Oil, Oil, Everywhere

My turn, my turn!

Every other blogger or journalist has had their say on the oil spill so let me have mine. I think I’ve earned it. I worked in the oil field all over the world for 14 years. I’ve seen two blowouts with my own two eyes and had a rig close to mine blow up. Hell, two of the rigs I used to work on have been involved in catastrophic accidents after I left them. One had an uncontrolled blowout, caught fire and then sank, the other got mauled by Katrina.

Everyone’s blaming bp on this one. They’re not working fast enough, they’re not moving with enough resources and people. Just read that Transocean owned, operated, and maintained the rig and why aren’t they being held accountable.

Everyone needs to keep their shirts on. There is an investigation ongoing and it will continue to be more in depth once they can get the riser and Bop from the sea floor up for inspection to find problems. Subsea BOPs are a little different than the ones located just under the rig floor. There are a lot of remote controls compared to the ones under the floor. Hoses, wires, tubing, whatever’s used is a lot longer ,exposed to a lot different environments and pressures than that of an above water BOP.

Here’s another one; the rig WAS owned and operated and maintained by Transocean. bp comes along and “rents” the rig to drill the well. They make the final call on what’s done. An OIM, Toolpusher, Driller, or Rig Manager can make any call they want to stop drilling if something’s unsafe or they disagree on something. Yes, bp is paying for things but there’s a lot of people to stand up and say, “something’s not right” for this to have happened. Could that many people not see something happening?

Ultimately what direction the rigs take is up to the Company Man or rep from the production company (bp in this case). They, along with engineers and other people, design the well based on anticipated pressures, reservoirs, depths, and formations they think will be down there based on seismic readings, core samples, or historical data they get from geologists and engineers. This may have been an HPHT well and they didn’t know it. The BOP they had on may not have been rated for the pressures they encountered or the pressure the bubble came up with. The rams might have stuck on a collar or joint and not been able to crush or shear it. Who knows? We won’t for a while yet.

I saw a little part of AC’s interview with 5 survivors. Heart-breaking stuff. I can’t imagine being one of them, one of the survivors. I remember just how tight a lot of us were offshore, anywhere in the world I went. In the GoM we all went out drinking together when we got off the rig. Hell, a couple of them lived with me for a couple years. In the Caribbean I was the only expat on the rig yet I stayed at a couple houses of the locals after I got off the rig. I still keep in touch with some of them today. Elsewhere it was the same. We all got along. We were family. We worked together, ate together, at times prayed together. We spent more holidays together than we did with our own families. We got along and worried about each other. We had to or we didn’t last too long on the rig.

The 11 that died perished doing a job they probably enjoyed. I loved working offshore. For a Midwesterner it was a truly different lifestyle that I miss. I loved the schedule, I loved seeing new parts of the world, meeting new people, experiencing different cultures. It was fun. I had a great job that paid very well plus I got a lot of time off from work.
The spill is tragic, yes, there’s no doubting that. The fouling of the beaches and marshes is catastrophic for economic reasons. The moratorium of drilling is going to create more hardships in a fragile economy than we’ll be able to handle. We’ll lose even more US jobs as the drilling companies move their rigs elsewhere to work.

bp has to move cautiously to take care of this. They have stressed over and over that these methods are untested at depths and pressures like these. ROVs are doing all the work, not divers or sat divers. It’s a lot different. There are a lot of variables and unknowns. It will end. It will stop or be stopped. The cleanup will ensue, bp will pay hefty fines and damage claims and probably change it’s name. I wouldn’t be surprised if bp is given some sort of ultimatum to get out of the US because of this; similar to Occidental in the North Sea after Piper Alpha blew up and killed over 160 men in the worst drilling accident.

Me? I worry about the survivors. I worry about their jobs and if they’ll be able to go back to them having witnessing such a disaster first hand, seeing their co-workers die, hearing one man describe a crane operator being tossed around like “a toy” after an explosion. Could I do it? Possibly but I’d think long and hard. We all have to survive. We all have to take care of our families and for me my family comes first. Jobs always have risks; some are calculated and acceptable, others are not. In the end even though we have lots and lots or rules and regulations, we as people, decide to follow them or not. If this was a human error then shame on that poor soul. If it was a mechanical failure, than shame on the poor soul who didn’t catch it, if it could be caught.

