Life In Suez - Offshore Instants

< < < Back to Main Page < < < Back to Egypt Page < < < Back to Picture Gallery	Life In Suez Offshore Instants
	*-- By Hammad Shahid --*

Time 10:20pm. Dated January 25, 2004. Its night and whole rig is shinning with big light bulbs installed in various spots of it. I am writing this article while sitting in a short room of an offshore rig, located in Suez. Company Man (main person responsible for any operating drilling activities on the rig) arranged Cabin #4 for me next to his room. Rig name is COMET. Cool name! Isn’t it? Currently four rigs are operating under BP GUPCO Petroleum Company and their names are exciting. Have a look! MERCURY, BEN NEVIS & KAMOSE. Kamose is named on Suez’s main geological stratum. Hope you have got familiar with Mercury and Comet names ☺ Couple of years before BP, British Petroleum, had a join venture with GUPCO, an Egypt National oil company. Now its called ‘BP GUPCO.’ Let me tell you something about my work here. Well, exactly a year before, I was assigned here (location called Ras Shukheir Oil Field) as a Landmark Drilling Engineering Consultant. It’s an onsite support job. Whenever drilling team find any problem or need any suggestion in DIMS®, COMPASS®, WELLPLAN® and various other Landmark® drilling software, they knock my door. Not easy as you think! :( Lets come back to this ship in which I am right now. Comet belongs to TransOcean® company. It’s an American company. Most of the employees (about 50 plus) working in this rig are from the same company. Their positions are Radio room operators, drilling floor man, tool pusher, crane handler, safety personnel, cleaners and other drilling crew. Rest of the rig crew includes contracts like Catering, directional drillers, wireline experts and other services/ contractors (e.g., Halliburton® and Schlumberger®, including me too). One strategy always keeps under consideration while designing any rig and that is achieving maximum benefits and settlements from less space. So you will find maximum resources from a diminutive corner of a rig. Cabin #4 allotted me is also small. It has 3 thrice layer beds, 6 alamedas, and one chair/table, all in one room. More or less I am hearing different people walking out side the room. Little march on the floor creates a bang as partitions of the rooms are made up of wooden and of course walking passage is narrow also. It says, "Time on Rig is Money." Operating companies used to pay million of dollars every year to the Rig owners/companies. For this purpose without wasting any single second, drilling always going on 24 Hours a day, 7 days a week. Most of the people work here in two shifts i.e., one in day, one in night. Crew working in daytime sleeps whole night while night watch men sleeps in day. Besides this, every person on the rig has its relief personnel. Of course no one can stay on offshore for long. Offshore policy is 50%-50% i.e., if you stay 7 days on rig, 7 days off will be given to the individual. Even if one stays 30 days, company gives him 30 days off. Crew on the rig changes on weekly or monthly basis. Helicopters are used for pick and drop purpose from Ras Shukheir base (Heliport called 'Jetty') to offshore platform. Helicopters here are called "CHOPPERS." Air services here is providing by Petroleum Air Services, PAS®. This incorporates daily 2-3 plane flights from Cairo to Ras Shkhier and similarly return back to Cairo from field. The oil tools like casing, pipes, strings, bits, collars, logging tools, wireline accessories, rig equipments and drilling fluids etc are taken to the platform by big ships. According to a survey, at present more than 7000 employees are working in Ras Shukheir oilfield. It’s a big field. Here you will find people all over the world. One foreigner once meet with another always pleases to see each other. And especially if you see some one from your own country... Oh! What you want then. I have very good friends here in Ras Shukheir from India. Today in Company Man's room I met a Philippine guy. His name was "Chad" (hope spelling is correct. I guessed as it pronounced). He was directional driller from PathFinder® company. We had a nice time together. Chad and me wrote an open Poem together, worth in 10 minutes. It comprises ideas of both of us. What we thought, we explained each other and wrote on the backside of an Anti-cullion graph. You can experience our feelings, somewhere hidden in our hearts. It comes out and strangely sounds similar. We named the poem 'Offshore Instants.' Excessive sounds on Derrick Loud Conversations among Drilling Crew Each second on a Rig is disaster Sometimes I think I am alone on the Platform A wet region that is vacant… for a long long distance The moment I close my eyes to stop spilling the tears Hay! Its dark but I could see 'The Family' A smile comes with full satisfaction and joy… that one day…Yes one day, I will see my Love Ones For this I have to jump over every minute Yes I will never count. I have to pass… I will never loose heart. I have to… I have too I still remember a poster used to hang in Drilling Lab in my university (University of Engineering & Tech, Lahore) with a statement written on it. Now I better understand that it’s not as easy as it reads.
" Petroleum Engineers in search of black gold to mobilize the world. "

Time 10:20pm.
Dated January 25, 2004.

