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.