Thread: The good Ole Oil and Gas boys. Is it really that easy?

Originally Posted by Loy Toy

When I was considering my future, when I was young, I had the choice of being an accountant or an engineer working with my hands.

If I had it all to do over again I think I would've joined the Navy when I had the chance.

Originally Posted by beerlaodrinker

Still see actual footage about the piper alpha rig in the north sea,from the safety consultants we get on the minesite from time to time. they use it as a what can go wrong scenario, quite graffic and horrific incident really

Yep. I did my offshore (HOTA) course just after the Alpha disaster. Had to do a full week's course from just 3 days previously.
Offshore rigs in the N. Sea had to be fitted with ESD (emergency shutdown) valves immediately after the incident, and separate accommodation platforms for workers and staff (enabling separation and escape if any fire or explosion on the main platform). Sadly, around 170 guys had to perish before this happened.

as to danger, I see it the same as flying - when there is an accident it can be horrific with lots of casualties

but it is a very safety concious environment

Originally Posted by Loy Toy

Originally Posted by DrAndy

bucket manufacturer

Originally Posted by DrAndy

an engineer

Originally Posted by DrAndy

was that it?

Not confusing when you take some time to think about it Doc.

sorry, you missed the point

you only gave two choices but there are myriads

Originally Posted by DrAndy

you only gave two choices but there are myriads

Originally Posted by DrAndy

sorry, you missed the point

No I didn't, sorry, you missed my point.

An engineer can mean many things covering myriads of applications and job descriptions.

I choose mechanical/ polymer science as well as completed a trade to learn how to design mainly plastic products and the tooling to make such products.

I don't think they would need my special expertise on an oil rig.

Originally Posted by kmart

Yep. I did my offshore (HOTA) course just after the Alpha disaster. Had to do a full week's course from just 3 days previously.

a mate of mine was on a couple of landrigs in the kimberley about 25 years or so ago and decided to try to get on the offshore rigs , he ended up in aberdeen doing a course that is mandatory prior to going offshore wherby they put you in a submerged helicopter in a pool and you have to find the surface, they have divers standing by incase you cant but must be a bit daunting, is that the same as HOTA? he paid for that course by himself by the way, and i think just by being a persistant kunt managed to get a gig offshore, still in the game last i heard

Originally Posted by beerlaodrinker

Originally Posted by kmart

Yep. I did my offshore (HOTA) course just after the Alpha disaster. Had to do a full week's course from just 3 days previously.

a mate of mine was on a couple of landrigs in the kimberley about 25 years or so ago and decided to try to get on the offshore rigs , he ended up in aberdeen doing a course that is mandatory prior to going offshore wherby they put you in a submerged helicopter in a pool and you have to find the surface, they have divers standing by incase you cant but must be a bit daunting, is that the same as HOTA? he paid for that course by himself by the way, and i think just by being a persistant kunt managed to get a gig offshore, still in the game last i heard

Yes, mate. Same course, I did mine at the Humberside facility in Hull. Three days learning evacuation (heli and platform) and survival skills, then 2 days at the local fire fighting station, putting out fires and evacuating from smoke-filled chambers, etc.
Remember it well, as I had a bad cold at the time. Utter hell.

There was a guy killed on a rig in the gulf of thailand a few days ago i believe. details are sketchy at the moment. and of course there was the terrible incident involving the drill ship that sank in the gulf of thailand in 1989, killing 91 people.

Originally Posted by AntRobertson

Originally Posted by Loy Toy

When I was considering my future, when I was young, I had the choice of being an accountant or an engineer working with my hands.

If I had it all to do over again I think I would've joined the Navy when I had the chance.

In that case you'd both have been working with your 'hands'. The joke's in there.

Originally Posted by baldrick

seems to be a little confusion amongst some about different offshore environments

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

The Rig Floor

on an active exploration drill rig or ship ( or even land rig ) the rig floor can be quite a dangerous place , you need to know the sequence of events/actions that are going to happen depending on what job is going on - new exploration rigs with all their hydraulics do not have much human bodies on the floor anymore.

Originally Posted by beerlaodrinker

piper alpha rig

this was a production platform and the main problem was other platforms in the area kept sending hydrocarbons to it even though they could see it was on fire - operators too scared to shut down production.

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

Horizon disaster

this was a semi-sub exploration rig which had a gas explosion and the BOP failed to shut the well in - maybe soon the north american hydrocarbon/chemical industry will move to IECex installations

also you have FSO/FPSO ( floating ( production ) storage offshore ) which are similar to other production platforms except they are usually converted tankers - the FPSO will connect up to its wellhead satellite via a big rotating turret that goes through the bow and then use various compression/injection methods to keep the oil/gas flowing and then store it in its tanks until a tanker unloads it

the jobs on these are mainly operations/maintenance jobs - last one I was on had the norwegian roster - 3weeks on , 3 off , 3 on 6 off which is a pretty cool roster.

I hadn't realize that the oil industry was such an interesting engineering system,

Thanks for the info Baldrick, i hadnt realised the piper alpha was a production platform , There must of been a lot of questions being asked as to why the chain of events leading up to it and after occured, slightly of topic , the safety guys also use the incident in a chemical factory in bhopal india run by union carbide that wiped out a whole town and the chain of events were well similar, Production was still ongoing even as deadly gases were wafting towards town , scary shit, but a good example of procedures not being followed or not even being in place

Originally Posted by Loy Toy

The seismic boys are the heart and soul of these projects from the very start.

If they make a mistake it cost millions of dollars if they don't hit oil.

