Day 2 - Saturday/Sunday

This is going to be a short post, as I need to get some sleep before being woken up for the Sunday afternoon fire drill.

Saturday 1700hr:

I woke up later than I usually do and really didn’t have time for much more than a short shower and going to the pre-tour safety meeting. I grab an orange from the galley and head to work, I will eat a full meal come midnight. (The mid night meal was surprising good today!)

We have been drilling ahead smoothing pretty much all day, and it is looking like a good evening of drilling operations without any hiccups. The rate of penetration (ROP) into the new formation has been really good, and we are drilling about 28 meters in just under an hour and half. This means that the time in between the burst of activity I mentioned in the last post are quite useful for tending to other things that need attention. During this time I work on the computers and do some personal stuff. A little bit about my work station. Typically on a offshore rig, Schlumberger (SLB) would have its own modular logging unit with all out computers and other systems. On this rig we are in one of the rigs units below and to the left of the drill floor. It is a long room with mud loggers and geologist on one side and SLB on the other. On SLB’s end there is the DD station and then the MWD spot where I work. Beside my work laptop, there are three other monitors up with various programs running for doing the job and a modem cabinet with other sensor acquisition devices and printers. On one computer we have a data processing program which monitors and translates the signal received from downhole into meaningful numbers for the other two computers. The two other computers process the data from the first and display it onto the logs that I mentioned in yesterdays post. Also from these two we have displays sent to the operator company man and to the driller so they can monitor what is going on in the well.

It is a quiet evening and I spend some time talking with a friend on chat. Within SLB we have a chat communicator that is really quite nice. We usually have good conversations about questions of life and the bible. This conversation was no exception. We talk back and forth until I have to go again, and she finishes here work half way across the world. I spend the rest of my time busy with various things throughout the evening. The day MWD has let me grab some music from his hard drive so I get a couple of albums that I have wanted to get for a while now.  

This morning I decided to stay at work a little longer and work on cleaning up and organizing my laptop files. I have been meaning to do this for a while. I am really glad it did. Around 0700 I went up to the rig floor and on my way back I got to enjoy the beautiful morning. It is a particularly clear morning and not only can I see the coast line but the mountains several miles inland. Typically there is a thick haze that obscures the coast line. Today it is a glorious morning, the kind that you realize how cool it is to be alive. It isn’t too hot, the sea breeze is cool and refreshing, and the ocean is gently lapping at the base of the rig. Yet another day in paradise or something close to it. 

Later! 

Photo thanks to my co-worker.

Day 1 - Friday

Well, it is time to do it.  I have absolutely neglected this blog and it is time to change that, or at least try once again. I have received many questions about what it is I do from family, friends, and those being interviewed by my company. In the next couple of posts I will give you a day by day blow of what my job entails. Before I go to bed each morning, I will write about the previous day’s activity and post in the evening, EG time. So for all of you in the states it will be in the late morning/early afternoon. To give you a full picture of my job I will back track to Thursday and get you caught up. Oh, as background, if you didn’t know before I work in West Africa, my job title is a measurements and logging while drilling (MLWD or MWD) field engineer, I am about to break out from being a trainee, and I work on an offshore drilling rig. Also, on any rig you have three major categories of companies; you have the operator, the rig contractor, and 3^rd party. Schlumberger is one of several 3^rd party companies on this rig.

Thursday 1730hr:

