It's hard to think of the oilfield as a character-building environment, with its tobacco-spitting profanity-spewing ill-mannered denizens, but there is one bad habit that this job has taught me to practice no more.
I am no longer a procrastinator.
This fault has been wrenched out of my by countless episodes of sheer horror at the consequences of procrastination on the job. Have the tools already arrived at the rig? Have they been measured, programmed, prepped and been loaded with batteries? If there is any reason why the rig can blame you for any delays in loading the tools into the hole and getting ready to drill, they will be charging you $$$. Of course that $$$ charged doesn't directly affect my paycheck, but a delay of even a few hours due to procrastination can put a permanent mark in my file. And this ain't no baseball game. Here it's 2 strikes and you're out.
If there's a single piece of paperwork or a single small task that needs to be done, I'm going to get right on that. This morning, as our tools were being offloaded from the boat, I was dripping with guilty feelings for waiting a WHOLE HOUR to go outside and start working on them. Why? It was pitch black, 35 degrees, biting horizontal winds and a steady rain. NO EXCUSES, HOLLY! But at 7:15 am when the sky became a dismal grey instead of an unforgiving black, I layered up and soldiered on with my duties. Now my work is mostly done, and I'm only taking a break to write this because I'm waiting on someone else.
My time off has taken quite the same tone. One of the first things I always do upon my arrival home is pull out all my dirty laundry, start the wash, and immediately start restocking and repacking for my next trip. Once that's out of the way, I go out and have as much fun as I can without hesitation. I see all the friends, catch all the shows, and do all the shopping I can handle because I never know when I'm going to get a call that says "Be ready to leave for the dock in three hours!"
I'm not perfect, as yet. The other week I did wait three whole days before I finally got myself to the craft store to buy the last of the bridal shower invitation supplies, and yesterday I did use rationalization for why I was putting off a particularly arduous task for today (which I have since begun). But if my mother could watch me at work, she would not recognize her daughter.
Showing posts with label standby. Show all posts
Showing posts with label standby. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Ready, Set, Wait for it....
For the past couple of days we've been preparing non-stop for our next drilling section. I've been filling out the paperwork for the nuclear source, getting all of our other pre-run documentation ready, programming the tools, prepping the computers, etc, etc.
As of yesterday morning at 10am we were all set and ready to go. It was just a matter of time before the rig let us know they were ready for us. And sure enough, at about 12:30 they told us we were going to pick up tools in 30 minutes.
5 minutes after that all plans were dropped.
Why? I'll show you why:
Tropical Storm Ida seems to be moseying up our way sometime early next week. People were already whispering "evacuation" last night, and next to leaving people on a rig during a hurricane/tropical storm, there's one thing you really don't want to do: leave a radioactive source in the hole during a hurricane/tropical storm.
Side note: I was once talking to a galley hand on another rig who told me this unbelievable story about his brother who worked on oil rigs in the 1980's. They hadn't fully evacuated the rig he was on by the time the storm came, and he and a good 20 other men were swept out to sea. They spent the next 21 hours barely staying afloat in the 30ft+ high waves until the hurricane passed and they were picked up by the coast guard. There was a class action lawsuit and this galley hand's brother never had to work again. I was a little bit skeptical until I saw the photos of his brother's 3 Hummers parked outside his mansion. But when you think about it, most safety regulations out here are on the books because of mistakes made in the past. That lawsuit ensured the oil companies would do all in their power to prevent that situation from ever happening again.
If an evacuation is called while drilling, the rig has to unlatch from the drilling assembly and the riser (a giant tube extending the depth of the sea and secured to the rig floor, protecting the drilling fluid and drilling assembly from the sea -- and vice versa), and leave the entire drilling assembly in the hole. It happens occasionally upon returning to the site after a hurricane that the well can no longer be found. No riser, no tools, nothing. This would be disastrous if a radioactive source were still in the hole.
To maintain productivity while they wait on a decision, the rig decided to go back to drilling with a drilling assembly made entirely of "dummy iron" -- no expensive electrical equipment or radioactive sources.
