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.~

Off-Shore for the First Time

From Solar Navigator

After 7 weeks in Malabo, I finally got the chance to go off-shore.  As an International Mobile (IM), most of my career will be spent working off-shore.  Going to a rig is a highly recommended part of SLB’s pre-training, since most of a MLWD field career is spent working split shifts on a rig site. 

Due to the location, logistical, and expense issues in EQG, it is hard to get trainee’s off-shore.  This was one of the main reasons that I hadn’t had a chance to go off-shore before now.  The other was that about three weeks after I arrived in EQG, the rigs had finished drilling their current wells and went into completions mode (preparing the well to start producing oil).

So last Saturday morning, I walked into work and stopped to say good morning to one of the project managers.  He asks me what my plans are for Monday.  My response is my usual working on reading the training material and working in the shop.  He says wrong, I’m getting on a helicopter. This is the conversation I have spent the last two months waiting for. He tells me that after a long negotiation with the company man by one of our Directional Drillers (DD) that he said I could go.  I was to bring with me as part of my 60 lbs of luggage 30 lbs of shrimp, and I would be rooming the female DD.

I spent the next day packing up my hotel room and moving everything that I wasn’t bringing to the rig to the office.  I was unlucky and had a 7:00 am flight so I was unable to bring the shrimp with me but they would be coming later in the day. 

I had to check in to my flight an hour early, which meant I had to leave the hotel at 5:45 am.  Once at the heliport, I got checked in and we had a safety briefing on the helicopter and escape methods.  Due to some lighting we were delayed an hour but it was finally time to get on the helicopter and take the 20 min flight out to the Jade Platform.  It was exciting but scary.  I couldn’t wait to see the Jade for the first time.  The helicopter landed at the Jade, and disembarking with the rotor blades still spinning was an experience.  Once below the helideck, I took a moment to admire the view and the Jade. 

The first thing that stands out is the 100 ft flare off the side. It’s an impressive site.  After a couple mins, I headed down to the arrivals lounge to get our room assignments and to await my rig safety induction.  I am in a double room with a shared bathroom (one of the perks of being female in the oil industry) on the 5^th floor of the accommodations.  After the induction, I meet up with the day shift DD and my MWD mentor for a quick tour of the rig, some introductions, and our unit, and then it’s off to bed.  I am going to work night shift with the other female MWD field engineer.  This means that I have a room to myself since my roommate the female DD works days.

Switching to night shift was a little hard but I rapidly figured out some benefits too it.  That 100 ft flare produces a lot of heat and we are about 4 degrees north of the equator so that means it gets really hot in general and add in that flare its almost unbearable.  I really enjoy getting to see what I will be doing after my training school and to experience actual rig life. I will do a post about rig life in a day or two.

~And that has made all the difference.~