In The Cold In Russia in Winter

This big beast is off-shore Far East Russia. Designed to withstand the elements of very severe Arctic conditions in the winter time, temperatures can easily drop to -50 degrees C, yet the summers in Sakhalin Island are very moderate with temperatures up to 35 C and very humid. But as you can see from the picture above the winter can be very brutal and unforgiving. The city of Yuzhno is quite a vibrant city with quite a mix of architecture from the Soviet age and modern buildings, with the main feature in the city centre being a rather large statue of Vladimir Lenin aptly named Lenin Square. The night life here is also very vibrant and is quite friendly but like any other place always take precautions and don’t get too complacent or you could find yourself in trouble rather fast.  The majority of the younger generation speak very good English but the 35+ age group tend to speak Russian only so learning a few basic Russian words and phrases goes a long way.

I found myself working here for one year for a major operator mainly office based. An 8 ½ hour flight from Moscow takes you to the city of Yuzhno on Sakhalin Island and arrive at a very old Soviet era type air port. The first thing you observe when leaving the airport is old Soviet era welcome signs so in many respects this is still old Russia. This does show in some bars and restaurants as they have not quite caught the etiquette of serving up food although the service is generally good apart from normally receiving your main dish before the starter.

The biggest downside to all this is the journey for to get off-shore. A fourteen hour train journey takes you from Yuzhno to Nogliki where the heliport is based for serving the rigs and platforms off-shore onboard a sleeper with rather uncomfortable beds, so arriving at the other end still feels like coming off a long haul flight. You are then transported from the train station to the heliport by Kamaz, which can be difficult to climb aboard. After a security check at the heliport and watching the video brief then its time to climb into a very large arctic survival suit and onto the chopper. Again this is normally a very old Soviet era helicopter with quite small windows so it does make you think how difficult it would be to get out in an emergency. Luckily enough a short trip on the chopper and soon arrive on the platform. This platform has very good accommodation with quite comfortable beds and good food in the galley.

Operationally was quite slow going because of the conditions in winter time. The completions here are 9 5/8” big bore gas wells so that added to the challenge of the job about to be carried out.  The design of the platform is not the greatest, adding to the challenge of getting the job done efficiently. No pipe deck or catwalk so to speak going to the rig floor but a pipe barn on a lower deck and a conveyer belt on an upper deck going to the rig floor, so spotting equipment is a bit awkward.

Rigging up two sets of Dual 9” Slickline BOPs, Riser and Shear Seals in these conditions is no easy task. Then on top of all that heavy duty fishing with 5/16” cable. The job was a great success, removing 1400 metres of e-line cable and an FSI logging tool, but trying to beat the cold Russian winter was challenging to say the least. The biggest challenge of all is logistics because of the remoteness of the location. Bringing equipment and personnel into the country is not so easy. The work here in Sakhalin is very enjoyable but it’s one hell of a journey getting there. Anyhow, its always good to get home for a well earned rest.

It's Great Working on Land

www.lordherringe.com

Night shift in the mountains!

Its been quite some time since I last wrote on this blog. But things have been so busy its not always easy to find the time. The photo above was a picture taken on a land job in Romania and how I loved that place. The people there were just simply fantastic and very warm. I wish I had stayed on and not quit to take on another job.

Since leaving Romania, activity within the industry appears to be increasing with a constant demand for Well Services positions. I shall write about my next location in due course. After leaving the great city of Bucharest it was off to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk for me in Sakhalin Island in far east Russia. Then it was back to the real world for me, back off-shore again.

Each time I have a choice between working off-shore or an on-shore location, I cant help but go for the on-shore operations. It adds a lot of normality to life. But however we all make decisions we all regret. Just being able to drive around in a car or being able to go to the local shop is just great. Off-shore, thats it, can't go anywhere and all you see is water and ships and any other rigs or platform in the vacinity. Life is good in this industry at the moment and can't see it changing any time soon. So if you are looking for a job in the oil and gas industry then I hope you find what you are looking for. Good Luck!
 I hope you still enjoy reading this blog as I will continue to post. I hope you are all having a great day wherever you may be.

On a different note for those into British history visit www.lordherringe.com have a great day.

