killing power is low. That also goes for postsecret.com, which nonetheless keeps me enraptured for a few minutes every week.
When I worked alone on the night shift I would practice memorizing monologues from Shakespeare or learn the lyrics to "La Vie en Rose" by Edith Piaf. This, alas, has been set aside for the benefit of my coworkers (I currently work in a roughly 8 feet x 20 feet box filled with 5 engineers, twice that many computers, desks & cabinets). Proprieties of behavior must be observed for sanity's sake.
Does anybody have any suggestions for additions to my repertoire? Unfortunately the limited bandwidth (and occasionally the client's regulations) disallow any use of video or audio streaming, so I cannot surf Youtube or any radio station. Suggestions would be appreciated!
Monday, August 10, 2009
My New Digs... for now
Arriving at a new rig is always an exercise in confusion. Especially when the new rig is as big as this one. It's so big, it even has its own Wikipedia page.
I am again on assignment for the Queen's oil company, on the largest semi-submersible platform in THE WORLD producing a whopping 260,000 barrels of oil per day. As a measurements-while-drilling engineer, I am part of a team running some of my companies most expensive and high-tech tools that are currently commercially available on this rig. Out of us 5 MWD engineers and 2 Directional Drillers, I am the most junior employee and get to do all sorts of fun tasks like measuring the tools and loading batteries in the >100 degF heat (and yet somehow I'm the one with the most knowledge and experience of our new computer software?).
So the deal is: this place is a MAZE. I cannot even enter the living quarters without taking a wrong turn at least once. If, heaven forbid, I'm trying to find a room I've never been to before, I will always get so lost I'll end up helpless without someone to guide me to familiar surroundings. Fortunately many of the people living and working here are very helpful, and are more than willing to ask a lost-looking young woman if she's in need of some direction.
The orientation wasn't much help in that department. They took us from the helipad to the briefing room, and after showing us numerous safety videos we were escorted to the medic's office. From thence we visited the Company Man, and were instructed that our assigned lifeboats in the event of an evacuation were "that way". The Orientation Leader then proceeded to point in some direction which held absolutely no meaning for me since I had been led through countless windowless rooms and corridors, around corners, and up and down stairs. I think she may have even said "on the north side", but we are completely surrounded by water on all sides; not even a compass would help as this is a floating steel island.
Luckily I have since learned the location of my primary and backup lifeboat. I have even been able to get myself to the galley and down to my bedroom by myself on one or two occasions without requiring a search-and-rescue team.
I came out here as a temporary substitute for an engineer already assigned to this job, so I'm only supposed to be here for about a week. I suspect that by the time I leave I'll have mostly figured out the lay of the land here... if I believed that this would be only a temporary assignment. Chances are they'll be assigning that engineer to another job and leaving me out here 'indefinitely'. Such is the way life is.
In vegetable-related news, this rig has one of the best salad bars I have EVER SEEN! They have regular lettuce, baby spinach, and the "mixed spring greens" salad that I've only seen at upscale restaurants and in the bagged salad section at grocery stores. Their cooked vegetables leave much to be desired (I'm back to the days of soggy green beans cooked with bacon), but the benefits of the salad bar outweigh any and all sub-par alternatives.
I am again on assignment for the Queen's oil company, on the largest semi-submersible platform in THE WORLD producing a whopping 260,000 barrels of oil per day. As a measurements-while-drilling engineer, I am part of a team running some of my companies most expensive and high-tech tools that are currently commercially available on this rig. Out of us 5 MWD engineers and 2 Directional Drillers, I am the most junior employee and get to do all sorts of fun tasks like measuring the tools and loading batteries in the >100 degF heat (and yet somehow I'm the one with the most knowledge and experience of our new computer software?).
So the deal is: this place is a MAZE. I cannot even enter the living quarters without taking a wrong turn at least once. If, heaven forbid, I'm trying to find a room I've never been to before, I will always get so lost I'll end up helpless without someone to guide me to familiar surroundings. Fortunately many of the people living and working here are very helpful, and are more than willing to ask a lost-looking young woman if she's in need of some direction.
