Thursday, March 27, 2014

Morning Report - Day 21 - Thursday, March 27th

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 28th 2014 ~ 04:15 (UTC +1:00) 

Morning! I may be going to go to a weekly report. There is not much going on day to day and my thoughts are scattered.

Work:
Days on Rig:14
Current Rig Ops: Drilling
Current D&M Ops: Same
Current Weather: Thunder and lightening storm at night, day was mostly clear and hot.

Personal:
Current Music selection: Andrea Bocelli
Current Books:  
Grass Productivity by Andre Voisin (This book is slow going. It is definitely on the nerdy/technical side of grass based agriculture.)
The Life and Teachings of Hillel by Yitzhak Buxbaum
Books read: 3 + parts (parts = I am in several books right now, okay half a dozen)

Summary: 
No news. One day to the next is all the same now. The blur is really setting in and I am losing track of the days, which is a good thing. Haha, even the food is all tasting the same. I can't really call it dining, it is more akin to re-fueling. I do enjoy having meals with some of the guys from the other units, though even now our conversations are getting shorter and more work related.

C'est La Vie!

Monday, March 24, 2014

Morning Report - Day 18 - Monday, March 24th

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 25th 2014 ~ 04:30 (UTC +1:00) 

Bonjour!

Work:
Days on Rig: 11
Current Rig Ops: Drilling ahead. We will be drilling for neigh on 2 weeks.
Current D&M Ops: Same. We drilled close to 400 meters yesterday!
Current Weather: Cool evening with calm seas, day was mostly clear and hot, night some rain.

Personal:
Current Music selection: The Chieftains
Current Books:  
Grass Productivity by Andre Voisin - Frenchmen, blunt and scathing in their assessment of the USA.
The Life and Teachings of Hillel by Yitzhak Buxbaum
Books read: 3 + parts 
Distance Ran Friday: 2.5 miles
Time walking on Heli-deck: 0.5 hrs


Summary: 
This is a long section that we are drilling. There won't be much changing for the next almost two weeks and I am looking forward to the flow of the work routine that helps the time pass.

To offer an explanation about my comment about Voisin, he writes in the 1959 book, "American farmers have exploited the soil like a mine and have forgotten to respect the demands of the grass. They have made it work like a slave: they have worn it out with work, neglecting the periods of rest it required. After the grass had died from overwork it was the soil itself that succumbed. Washed away by erosion in the rivers, it went on to sleep its last sleep in the Gulf of Mexico."

Another quote that struck me in the first chapter of Life and Teaching of Hillel  has to do with how we ought to understand who it is we quote. Something that struck me and makes me nervous to go on spouting "so and so says." The quote, "The rabbis tell us that when someone utters a traditional saying in the name of a teacher, he should see that teacher as if he were standing before him." As a Christian, how do I see Jesus before I go and use His words? 

Who is Hillel anyway?

Hillel the Elder is one of the greatest Jewish religious leaders of the 1st century BC. He was a contemporary of Herod the Great (The Herod of the nativity narrative) and grandsire to Gamaliel, Paul's first rabbi and instructor. His teaching and understanding of the Torah shaped the Pharisee movement and the set the tone of the Jewish religious landscape that Jesus came to with all the other various sects: Sadducees, Essenes, and Herodians. (Pharisees have gotten a terrible rap over the years in Christian teaching which I have discovered is an uneducated and unfortunate disparaging of a fascinating tradition. A tradition that shapes the earliest teachers of the Church, including Paul who never stopped being one if you look at Acts 23:6 & 26:5, and can give much depth even to the teachings of Christ. End soap box.)

I love the chance to read so much when I have my 12 hours off tour, but I should get more sleep.

Veritas Numquam Perit!

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Morning Report - Day 17 - Sunday, March 23rd

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 24th 2014 ~ 05:55 (UTC +1:00) 

Good morning all!