I start my shift after going to a pre-tour (pronounced “tower”) safety meeting. In the safety meeting we go over what activities are being conducted and safety incidents from the previous 24 hours. Tonight we are picking up the bottom hole assembly (BHA) and therefore the drill floor and the back deck are going to be very busy. A little about the BHA, Schlumberger is a service provider, and the drilling and measurements segment that I work in has tools which go in the BHA to steer and measure parameters of the well. During the day, the day MWD (who I will call Purdue) has programmed the tools which we are using for drilling the next section of the well and made sure that they are cleaned and in working order. Now we communicate with the crane crew to let them know which tools need to be picked up to the drill floor. The directional driller (DD) communicates with the crew as the bit and the steering tool are made up as the beginning of the BHA. After that, under the supervision of Purdue, I communicate with the crew that works on the drill floor (rough necks) how to properly make up the connections of collars which my tools are inside of. After we make up all the tools and before we add anymore length to the BHA which is now around 30 meters in length, we run what is called a shallow hole test (SHT). A SHT is where you turn on the directional, measurement, and logging tools and check to make sure that all our electronic tools are communicating and work they way we expect them too. This is a very important test because if something is wrong here we can easily lay down the tool that is the issue and pick up one of our back up tools. This is better than getting to the bottom of the well 1900 meters down only to discover that something doesn’t work. The SHT passes.

Friday 0000hr: 

In the hours before midnight, the rest of the BHA is made up and consists of heavier pipe called collars and heavy weight drill pipe. Once the BHA is made, the rig crew slowly lowers the drill string down 28 meters at a time, adding another stand of drill pipe and lowering the string again. This is called tripping in hole, or running in hole. It will be several hours before we reach the bottom of the well we have drilled on previous sections/runs. During this time I work on several tasks to prepare for drilling this next section of the well. There are several sensors that need calibrating and I coordinate with the rig operator and get these sensors tuned. Now that it is past midnight I can work on submitting the daily report for Thursday’s activities and any parameters of operations. Once this is done I have several hours to myself, and I work on wrapping up some online training, read some reference material, catch on email and fb, and watch a TV show on the DD’s laptop. Our nick name as MWDs after all is movie watching dudes. ;)  Just before my shift ends at 0600hr we reach the bottom of the well and touch bottom (tag cement). This is where I connect our depth tracking sensor and set it the depth that the driller has on his pipe tally. 

Now that we have tagged bottom, there are several things that need to happen. First the rig must circulate a denser mud into the well to prepare for the next section. After that we need to drill though the cement, well there is more than just cement but for our purposes, cement. After the cement is drilled we will drill a couple of meters into the new formation and test the formation. I end my tour at 0600hr expecting these things to occur before I start my next shift. I go inside and have a good breakfast of eggs and toast, work out, shower, and am in bed by 0800. I fall asleep to Top Gear playing on the TV. I had already seen the episode. 

Friday 1600hr: 

I wake up and spend some time reading, praying, and journal. Around 5 I head down to “dinner.” The food this evening is not that great. I eat some slices of cucumber and French fries. I get a cup of coffee and head to the safety meeting. After that gets out, with personal protection equipment (PPE) on, I head out to work. When I get to the unit, I find out that the other stuff beside the cement which I mention previously took most of the last 12 hours to drill through. This means I get to do another part of the MLWD operations; once we drilled out past the cement in to virgin formation we conduct a formation integrity test (FIT). The FIT tests the strength of the formation. We do this by increasing the pressure exerted on the rock and if it holds up. On my end, I monitor the pressures detected by my tools down at the bottom of the well. The information comes up through the mud inside the pipe in a signal that is picked up at surface. Well that is the simple way of saying it. Once we finish the test, I give a filled out form to the company man. The test is good. We are ready to drill!   

Tonight will be interspersed with periods of activity whenever we reach the end of one stand of drill pipe and add the next 28 meters of pipe onto the pipe already in the hole. To give a simple description, during these connections I record several pieces of data such as pressure, density, and where the bit is pointing. I also fill out a journal which will be used in the daily drilling report. Once this is done, I check that my depth sensor is reading correctly by comparing the known length of the pipe in the hole to what it is showing. Now that I have that done there is usually about an hour until the next connection. I use this time to work on generating real time logs of the data that I am getting from my tools. Ah, I should explain. A log in the sense I am using it is a graph with various kinds of information plotted on it versus either depth or time. For example, on a depth based log, the depth is on the y-axis and parameters such as pressure, temperature, and many others things. The well site geologist has requested a couple logs with a different set up to the usual ones, so I make those for him. The communication on the rig is pretty cool. Each office or work station has a phone. There is a three digit number that corresponds to a particular aspect of operations. So, the geologist, company man, or driller can call me up any time and I can call them. 