Accidents don’t just happen; they are caused. Pray for the survivors and pray for the families of those who are no longer a part of the oil patch.

Deepwater Horizon

“BP has blamed drilling contractor Transocean Ltd., which owned the rig. Transocean says BP was responsible for the wellhead's design and that oilfield services contractor Halliburton was responsible for cementing the well shut once drilled. And Halliburton says its workers were just following BP's orders, but that Transocean was responsible for maintaining the rig's blowout preventer.”

That was copied from CNN’s website this morning. I’m at a loss when I see reporting like this. It stymies me because people don’t take the time to dig deeper and find the fine print, the details, the “other” things that most people fail to find to make reporting more factual and credible. One would think that CNN would at least do a better job and not blindly allow such reporting to point fingers and sway peoples’ opinions.

I’ll put in my two cents even though it won’t be read by a journalist anywhere simply because I know a little bit and I’ll say it. I’ve worked in the oil field. I did for 14 years all around the world. I worked for Transocean for 2 years and know the company well as well as lots of people who still work for them. I know some of how a rig works and the paperwork and the signatures and the approvals processes that go on during daily operations of a rig. Not much has changed in those respects.

I will say that I’ve never worked on the Horizon. I’ve never worked on a semi or drillship. All I’ve worked on are jackups, platforms, platform rigs, and land rigs. The MMS governs the operations of rigs offshore in federal waters and mandates a lot of tests that are to be done. I guess it just irks me that nobody has looked in to some of the details about these requirements.

One’s blaming the other and I’d expect to hear nothing but that in a case like this where 11 people perished while at work and oil’s spewing from a broken riser and non-functioning BOP 5000’ below the GoM’s surface.

The MMS requires a weekly test of the BOP. The Blowout Preventer is a critical safeguard used while drilling a well on every type of rig. It can help stave off a potential catastrophic event but sometimes there are failures, such as this one. Why? Nobody knows just yet. The BOP has different types of “rams” situated in it that do different things. Shear rams cut the drill pipe as a last ditch effort to secure the well, blind rams crush the pipe, pipe rams wrap around the drill pipe, casing rams wrap around the casing. I’m sure I’m missing a couple but those are the ones most predominantly used.

The MMS requires a test on the BOP every 7 days. Due to certain rig tasks a test can be put off for a maximum of 7 more days with the MMS’ approval. During these tests if leaks in the pressurized hoses or parts of the BOP are found the test stops until the leaks or problems are fixed. Then the affected areas are retested until they pass.

Once the test is completely over and everything passes the rig’s OIM (Offshore Installation Manager) signs off on the IADC log that the test is complete and everything passed. That is then passed on to the production company rep, bp in this case, for his approval and signature that he’s satisfied with the test, it’s results, and that everything is working fine and all fixes (if any) have been carried out and all is functional.

In my eyes it comes back to the production company for accepting responsibility even though the BOP is owned by Transocean. A lot of times the production company supplies or purchases different rams that may be called for because of odd sized pipe being run in the hole that isn’t a standard size.

Transocean is no slouch of a company. They harp on safety and have made safety one of their core values, one thing that was drilled in to my head incessantly when I worked for them. Time, schedule, and money are second to safety. They do not take chances, especially when it comes to the safety of all the personnel on a rig. Certain rigs may not have the best equipment but they’ll make things safe. A piece like a BOP is the “end all, be all” of safety. If it fails people usually get hurt. In this case, 11 people lost their lives.

Could it have been a bad ram? Could it have been lost system pressure? Could it have been a battery problem? Could it have been a downhole tool that failed to see the bubble coming up? Did the sensors pick it up and warn people in time? I’ve seen two blowouts in my 14 years offshore and they both scared the shit out of me. Once was a gas bubble pushed out all the mud from the well up to the crown and water table (highest points on a derrick). Alarms went off and scared the crap out of the people on the rig floor. The other was while plugging an abandoned well gas unexpectedly shot up pushing 1000’ of drill pipe out of the hole, in to the air, and it came crashing down all over the rig and surrounding water while all the gas alarms were blaring on the rig. There was no place to hide when you have 1000’ of drill pipe, each joint being 33’ long flying up in the air. It was pucker and hope time. Thankfully the BOP worked, the well was shut in, and nobody was hurt. Just a lot of dirty underwear that day.

