Silent Skies Shattered

You wait six days for a helicopter, then two come along at once! The ban has finally been lifted and those stuck on the rig are starting to filter home. There is a sense of relief on the rig, and you can tell who is going off from the huge smiles that are spread across their faces.

Cloudy Horizon?

It has been two days since the volcanic eruption on Iceland, and the promised cloud of ash failed to appear over the UK and North Sea. Much news coverage has been given to the hundreds of thousands of people stuck in airports, but no one seems to have considered the thousands of people languishing offshore because all the helicopters have been cancelled. On this rig alone there are over twenty people whose crew changes have been distrupted and are being forced to stay offshore. Multiply that by the hundred rigs and platforms currently operating in the North Sea and it's quite a large number. Contigency plans for crew changing by boat are being drawn up. (I think people would rather stay onboard than face an uncertain lift in a basket followed by 12 hours on a rolling supply vessel!)

From a geologist's point of view this eruption is fascinating, especially considering that in millions of years time the fallout will be preserved in the rocks. What's ironic is that at the start of this well we were drilling towards a layer of ash that had been deposited at the bottom of a sea, and now the same thing is happening over the same rocks. The wheel of time in action...

There (Again)

It's been months since I lasted posted, so here is a belated update. My last 3 week hitch (February 24th to March 17th) to the Ensco 71 went by so quickly I didn't have time to post. We saw ten days of continuous drilling, which was extraordinary, followed by wiper trips, casing runs and a complicated cement job. Personally I had some highs (my 38th birthday) and some lows (being prevented from boarding my plane at Stansted by officious Ryanair staff, and 4 days/6000 ft of bad gas data) and pretty much enjoyed my time out there. What was really special was seeing the production reservoir - my first "wet" hole!

The well is now in its completions phase so I'll get an uncommonly quiet hitch, starting tomorrow when I get to the rig. Currently I am travelling to Stansted in order to catch my flight to Billund. (Hopefully I'll actually catch this one!)

Home Again

I had a truely horrendous journey to Esbjerg. The 7pm heli arrived at 9pm and then we went to another rig supposedly to refuel. When we got arrived we had to take our baggage off the chopper and once onboard we had our life jackets taken from us and handed over to some other guys who were waiting for our arrival. Alarm bells began to ring when we were ushered into a heli lounge and the radio op said that the chopper would be back in an hour to pick us up. We finally got off that rig at gone 10:30 and then had an hour and a quarter back to Esbjerg, landing just after midnight.

One of the guys from the Ensco 71 gave me a lift to Billund where, at 0050am, I found the hotel locked up. By 1am I was in my room but, bear in mind I'd been up since 5am that morning, too frazzled to sleep and ended up watching TV until just before 2. As I was dropping off the guy in the room next to me started to vomit very loudly, and repeatedly flush the toilet, for half an hour. Then I had to get up at 8am to catch my flight to Stansted.

Happily everything after that was plain sailing and Rae picked me up at the train station in Huntingdon just after 1230.

Living In Interesting Times

I had hoped (and fully expected) to come on shift and enjoy a quiet and restful 12 hours before departing the rig. But this was not meant to be when a simple operation went to rat $h1t and we encountered some totally unexpected problems. For the last 4 hours I've had my eyes glued to the computer screen and my ear pressed to a phone while I fed information to the drill floor and the company man.

I have to admit that it made me feel quite important, and my humdrum spreadsheet has turned into a report of epic proportions. Now I just have to find someone to read it and agree with my summation, and then I can go back to slouching.

Days left = ZERO!

Been A While

Just as I had something to write about we lost our internet connection. I spent 5 years offshore without the interent, and now I've enjoyed it for 2 weeks it seems I can't live without it. Anywho it's back up now so all is well with the world. Special thanks go to Rasmus for putting up with me harping on about it.

So, in the last day we have completed the drilling we were building up to when I posted last. It all went without incident, though our 20 foot long unit was packed with the 7 computers, 4 people, 3 chairs, 2 microscopes and 1 stool that were employed to see us through 1200 feet of rock. Right now we are in a lull again and I'm enjoying having the unit to myself for 12 hours a day.

But all this pales in significance to the fact that I am going home tomorrow. I've got a 7pm helicopter ride back to Esbjerg, then a drive (taxi or lift) to Billund. I get to stay overnight there and catch the morning flight back home. No opportunity to pop into the LEGO offices to catch up with the Star Wars team this time. It almost seems pointless now but:

One day left!

Quiet Before The Storm

Since we completed the most recent section of the well we've had a very quiet week. Most of the time we've been doing housekeeping and catching up on paperwork. Plus a bit of interwebbing too :) And each day we come on shift we expect to see sme drilling but the weather (60mph winds and 20 foot seas) has been against us and the supply vessel hasn't been able to come alongside to offload the vital supplies needed to carry on. But now it looks like things are getting underway and we could see some drilling. Tomorrow maybe?

Seven days to go.