When A Well Does Not Meet Expectations

This little job took place just at the tail end of summer in Central Romania 2012. This was a completion and a well test. As it turned out this well, which expected a high gas production rate just did not come to fuition. In the end it led to a P & A.

At the height of the well test it only managed 17,000scm/day and had a terrible problem with what they in Romania call Marl. Now I had never heard of this before but would welcome any comments about this substance that is sometime contained in gas reservoirs. To look at it it looks like a shiny grey coloured drilling mud. Our first thoughts when flowing the well initiaally was that we were producing drilling mud but yet the previous well history showed no losses during the drilling phase. This Marl production went on for about three day and when we got to the stage where we had produced a lot more than there could have possibly have been in losses, we got the news through that the whole reservoir has a problem like this.

Perhaps a break down in communication was a cotributing factor. The programme stated to open up to a 34/64" choke in 4/64" stages. But yet speaking to the local production geologist he said they would never open up on any more than a 16/64" choke, even though it was an exploration well. The idea should have been to open the well slowly on a 6/64" choke and come no higher than 16/64". I think because a heavy drilling mud was used during drilling, 1.69sg this caused a lot of confusion during the flow back period.

However as we P & A'd this well, it may be revisited at a later date, perhaps a side track. We ended up leaving the lower completion down hole and setting a bridge plug and cement plug above the packer. It's still disappointing when you go through the whole precess of drilling a well only to abandon it when it does not flow. But I guess this is the nature of exploration well.

Romania has thousands of producing well in both oil and gas. It appears to be one of Europe's best kept secrets with quite a turbulent history. The Germans were the first ones to take Romanian oil and gas to fuel their war machine during WWII. Then came the Soviets and exported most of the oil and gas production for themselves. Therefore it does come as quite a surprise that one of the poorest coutries in Europe is such a high oil and gas producer both on land locations throughout Romania and off-shore in the Black Sea.

However, it is good to see a country such as Romania continuing to be a big producer of oil and gas. For anyone interested in books on oil and gas, visit www.novelbookshop.co.uk or in the US www.novelbookshop.com

New Starts Finding Jobs

It does seem difficult in the current climate for new starts in the oil and gas industry to find a start with either service companies whether its coil tubing, wireline, slickline or well test to the drilling companies as a new start Roustabout or even a Roughneck with experience. I had a message from someone just the other day saying he will be doing his off-shore survival in a couple of weeks time and did I know of any jobs that were available. I always say give people a chance, after all we all have to start somewhere.

I think my advice to new people trying to get into the industry is not to go and pay for an expensive course like that but to keep putting out your cv and keep calling around a few companies. If a company want to hire new starts then the company will pay for it. I had that experience myself when I was starting out in the oil and gas industry 21 years ago when I shoved out my cv to hundreds of different companies and put my self through the then RGIT off-shore survival course. But of course no job was materialising and it took a great deal of determination and patience over the space of about a year and a half. Eventually I found myself in the right place at the right time, someone with no experience what so ever in the oil and gas industry, then so I found myself starting as a trainee wireline operator, which was the best thing that ever happened to me, which then went on to take me all over the world and then up to Well Services Supervisor/Company man. But even when I got that new start all those years ago, the company that employed me put me through the whole off-shore survival course again even though I held a vialid RGIT certificate and medical. So the chancer are the hiring company will probably put you through the same thing again so I do think its a waist of time doing it youself.

So if you are someone trying to start out in the oil and gas industry, I wish you the very best of luck where ever you may be.

Is There a World Wide Shortage of People In the Oil & Gas Industry?

Its been quite some time since I posted my last blog about the oil & gas industry. Not that I have forgot about it but I just did not seem to be able to find the time to do anything, even in my spare time. Anyone involved in the oil and gas industry, especially those of us who work as free lance consultants as Well Services or Well Intervention Supervisors will know how crazy things have been for about the last seven or eight years and it's been fairly recession proof at the same time.

