Day 5&6 - Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday

My time has been full, but here is a recap of the past couple day or at least a few scattered thoughts.

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Whew, these last 36 hours quite full as I didn’t have the down time that I have had previously. While some days are monotonous, these two were not. Also they made me realize how much better it is to work nights. I am a day behind in writing as yesterday once I got off work I only made time to write a message to a friend and went straight to bed. There is much to write about to fill in what madness of life we lead here on the rig all to produce crude from rocks thousands of meters below the ocean for modern societies use.  

 

Tuesday 1800:

We are tripping the pipe out of the hole and we are getting ready to lay down the BHA this evening. During the hours before the BHA with our tools in it gets to surface I work on preparing the log formats in our software systems and various other tasks in the unit. One of the more experience MWD engineers is back from days off and we catch up on what has been happening. He is a really cool guy and I look forward to working nights with him. We go over what the next hour’s events will be and the key things that I need to do in order to be ready for my upcoming promotion review. Around 20:30 I go out to the back deck to prepare some of the tools not used in this run for shipping back to town. It is hot sweat work, and it takes a while to dry off afterwards. It is not long now until we lay down the BHA so we grab a quick meal before at 2300hr. 

In taking down the BHA I should clarify. I am not doing the job of the roughneck in setting the slips, throwing tongs, or working the iron torque connecter (called the Iron Roughneck), however I am there on deck showing the guys which connection to break in the drill collars, and once the collars are disconnected covering the electron connection inside and covering the threads with their protectors. We also look for wear on the tools and any signs of damage. Depending on which tools are in the BHA we can also have other responsibilities which I will not go into here. 

As we get our tools laid out on the back deck away from the busy drill floor we need to plug into the electronics and recover the recorded memory in the tool. In taking measurements of the downhole environment only some of the data can be sent back up the hole and real time. The rest is recorded to the tool. While recovering the memory we work to clean the electronics connections and prepare the tools for being shipped of the rig. They must go back to town to make room for other tools coming on board. Yet again, hot sweaty outdoor work for 4 hours and from which I really didn’t dry out from until the end of my shift. 

The outside work is done for now, and for the rest of my tour and the beginning of the next I work on making logs for the client. These are more import and must be right the first time, or else you get some very unhappy people on your hands. As any Mines PE student can tell you, very often most of your time is taken in formatting your work precisely and consistently. Attention to detail is vital and you take the time to do it right. Put a room full of engineers and geologist together looking at your work and they will notice the smallest inconsistency, even if it just cosmetic and doesn’t change the data. Anyway, while I thoroughly enjoying working with my hands any day, I also kind of like this type of work that about attention to detail. I plug in my headphones and listen to some epic Spanish guitar instrumental music that helps me focus. Numerous editing renditions later, my work is complete and the day tour MWD quality checks my work. It is good to go and is sent off. It has been a packed day and there is more to come this evening. 

Wednesday 1800:

All the tools we prepared for sending back to shore are gone and the next batch is here. This means plenty of prep work to be done. Also, our computer systems are being re-shuffled. Hence my evening is split in two episodes. Working in the air conditioned unit and loosing several pounds in sweat outside. The first half of the night I spend backing-up files from one computer and restoring them on another machine. This takes several hours of installing various patches and files. It provides a great opportunity to learn more about the details of the software that I use in my job. After the mid night meal I head outside to strap the new tools and program them.

Around midnight I start in on the tools outside by measuring the lengths, inner diameters, and outer diameters, and other checks. We have 11 tools to measure so this can take a little while. Even though it is the dead of night, the temperature is still a humid 80 plus degrees and there is no wind on this side of the rig. The only time this side of the rig gets wind is when a storm is moving in from the north and you have about 5-10 minutes before the rain comes. For this Alaskan, just standing outside in my work coveralls and hard hat, sweat begins run down my face. In no time at all my coveralls are drenched. I drink lots of water and when ever I go in the air conditioned unit to work briefly on the programing I try not to stay to long to where I get chilled. I can't imagine what it would be like to do this same work out under the intense sunshine. After a long tiring night, a hot shower and dry clothes this morning made me feel like a new man when I went to breakfast. I am in high spirits after a good nights work. Also, I say goodbye to some of the guys who are leaving the rig today. It will my turn in about 2 weeks when the well is done. 

Day 21 on the rig. Total rig days: 42.