We'll probably find out about an evacuation once the offices in town have discussed it at their first morning meetings, so by 8 or 9am I'll probably have an answer. But a rig 40 miles south of us being run by the same oil company has already gotten their orders to evacuate, so I've got a hunch about what we're going to be doing tomorrow.
I'll be sitting here watching movies in the meantime.
As of yesterday morning at 10am we were all set and ready to go. It was just a matter of time before the rig let us know they were ready for us. And sure enough, at about 12:30 they told us we were going to pick up tools in 30 minutes.
5 minutes after that all plans were dropped.
Why? I'll show you why:
Tropical Storm Ida seems to be moseying up our way sometime early next week. People were already whispering "evacuation" last night, and next to leaving people on a rig during a hurricane/tropical storm, there's one thing you really don't want to do: leave a radioactive source in the hole during a hurricane/tropical storm.
Side note: I was once talking to a galley hand on another rig who told me this unbelievable story about his brother who worked on oil rigs in the 1980's. They hadn't fully evacuated the rig he was on by the time the storm came, and he and a good 20 other men were swept out to sea. They spent the next 21 hours barely staying afloat in the 30ft+ high waves until the hurricane passed and they were picked up by the coast guard. There was a class action lawsuit and this galley hand's brother never had to work again. I was a little bit skeptical until I saw the photos of his brother's 3 Hummers parked outside his mansion. But when you think about it, most safety regulations out here are on the books because of mistakes made in the past. That lawsuit ensured the oil companies would do all in their power to prevent that situation from ever happening again.
If an evacuation is called while drilling, the rig has to unlatch from the drilling assembly and the riser (a giant tube extending the depth of the sea and secured to the rig floor, protecting the drilling fluid and drilling assembly from the sea -- and vice versa), and leave the entire drilling assembly in the hole. It happens occasionally upon returning to the site after a hurricane that the well can no longer be found. No riser, no tools, nothing. This would be disastrous if a radioactive source were still in the hole.
To maintain productivity while they wait on a decision, the rig decided to go back to drilling with a drilling assembly made entirely of "dummy iron" -- no expensive electrical equipment or radioactive sources.
We'll probably find out about an evacuation once the offices in town have discussed it at their first morning meetings, so by 8 or 9am I'll probably have an answer. But a rig 40 miles south of us being run by the same oil company has already gotten their orders to evacuate, so I've got a hunch about what we're going to be doing tomorrow.
I'll be sitting here watching movies in the meantime.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Psych!
I had the most wonderful surprise when I was just about to go to bed the other day. Having completed my 5th to last hitch (which mostly involved surfing the web and watching movies -- we were between drilling runs), I found out that the hole liner they had run had not sealed properly. The liner (or casing, but the differences are not germane to this story) is a series of steel collars used to protect the freshly-drilled hole from collapsing. After we finish each drilling run, the rig runs casing or liner to the new deepest point and injects cement in between the casing/liner and the earth surrounding it.
Since the liner did not seal properly, the rig has to remove the liner, go in with a milling assembly to chop up all the pieces of the failed seal that were left behind, pull that assembly out, and then finally pick up the next set of tools for our next drilling run, and this couldn't have come at a better time for me. With just a few days left on the rig, sure! I'd love to sit around and watch more movies for those few days left! The slower they go, the happier I am.
But we found out just a few hours ago that they had decided that we had to work after all. They wanted to see the pressure downhole, and the only way they can see that is with our tools. So we had to prep our backup tools (the ones we've already prepped are slightly inaccessible right now) and then we have to go through the motions of putting them together, running them in the hole, tracking the depth of the drill bit, and reading the pressures. It's going to be a lot less work than a regular drilling run, and it's probably all going to happen during the daytime, so it doesn't affect me all that much....
but...
It still means I have to do some actual work between now and Tuesday morning. Sigh.