Quit blaming everyone. Find out what happened. Find the problem, make a solution, try it, and worry about the future safety of everyone in the oil field. Fingers will be pointed for a long time as suits are already being filed. It happens when something of this nature unfolds. It’s a shame, however, that the parent companies are also involved in the catfight as nobody wants a black eye from it. On a BOP there are different safeties. For some reason all of them failed. Find out what failed, make a backup and move forward. Save lives. Protect workers. Pray for the families of those who still work in the oil field that this doesn’t happen again, especially to them.

http://www.deepwaterhorizoncondolences.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P16TDF9qEKo

Leaving Home

This little 4 year-old girl couldn't let go of her daddy while he stood in formation getting ready to be deployed to Iraq for a year. This reservist had another daughter and one on the way as well. According to news reports the CO of this group allowed Paige (the little girl) to stay with her daddy until they finally left Ft. Dix.

I saw this picture and teared up. It reminded me so, so much of when I used to work overseas and how heart-wrenching it is to leave family, especially kids who don't always know what's happening or why.

My biggest fear was that I'd leave for my hitch and come back with my son forgetting who I was. That was always in the back of my mind. Was he old enough to remember? Was he smart enough to know who I was, that I was his father? Very valid concerns by me and every other parent who has to leave family behind.

The one time I came home I got very upset because it took a couple days for my son to "remember" me. I came home and we left the very next day to fly down to Florida. He didn't want a lot to do with me and always looked at me with a far away look, a distant look like saying, "you're here but I don't know who you are. If I did know you, you left me at home all by myself!" It bothered the hell out of me.

Until one day we were down there and it was nap time. I took him up to our room as he bawled and screamed while mommy went out to do some things. I held on to him and talked to him quietly yet he still screamed and writhed in my arms. Finally I laid down on the couch with the nice warm Gulf breeze coming in, covered both of us up with a beach towel and he then fell asleep on my shoulder. I woke up a little more than an hour later thinking how peaceful it was with him sleeping soundly, knowing that he'd remembered me and that it was all right to fall asleep on this guy who was holding him, knowing that he knew who I was. I remember tearing up thinking of that as I held him and wondered just how other parents who worked away from their families dealt with it. Did they worry like I did? How did they cope?

One thing I did was to make a video tape of me reading a book, reading the words and describing the pictures. I did this for my son so he'd see me whenever he wanted and could read along. There are a couple pictures of him eating lunch on a blanket watching his tape of me, which he wanted to do a lot (so I've been told).

One of the last times I left to go overseas to work was the hardest. Hearing, "daddy, daddy, noooooooooo! Stay home!" That had to be the deal breaker. I got on the plane thankful that nobody was next to me and bawled like a baby. I felt like I'd left everything that was anything behind with the thought of never seeing any of it again. It hurt like nothing else ever had, even to this day.

Leaving family is never easy for any reason. Even so much as a day or two on a trip can be tough for some, easy for others. A lot of it, I guess, depends on what kind of relationships are formed and the amount of bonding one has with their families. It's hard to leave, harder to be gone, but undescribeable to come back to waiting open arms that don't ever want to let go. That type of hug makes it all worthwhile.

Just one of those smallish things that I love about my kids. I get hugs and kisses and they couldn't be more filled with love than if I'd done it myself.

The Bad Guy

I guess I’ve always gone through life being worried about how others see me. Am I perceived as a good person, bad person, nice, caring, self-centered? I’ve seen a lot of things happen to people who have had some of those characteristics and I’ve seen some on the other side of it.

Why should I care? Why do I care?

In high school I always tried to have friends in all circles. Probably the main reason is that I could always find someone to call if I needed something or needed help. I had friends with every trait and capability. I used to pride myself on being able to get anything done no matter where in the world I was. I’ve called in favors before from various groups of friends to get things done. I usually know who I can call the first time to accomplish what I’m after.

Now things change a little and I’m a father. I worry about two little girls and one little boy looking at me through someone else’s eyes. Am I an ass? Am I a mean person? Do I treat everyone fairly? How I act and respond to things is probably how they will as they grow up and have their own kids. I don’t do things necessarily the way my parents did yet I see some of the same things coming out in me. I do try like hell to quash those traits I didn’t like as a child so that ours do not have to see them.

