Same shit, different ship

[Mendip]

^ I pulled up my sleeve so as to reveal the watch!

But no, it's not all that cold, particularly when standing next to the exhaust flue.

[david44]

I foresee plenty more ops for cable layers and flue boys in the err "pipeline'

Britain is wide open to Russian undersea sabotage – POLITICO

Do you ever spot Russki surface vessels these days, fishing vessels were common off Svalbard in 70s when there was a lot more fish, it was assumed many were also spy vessels off to the N Sea and W approaches/Ostjo to monitor Nato shipping, or peek at Dirks nappies on some Aberdeen washing line?

[Mendip]

^ I think that it's common knowledge that Russian vessels have been mapping subsea oil and gas infrastructure for some time. I see a lot of vessels but have no idea if they are Russian, they all look the same to me.


Tuesday night marked the end of dredging ops at the Mikkel Field. We were clearing gravel from around pipe protection covers, presumably for future removal to take a look at the pipeline connections underneath.



Once finished it was into Kristiansund to demob the Scanmudring dredging machine and all the personnel that go with it... dredging crew, shift supervisors, riggers and deck foremen. This is good news as a quieter boat is better, and the Wifi should speed up a bit as well.

Land ahoy!



We were being followed...



One of the more picturesque anchorages just outside of Kristiansund. The tender alongside this drill rig showed that it was soon due to sail.



There's Kristiansund the other side of that bridge built with oil money. Norway has loads or new bridges across fjords and connecting islands, all built with oil money. Not a good time to be a ferryman.



In 1976, in the early days of the oil industry in Norway, the powers that be held a meeting in Kristiansund (which at the time was vying to be the main Norwegian oil port) to decide on the strategy to deal with the oil industry in financial terms. One of the principles decided on was that the Norwegian state would maintain a 70% ownership in the oil/gas fields and companies, and a 50% ownership in every production license issued. This is one reason that Norway is now one of the wealthiest nations on earth with a 1.4 TRILLION sovereign wealth fund, and the UK, who pissed their oil wealth against the wall, is now broke.

An interesting read, if you have time.

Attention Required! | Cloudflare

Norway's success has kept me busy and with the UK's latest 'strategy', I will only get busier.

I've always liked drilling rigs and would love a guided tour around one, one day...



The Transocean Spitsbergen... any memories Dirk?



She sailed soon after our port call, headed for the Kristin Field, no doubt to drill more production wells to recovered more gas to export to the UK.

(Dirk, I always thought that these drill rigs were towed into position, but 'Marine Traffic' showed her to be headed out under her own power at around 5kts. Is that the usual way?)

Anyway, we had a trenching machine to offload.



We eventually berthed alongside for this brief port call.



That boat looked familiar...



The 'Edda Freya', another member of the fleet. She's a cable layer and was spooling on cable during mobilisation for a new project.



A nice looking boat. The nightshift food is way better on construction vessels than survey vessels.



The Viking Princess was waiting for a vacant berth. I think that she's one of the modern, low emission supply vessels powered by LNG and Battery.



Anyway, the last view of the dredging machine and associated containers cluttering up the back deck. One was the control room, the other contained the huge pumps and shit.



A couple of hours later.



Having that pass you on the motorway would be a strange site.



And that was it. The dredging machine demobbed and a bit of fresh food brought onboard, and then a 10 hour transit to start the next project. That's a better scenario than for these poor bastards who will be on shift less than an hour after leaving the heliport.

I hate helicopters.

[pickel]

^
Norway did it right. Anytime similar strategies were attempted in Canada people thought that taxes and fees would drive away business. As though somehow a major oil company would walk away from making 5 Billion dollars just because they couldn't make 10 Billion.

[Edmond]

That said, how much do they pay for a pint again, and how much tax do they pay on say 100 grand a year?

A few less bridges, and the populace paying much less tax would probably be a bit better. Like the rich Arab states that use their fossil fuels to pay for everything, and people can live paying zero tax, as well as the odd public beheading and hanging etc.

[pickel]

That said, how much do they pay for a pint again, and how much tax do they pay on say 100 grand a year?

America has cheap pints and fairly low taxes, just don't break your leg, or lose your job. It's all relative.

[BLD]

^
Norway did it right. Anytime similar strategies were attempted in Canada people thought that taxes and fees would drive away business. As though somehow a major oil company would walk away from making 5 Billion dollars just because they couldn't make 10 Billion.

That's the thinking in Australia also. Yet we also pissed away an opportunity to have the same model as Norway. vast oil and gas deposits that go out for export before locals get the benefit likewise the mining sector. There's a huge push lately to tax the fuckers up the ying yang
They have had it to good for to long

[Reg Dingle]

That said, how much do they pay for a pint again, and how much tax do they pay on say 100 grand a year?

Im sure theres a part on this thread where.Mendy ventures into a Norwegian pub and nurses a 20 quid pint of krone for 3 and a half hours.

If Norway is so fucking great, then why doesn't he holiday or live there?

Ill tell you why... because getting your passport stamped in Oslo costs a ducking fortune compared to Noy on Soi 13 albeit having taken more pipe length than 'Edda Freya'

It doesn't get much thriftier than this....

Having that pass you on the motorway would be a strange site.

What kind of tightwad drives below 56 mph on the motorway for that to fucking happen?

For someone in the oil and gas industry, this fucker doesn't like to abuse it, when hes gotta pay for it

[Mendip]

^ Do you live on your bus?

Or take holidays on it?

I rest my case.

[Reg Dingle]

^ The odd busmans holiday...gufffaw

On which I've never been overtaken by a crane

Talking of wide loads, how's the gym going?

