Industrial Specialist

[Hunter J7]

That seems to be a pretty cool title.  Like I mentioned in my last subject material on the forum.  I just got back from the Hibernia gravity based oil drilling and processing platform.  It really is a fascinating piece of engineering technology.  Unlike jackup rigs or semi sumbmersibles.  This one is actually a permanent made island of concrete and steel.  300 feet of concrete to the bottom with a few  thousand tons of steel on top with the 2 drill towers reaching 500 feet.  Each tower has 32 drill slots to go through and to move the tower either north south, east west to the next slot is called to skid the rig.  I am not technologically advanced enough to put a picture of the platform in here.  So if interested, just google Hibernia and you will see the first ever gravity based platform.  The whole thing can not ever be moved, unless destroyed where it would then end up on the bottom as a massive pile of scrap which would then make a contaminated sanctuary for marine life.  
Now getting back to the industrial specialist.  When not commercial diving as my occupation.  I am now working on the various oil platforms off the coast of Newfoundland.  Working as an industrial specialist.  It sounds fancy but as industrial as the job is.  It is not fancy at all.  Mike Row has no idea of what a really dirty job is untill he has done what I have been doing on Hibernia and will be doing on the Sea Rose as it is being towed to Belfast for dry dock repairs.  Sea Rose is a FPSO or floating production storage offloading ship.  Other than drilling like what Hibernia does.  It does the rest.  It connects to predrilled well heads with a spider buoy into a turret that processes, stores and then offloads to tankers that takes the oil to land.  After sitting out there for ten years it needs to have its stern seels repaired and after a 100 million in research.  The only answer was to come off station and go to dry dock at another huge cost for the down time.  And before it goes into dry dock.  The entire ship has to be gas free.   That is a big part of my job.  After the lines and tanks have been drained.  Time to gas free them.  Like what I did on Hibernia.  When the hydrocarbons come out of the earth.  They go through a process of turning the carbons into bulk grade oil.  2 coalescer and one degasser vessel had to be cleaned.  With H2S, Benzine, and natural occuring radio active material,  (NORM ).  I had to be suited up pretty tight with contamination gear, double hearing protection on and supplied breathing air.  Then go into these vessels knee deep in hydrocarbon sludge with a three inch vacume hose with amazing power and suck that sludge out.  Coming out of those vessels I was covered in that sludge as you basically have to get in it to move it with shovels to the vacume hose or move the suction to the sludge.  Dirty, slippery and real damn thick.  Then with suction fans and high pressure hot water we then go back in and clean it all down to steel.  
OK that is just the job.  But I guess the main point I wanted to get accross is that when in the middle of this platform.  You are litterally inside a massive industrial maze.  Not just side to side but up and down as well with the huge sounds of the processing all around.  Some very sudden and loud.  Some very pulsing, ongoing and throbbing.  Basically, the sound of turning hydrocarbons into money.  It is very easy to get lost in amongs all of that and yellow hats have to be accompanied by white hats or they will indeed get lost.  About a thousand stairs a day going back and forth during coffee and lunch breaks.  And it takes at least two weeks to get to the point where you will not get lost.  Following the white hats is one thing.  But you got to pay attention to the many passage ways back and forth, with stairs that go up and down even if staying on the same level.  On the same level when going from one spot to the next.  You still have to go down then up again.  Crazy and confusing.  With drill casings, production lines, high pressure air sources, and water systems for work or fire deluge.  Hibernia is definately one of the most intense and busyest industrial mazes I have ever been in.  Next time on Hibernia I am going to get some samples of those sounds and give to a friend out west.  Maybe one day you can hear some of Hibernia on DG.  Anyways, as dirty as the job is.  That is the title the upper echelons gave to us.  Industrial Specialists.  Go figure that one eh.  With my life as a welder/pipefitter, commercial diver, and now industrial specialist.  No wonder this is the kind of music that gives me reason.  And now I have to go change the oil in my truck.  How fukin readneck eh. And there sure are a few rednecks in Newfoundland.  Just not enough sun to turn there necks red.  Again, no wonder this kind of music gives me reason.

[Jib]

Cool write up, it is amazing that there is enough oil under it it justify building such a massive immovable structure.  It is funny that such a technically advanced platform/operation and you still need men to grab a shop vac and clean the insides.

A couple questions:

It looks like the platform fills tankers up to transport all the crude,  where is the refinery?
Any guess on how long it will stay operational/still have oil under it that it can get to?
Do you work 3 weeks on 3 weeks off?  That seems like a pretty cool schedule.
Since you probably have a good knowledge of sludge what oil do you put into your engine?  Full synthetic?