Work:
Days on Rig: 10
Current Rig Ops: Drilling ahead
Current D&M Ops: Completed various morning reports and monitoring until next connection
Current Weather: During the day it was bright sunshine with high clouds, this evening it rained

Personal:
Current Music selection: Mumford & Sons
Current Book: Grass Productivity by Andre Voisin (I am not making much progress right now)
Books read: 3 + parts
Distance Ran Friday: 3.25 miles
Strength workout: 30 minutes
Time walking on Heli-deck: 1.5 hrs


Summary: 
I need to write this sooner in the evening!


"Glory is fleeting, obscurity is eternal." ~ Thomas More

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Morning Report - Day 16 - Saturday, March 22nd

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 23rd 2014 ~ 05:15 (UTC +1:00) 

Good morning!

Work:
Days on Rig: 9
Current Rig Ops: Making up the BHA (Bottom hole assembly)
Current D&M Ops: Making up our tools in the BHA
Current Weather: Light winds from the south, Nearly clear skies Saturday afternoon

Personal:
Current Music selection: None
Current Book: Grass Productivity by Andre Voisin
Books read: 3 + parts
Distance Ran Friday: Need to find conservative running plan to avoid injury
Time walking on Heli-deck: 1.5 hrs

Summary:
Life is good in the MWD D&M world on the West Es.

Friday, March 21, 2014

Morning Report - Day 15 - Friday, March 21st

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 22nd 2014 ~ 04:30 (UTC +1:00) 

Morning!
Changing up the format.

Work:
Days on Rig: 8 (It is good to be on the rig)
Current Rig Ops: Cementing casing
Current D&M Ops: Waiting on rig
Current Weather: Thunder storm with heavy rain

Personal:
Current Music selection: Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Current Book: Grass Productivity by Andre Voisin
Books read: 3 + parts
Distance Ran Friday: 3 miles - straight run
Distance Biked Friday: 5 miles - interval training


Summary:
Thursday and Friday morning I and my day back-to-back got everything ready for the next section of the well on our end of things. That means tonight was a quite evening in the unit reading, chatting with friends online (I do both those things a lot, just some days more than others), and working on some paperwork stuff for the end of well. That is several weeks away. It is good to be prepared. Ha!

Carpe Diem!

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Morning Report - Day 14 - Thursday, March 20th

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 20th 2014 ~ 05:55 (UTC +1:00) 

Good Morning! Today was productive and I am pleasantly tired. Didn't get any reading in as work kept me mostly busy all night long. On top of that my tour is quickly coming to a close which means internet is going away. Ciao!

Rig life is blurring.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Daily Report - Day 13 - Wednesday, March 19th

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 20th 2014 ~ 04:45 (UTC +1:00)

Good morning to you all. Not much to report. We reached section total depth in the afternoon, and my work shift has been pleasantly quiet as we circulated the hole clear of cuttings for several hours and then the crew has been tripping pipe out of the hole.

I finished a book by Wendell Berry entitled Bringin it to the Table on farming and food. It is a wonderful book with loads of wit and humor as well as depth in his insights, and philosophy that challenges accepted notions. The deeper I wade into these kinds of books the more I am finding common themes like currents. I discover more authors yet to read. New ways of looking at the world, society, and nature. Ideas about looking at the world as a whole, not in parts. A call to abandon specialization in favor of holistic understanding...

Anyway...

Oh, there was a one-sided fight on the rig Wednesday morning. Both men are out a job. The events around the lashing out attack, more of an adapt word, are messy. "A tale through too many mouths grows feathers."  I wasn't there and there are conflicting tales.  You would think in this small a population the story wouldn't diverge so much. I could say more, but it is better to be silent when prudent.

Veritas Numquam Perit! 

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Morning Report - Day 12 - Tuesday, March 18th

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 19th 2014 ~ 05:15 (UTC +1:00) 

Morning Gang! Today, yesterday, whatever, was a really cool day. In the morning before going to bed I like to run, workout, and take a walk around the helicopter deck. This morning as I started walking around the deck I noticed a large storm to our east blowing in from the continent and marveled at its beauty. It soon arrived and the winds were really picking up strong. three of us guys who were up walking decided that we should get off when they made an announcement that all lifting operations were to stop as the winds were getting stronger. Then it hit....

