-Has the rig owner ever chased anyone around with a shotgun for sleeping with his daughter?
-Has anyone ever quit and then started their own oil rig company in less than a day?
-If NASA asked you to drill a hole in an asteroid to save the planet, do you think you could do it?
Well thanks, Tapioca, for opening this thread.
Most of my questions have been answered, but let me see…
I guess noone has much time for hobbies, but would it be possible to take a telescope up to the helepad and do some amateur astronomy?
Star gazing is allowed, but don’t get your hopes up. The place is lit up like a Christmas tree at night. If you add on the fact that the rig bobs up and down in the sea, then it’s far from ideal.
That’s interesting. I didn’t know that the rig floats, and didn’t think to ask about that.
Now that you’ve brought it up, does the rig just float like a boat? I always thought they sat on firm piers that were driven deep into the ocean bed. Or are there solid piers that fit into pistonlike opening on the rig, so the rig just bobs vertically?
No, no, and yes, but only if they bring back 8-track tapes first 
There are many sorts of oil rig. Exploration rigs have to be able to move. Some are on legs, some are moored to the sea bed, and some (like the one I am on) is dynamically postioned. We are free floating in the middle of the ocean, but don’t move more than a couple of feet due to the wonders of GPS and really powerful motors.
Production platforms do not move. They can be held up on steel legs or on a concrete tube (Radar Elf’s monopod), or they can be tethered to the sea bed (either as a TLP or as a spine).
If T_D doesn’t mind, I’ll answer a couple of questions from my own experience:
Offshore Angola, 1997, a pod of whales came up to the rig one day and actually did a full lap around it, giving the impression that they were checking us out in detail.
Offshore Mediterranean Spain, 1989, we were nearly out of sight of land. One night I was out on the deck and watched a drifting sailboard approach, pass under the rig platform, and disappear into the dark, headed for Morocco. No idea what may have happened to its owner.
I know of no such case ever occurring on an offshore job, but I did witness something similar in the mid-eighties on a well drilled in the Peruvian Amazon basin for a now-defunct US operator. Once a week the crew helicopter (actually a Peruvian Air Force bird) would arrive from Iquitos with a woman on board. She would stay for about 24 hours. Looking down from the rig, I could see an actual line of local crew waiting patiently outside the door of her cabin. Ewwww. This was not a case of ‘smuggling’ but appeared to be with the full knowledge and consent of the operator.
What about noise? Is it quiet enough to read or sleep?
What if you wanted to suddenly go home …or quit?
Answer away!
Offshore Qatar 1997 I saw an offshore survival suit float by - luckily it was empty.
I don’t mind the noise too much, it’s more of a background rumble. Ear plugs are available for those that want them.
If I wanted to leave / quit my job? I’d be off the rig tomorrow. There are almost always helicopters flying around and one can easily diverted. It’s a lot more tricky if you’re somewhere Peruvian jungle, but if you’ve just quit, you’re no use to anyone and it’s in everyone’s best interests to get rid of you ASAP.
If you need to leave the rig for any reason (medical problem, family emergency etc), then you can be off just as soon as as a helicopter can be flown out.
Radar Elf, huh? Have you ever heard about the CIDS (concrete island drilling system)? I worked on it back in the early eighties when it was still operating. There is some info on it here: www.crowley.com/cms/newsline.asp?ID=213. It was being operated for Exxon back in those days.
Pantellerite: You could suggest that your students check out rigworker.com or oilcareer.org.
This might be outside your realm of knowledge but I’ve been wondering about it, given today’s news: how do they put out oil well fires?
My brother works for a company called Sea-Cor, who provides services to offshore rigs from Alabama to Texas. His boat is about 110’ ft long, and they take mostly cargo containers out to rigs. He said they can take up to 16 people at one time as passengers. I have a collection of 100 photos or so of various rigs near the Louisiana coast. Most of them are Jack-up rigs. Very very impressive stuff out there! Ive even got a picture of a tornado on water, a waterspout, drifting between about 10 rigs! Crazy stuff happens out there. Typically my brother runs out to rigs that are in bay areas, so they might make 6 trips back to their port. Other times they run out to far rigs, like 90 miles, only once or twice a day. He works 12 hours a day, usually at night, and for 21 days on, then 14 days off. During the hurricanes last fall, his ship (and many many others) took inland water routes to safety. They stopped about 25 miles inland (near New Iberia, LA) at a lake. He said it wasnt bad at all, maybe 8 ft rise in water temporarily, and just alot of rain and wind. Anyways, i’ll have to link up some pictures sometime.
How much oil is out there for you guys to get?
Btw, I own some Chevron-Texaco stock. If you work for us, then 
. If not, then 
.
My brother just did contract work for Chevron for several months, but just changed. Im not sure who they are contracting with at the moment. Sea-Cor is hired by the companies operating the rig for services, so its always changing. He said Chevron paid better than others, but required more safety stuff (which he said was worth the extra pay!)
How often do you get to drive golf balls off the rig at Greenpeace protesters?
Have you ever had to contend with Greenpeace or enviromental types?
What is the job of the women on the rig?
Here’s my Greenpeace story. Norway 1992. I was working on a rig that was drilling inside the Arctic Circle. The rig was Norwegian, the drill crew were Norwegian, but there were about 10 of us Brits on board as well. Greenpeace were running a “Don’t drill the Arctic” campaign.
We had heard reports that the Rainbow Warrior was coming to pay us a visit. Before they got to us, they broke down. We sent our supply ship to rescue them and tow them back to port.
After they had fixed the ship, the Warrior set off again, this time making it all the way up North. Also paying us a visit were the Norwegian Police. I’m not sure if they were regular police or a crack anti-anti-whaling sort of police.
The Rainbow warrior circled us all day, waving banners and such like. A dress rehearsal for the main event. The next day dawned, steely grey. If memory serves, we were drilling - but not for long. The Greenpeace guys got in their Zodiacs and came towards us through choppy seas. We shut down operations to await events. The Zodiacs buzzed around the rig, taking pictures and not really doing anyone any harm. Everywhere those rubber dinghies went, the Norwegian policemen trotted after them (80 feet above).
The Zodiacs did a bit more buzzing, a bit more planning, eventually they stopped on one side of the rig and began to do something new. Quite a crowd had gathered above them. Norwegian oil workers, expat service hands and the, by now exhausted, police.
Those Greenpeace guys sure had big balls*. Three of them plunged into the Arctic Ocean and swam towards the rig in seas of 6 to 8 feet. We all watched slack-jawed as the frog-suited environmentalists clasped to our emergency escape ladders and began to climb.
The Norwegians (rig workers and police) were silent and scowling. Us expats however were a little more … excited. We called down to try and talk to climbers. No response. The frogmen climbed up 60 feet and began unpacking something. A huge banner reading “Stop drilling the Arctic”, about 40 feet long. They strung it up. The Norwegians were still being dour, but we shouted down words of encouragement. Someone tried to buy a Greenpeace T-shirt. No dice with the serious eco-warriors, they hung their banners, crawled down the rig and went back to sea. We left the banner their for an hour or so before removing it with a crane. The Rainbow Warrior sailed off to protect some whales elsewhere, the police left without a word and our humdrum lives resumed.
And that ladies and gentlemen is my Greenpeace story.
You’re right. Way to dangerous for me.
A whole bunch. Hopefully enough to keep me employed, anyway
Let’s see cementer, pore pressure engineer, roustabout, mud engineer, mud logger, galley hand, MWD hand, crane operator, helicopter pilot, just about anything, really.