[BLD]

Blakey?

[BLD]

That's fuck all Reg. You wanna see the massive amount of mining machinery being moved down the highway under escort in west Australia to get it 1000kms to its minesite. Get stuck behind a convoy and you're fucked if you are in a hurry

[david44]

Talking of wide loads, how's the gym going?

Alway good to have a "coach" or a personal strainer,
I read on the back of a Coventry Climax the secret reason ole Reg is so trim and dapper he visits Jim everday for a good work out.

His tool as smooth as a buttered butterfly's bumbag.

[dirk diggler]

I’m not familiar with that Semi-Sub but I’m pretty sure it was being towed, regardless of what marine traffic says.

Maybe just a wee tug to bring it to the main Tow.


Our vessel has a potential legionnaires outbreak in the pipelines.

We have a water sample on it’s way back to town now.

[DrWilly]

I think that it's common knowledge that Russian vessels have been mapping subsea oil and gas infrastructure for some time. I see a lot of vessels but have no idea if they are Russian, they all look the same to me.

Thats racialist!

[Mendip]

... in the pipelines.

Nice pun, I like it!

We still have this vomiting/shitting 'Novovirus' kind of thing going around and lost an ROV Supervisor for three days, confined to her cabin for the days. Yes... 'her'... changing times.

This is a mystery because this virus has persisted across a crew change which included project personnel plus the entire marine crew... only around six people stayed onboard across the crew change, a few Filipino catering/stewardesses a freelance surveyor and my good self. The current thinking is that someone may be a vector but showing no symptoms... maybe the boat is going down with some kind of Isaan shitting bug? The daughters school had an outbreak just before I travelled and half her class was off...

But anyway, I feel fine... and besides, I want this work so I can take the summer off.


After the Kristiansund port call, a 10 hour transit took us to the Norwegian 12nm limit to start a cable survey to the Heidrun Platform, approximately 130km to the north-west.

Transits in calms seas are always better...



A nice, uncluttered back deck.



And with the end of the dredging ops, it was time to get the Survey ROV wet again.



You wanna get yer hands on this 'wee muckle brut' Dirk... can do 2m/s, that's 4kts and we regularly survey at around 1.3 to 1.5m/s, the restriction on survey speed enforced to collect sufficient data density.

And no Legionaires to boot!



And as reliable as my Vigo.

The SROV was dived at the start of survey location and was not expected to be seen again until the end of the survey at the Heidrun Platform, 130km away.









And down she goes.

[malmomike77]

not expected to be seen again until the end of the survey at the Heidrun Platform, 130km away.

just over 12 hours

[hallelujah]

A nice, uncluttered back deck.



it was time to get the Survey ROV wet again.

You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?

[DrWilly]

He’s been away for a few weeks now. It’s his subliminal libido screaming for attention.

[Shy Guava]

I’m not familiar with that Semi-Sub but I’m pretty sure it was being towed, regardless of what marine traffic says.

Maybe just a wee tug to bring it to the main Tow.

The Spitsbergen has DP capability so I would guess it could use the thrusters for propulsion. That would seem expensive for a long trip but maybe it gets it out of harbour to a tug?

[Mendip]

Marine Traffic said the rig was headed to the Kristin field which is a bit further west than we were headed doing our survey, so maybe a 150km or 160km trip. That would seem like a long way to travel on thrusters to me, although I know nothing about drilling rigs. Do they dill on DP or would they lay out anchors? In which case I guess they would need a tug/anchor handler anyway?

just over 12 hours

The client wanted a high-resolution DTM of the seabed along the route, which required greater data density than usual and restricted survey speed to 1.3m/s.

1.3 x 3600 = 4680m per hour

130,000 / 4680 = just under 28 hours, in theory.

In actual fact we did the survey in 32 hours, having to stop a couple of times to take (CTD) measurements of the water column and to try and sort out some data issues.

You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?

Your mind seems to be permanently in the gutter, along with Reg Dingle's.

And I use the word 'mind' very loosely.

Not every sentence is an innuendo.


Anyway, since ridding the boat of a lot of seamen during the last port call, it is more pleasant and the corridors are less congested. It's easier to move around with the extra space and the Wifi is a lot faster. A half empty boat is a happy boat!

After around 26 hours our destination was in sight.



The Heidrun platform on the left and a tanker loading up on the right.



The Heidrun platform is a TLP (explained a few pages ago) and is located in around 350m water depth. That was regarded as deep water maybe 30 years ago but is now pretty standard.



The tanker was high in the water so must have had a lot of oil still to take onboard.

The Plimsoll Line was clearly visible, named after Samuel Plimsoll who of course came from Bristol.



And in the middle of the night.



Sunrise, a couple of hours later.





I'm a little bit nervous today because the brand new trainee didn't turn up for shift this morning and it turns out that she's gone down with this Novovirus shitting and vomiting thing... and I was sat next to her yesterday for a few hours, busy training meself out of a job. Now she's confined to her cabin. This is the second trainee this has happened to in three weeks... these youngsters don't seem to be very robust these days. I've never had a day off, offshore in 34 years, although maybe that is about to change?

I don't envy the Filipini stewardesses at the moment. They have a hard enough job as it is, without a shitting virus going around.

I don't like to generalise, but in 34 years of working with Norwegian I have always found them to be nice people but they don't half leave the toilet bowl in a state.

I always hate arriving at a cubicle to find the toilet seat down...



You just don't know what to expect... especially with a Novovirus running rife.

Although to be fair, I don't suppose skidmarks are a big problem right now.

[Joe 90]

You are the host Mendip!

Anyone that comes into contact with you goes down with this mysterious virus.