Several guys who have worked here for years all commented on how unusually this storm was. The winds were the strongest I have seen here. I heard that the rig clocked the winds at over 60 knots (70+mph). Then the rain started coming sideways and made for a really cool affect on the top of the waves as they mixed with the spray coming off the white cap waves.


The photo is from the back deck protected from the winds and rain. The waves here have been attenuated some from the leg of the tender, but the rain is still really cool.

On the drilling front we are plowing thought this section quickly with a stead rate of penetration of over 30 meter an hour. We should reach the section total depth sometime Wednesday. Then we pull all this pipe out of hole and we get ready for the next section of the well, while the rig crew puts the casing in place.

Rig life is rolling right along.

Monday, March 17, 2014

Morning Report - Day 11 - Monday, March 17th

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 18th 2014 ~ 05:15 (UTC +1:00)  

   Top of the Morning! My how time flies and crawls. Even with keeping this daily report up working nights causes the days to blur together. I am in good spirits though. Work is going well and we are making good progress on drilling this section of the well.

   It is strange work though. Seldom do I feel a sense of accomplishment. What did I do today/week/month? What did I accomplish on this project? Who will it affect? Was it meaningful? The answers to these questions on a large scale are to vague and abstract for my liking.  Digging deeper I still am left pondering. On the smaller scale I can answer for myself, family, and friends. Daily I have a routine of asking my self a series of questions. Daily I have to answer. Sometimes I can be ironic or sarcastic towards myself, but in the end I know why I am doing this, and I do find value in my work.

   What is it exactly I do?  At work I fulfill my job duties and responsibilities as best I can in order to do what is best and improve my life and the lives of those around me. That is a common answer and is my answer for today.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Morning Report - Day 10 - Sunday, March 16th

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 17th 2014 ~ 04:15 (UTC +1:00) 

   Dobré ráno!The weekly marking of time passing occurred today. At 10am we had the weekly fire drill which for us night tour guys means it wakes most of us from our slumber. Oh well.
   As I got the unit this evening we were just shallow hole testing our tools. All our tools checked out here at surface and the rig crew proceeded with making up the rest of the bottom hole assembly. (It feels weird to be writing out all these words when we use acronyms in their place so much) While we are tripping pipe in hole, I complete several paperwork items and get set for once we get to the bottom of the hole several hundreds of meters away. About 3:00 we tag the top of the cement from the last casing job and get going with operations. Shortly after that I QC and send out my work morning report which has all sorts of technical and tracking data in it. Currently we are about to start drilling! Oh yeah!

    Rig life is good and I am getting in the groove of things.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Morning Report - Day 9 - Saturday, March 15th

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 16th 2014 ~ 05:20 (UTC +1:00)

Dobré ráno!

Rig life is good. We are ready to pick up our tools for the bottom hole assembly which should be later this morning or afternoon. Had a quiet last half of my evening. 

Friday, March 14, 2014

Morning Report - Day 8 - Friday, March 14th

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 15th 2014 ~ 04:00 (UTC +1:00)

Buenos Días! Fun time is over. Back to the rig! This is the way we like work to be as a D&M Field Engineer. Today I sent out a proper morning report too. Yesterday/today several of us Drilling and Measurements guys flew over from the island to the mainland in the morning. From there we took a 25 minute helicopter flight out the rig that I hope to spend the rest of my hitch on. I have had enough shore time for this trip, thank you.  :)  From here on out, I will be posting at the end of my shift, or close to it. Some days will be more some days will be less. My days are now centered around a 12hour work day from 18:00-6:00.

   Once we go aboard around noon we went through a quick safety induction and grabbed a quick lunch. Afterward I tried, unsuccessfully I might add, to take a nap in the afternoon in preparation for going onto night shift. Out here we call the shifts 'tours' (pronounced

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Morning Report - Day 7 - Thursday, March 13th

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 14th 2014 ~ 05:20 (UTC +1:00) 