Also in this time in between connection I took the time to write some emails, read some work related material that was “assigned” to me as my learning homework for the evening. I check fb and see that my mom has asked me to call her, so I talk with her on the unit phone for about 30 minutes at around 0300. We have been having some excellent conversations lately, and I am reminded of how much I miss home.

Saturday 0600:

All in all, the shift has been uneventful. It is now Saturday morning, and once again I head to the galley for an omelet and toast. So here I sit in my room typing this up to post this evening. Please let me know if you have any questions about what I wrote, and I will address them in the following post.

Cheers!   

Germany: Day 1 (12/04/12)

“Have I left Upstate NY? Okay, I must have. I am on a train, and they are speaking German over the PA. Oh and that town looks to compact.” The country side of southern Germany from Frankfurt to Stuttgart looks strikingly similar to that of upstate NY with rolling wooded hills and farm land. There are differences, but the environment is very similar.

I have desired to travel to Germany about the time my family hosted our first exchange student who was from Germany. At that same time my sister and I starting taking German lessons which we continued for 3 years. While at the end of the 3 years of study my German was okay, 4 subsequent years of college have left me with a very small vocabulary. Still I have wanted to explore the country and now, over 7 years later, I am finally here in Germany.

I arrive at the Stuttgart train station around 13:00 and meet Elske there. We take the city subway to the stop closest to her flat and then we walk the half mile or so to her place. I will be staying with some guys who live in the same apartment complex (house). As I learn more, I am excited about the house since it sounds so much like my college living arrangements. The housing is owned by one of the local churches and there are a group of girls on one side of the courtyard area, and a bunch of dudes on the other. They are about living in community with other believers! Sweet!

After dropping my bags off in her flat for the time being, I decide to roam the city instead of sleeping. (Jet lag is rough, but sleeping at 2 in the afternoon is not a good remedy) As we head out, I am given basic instructions on how to navigate my way through the city and how to get back to the house. I was then set loose at the city center. Queue sensory overload time.

The first thing that I notice on my way to the center of the city towards the old castle is all the people out walking, and the small number of cars. The closer to the center of the city the less vehicle roads there were to the point where a good portion of the city streets are pedestrian only. There were hundreds if not thousands of people out walking. The stream of people pouring in and out of the subway system tells of its effectiveness.  Also, while there are no high rise buildings, most are 4-6 stories and stacked one up against another. There are shops all along the bottom of the buildings along the streets, and some have a basement and a second floor. After that the rest of the buildings are either work places or living accommodations. Cool! As I neared the center square, there start to be little temporary shops on the street. This is one of the reasons that I was excited to come during the Christmas season, the Christmas markets!  

The stalls have unique stuff and are usually genre specific. Colorful candles and ornate candle holders, bees wax candles next to the honey stand, wood work in traditional Christmas themes, wool items like hats gloves and mittens, pottery for the kitchen, cookie supplies galore (they take Christmas cookies seriously!), colorful Christmas ornaments for both traditional and more modern, etc… and there are musicians scattered across the market through the streets playing festive Christmas music. Some soloing on cellos, violins, and guitars while others are small bands with multiple string, wind, and or brass instruments. Oh, and the best part, the food and sweet stands. The smell of caramelized sugar, roasted chestnuts, and glazed almonds wafts through the air. Mixed in is the smell of the bratwurst stands, bread and baked goods, various Christmas “cakes”, warm beer, hot chocolate, and gluhwein (pronounced “glue-vine”) which is warm spiced red wine. On a cold winter day gluhwein is the best for walking around the market. Thanks for the recomenndation KM.

While strolling through the winding streets I was also noticing all the normal shops along the street. Oh, and the massive churches which are kind of hard to miss. Pretty much every type of shop that you can think off you can find within easy walking distance of the town center. Also, some of the food shops are specialized like the bakery, delicatessen, fair trade, tea, chocolate and sweets. The food prices surpriseingly weren't that bad. For Europe being so expense, I had imagined that groceries would cost more then they do.  