Since the liner did not seal properly, the rig has to remove the liner, go in with a milling assembly to chop up all the pieces of the failed seal that were left behind, pull that assembly out, and then finally pick up the next set of tools for our next drilling run, and this couldn't have come at a better time for me. With just a few days left on the rig, sure! I'd love to sit around and watch more movies for those few days left! The slower they go, the happier I am.
But we found out just a few hours ago that they had decided that we had to work after all. They wanted to see the pressure downhole, and the only way they can see that is with our tools. So we had to prep our backup tools (the ones we've already prepped are slightly inaccessible right now) and then we have to go through the motions of putting them together, running them in the hole, tracking the depth of the drill bit, and reading the pressures. It's going to be a lot less work than a regular drilling run, and it's probably all going to happen during the daytime, so it doesn't affect me all that much....
but...
It still means I have to do some actual work between now and Tuesday morning. Sigh.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Self-preservation vs. Self-promotion
I am in the middle of a pleasantly lazy night. We finished drilling our last section 2 days ago, and I'm in the blissful state of standing by. This, however, is purely by luck of the timing.
They pulled the entire drilling assembly out of the hole last night. Between one thing and another, the tools I am responsible for were not out of the hole until after my shift ended at 6am. I could have stayed up late and helped out, but the 3rd hand had gone to bed early the night before to wake up just for that purpose. Plus I was ready -- after a long night of doing nothing -- to go to bed and relax.
When I came on shift tonight at 6pm, they had finished processing all of the data and were halfway through uploading it to town. I had managed to miss just about all of the work.
A lot of the work done today I could probably do blindfolded I have done it so many times. But there's this tool that uses sound waves to analyze the formation which I have only seen a couple of times, and it would have been useful for me to get another practice round processing and analyzing its data. But did I really want to lose that much sleep? Goodness knows how long it would take, and I'd still have to cover the night shift as well.
Soon this will have to change. I am fast approaching my next promotion which involves being authorized to be the lead hand on a nuclear job. Nuclear cell managers are legally responsible for the radioactive source inside the tool, and are notoriously sleep-deprived. Being a cell manager in any case can be an exercise in insomnia if you have a poor night hand -- in such cases you need to stay awake as long as you possibly can and pray that your night hand doesn't mess it all up while you're asleep in your chair.
In the meantime I feel like I may be letting down my lead hand for not staying up to help out more today, and not intending to do so tomorrow. Our next shipment of tools will be arriving in the morning, a couple hours after I expect to go to bed. I also feel like I'm letting down myself for not making more of an effort to learn what I can about the sound-wave tool, but I suppose I don't feel so bad that I'm going to stay up 24 hours a day...
After 3 weeks offshore with so little downtime however, I consider myself entitled to making sleep a priority. I can just kid myself and say I'll work doubly as hard on my next hitch!
They pulled the entire drilling assembly out of the hole last night. Between one thing and another, the tools I am responsible for were not out of the hole until after my shift ended at 6am. I could have stayed up late and helped out, but the 3rd hand had gone to bed early the night before to wake up just for that purpose. Plus I was ready -- after a long night of doing nothing -- to go to bed and relax.
When I came on shift tonight at 6pm, they had finished processing all of the data and were halfway through uploading it to town. I had managed to miss just about all of the work.
A lot of the work done today I could probably do blindfolded I have done it so many times. But there's this tool that uses sound waves to analyze the formation which I have only seen a couple of times, and it would have been useful for me to get another practice round processing and analyzing its data. But did I really want to lose that much sleep? Goodness knows how long it would take, and I'd still have to cover the night shift as well.
Soon this will have to change. I am fast approaching my next promotion which involves being authorized to be the lead hand on a nuclear job. Nuclear cell managers are legally responsible for the radioactive source inside the tool, and are notoriously sleep-deprived. Being a cell manager in any case can be an exercise in insomnia if you have a poor night hand -- in such cases you need to stay awake as long as you possibly can and pray that your night hand doesn't mess it all up while you're asleep in your chair.