Comet Offshore Rig - Ras Shukheir - Egypt

Its night and whole rig is shinning with big light bulbs installed in various spots of it. I am writing this article while sitting in a short room of an offshore rig, located in Suez. Company Man (main person responsible for any operating drilling activities on the rig) arranged Cabin #4 for me next to his room. Rig name is COMET. Cool name! Isn’t it? Currently four rigs are operating under BP GUPCO Petroleum Company and their names are exciting. Have a look! MERCURY, BEN NEVIS & KAMOSE. Kamose is named on Suez’s main geological stratum. Hope you have got familiar with Mercury and Comet names ☺

Couple of years before BP, British Petroleum, had a join venture with GUPCO, an Egypt National oil company. Now its called ‘BP GUPCO.’ Let me tell you something about my work here. Well, exactly a year before, I was assigned here (location called Ras Shukheir Oil Field) as a Landmark Drilling Engineering Consultant. It’s an onsite support job. Whenever drilling team find any problem or need any suggestion in DIMS®, COMPASS®, WELLPLAN® and various other Landmark® drilling software, they knock my door. Not easy as you think! :(

Lets come back to this ship in which I am right now. Comet belongs to TransOcean® company. It’s an American company. Most of the employees (about 50 plus) working in this rig are from the same company. Their positions are Radio room operators, drilling floor man, tool pusher, crane handler, safety personnel, cleaners and other drilling crew. Rest of the rig crew includes contracts like Catering, directional drillers, wireline experts and other services/ contractors (e.g., Halliburton® and Schlumberger®, including me too). One strategy always keeps under consideration while designing any rig and that is achieving maximum benefits and settlements from less space. So you will find maximum resources from a diminutive corner of a rig. Cabin #4 allotted me is also small. It has 3 thrice layer beds, 6 alamedas, and one chair/table, all in one room. More or less I am hearing different people walking out side the room. Little march on the floor creates a bang as partitions of the rooms are made up of wooden and of course walking passage is narrow also.

It says, "Time on Rig is Money." Operating companies used to pay million of dollars every year to the Rig owners/companies. For this purpose without wasting any single second, drilling always going on 24 Hours a day, 7 days a week. Most of the people work here in two shifts i.e., one in day, one in night. Crew working in daytime sleeps whole night while night watch men sleeps in day. Besides this, every person on the rig has its relief personnel. Of course no one can stay on offshore for long. Offshore policy is 50%-50% i.e., if you stay 7 days on rig, 7 days off will be given to the individual. Even if one stays 30 days, company gives him 30 days off.

Crew on the rig changes on weekly or monthly basis. Helicopters are used for pick and drop purpose from Ras Shukheir base (Heliport called 'Jetty') to offshore platform. Helicopters here are called "CHOPPERS." Air services here is providing by Petroleum Air Services, PAS®. This incorporates daily 2-3 plane flights from Cairo to Ras Shkhier and similarly return back to Cairo from field. The oil tools like casing, pipes, strings, bits, collars, logging tools, wireline accessories, rig equipments and drilling fluids etc are taken to the platform by big ships.

According to a survey, at present more than 7000 employees are working in Ras Shukheir oilfield. It’s a big field. Here you will find people all over the world. One foreigner once meet with another always pleases to see each other. And especially if you see some one from your own country... Oh! What you want then. I have very good friends here in Ras Shukheir from India. Today in Company Man's room I met a Philippine guy. His name was "Chad" (hope spelling is correct. I guessed as it pronounced). He was directional driller from PathFinder® company. We had a nice time together. Chad and me wrote an open Poem together, worth in 10 minutes. It comprises ideas of both of us. What we thought, we explained each other and wrote on the backside of an Anti-cullion graph. You can experience our feelings, somewhere hidden in our hearts. It comes out and strangely sounds similar. We named the poem 'Offshore Instants.'

Excessive sounds on Derrick
Loud Conversations among Drilling Crew
Each second on a Rig is disaster

Sometimes I think I am alone on the Platform
A wet region that is vacant… for a long long distance
The moment I close my eyes to stop spilling the tears

Hay! Its dark but I could see 'The Family'
A smile comes with full satisfaction and joy…
that one day…Yes one day, I will see my Love Ones

For this I have to jump over every minute
Yes I will never count. I have to pass…
I will never loose heart. I have to… I have too

I still remember a poster used to hang in Drilling Lab in my university (University of Engineering & Tech, Lahore) with a statement written on it. Now I better understand that it’s not as easy as it reads.

" Petroleum Engineers in search of black gold to mobilize the world. "

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