I should also mention some other things I noticed that were not so good. People smoke cigarettes, cigars, and pipes freely in public and a lot of people smoke! I guess I already knew that, but it was still a bit of a surprise. Also, the beggars appear more destitute and instead of driving by them, you walk.

Overall, I like this city better than any of the ones I have been to in the US. The same can even be said when I was in Paris this summer for work. However, despite how much I like the city, you still can't see the stars. 

Of Brass, Rubber, and Parachute Cord

Houston is becoming that city of firsts for me. I am here in Texas for a total of 9 weeks for training with my company. I have been here for 4 weeks already and the time has gone by all together to quickly. The weeks have been a blast with work/training, building friendships with co-workers, trying new things, visiting with old friends, and finding a great church to be a part of even if but for short while.

Two weekends ago I took a couple of co-works to an indoor shooting range here in Houston where we shot a .22 and an AR 15. This was great fun as they have never shot a larger gun like the AR. While there I noticed that this gun shop also had machine guns that you could rent and fire on their gun range. The following day after church I went back there with a friend from college and we rented the P-90. What a fun and powerful little gun! I have never fired a fully auto rifle before, and let’s just say that firing a P-90 is a great first time. We each got 100 rounds or two clips for the gun and let loose. The first clip I shot off in short bursts of fire. There was essentially no kick or recoil. The second clip I let loose in one go. Holding it snug to my shoulder and leaning into the gun it fired off all 50 rounds in less than 4 seconds, and every bullet hit the “kill” zone on the target. The sensation was amazing as all the senses were tuned for the moment. The smell of the gunpowder from the range, the taste in the air, the soft tapping of the gun on my shoulder, the sound of the firing mechanism recycling, vision focused on the target on the other side of the sites, everything in sharp focus. I was wearing a grin for the rest of the afternoon.

This weekend, on Friday evening in an attempt to do something other than going out partying with my co-workers, I organized us to go to an indoor go karting place. I had never raced Go Karts before, but it was certainly a fun time had by all.  The Karts were very good and could reach top speeds of 45 mph in the straights if you came out of one of the tight corners right. We all raced 3 races with 14 laps to a race. While not meaning to turn into bumper cars, there were a couple of run ins, and bruises were distributed to all.  

Then on Saturday, I fell 8,000 feet and parachuted the remaining 6,000 feet. Skydiving is great fun and well worth the money and to be able to check it off my bucket list. I think the best way to describe my experience is that it was both surreal and sublime. As my feet left the plane and all that I could see was the sun and open sky above me, the clouds and earth far below, the feeling of immense peace and awe was overwhelming. Yes, I know the wind in my ears was loud, but I could not hear it. Perhaps the adrenaline is to be the cause, but my mind was completely clear. The only thoughts were of keeping track of my altitude so I would pull the parachute at the right time and of taking in the absolute grandeur of what was around me as I fell towards the clouds far below and the ground beyond that. There was no fear or nervousness from the moment I suited up to the time of landing. That part of the human response was absent and instead I was excited and confident that I would have a great experience. I don’t think I am afraid of heights anymore.

So those are my adventures of note at this point in the big city of Houston. Who knows what the next couple of weekends hold, but I should mind my budget a little more now. Haha… More posts to come.

Ramblings Part 1 - Food

On the importance of food:
This may sound like a very guy thing to talk about, but I invite you think about the role of food and dining in you life. I believe that shared meals with co-workers, friends, and family is in some way fundamentally to proper societal and psychological well being.

Humans are social by nature, even the most introverted of us fall somewhere on a spectrum in the need for social interaction.  Putting aside the obvious fact, digesting of proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, et al is essential to human life, meals become a key way of said interaction. I have noted that in my conversations with friends and family back in the states, one of the first questions asked is, "How is the food?" When talking with other expatriates, one of the initial conversation pieces are about good place to dine. In talking with the locals, they want to know what you think about their national food, and what you like from your home country. All this could be because people are just trying to be polite and make small talk, but I think there is more to it. I propose that food is more than just nourishment, but a societal ingredient for a better life. 