In the meantime I feel like I may be letting down my lead hand for not staying up to help out more today, and not intending to do so tomorrow. Our next shipment of tools will be arriving in the morning, a couple hours after I expect to go to bed. I also feel like I'm letting down myself for not making more of an effort to learn what I can about the sound-wave tool, but I suppose I don't feel so bad that I'm going to stay up 24 hours a day...
After 3 weeks offshore with so little downtime however, I consider myself entitled to making sleep a priority. I can just kid myself and say I'll work doubly as hard on my next hitch!
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Foot-Dragging Days
I haven't written anything lately because I've been in a bad mood ever since we finished our first run of drilling, or rather ever since I was obliged to start working again after being on standby immediately following our first run of drilling. I think I was just so physically exhausted after rigging up, that when we finished drilling last Sunday I was so relieved to have a couple days off that the abrupt foreshortening of my standby time threw me into some terrible blue devils.
Since then it's been a struggle to do some of the most mundane tasks, which hasn't made the necessary complex troubleshooting any easier either. Luckily there are a couple of new people out here (my former lead hand was sent home with pink eye, and our third hand was replaced by an expert on the higher-tier tool we're running this section), and they are more than willing to help out with that.
I'm gradually getting myself going again, and now that we're back to drilling this is a lot easier. There's something comforting about the drill bit rotating thousands of feet below and the constant stream of binary data transmitted through the drilling mud that enables me to find my working rhythm; my natural frequency of duty. Productivity is becoming less and less of a struggle these days.
But on Wednesday we have an audit scheduled. One of our managers is apparently hitching a ride on the oil company's swanky helicopter they're flying out here for a day-trip to look over the rig. She thought it would be "fun", and suggested doing an audit on our Measurements While Drilling operations out here in order to justify coming along with them. This means doing a complete inventory of all our tools, filling out endless forms, updating all our computers and making sure that this "chaos" that erupts from the natural order of things out here can be organized into a neat and tidy bundle of information.
I guess it's time to find some more motivation from somewhere...
Maybe tomorrow.
Since then it's been a struggle to do some of the most mundane tasks, which hasn't made the necessary complex troubleshooting any easier either. Luckily there are a couple of new people out here (my former lead hand was sent home with pink eye, and our third hand was replaced by an expert on the higher-tier tool we're running this section), and they are more than willing to help out with that.
I'm gradually getting myself going again, and now that we're back to drilling this is a lot easier. There's something comforting about the drill bit rotating thousands of feet below and the constant stream of binary data transmitted through the drilling mud that enables me to find my working rhythm; my natural frequency of duty. Productivity is becoming less and less of a struggle these days.
But on Wednesday we have an audit scheduled. One of our managers is apparently hitching a ride on the oil company's swanky helicopter they're flying out here for a day-trip to look over the rig. She thought it would be "fun", and suggested doing an audit on our Measurements While Drilling operations out here in order to justify coming along with them. This means doing a complete inventory of all our tools, filling out endless forms, updating all our computers and making sure that this "chaos" that erupts from the natural order of things out here can be organized into a neat and tidy bundle of information.
I guess it's time to find some more motivation from somewhere...
Maybe tomorrow.
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!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
The Difficulties I've Faced....
The engineer who I had been working with since before New Year's on this offshore job was scheduled to have a vacation last week, so he was training me to become "Cell Manager" of the job so he could leave me in charge and take his vacation. This was going to be a bit of a challenge, because the person they had slated as my Night Hand had not actually gotten his promotion to Night Hand, and had not actually held an entire night shift on his own. So in addition to it being my first time in charge, I was also going to have to stay up extra late and wake up extra early so as to ensure that he was handling the job competently. Yikes.
So I guess I wasn't too disappointed to find out that my intended Night Hand got sent on another job the day before I came back from standby. But I did have to go in to the office to find another Night Hand, since he had failed to inform them that they were technically "stealing" him from my rig. The only people that were in town and available to work were either a bit more experienced than me, or a LOT more experienced than me. They sent the guy that had only 6 months more experience then me out to be my Night Hand.