   доброе утро! Dobroye utro! Oh, Thursday, was a quite day for sure. Didn't really have much work to do in the morning besides trying to organize the BBQ for the Techs this weekend. In typical EG fashion nothing is easily accomplished. Talk with the catering company in the morning right before lunch. They said no problem just send them a list of the menu items we would like, approximate amounts, etcetera. By the late afternoon, they told us, "We can't do it." Right now I wish we had a Dominoes to call up and order 30 pizzas and be done with it.  
   I also was reminded in the afternoon just how awesome it is to work here. We have another field engineer filling in on loan from a different location. We were both asked to set up a tool in the calibration area so that way he could start calibrating it first thing Friday morning. No wahala, I have done this before. During the set up in the very hot afternoon sun he stated several times, "I have never done this before. We always have it set up for us. We just come and calibrate the tool. This is so different." To which I wanted to responded, "Buck up!" Instead, "Ya man, we do it ourselves here. It just comes with the territory." Which I suppose is a nicer way of saying the same thing. Don't get me wrong, he is a really great guy, knows his stuff, and is a definite help right now.
   The rest of the day was filled with web surfing, reading operations manuals, chatting with friends on Facebook (a welcome reprieve to the manuals), and Skyping the parents in the evening. I finally picked up a web cam this last days off, so I got to show them the beauty of EQG right at sun set. Granted, the sunset was on the other side of the hotel, but the early evening environment is still very pretty, and the hotel has a nice pool. :)   

Last full day being onshore for a while. Rig, here I come! Maybe... they could always delay the flight. Ha!

Morning Report - Day 6 - Wednesday, March 12th

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 13th 2014 ~ 08:15 (UTC +1:00)

   Gutten Morgan! Wednesday was when I was hopeful to head offshore. Do to normal unforseen set backs, half the team will go out Thursday and the rest of us will go out Saturday. At least that was the plan as of Wednesday morning. Now it is Thursday and Friday.  Flexibility is a must in this business.
   While not having much to do at the office, my boss has asked me to help organize a BBQ for the shop techs for this upcoming Saturday evening. Our shop technicians are awesome and definitely need this BBQ to blow some steam and relax. It is just a little difficult to get things going around here sometimes. Hopefully I will be able to get a hold of the catering company this morning.
    In other news, I am now signed up for a 4 day training course in Huston at the end of April. Now to see if I will be able to make or if I have to reschedule due to work. The course will be for one of the fancy measurement tools that my company runs, and I am looking forward to getting some training on it and subsequently running the tool in the field two wells from now. Besides a couple days of training gives me a chance to visit friends in Texas. I am going to probably rent a set of wheels so that I have some mobility to boot! Ya, looking forward to it.

Onshore life is about to head offshore. Ciao!

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Morning Report - Day 5 - Tuesday, March 11th

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 21th 2014 ~ 08:00 (UTC +1:00) 

Morning everyone! Tuesday. I spoke to soon when I said I was feeling better. I resembled Rudolf the red noise petroleum engineer. Ha!
Work was good, but slow in the afternoon. I spent a little bit of time in the late afternoon reading a thought provoking blog post about preaching/teaching in church. (found here: http://www.esler.org/2014/01/30/is-preaching-biblical/) While I disagree with some of his conclusions ( namely his point about the disciple being uneducated somewhat misses that they were very educated like most ordinary men of the time. While passed over by the formal teachers from the temple and other rabbis, they were still selected as young men by the ultimate Rabbi and the Messiah, Jesus. - Sorry, this is a soap box of mine.)  With that clarified

Monday, March 10, 2014

Morning Report - Day 4 - Monday, March 10th

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 11th 2014 ~ 06:15 (UTC +1:00)

Morning everyone! Monday, Monday. It was similar to Sunday in poor quality of sleep. This hitch is lining up to be much like the last. Plenty of waking hours after work to read. I went to breakfast when the cafe opened and caught a ride to work at 6:45. At work, I got my residency card application rolling, along with tending to more miscellaneous items my manager asked me to get done and reading the drilling plan for the upcoming well. Mainly in the afternoon I worked on my online learning in order to complete various certifications and competencies. Yay! I have another one to do today that is a yearly radiation update.
Another item I spent some time on yesterday and the day before was that within my company we have a instant messaging system that connects all the personal from around the world. Pretty sweet. I use this feature often, especially to stay intouch with Mines friends working for SLB in other locations and other engineers I have met in training or on the job. 
To wrap up this post, all day yesterday I was fighting a sore throat which has thankfully mostly gone away this morning. I intended to get back early enough in the evening to go to the gym, but would have been sucking for air big time. Instead last night I drank some hot tea and finally got some decent sleep. This evening I think I will go running for sure!