I also get to see people who get ahead by sucking up to superiors or other people. They’re manipulative or they’re just plain submissive. Those traits drive me nuts. I don’t like to be pushed or pulled one direction as typically I have my own opinions on things. I may or may not voice them but I’ll typically say them. I try to follow the rules and see that others do as well.

I’ve never liked being looked on as “the bad guy” in any situation. When it comes to discipline I try to do what’s right. I have to look at every situation from all angles and determine the best route to go. Whether it be a personal matter or business issue I try to do what’s right. I know very well that I cannot please everyone all of the time. It’s truly impossible. What’s good for one may very well not be good for another.

I got to enforce some rules recently and was given an ultimatum. That’s something that I do not like. I do not like being forced in to a corner. I will come out fighting and defend myself, especially if I’m right, at all costs. A couple things suffered but in the end things will be fine. They’ll work out. Thing is, I don’t always make the rules. Some are already there to be followed and it’s my job to make sure they get enforced. If I’m forced to choose one over the other, unless it’s a huge oversight on my part, I’ll choose the right path. I sometimes make mistakes as does everyone else. We all do to a degree but some will not own up to it. Some will not admit their faults. When I’m wrong, I’ll tell you. If I screw up I’ll admit to it and try to fix it, not cover it up. I’ll take punishment if it’s due to me. I’ll learn from it and go on and be stronger in the future because of it (hopefully).

It’s just one of those things; perception IS reality. How a person’s perceived can be reality; it may be forced and it may be fake. Perception can turn in to a true persona for some while others see right through it.

Me? Believe it or not, I try to do what’s right. What I do may not be the popular choice or decision but I honestly do like to see people smile. I want others to be happy because of what I say and do. I’m not always a grump, an ass, or the “enforcer.” I want what’s right to be followed, the rules not to be broken, and for everyone to be happy.

ramblings about nothing in particular

old friend of mine suggested to me in an email that i become part of the facebook nation. i've resisted for some reason. why? who knows but i have a couple deep, dark, secret thoughts on how facebook is permanently warping the minds of the young in to gray mush. i've been asked several times by other people to do the same but i haven't.

what i do do is twitter. it's simple, quick, and easy. i read somewhere once that someone described twitter as, "the ability to text the world." responses are short and curt and the ability to put in pics or videos. actually very simple to do. i can even send a "tweet" from my cell phone. that in itself is neat because i have an antiquated cell phone that doesn't allow me to do a whole hell of a lot.

kind of like blogging like i do here. something to do, something i like. if only i could make some money doing it, it'd be more worthwhile. i KNOW i could find things to blog about. i can type pretty well even though i don't ike using the caps button. it's just an extra step to take to type. I GUESS IT BEATS HAVING TO TYPE LIKE THIS IN ALL CAPS. then i'll get "yelled at" because my typing in call caps likens it to yelling. gee whiz,...

somehow i found hubpages. kind of a neat way of blogging. basically people go on there and blog about one thing or another but the premise is to put down something as a guide or instruction manual for others to read. you get "fans" who can leave comments or whatever. anyone can search the database to find an article about something in particular. mine is kind of intriguing (to me). i have 10 or so articles i've typed up and published on hubpages. the majority of them are about cooking. i can see how many times my "hubs" have been looked at and some of my cooking ones are all alone at the top; i mean none of the others are any where close when it comes to page views. it's like a 3 : 1 ratio. my one for making gumbo and roast pork loin are #1 and #2. well, i do like to cook,...

i could easily be a computer nut who sits in front of one all day. i can also see my ass getting twice the size it currently is if that happens. i can type about mindless things all day long and read what others have written. my add would be worse than ever if that happened. i'd be one of those who would have to have 6 monitors so i could look at 6 different topics all at the same time. i'd be frazzled in less than 30 minutes.

talked to a guy here at work yesterday about how things used to be before cell phones. what a pain. here's one; on the docks in long beach, ca prepping the adriatic iv (drilling rig) to go from there to singapore on a dry tow. i was in charge of all the supplies we were getting trucked in and putting them on the rig. pallet after pallet after shipping container full of things for working in singapore and the north sea. spent a week on the docks getting things put on the rig.