Note: When eating one is usually more relaxed and therefore perhaps more willing to converse about controversial issues without getting overly worked up.    

Over a meals the topics I have discussed or listened to in the last 2 months have been incredible. The three no-no topics of politics, religion, sex, as well as literature, art, music, food and drink, etc have been discussed. The meal is a place to kick back in relax. Here lunch break is 2 hours long and after a day at work, dinner can take that long as well. However conversation over the meal leads to informing and sharping you own thoughts and opinions. It challenges you to think critically about how you understand yourself and how you perceive the world around you. Stimulating dinner conversation also drives you to be a better informed person, and how to express yourself confidently and boldly. It takes intellectual/metal courage at times to talk about the sticky subjects. Doing this with a steak, a side of vegetables, and a glass of wine just seems to help the whole evening be enjoyable. Meals then are important, and to be taken seriously.

When you have dinner, have it with a friend and don't rush off for the next tv episode or football game. That is all for now.    

A Long time in Coming

Well, it has been a while. So much as happened since I last wrote a blog entry that I might end up writing up several different post and putting them up over the next couple of days. Slash that, I am going to write several in the next couple of days. I wrote this first one when I was offshore in West Africa. When working the night tour (pronounce like ‘tower’) you have time to write some things, especially when in normal operations and you can look up and keep track of signals while still typing.

Where to start….

France:

On Sunday the 8^th of July I landed in Paris and took a bus out to the hotel that Schlumberger had booked for those of us going through are initial introduction and training. That first day I meet many of my fellow new hires from around the world, well mainly Europe, Africa, and several of us Americans. The following morning we all boarded a bus and drove 45 minutes through the French country side south of Paris to the training school. Throughout the week, the 50 of us went to class, used the coffee machine a ton, and went to dinner back near the hotel in the evening. We were quickly recognized as the SLB group at a couple of restaurants, which where frequented because of the good food/ price ratio. 

Sunday the 15^th we were given the day off and my roommate (a fellow American) and I took the subway system into Paris to go exploring! For 15 euro we got a day pass to the subway, went to town. We first got off near Norte Dame, and walked along the river to the cathedral. Talk about busy, we decided that we were going to just take photos from the outside and not bother trying to get in. We then walked down into the Latin Quarter for me to exchange some of my US money into euro and find lunch. The Latin Quarter was super legit! Many of the streets were for walking only as they were so narrow. The shops were bustling, and seeing as it was lunch time, the air was filled with the aroma of fantastic food. After stopping in at a Starbucks for free WiFi for our phones, we continued on back to the Luve, which we did not go in, and walked around the glass pyramids, down the gardens, to the beginning of the Champs Elysees. From there, we zigzagged our way back and forth over the river on some very ornate bridges until we decided to continue up the Champs Elysees towards De Truimphe de Arce. After taking some more photos, we walked over towards the Eiffel Tower. The tower is a very easy way to reference were one is at on the city streets. We were doing all this walking with coming to the corner of the streets, locating the tower and deciding which way to turn. It was great. The Eiffel tower is truly a wonder of the world! Walking underneath it and around it makes one feel overwhelmed and in awe of the impressiveness of the architecture and human inspiration.  At this point in the afternoon, we decided that since we didn’t want to wait in the incredibly long lines at any of the attractions we had been to in the main tourist part of the city that we would go up to the highest point in the city. While this spot was visited by tourist, on this Sunday afternoon there were plenty of Parisians there as well. Sainte Scouer is a dome cathedral built on the high point in the city. In pre-Christian times, this was the sight of Druid worship. As the early Christian missionaries brought the faith to the franks, this in turn became the sight for one of the earliest churches in what would become Paris. You can even see some of the older church structures around the cathedral. This church is a literal example of the defeat of the “gates of Hades”, I love it. This Church was spectacular and the lines were practically non-existent! We walked up the hill from the tube-station and got to the church at the end of the late afternoon mass. As we walked in they were singing the closing hymns, and the bells were ringing. After walking around the interior and admiring the ornamentation and grandeur we paid the 5 euro and walked the several hundred steps up to the top of the domes. Wow. From the vantage point of the highest point in the city and the late afternoon sunlight you could see many of the sight and landmarks of Paris, including the La Defense building we had been to on Friday. By the time we finished spending time at the cathedral is was early evening and we decided to take the tube back out to the outskirts of the suburbs of the city to our hotel and call it a day. We got back about 10 pm in the evening (we made a pit stop and spent about an extra hour or more getting back. It was a fantastic day.