So first thing I do when I get out here is to power up our unit, and get our computers turned on. Of course I mess that up. This is the first rig I've worked on that has me working in a pressurized unit, which keeps flammable gases out of the computer equipment, and keeps me from blowing up the rig. Now I've learned how to turn on the pressurization system before, but I've never actually done it on the rig, so OF COURSE I do it wrong. My night hand fixes it for me, and I make a note to myself to practice on the units they re-kit at the office next time I'm in town (Minus 100 points for Holly).
The next step is to turn the computers on, but we can't! There is a problem with their power supply! Not all the power in our unit is bad, however, because the lights are working. The air conditioning is working. It must be the box that all the computers are plugged into which has a battery to keep the computers powered for 30 minutes in case the pressurization system trips the power shut-off while we're drilling. That box is beeping and not fully turning on, so something's wrong with it. But there's not much troubleshooting we can do. We have to call the office for suggestions, or get them to send a new one ASAP, but our satellite phone has no power either! And we're offshore, so cellphone reception is not at its best. We're trying to figure out alternate solutions, and halfway started on rewiring our entire unit when my Night Hand sees that one of the circuit breakers is tripped. Problem solved. Sigh. (Minus 1000 points for Holly)
I did solve one problem on my own, *pat on the shoulder*. The mice and the keyboards for 2 of our 3 computers were working, but NOT working. It was a conundrum which was fixed when I rebooted all three machines. Yay me (Plus 5 points).
So we had everything up and running, and our next object was to get our tools ready to go in the hole on the next drilling run. We loaded the batteries and programmed the first tool, but when we plugged into the second tool, it blew a fuse in the box that connects it to the computer! That has never happened to me before, so I had no idea what was going on. When my night hand pulled out the fuse to see if it had shorted, I gawked at him like he was performing magic (Minus 10 points for Holly).
Hours later, we have shorted about a dozen fuses in attempting to diagnose the problem, and we are down to our last 2. We have been working with the office to check everything and anything it could be, and we only have one possibility left. It could, maybe, Poooooosssibly (but not very likely), be one of the cables that's causing the short. Sure enough, it is, and we're lucky enough that minus the faulty 300-ft long cable, we still have enough length in the rest of our cables to reach all the way to our tools so we can plug into them (barely). (No points for anyone on this one, except the Directional Driller who told us how to check the cables)
It went on like that for a while, and I think I ended up with somewhere around the neighborhood of -35,725 points by the weekend's finish. But I guess that negative net worth somehow translates into having learned something at some point along the road, hopefully.
So I guess I wasn't too disappointed to find out that my intended Night Hand got sent on another job the day before I came back from standby. But I did have to go in to the office to find another Night Hand, since he had failed to inform them that they were technically "stealing" him from my rig. The only people that were in town and available to work were either a bit more experienced than me, or a LOT more experienced than me. They sent the guy that had only 6 months more experience then me out to be my Night Hand.
So first thing I do when I get out here is to power up our unit, and get our computers turned on. Of course I mess that up. This is the first rig I've worked on that has me working in a pressurized unit, which keeps flammable gases out of the computer equipment, and keeps me from blowing up the rig. Now I've learned how to turn on the pressurization system before, but I've never actually done it on the rig, so OF COURSE I do it wrong. My night hand fixes it for me, and I make a note to myself to practice on the units they re-kit at the office next time I'm in town (Minus 100 points for Holly).
The next step is to turn the computers on, but we can't! There is a problem with their power supply! Not all the power in our unit is bad, however, because the lights are working. The air conditioning is working. It must be the box that all the computers are plugged into which has a battery to keep the computers powered for 30 minutes in case the pressurization system trips the power shut-off while we're drilling. That box is beeping and not fully turning on, so something's wrong with it. But there's not much troubleshooting we can do. We have to call the office for suggestions, or get them to send a new one ASAP, but our satellite phone has no power either! And we're offshore, so cellphone reception is not at its best. We're trying to figure out alternate solutions, and halfway started on rewiring our entire unit when my Night Hand sees that one of the circuit breakers is tripped. Problem solved. Sigh. (Minus 1000 points for Holly)
I did solve one problem on my own, *pat on the shoulder*. The mice and the keyboards for 2 of our 3 computers were working, but NOT working. It was a conundrum which was fixed when I rebooted all three machines. Yay me (Plus 5 points).