Loy Toy the seismic boys are indeed the heart and soul from the very start, but it's not their fault if the oil company they did the survey for drills dusters on the project. The way that works is the oil company geophysicists gives the seismic contractor the parameters they want to use while recording the seismic data, and as long as they stick to these parameters and their equipment is withing manufacturers specs throughout the project (which is my job to make sure is the case), then the data set is handed over to a processing company then the oil company for them to decide where to go from there.

Sometimes there is simply poor geology (i.e no structures of interest), sometimes the recording parameters could have been better to enhance the resolution of what structures are visible, sometimes the processing of the data to produce final sections is questionable (there's a lot of variables that can either enhance or degrade data quality in processing), and sometimes the oil companies interpreters get it wrong (you could show the same sections of seismic to 5 different interpreters and get 5 different responses ranging from it's a waste of time to wanting the budget to drill 5 wells).

Just saying, based on having been in the industry worldwide for a very long time.

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

(which is my job to make sure is the case),

Interesting, headworx you just jolted a few memories from the couple of years i spent doing siesmic in Australia, The siesmic company would usually have a client representative onsite to keep us honest, known in industry slang as THE BIRDDOG .is that what you do? Worked for a couple of em back then and we used a variety of methods from vibes to thumpers or redcord explosive laid alogside the line and fired

Originally Posted by beerlaodrinker

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

(which is my job to make sure is the case),

Interesting, headworx you just jolted a few memories from the couple of years i spent doing siesmic in Australia, The siesmic company would usually have a client representative onsite to keep us honest, known in industry slang as THE BIRDDOG .is that what you do? Worked for a couple of em back then and we used a variety of methods from vibes to thumpers or redcord explosive laid alogside the line and fired

Not my quote beer buddy...

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

Not my quote beer buddy...

^Dont know how that happened, sorry about that , interesting thread though, crack on

Originally Posted by beerlaodrinker

interesting thread though, crack on

It is an interesting thread and thanks to those that have added honest input.

In fact I believe the expatriates that now spend most of their leisure time or living full time in Thailand are involved in this industry or have been an oil and gas worker.

Formally teachers would have made up the bulk of the expatriates living in Thailand but based upon my experience these days most of the people I meet are oil and gas boys.

Only last night I met a bloke who is running a security company protecting these boys and he does do very well financially out of it.

Originally Posted by beerlaodrinker

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

(which is my job to make sure is the case),

Interesting, headworx you just jolted a few memories from the couple of years i spent doing siesmic in Australia, The siesmic company would usually have a client representative onsite to keep us honest, known in industry slang as THE BIRDDOG .is that what you do? Worked for a couple of em back then and we used a variety of methods from vibes to thumpers or redcord explosive laid alogside the line and fired

If you're talking redcord and thumpers, as a rough guess I'd say you worked for Digiseis or possibly GES in the 70's or early 80's. Both those forms of energy source lost out to Vibroseis and Shothole some time ago, it's rare to even find anyone still in the industry who ever used either!. They were good days to work seismic in Oz though, one giant piss/pot fest that you got paid to attend LOL!.

Just edited to add, the answer to your question is yes I am a Client Rep.

To answer your question headworx the first crew i worked on were a pommy company called Horizon exploration and we worked the gibson desert along the canning stock route, and once, we got lucky with a contract near alice springs, all for shell if my memory serves me correctly, that was all redcord and occasionaly upholes, Free piss made living in a tent bearable in that heat or cold in the winters, later on i went to petty ray geophysical also in the gibson desert and they were using thumpers, next gig saw me working for western geophysical and you guessed it back to that focken gibson desert again , i just done the math, shit' that was 33 years ago, Good days for sure for a 16 year old kid just starting out , Tried to get into the boat siesmic for a while, but the boom was over by then , You still a Bird dog ? or do you prefer client rep these days LOL

Around the same time you were in the Gibson, I was in the Simpson as a teenager as well!. Still in the industry having never left, and life's much easier than it use to be as a Birddog or Client Rep (same gig) these days.

Just something for the guys wanting to get into the oil and gas industry, or perhaps for their kids to think about: I often get asked how to get a foot in the door these days and my advice would be to go the HSEA route. Once qualified, which is far easier to do than getting qualified in geophysics or engineering sort of thing, there's paths aplenty leading to overseas work in every aspect of the energy and mineral sectors. It twists my tits to no end when some 20-something year old with 3 years experience turns up on some remote location, hasn't got a fucking clue what he/she is doing, but proceeds to advise those of us that've been around a long time on how the job should be done. AND they're pulling 4 figures USD a day, something the rest of us dreamed about for a very LONG time while working our ways up the ladder.....

Originally Posted by flashbang

Grafting on an oil rig looks like a proper shit job, fuk that bro.........

Coiling isn't taxing on your body and it pays the same. But you need at least a half a brain which eliminates you.

mind the music...

Good to hear your still in the game headworx, i got out years ago, but the experience gleaned from those early days led to mining which is what i still do except ive swapped those fucken deserts for jungles, Wouldnt be surprised if we both worked with the same people but on different jobs, still got a few mates from land and boat siesmic that i keep in touch with

there are a few seismic "ole boys" on TD

sitting around over a beer remembering who, what and why seems to be a popular pastime

Originally Posted by DrAndy

sitting around over a beer remembering who, what and why seems to be a popular pastime

I have one mate who works in seismic who has all the data sent to him by e-mail which he analyses and then sends his report back from his home office in Bangkok.

No more deserts, no more traveling and still on the same wage.