Onshore life is rolling along.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Morning Report - Day 3 - Sunday, March 9th

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 10th 2014 ~ 06:00 (UTC +1:00 CWA)

Good morning! Here I thought I had gotten over jet lag but Sunday I woke fully awake despite getting hardly any sleep (sleep < 2 hours). Ah well. I had a very pleasant morning sipping on my fresh brewed coffee and reading the news at breakfast. Last days off I got french press coffee mug. I think this mug is going to spoil me to the rig drip coffee maker. At work I had the office to myself for the first hour in the morning so as I like to do, I plugged in some tunes and started singing and humming along. Fore warned, you don't want to ever hear me sing by myself. Most people liken my sing to torture. Not only that, but my selection is very random. In several songs we can cover Irish Folk, Country Music, Rock and Roll, and Christian Praise and Worship. After a late lunch I stayed at the hotel and listened to some pod cast sermons, took a nap, and read some. I have fallen out of the habit of listening to recorded sermons and need to get back in the habit. I am going through some of Ray Vander Laan's sermons that I have listened to before for a nice refresher. Not much else to report as I opted not to go to the casino "El Barco" in the evening.
Oh, the lightening storm all Sunday morning was spectacular.

Life onshore is normal for a Sunday and we will probably be heading offshore Wednesday morning. I will find out today most likely.

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Morning Rerport - Day 2

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 9th 2014 ~ 06:00 (UTC +1)


Good morning! Yesterday was a bit rough after Friday evening. Not cool. Nothing to mention about work seeing as I was feeling really terrible in the morning and ended up not going. Heading in this morning to make up for that. In the afternoon I was invited to play soccer, but decided to decline. The thought of playing football in the mid to late afternoon tropical heat sounded intimidating to say the least.  While I enjoy playing football. I don't think I like it that much. Ha! One of the guys at work on Friday told be point blank in his awesome Spanish accent, "Dude, you play football in this heat you going to die!"

In the evening several other engineers arrived for the upcoming job. Two of them are with another service company. One of those two is a fellow Mines alum (2013) and former classmate! The oilfield is a small world and Mines grads are all over the place! Go Orediggers! We had an enjoyable dinner catching up on life and how his senior year went. I find it cool that he ended up being a TA for one of the classes in which the year previous I had been his TA. Now we will be going to the same job and most likely working night shift together along with the Directional Driller. Looking forward to some good times.

Expat life is full of surprises and you never know who you will work with again.     

Morning Report - Day 1

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 8th 2014 ~ 18:00 (UTC +1)

Good Afternoon! Perhaps I should call this the afternoon or evening report given the time I am sitting down to writing this today. Goodness, I need improvement before I have even started. 

Yesterday, the 7th, was a fairly productive day at work. I took care of various odds and ends that I needed to attend to. I tried to make some progress on getting my residency card for EQG in the afternoon, but the work day ended with loading out the tools for the upcoming job. It was a good day at the base and the time flew by quickly.  

Typically I have quiet evenings at the hotel when I am onshore. Last night however was not such a night. A colleague from work invited me to join him in going to a party at the U.S. Embassy here in EQG. I had never been to the new embassy here and took up the invitation readily. Ah, U.S. soil.

Friday, March 7, 2014

Morning Reports to Follow

The Idea: While home on last days off, I was doing some cleaning and came across a kind of journal from one of my university field sessions. Every morning we were to write a morning report and turn it in. It could be as simple as a one word summary of the previous day or as detailed as you liked. Reading through the 2 week journal of my Massadona field session thoughts and events was rather entertaining. I then decided to do something similar during this next hitch. So, tomorrow morning I will write a quick post, and hopefully do the same for the upcoming weeks. If anything, I will look back on this string of post years from now and be reminded of where I was/am and hopefully take something away from it. A snapshot in time.

Travel day(s): To briefly do an entry for my getting here,