So we had everything up and running, and our next object was to get our tools ready to go in the hole on the next drilling run. We loaded the batteries and programmed the first tool, but when we plugged into the second tool, it blew a fuse in the box that connects it to the computer! That has never happened to me before, so I had no idea what was going on. When my night hand pulled out the fuse to see if it had shorted, I gawked at him like he was performing magic (Minus 10 points for Holly).
Hours later, we have shorted about a dozen fuses in attempting to diagnose the problem, and we are down to our last 2. We have been working with the office to check everything and anything it could be, and we only have one possibility left. It could, maybe, Poooooosssibly (but not very likely), be one of the cables that's causing the short. Sure enough, it is, and we're lucky enough that minus the faulty 300-ft long cable, we still have enough length in the rest of our cables to reach all the way to our tools so we can plug into them (barely). (No points for anyone on this one, except the Directional Driller who told us how to check the cables)
It went on like that for a while, and I think I ended up with somewhere around the neighborhood of -35,725 points by the weekend's finish. But I guess that negative net worth somehow translates into having learned something at some point along the road, hopefully.
Hiatus OVER!
My computer died.
I was home from the rig for one day, and my computer got sick and died (death by virus), so I dropped it off at the IT department at my office, and sure enough, got called to go back to the rig just a few hours later.
So I was on the rig for about a week without my own computer, and forced to use my night hand's (who was gracious enough to let me). But he is the gossipy sort, and I would not put it past him to spin whatever I write here against me later, so I refrained from visiting this site.
After that I was sent home on standby, which stretched into a week-long, extremely unproductive time, and returned to the rig just this past Thursday. But things have been going CRAZY since I arrived, and I have been seeing all sorts of problems I've never seen before, which have tested my self-confidence to the fullest.
Now at last things have settled down to a more normal pace of drilling, so I can finally catch my breath and update you on my progress over these past weeks.
Thank you for your patience, and enjoy!
I was home from the rig for one day, and my computer got sick and died (death by virus), so I dropped it off at the IT department at my office, and sure enough, got called to go back to the rig just a few hours later.
So I was on the rig for about a week without my own computer, and forced to use my night hand's (who was gracious enough to let me). But he is the gossipy sort, and I would not put it past him to spin whatever I write here against me later, so I refrained from visiting this site.
After that I was sent home on standby, which stretched into a week-long, extremely unproductive time, and returned to the rig just this past Thursday. But things have been going CRAZY since I arrived, and I have been seeing all sorts of problems I've never seen before, which have tested my self-confidence to the fullest.
Now at last things have settled down to a more normal pace of drilling, so I can finally catch my breath and update you on my progress over these past weeks.
Thank you for your patience, and enjoy!
Saturday, December 6, 2008
What is it that I do all day?
This is a question I get a lot. It's natural, after all I definitely wondered that when I was preparing for this job.
So what is it that I do? I suppose I must describe this in a day-by-day basis.
A "typical" day: A day while drilling is what I would most likely consider "typical" since its essentially a day that involves me doing what I'm supposed to do. On a day like that, I will wake up at about 4:00pm to be ready for the night shift at 6:00pm. At 5:30 I have to attend the daily safety meeting which is boring, takes thirty minutes, and happens eeeeeeevvvvveeery day. Then I show up to my "office" which is a steel box smaller than the tiniest dorm room where I watch six monitors to ensure that everything is working well. Each monitor has its own little programs that have their own little quirks and details that have to be watched, and so I do that, making sure there is nothing wrong with our tools downhole. When there are problems, I fix them. When they can't be fixed, I wake up the day engineer or call the office in Louisiana. I continue on like this until after midnight, at which point I process the data from the day and send it to the offices in Houston and Lafayette. This takes about two hours on a normal day, and then I continue as before until I finish my shift at 6 am. Then I go back to the trailer I live in on the other side of the rig site, eat breakfast, shower, and go to bed. I prefer the days uneventful and problem-free, which they typically are not.
