Kerteh, Malaysia
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Version:0.9 StartHTML:-1 EndHTML:-1 StartFragment:0000000111 EndFragment:0000006307 Since I don't yet have wireless on my laptop Im writing this entry two days later on my laptop. Whew. The last two days have been a blur. I got plenty of sleep the first afternoon I was here, couldn't do much that night due to rig activity, and when I awoke the next afternoon (yesterday) things got busy. We began preparing essentially a system of pipes for one of our tools. This was all new to me. Its kind of like being a plumber trying to figure out how to navigate and place new piping through and around rig obstacles. Each pipe is only 4-1 feet long and weighs at least 50-60 lbs each, no joke. To make each connection we had to precisely thread a hammer union from one pipe to the next to ensure that it had a seal that could withstand up to 3000 pounds/sq inch. Many hours and tired muscles later, we were almost done. We broke for dinner and resumed shortly after. It is monsoon season here in Malaysia and therefore the weather about everyday is humid, 90 degrees, and rainy
. It poured on us almost the whole time we were rigging the pipe. Not that it was a bad thing because it kept things a lot cooler than they would otherwise be, but when you've been sloshing around in puddles and pools for hours on end your feet get soaked and heavy along with every other sqauare inch on your body. We finally got all the connections made late that night and I was glad we were done. I was wiped out. Got to bed around 130AM knowing there were only a few hours before we had to get back up and pressure test the connections we just made. We could not do this earlier because the rig was doing it sown pressure testing. Four hours later we went back up to the rig floor to pressure test. Of course, we had to switch one of the lines out so pressure could be fed through it via a line that was not the main system. So, break out the sledge hammer and frustration again and make up some new connections by pivoting pushing and pulling pipe till it lines up perfectly. After about 90 minutes or more we were able to successfully test all the connections. During which time I was in the "dog house" which is where the driller operates the rig from, with two of the head honchos on the rig. One was from Lafayette Louisiana and the other was from Scotland. During the daytime those are two different guys, one from Australia and the other from America? They were easy to crack jokes with and it was nice to have some comic relief.
Anyway we finished pressure testing and it was already time to start picking up the tools for the next run. This is a process that involves all the rig floorhands, the driller, the crane operator, and all of us since we are moving extremely heavy drill pipe full of hundreds of thousands/millions of dollars worth of logging equiptment. On land, the process is a lot simpler and faster since the tools we work with are a lot simpler and smaller
. On land this takes about 2 hours to switch from used tools to new tools, start to finish if you have a good experienced crew. I have been told that out here it can take up to 7 or 8 hours to do this. Well, we began around 8am or so, its 9pm right now, and we did not get anywhere due to some complications. The unloading of the old tools went fine, but one of Halliburton's newer high tech drilling motors didn't quite fit down the tube and almost got stuck. So different combinations of drills and tubing were tried, each try taking well around an hour to untorque and retorque everything before it can be ran back in the hole. it's a ridiculously tedious process that if you're not directly involved, can be like watching paint dry. I was getting so bored and feeling useless that I actually started helping the roughnecks do their job by pushing pipe around and helping them lift this or that. I was filthy by the end of the day.
Anyway the end result of all this was we have to get a new motor out here. So in the mean time they are going to run in the hole without any of our directional tools (they won't be able to steer while they drill, so they won't drill) and clean the hole out while they formulate their master logistical plan. So I'm back in bed now to catch on sleep, hopefully more than 5 hours, but no promises. If everything were to go as planned today we would be on bottom drilling and on our way to finishing the well within 10 days. Now, who knows.