West Africa:

Disclaimer, due to the nature of where I work this shall be brief and delicate. I flew from France on the 17^th of July and landed in the city that I will be calling home for the next couple of years. It is the rainy season here in West Africa and as we flew through the clouds into the airport I took my first glimpse of the steaming jungle. After going through customs and retrieving my bags, a driver took me to the SLB base where I was introduce to the site. As I write and post this as of September 2^nd I have been both offshore and on land at the base. My time has been filled with training, shop time, online quizzes, and learning the basic of my job. I really do enjoy work and enjoy the people I have met so far. That is all for this one.

"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page." ~ Saint Augustine

Of Trees and Fireworks

     I have been in western New York since last Monday after flying out from attending a friends wedding and visiting with college friends. Over the last week and a half I have had the great opportunity to visit with family, both close and extended, wrap up last minute stuff for starting work, and spend some fantastic quality time with my grandparents. Oh, and celebrate the 4th of July!

     The 4th of July here in the summer heat of NY was well celebrated. Don't ask me why, but the festivities started with firework on July 3rd in a small town in upstate NY where my Aunt and Uncle live. The show was very fun and was probably the longest lasting show I have seen thus far. While the E-days fireworks of Mines are hard to beat, this show sure was epic! The next morning, after we gathered some things together, grandma, grandpa, and I headed over to my Aunt and Uncle's place for lunch and for the rest of the afternoon and early evening. It was great to have lots of people there celebrating and to enjoy a ton of good American summer food which of course included corn of the cob, watermelon, and ice cream.

     Another thing that I am thankful for being able to do was to spend lots of time with my grandparents. Particularly in spending time with my grandpa out in the woods. One of my first days here we headed down to the hunting property to clear the hunting trails and mow the grass around the cabin and trails. He set me up with the chain saw and pruners and set me loose on the ATV to ride on ahead on the trails and clear out the dead fall from the winter and any brush that was growing onto the trail... and I tested to see how fast it would go up and down the road, safely of course. Then back home, due to the weather and their trip out to CO, my grandpa hadn't yet cut up and hauled in the trees he had cut last season for firewood. As such, several mornings where spent working with him in the cool of the morning, before the heat drove us inside, clearing the tops, bucking and splitting the logs, and hauling loads of wood up to the barn. (more time on the ATV!) Even in the mornings it was hot sweaty work, but I loved it. The hard wood stands with the tall oaks, beaches, ash, maple, and the rest are so awesome. Plus being out there with my grandpa was a lot of fun and, in a way, refreshing.

     I leave in the morning for work. I don't think it has fully hit me yet that it is actually happening. I am excited for many reasons and ready to start work in industry. Also, I am really not nervous about the whole deal. I might say so in conversation because I know nervousness is expected and part of me says I should be. However, it isn't the right word or phrase as I can't say what I am concretely 'nervous' about. Perhaps, eager anticipation coupled with an awareness for the uncertainties ahead, both those I recognize now and do not yet know... All the things I need or think I need are packed. Each stop I leave or throw away just a little bit more; things I deem unnecessary. My flight reservation is in hand and my passport is ready for more stamps!

Au Revoir!