A stand-by day: On this hitch, I have so far been here for four weeks and we have only actually been drilling for 9 days. This is NOT typical, but they are interested in getting all sorts of other logs and samples that they cannot obtain while drilling. Depending on the particular Company Man (rig supervisor) who happens to be on shift at the time, I might have a fair amount of freedom or I might be under virtual house arrest and barely allowed to leave the rig. Right now unfortunately the latter sort of Company Man is out here, so I spend my days in the trailer. Occasionally I fill out a little paperwork, and I have the short morning report to fill out every night at midnight, but other than that I do very little work. There is a satellite television and I watch movie after movie on it. Internet, books, embroidery, and anything else I can think of to fill the time. Needless to say it is very boring after weeks on end, but I get paid far too much for it so it's bearable.
As for the days that don't fit into either of those two profiles, it is too difficult to be able to describe such randomness at the moment. I may endeavor to do so at another time, but I've been awake and rotting my brain on mindless TV all day and I'm about to go to bed so not tonight. My apologies.
In other news, the low temperatures (which I get a lot of being completely night shifted) are about 7 degrees farhenheit. It snowed about a half an inch the other day, which has made things around here even lovelier than usual. The weather report calls for more snow later this weekend, and I couldn't be more thrilled!
So what is it that I do? I suppose I must describe this in a day-by-day basis.
A "typical" day: A day while drilling is what I would most likely consider "typical" since its essentially a day that involves me doing what I'm supposed to do. On a day like that, I will wake up at about 4:00pm to be ready for the night shift at 6:00pm. At 5:30 I have to attend the daily safety meeting which is boring, takes thirty minutes, and happens eeeeeeevvvvveeery day. Then I show up to my "office" which is a steel box smaller than the tiniest dorm room where I watch six monitors to ensure that everything is working well. Each monitor has its own little programs that have their own little quirks and details that have to be watched, and so I do that, making sure there is nothing wrong with our tools downhole. When there are problems, I fix them. When they can't be fixed, I wake up the day engineer or call the office in Louisiana. I continue on like this until after midnight, at which point I process the data from the day and send it to the offices in Houston and Lafayette. This takes about two hours on a normal day, and then I continue as before until I finish my shift at 6 am. Then I go back to the trailer I live in on the other side of the rig site, eat breakfast, shower, and go to bed. I prefer the days uneventful and problem-free, which they typically are not.
A stand-by day: On this hitch, I have so far been here for four weeks and we have only actually been drilling for 9 days. This is NOT typical, but they are interested in getting all sorts of other logs and samples that they cannot obtain while drilling. Depending on the particular Company Man (rig supervisor) who happens to be on shift at the time, I might have a fair amount of freedom or I might be under virtual house arrest and barely allowed to leave the rig. Right now unfortunately the latter sort of Company Man is out here, so I spend my days in the trailer. Occasionally I fill out a little paperwork, and I have the short morning report to fill out every night at midnight, but other than that I do very little work. There is a satellite television and I watch movie after movie on it. Internet, books, embroidery, and anything else I can think of to fill the time. Needless to say it is very boring after weeks on end, but I get paid far too much for it so it's bearable.
As for the days that don't fit into either of those two profiles, it is too difficult to be able to describe such randomness at the moment. I may endeavor to do so at another time, but I've been awake and rotting my brain on mindless TV all day and I'm about to go to bed so not tonight. My apologies.
In other news, the low temperatures (which I get a lot of being completely night shifted) are about 7 degrees farhenheit. It snowed about a half an inch the other day, which has made things around here even lovelier than usual. The weather report calls for more snow later this weekend, and I couldn't be more thrilled!
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