[Hunter J7]

Hey Jib.  And any other who may read this.  I apologize for repeating myself in some areas on this post in comparison to the previous.  I should have re-read the one prior to answering some of the questions.  And then after reading over the first one after writting this one.  I then see the repition.  But at least in a slightly diferent wording for another way to look at the situation.  What ever that is supposed to mean Ha Ha.   And I really dont feel like editing any repititions out.  To beat out right now.  
At least I got an extra day to get ready to board the Sea Rose for Belfast. Fog has delayed the Sikorsky;s and with no one going off. No one goes on.   Life suddenly got real busy.  But hey Jib.  
Thanks for that note.  
Now to answer a few of those questions.  
2 drill derricks and each one has 32 slot to drill through.  It is the derricks that can be moved N,S,E,W.  Which is another part of the cool engineering.  So in the infrastructure.  There are a lot of well heads with blow out preventer stacks.  All part of the maze.  When one of the resovoirs goes dry.  Then they can plug it off with concrete then rework a slot in a different direction.  Anadrills can go anywhere like when middle eastern countries drill into resovoirs under the borders.  The drillers have done some incredibly long drills to new resovoirs.  And now they are actually adding more structure to Hibernia to support the new gravity based structure called Hebron.  Hebron is smaller with just one drill derrick and I am not sure how they are going to interact.  But they are engineered to support each other.  For the Hibernia are south field.

Next.  The refinery is on the structure.  Which is why it is such a complicated maze with the huge sound of turning those hydrocarbons into money.  Thus in my term of industrial specialist.  I am actually just a cleaner of some components in the refinment.  It is not just a shop vac that is used but a massive system for pulling heavy sludge a long distince with the machine in a full size container that cannot be moved from the side landing areas on the platform where the cranes can not move them inside,  .  It needs a fair bit of power to take out the hydrocarbon sludge and move it hundreds of feet horizontally and as much as 80 feet up which then goes into big totes for backloading to land.  And none of the 3 inch suction lines, high pressure air lines for running equipment or supplying breathing air, or high pressure heated water lines, explosion proof power lines for the explosion proof lights.    They can not cross over deck walkways.  They all have to be run around various machineries and attache to what ever is above walkway crossings.  Setting things up and having to move operations around can be a bit of a Rambo move but done as safe as possible.   The refined oil then gets put into the huge concrete structure that holds up the platform thus being used as the structure support and big holding tanks for the processed oil.  And then as you said Jib,  offloaded to tanker ships taking it to land.  

No I dont have three on and three off as I work as a commercial diver inbetween these offshore gigs.  The reason why we are subbed out by the company that provides the many services Hibernia needs.  They wanted divers who are familiar to set up and run the breathing air systems used for supplied air.  And then choose the ones who have the confined space experiance and physical abilities to go in and do what needs to be done.  

Now my next offshore job with the same company is on the Sea Rose FPSO.  This ship does not drill but has multiple pre drilled well heads connected to a spider buoy that goes up into a turret through the bottom of the vessel.  Foating, Production, Storage, Offloading.  Or FPSO.  This one needs to go into dry dock in Belfast and has to be gas free before it goes into the same dry dock the Titanic was built in.  This will be about 4 or 5 weeks and then I will take some time off in London after going down to Dublin first.  When in London I will be hoping to buy the new Portion Control package I recently got an email about.  I am only getting my credit card back now so I could not buy it that way.  But I would rather get it from the artist and hopefully signed.  
We just had the orientation last week about Ireland.  No wearing any shirts or caps with sport logos of any kind.  I'm not of Irish back ground but a great deal of Newfoundland is.  Thus if in a pub.  Dont suggest any songs or sing any as they could very well get you killed.  Most of Belfast is calm after the good friday peace accord 15 years ago.  But with still a lot of bad memories and feelings there.  If walking around outside of downtown which is not advised to do so.  And you come accross some political grafiti.  Turn around and go back.  
I just got my letter of assignment yesterday which I have to sign if I choose to accept.  So time to take it to the right place now and finish getting ready for the Sikorsky ride out to the Sea rose on Friday now postponed to Saturday.  Later Jib.
Oh ya.  I was always curious about your logo picture.  You must be familiar with internal combustion engines.  I asked about synthetic oils at Meineki last year.  They told me that for the extra cost it is not really worth it.  So I just change it often.  Especially with my deisel truck.  It is big and takes a lot of oil and the deisel also helps with the lubrication.  
If you have any advice on that matter I sure could use and appreciate it.  later dude.