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.