So! The question that comes to Mind! Is there a world wide short of people in the oil and gas industry and are younger people not interested in this kind of employment? It appears that all the major oil and gas operators around the world have an ongoing recruiting campaign all year round and it does appear to be difficult to find experienced people. The amount of agencies that make contact each day is becoming quite unbelievable for jobs that are available around the globe.
There does appear to be a big gulf in experience levels with in all sectors of the industry from the Drilling companies who are always looking for roughnecks and roustabouts to the service companies looking for Coil Tubing, Wireline or Well Test personnel. But the sad thing is there are a small number of people out there who would love to get into the oil and gas industry but dont have any experience when they apply for jobs. Surely these people should be given a chance? After all we all have to start somewhere in any industry and that usually means at the bottom. I do think people who are interested enough should be given the chance to come in are trainee's in order to bridge the gap as I think some time in the next ten years there will be a lot of retirements and this could further exasperate the problem.
What ever happens, the industry will still kick along and muddle through. One thing is for sure and that is that the problem does need tackling. We are in quite interesting times right now and everyone I talk with appears to have the same opinion about the state of the industry right now. But one good thing is and that is this type of emplyment should take me through the next twenty years to my retirement.

The Sun Going Down In Ukraine

Well they don't come any worse managed than this project in the oil and gas industry. As you can see the sun setting in the background of a Wireline rig up, about to perform a well intervention, which is quite appropriate for this photo. As the sun goes down on this Wireline crew so is this whole project. Millions of $$ spent and no returns from produced condensate, or gas. They have probably been drilling in the wrong spot and realized this until just recently!! You know what a lot of these post Soviet era companies are like when it comes to telling the truth about what's really going on in both the development of the field and the production levels or well kinda? Well I know this company got badly burned when they brought in a new seismic company to do their survey when they first started out with their new exciting venture in Ukraine. This has got to be one of the biggest mistakes I have ever seen when it comes to this industry when it comes to exploration or development, although there are always plenty of companies going around that make terrible judgements all the time, just look at BP in the Gulf of Mexico. I had better not say to much about this one, just in case people read this and pick me up the wrong way.

You see, that's the beauty about working in the oil and gas industry, you get to see all the major mistakes made and how the wrong people can manage things so wrong. This field was such a great shame because under better management this field would have had so much potential and still does have, so much potential, but! Yes there's always a but!!! It's unforunate for the compnay involved here that they ran their budget down so quickly without thinking things over before jumping into anything. But anyhow, they will survive and continue with their business or end up being bought over by someone else.

So, anyone out there who wants to work in this industry, do your homework on any potential employer before you go jumping in there. Even if it is one of the worlds great major's, as they call them. Even seasoned experienced people like myself often take on the wrong jobs just at the wrong time but however, we always survive! Happy Hunting!

Oil and Gas Jobs

Are you thinking about taking up employment in the Oil and Gas Industry? Are you looking for oil and gas jobs? Before you go ahead and take up any oil and gas jobs whether its with a service company or an oil and gas company, its important to know what kind of job will be suited to you. More importantly, make sure you do your homework and do a little bit of research to get to know the industry. People ask me questions all the time about oil and gas jobs and how they go about getting into the industry. Here are some of the most common questions asked.


Q. What education level do I need to for oil and gas jobs?

A. Well, that all depends on the type of discipline you want to enter. Lots of service companies ask for a Bacheolors Degree or the equivelent of but I think its very hard to come across that level for entry. I think a good sound High School education should be sufficient for most service companies or Drilling companies for oil and gas jobs. Maybe at the higher end of the scale in the corporate oil companies the a University background would be desirable.

Q. Should I do my off-shore survival before applying for a job?

A. Quite simply no. If a company is hiring people and you dont have the relevant off-shore certificates then the company will pay to have you trained before going off-shore. They will also train you in your specific discipline.

Q. How much will I earn starting out?

A. Starting out with no experienc that could be anything up to $48,000 per year. But its well worth hanging around to get the experience and your salary will increase according to ability and level of experience.


Its good to do some research on what you want to do. For myself I started out in the Oil Field Service comapny side of life as a Wireline operator. For me this is one of the better disciplines within the industry as the natural progression is to move into a higher position representing the operationg company i.e oil campany.
If you are willing to work hard and love travel then this would be the ideal job for you.