The orientation wasn't much help in that department. They took us from the helipad to the briefing room, and after showing us numerous safety videos we were escorted to the medic's office. From thence we visited the Company Man, and were instructed that our assigned lifeboats in the event of an evacuation were "that way". The Orientation Leader then proceeded to point in some direction which held absolutely no meaning for me since I had been led through countless windowless rooms and corridors, around corners, and up and down stairs. I think she may have even said "on the north side", but we are completely surrounded by water on all sides; not even a compass would help as this is a floating steel island.
Luckily I have since learned the location of my primary and backup lifeboat. I have even been able to get myself to the galley and down to my bedroom by myself on one or two occasions without requiring a search-and-rescue team.
I came out here as a temporary substitute for an engineer already assigned to this job, so I'm only supposed to be here for about a week. I suspect that by the time I leave I'll have mostly figured out the lay of the land here... if I believed that this would be only a temporary assignment. Chances are they'll be assigning that engineer to another job and leaving me out here 'indefinitely'. Such is the way life is.
In vegetable-related news, this rig has one of the best salad bars I have EVER SEEN! They have regular lettuce, baby spinach, and the "mixed spring greens" salad that I've only seen at upscale restaurants and in the bagged salad section at grocery stores. Their cooked vegetables leave much to be desired (I'm back to the days of soggy green beans cooked with bacon), but the benefits of the salad bar outweigh any and all sub-par alternatives.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Naptime
Eric briefly nagged me WEEKS ago for not having made a blog posting in a long time. In truth, it's primarily because I haven't been on a rig since my last post. My non-rig lifestyle seems so less unique that I rarely think there's anything interesting enough to write about, but I'll endeavor to entertain nonetheless.
I've been in Houston for the past three weeks in a sort of "continuing education" effort for my job. They're teaching me the more difficult tools of my trade in a Monday through Friday 8am-5pm series of PowerPoint presentations destined to numb the body and mind. A lot of my coworkers see this as a sort of "working vacation" and spend many of the nights partying and many of the days hungover and half awake during class.
Now I'm not going to be a liar and say that I do nothing of the sort. I do, on occasion, indulge myself more than I ought when I have class in the morning, but anyone who knows me well knows that I am atrocious at keeping late hours. While I have very little difficulty rising before the sun on a regular basis, it is a much taller order for me to catch its morning light from the other side of the hourglass. Yesterday was a rather unfortunate example. After getting all ready for a wonderful birthday celebration, I proceeded to fall asleep during the play I went to and I then abandoned my friends to take a taxi home by myself while they went out to a nightclub. I don't regret going home early for there was nothing I wanted more at that point than to chuck off my high heeled shoes and collapse into bed, but I wish I might have had the energy to make my birthday last a few hours longer.
The hardy souls of the oilfield tend to embrace a "work hard, play hard" philosophy which I can appreciate, but sometimes I just need a good nap instead. My plan now is to take the night off from the party scene, then rise early tomorrow and visit the Houston Space Center. Somehow I think I'll have more fun this way.
I've been in Houston for the past three weeks in a sort of "continuing education" effort for my job. They're teaching me the more difficult tools of my trade in a Monday through Friday 8am-5pm series of PowerPoint presentations destined to numb the body and mind. A lot of my coworkers see this as a sort of "working vacation" and spend many of the nights partying and many of the days hungover and half awake during class.
Now I'm not going to be a liar and say that I do nothing of the sort. I do, on occasion, indulge myself more than I ought when I have class in the morning, but anyone who knows me well knows that I am atrocious at keeping late hours. While I have very little difficulty rising before the sun on a regular basis, it is a much taller order for me to catch its morning light from the other side of the hourglass. Yesterday was a rather unfortunate example. After getting all ready for a wonderful birthday celebration, I proceeded to fall asleep during the play I went to and I then abandoned my friends to take a taxi home by myself while they went out to a nightclub. I don't regret going home early for there was nothing I wanted more at that point than to chuck off my high heeled shoes and collapse into bed, but I wish I might have had the energy to make my birthday last a few hours longer.
The hardy souls of the oilfield tend to embrace a "work hard, play hard" philosophy which I can appreciate, but sometimes I just need a good nap instead. My plan now is to take the night off from the party scene, then rise early tomorrow and visit the Houston Space Center. Somehow I think I'll have more fun this way.
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