the crane operator was up in his crane, about 150 ft above me. i couldn't yell at him and robert was a little guy and he couldn't yell at me. he had a big vioce but with all the other dock noises it made it impossible. we both had our cell phones. he lived in lakeland, fl at the time and me back in indiana. we communicated using our phones. it seemed odd that we were so close but were using phones from indiana and florida to communicate in california. but it worked and we got things done. mind you, there are days i want to take my phone and pitch it on the highway for it to get crushed.

off i go back to the real world. enough blogging for now to the loyal handful who read my babbling posts. maybe this week i'll win the lottery and be able to blog all the time about all the wineries and beaches i'll be visiting, the blackjack tables at the casinos i'll be losing money to, and the races i'll be going to wearing only my cut off bibs and straw hat (don't have either, don't worry).

little people getting sucked dry

For many years I worked offshore on drilling rigs. I worked all over the world for 14 years. I loved that job and would go back tomorrow if I could. I loved traveling the world and someone else paying for it. now let’s dissect it a little, shall we?

The oil producers (ChevronTexaco, ExxonMobil,…) basically “rent” a rig to drill a well for them. They come to the drillers and say, “hey, I want to drill an oil or gas well here (point finger on a map). Can we rent your rig?” they sign a contract and the producer pays the driller a set rate per day. Out of that pay the driller furnishes the rig, all the rig’s personnel, and some supplies. Depending on the size of the rig the rate may be larger or smaller as well as where in the world it’s located.

Producers typically make a lot of money. They pay a lot for the rigs as well as the pipelines and production facilities to get the oil and gas out of the ground, to a refinery, and then ultimately to us, the consumers. When I was offshore I liked seeing high prices at the pump. It meant job security for me. I knew that as the producers made more money they’d pump more money back in to their e & p (exploration and production) budgets which hopefully would keep me working. It always did.

Now that I am home and not making that kind of money anymore I scrutinize the money they make. I can remember one gas well we drilled in Trinidad for bp. It cost a little over 9 mn to drill, case, complete, and tie back to the platform. It paid for itself in less than 12 hours. It was, at that time, the largest producing natural gas well in the world for bp. They were thrilled, obviously. Wells like that kept us working; huge money-makers.

Rates trickle down. As the producers pay the higher rates because of supply and demand, the suppliers jack up their rates. The rig owners bump up their rates and increase salaries to get the best people and win the best long term contracts. The suppliers who sell their wares and supplies to the rigs bump up their costs too. The producers, in order to make money, jack up the cost of oil and gas they sell to offset the increases in cost for drilling and producing a well. So our “at the pump” cost increases too. They make money.

Read an article today about a local insurance company jacking their rates for some cali people by 39% when they profited over 2 bn last qtr. Wow! Gas is one thing but healthcare is another. Everything in California is more expensive. Their salaries are also higher to help make up for that. But gee whiz, is healthcare that expensive out there? I take someone to the hospital in our ambulance and you’ll get a bill for about 4 – 600 bucks, depending on what I do to you (drugs, IV, nothing,…). It all depends. I smile each time I get an EOB (explanation of benefits) statement from our insurance company on how much the provider charged, how much the insurer would pay, and how much was written off. It’s a sham. At time the provider writes off 50% of the cost because it won’t be paid by the insurer. And yet they still want to charge more money for services.

Healthcare is one of those things that will always be needed for everyone. We’re not all bionic just yet so we’ll have to be taken care of. there will be a need for people like me who transport the sick and injured to the hospitals. There will be a need for doctors as they take care of those people and other sickies. But holy cow the rates have skyrocketed. Wife’s gonna have her gallbladder removed tomorrow and I shudder at what it’ll cost us out of pocket or even the insurance company. Her “cath” last year cost over 22k, excluding labs, x-rays, and other associated fees. WOW!

It’s hard to see companies and corporations profiting so largely in times like these. The economy sucks. People everywhere are out of work. There’s little overtime or extra money to be had. Money isn’t being spent as freely as it used to be even two years ago. I’m worried about paying taxes this year. Just trying to keep heads above water is a daily struggle for a lot of people. It’s tough with no end in sight for anyone.

