Off-shore Platform Life

This is the Jade Platform.  I am currently living here.
Photo Credit: Solar Navigator

From talking to people rig life various greatly from rig to rig, from location to location, from on-shore to off-shore.  Here on the Jade Platform, it’s fairly simple and minimalist.  Since I am working night shift, my day starts at about 4:30 pm.  I get up and go pick up my laundry.  Laundry one every shift so a clean set of clothing is waiting for me every shift. This means that you don’t need a lot of stuff out on the rig. 

After getting dressed, I go down to the galley and eat breakfast or dinner for breakfast.  At 5:30, I attend the daily Drilling Safety Meeting.  Everyone who is part of the drilling night shift is required to attend.  We go over some of the recent safety issues and some of the problems day shift had.  After that, everyone heads out to do handover and start work.

What I actually do during my shift depends on what the rig is doing.  If the rig isn’t drilling and all the prep work is done, then its move or goof off time.  But when the rig is drilling, I am watching sensors, tracking and correlation measurements, and downlinking for tools.  Sometime between 11:30 pm and 1:00 am is a 15-30 minute break for lunch.  Then it’s back to work until 6:00 am when day shift shows up.

The food is a step or two above normal cafeteria food. Due to the visa situation in Equatorial Guinea, most of the staff is American.  There are some other nationalities but I would guess the ratio is 70% American 30% other nationalities.  Compared to most rigs (at least in Africa), the male to female ratio is quite high.  Of the 135 people on-board, 5 are female.  Currently, 4 of them are from SLB.  I am paired with the other female MLWD field engineer.  

  

For the time off, we have a TV room, pool table, and weight room.  Most of the night shift goes to bed shortly after we get off shift. Because I am female, my room is at the top floor of the accommodations and I only have one other person in my room and a bathroom shared by four people.  Because my roommate, the female directional driller (DD) works day, I have a room to myself.  This is way better than the male accommodations where its communal bathrooms and 4 people per room.

One of the biggest issues off-shore is safety.  The oil and gas industry has had it fair share of injuries and deaths.  For this reason, safety isn’t taken lightly because there are plenty of things out here that can and will kill.  For this reason, any time we are out of the accommodations personal protective equipment or PPE is mandatory.  This includes hard hat, eye protection, steel toe boots, fire resistant coveralls, impact gloves, hearing protection.  Another thing is that one must always be aware of what’s going on around you both above and below you.  On the Jade platform, there are four cranes and two hoists that can be lifting stuff at any time.  One always has to be careful not to walk under anything being lifted.  The whole rig is a choreographed dance.   Everyone watches out for each other, and if something is unsafe any person from the lowly trainee to the company man has the power to shut down the rig.

~And that has made all the difference.~