So why do these companies continue to make such ghastly profits? Are they taking advantage of the consumer? Is it supply and demand? Is it greed? Probably all of the above. Part of it, like I said, comes from the trickle down effect that the big name corps pay their suppliers and vendors who jack their rates up. Sometimes it’s a wash and other times we, the consumer, gets taken to the cleaners. A lot of the time it’s just not fair. We try and work hard to get ahead and make things easier for ourselves and BAM! Something happens or we’re slapped with another fee or tax to take away what we worked for. My honest opinion? It’s bullshit, pure and simple.

it's been over a month???

wow, i guess it has. here i thought i'd become the next blogging champion and post something daily. guess that hasn't happened. today's a "snow day" at work and i just finished catching up on some old work that needed done. so now i get to type a little bit for myself.

gee whiz,... the playoffs are over. a disappointing end to a disappointing season. how to sum it up? one of the local sports anchors opsted a picture of peyton walking off the field with his head down and captioned, "this sums it up." one disappointment after another.

hey, no worries. they got to the superbowl. they dominated, eh, sort of, during the regular season. they perfected how to comeback and win a game. they did it 7 times during the season. they just couldn't do it the eighth time, when it counted. they ran a 14-0 record in the ground. they finished at 14-2. they missed perfection.

some good things i saw;
1.) addai came to run during the game. he had some terrific runs from the line in the first half. it was refreshing to see that the one dimensional game went away, if at least for a half.
2.) the o line actually made holes for addai to run in.
3.) the injuries to wayne and freeney weren't too bad as freeney played quite a bit. although the injuries must've hurt reggie 'cause he couldn't catch the damn ball when he needed to.
4.) collie showed why he was a terrific rookie. during the year he got his bell rung a couple times and dropped some passes but they all do. he has been terrific all season. what worries me now is, with next season and gonzalez coming back (hopefully), who will take a back seat? we have three terrific starters this year and next year will have four. wow, that's a great predictament to be in!
5.) the play of the game, for me, had to be freeney's sack. one armed, left-handed, THROW DOWN of brees was truly a gem of a sack. determination and pure strength and muscle allowed that to happen. it had to be one of the best sacks i've ever seen.

so now what? do i get tickets next year? probably not since i really couldn't afford the ones i had this year. got taxes to pay along with other things that take priority (it's called "family") so i doubt it. i'll go back to being an armchair quarterback and swearing in the front room instead of my seat in section 422. i can at least say that i was able to be a part of a great season. i got to see some awesome games like the comeback against the patriots and how loud lucas oil stadium got that night. i got to see addai throw a halfback option to wayne in the south endzone for a touchdown. i got to see edge get a standing "o" from the whole stadium when he wa introduced as an honorary captain and when the seahawks came to play. i got to see a lot and enjoyed most every part of it. it's something i'll never forget and hope i can do it again someday after i win the lottery. it was worth it. i got a lot of great memories going to the games with my best friend. we had a blast.

now it's on to racing season as next week's the daytona 500. junior's on the front row and hoepfully this will be a season where he turns things from mediocre to greatness. he has to. his team is funded by rick hendrick, the man who spares no expense when it comes to racing and winning. he's got the best equipment and engines. if he doesn't make the chase this year then i won't be surprised if he finds another home next year.

i've swapped brickyard tickets for talladega tickets. this will be the third year i've gone there and it's a fantastic place to watch a race. where we sit i can see the whole track. i love the drafting and speeds that come with that huge 2.66 mile track. the sights, sounds, everything is well worth it. got to see jr. push tony stewart a couple times last year and he did the same to ryan newman. fun to watch, great to listen to, fantastic to be there. i'll always say that being there is better than tv. just the atmosphere of a race and being a part of a crowd that boasts 100,000 people is fun.

so off i go back in to sports oblivion. football's done and now it's on to the draft. the boilers are back in the top 10 which means nothing. they need to do well in march for rankings to mean squat. they're good enough if they play like they are capable of playing to win it all. the pacers? another crappy season. poor danny granger. an all star on a horrible team. the nfl draft will be coming up soon. racing season is here. baseball is back very soon (which i care nothing about anymore). here's to spring and summer now that football's finally over for the year. bring it on!