[BITList] more Drillship stuff

[CT's]

yo dave,

I spent some time in the gulf of mexico and other areas with towing and moving jack-up rigs and semis [no drill ships]. I fully endorse what you have to say about americans in the business. 
with very few exceptions I found them to be completely ignorant of anything outside of the oil field business and drilling. 
most came/come from small towns [some very small] or small holdings mainly in mississipi, louisiana and texas, which appeared to lack any sort of educational establishment. 
their only passion appeared to be guns and huntin'. [women? no, not even women]
we were involved with a jack-up tow one time, the "tow superintendent" [whose only expertise in the business was that he was a former US marine and a buddy of the rig manager!) insisted on securing the tow lines to mooring bitts. Of course he didn't know the name of these things; when I told him they were called mooring bitts, because they were used to moor the vessel - not TOW the vessel he wasn't thrilled.
 schmidt brackets out of the question until the mooring bits tore out of the deck.
I was always surprised that the equally ignorant, but less serious skippers of the tow boats paid no attention to the towing arrangements on the rig - just, here's the tow line, let's go.
now if it was a long international tow with a powerful tug/s from a well known company, their master and some times super, would ensure the towing arrangements were to their standards and ours.
the reason for the difference [apart from the obvious] was political. local crews/tugs are 10 a penny, so they would not say a word about anything [note the crewing "arrangements' in dave's "yank supply ship"] and dare not complain if they wanted to keep their job.
incidentally, there was a move afoot some time a go to get a seamen's union going down here - for better conditions, benefits and wages. OMG the national guard, police and sherriffs were summoned by the tug owners whenever a meeting was planned - feudalism is strong and healthy on the gulf coast.  

these lines from dave's email sums up the way the oil field yanks work perfectly :-

 "There was a freezer container for rig cargo welded down on the deck just abaft the superstructure for this particular job. It broke down because the machinery was open to the weather. So the motor was moved to a small store locker but then there was insufficient air circulation and the motor overheated and broke down again. Nothing fazes these Yanks. Cut a hole into the cabin bulkhead and put the motor in the cabin, there's air conditioning (one punkah) in there as well. Noise and heat didn't allow much sleep, even in the senior bunk."

a bull in a china shop springs to mind.............................................. 

ct





From: david harvey 
Sent: Monday, January 11, 2010 11:40 PM
To: bitlist at lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com 
Subject: Re: [BITList] Drillship stuff


Reminds of the tome I flew out to a drill ship, "Glomar Tasman', as the 'Company Man'. Wandering around I saw she was 2 feet over her marks. Just pile the stuff on boys. Her master was ex US Navy, but no one on board could see any problem, she was floating wasn't she.

Fortunately the Company I was working for was Burmah Oil who, of course, as shipowners themselves, knew a bit about ships. In fact both the drilling superintendent and shore based toolpusher were ex marine engineers, one from Scotland with Chief's, the other from Yorkshire, not sure of his ticket. All hell broke out in the office.

Then there was the time the helicopter was standing on the helideck, empty, and the helicopter caught fire. I wasn't there at the time, but the fire hoses were too short to reach the helideck and a subsequent enquiry found that the spark arrester in the funnel had been removed. This was put down as the cause of the fire, I have/had my doubts.

I arrived on the scene after the fire, at that time I was driving a supply boat and went on board the rig. The problem was moving the helicopter. They had welded an I beam as an upright and fashioned a derrick from another I beam and, using snatch blocks, led a fall around various corners bends and down decks to the after mooring winch, with a couple of tuggers to act as guys. I warned them it wouldn't work  they didn't know the meaning of the parallelogram of forces nor had made any allowance for friction. "Goddam Limey" ( Australians were "Limeys" too in those days). Sure enough the whole thing collapsed as it was being lowered on to the American supply boat, which ran without any qualified staff, deck or engine. As it fell on to the supply boat it turned upside down and landed on the starboard funnel, ships engines running. Panic broke out when liquid was seen running out of the helicopter, but, luckily, it was water and not heli fuel.

My first anchor shift, after a cyclone had come through. They managed to drop their after anchor cables, the rig swung through 180 degrees and then they dropped the bow cables which fouled the stern cables. We had to drag for every anchor cable and then sought them out. I went for 80 hours without sleep, no such thing as fatigue clauses in charter parties then, work or go off hire. Fortunately I had an excellent crew who snatched sleep during the breaks that occur, one of the best crews I ever sailed with. No way were they going to let the Yank supply boat, working with us, beat them. We didn't find out until later that the Yank boat swapped crews with the Yank oil rig every twelve hours and had a spare Master (again unqualified, his previous employ had been as a roustabout on the same rig when in the Persian Gulf and the then (qualified) Master had walked off, see below).  Some experience watching the sun rise three days on the trot.

But then we had to lay the anchors again. Well a Yank tool pusher came on board to show us how to do it, none of us had seen it done. To say we were horrified at the way they did it is to say the least. We took his advice for one anchor only, which ripped open the deck over the ER. It was from this exercise that now standard safety "fences" read bulwarks were developed. No such things as stern rollers or pelican hooks, just wire strops and leap for your life. One guy, working in Bass Strait on an anchor shift ("Glomar III") went with the cable. 

By way of explanation our Company "Tidewater Port Jackson Marine" was a 50/50 arrangement with Tidewater (American) and Port Jackson SS Company (Australian), owners and operators of the Manly Ferries. The supply ships were built in Australia, two in Newcastle, two in Bundaberg, to an American design, that was used in the Mexican Gulf and an American Operation Manager oversaw it all. Bass Strait was the world's second off shore field after the Gulf of Mexico and the Australians trusted the Americans to know what they were talking about. The design of the supply boats was completely unsuitable for Bass Strait and they were underpowered, fine for the Gulf of Mex. but notwithstanding the ships did a sterling job, thanks to their crews, all of them, deck, engine, AB's. We had proper cooks too in those days, not AB/Cooks. The ships cost and average of $750,000 each but made an amazing profit.

As a result of the fiasco of that first anchor shift and as a result of the unsuitability of the ship's design the Engineer Superintendent of the Manly Ferries got involved. He became one of my best friends, sadly taken far two early. How much he invented and how much he found by research I don't know, but drawings arrived and pelican hooks were made in Fremantle and on the second two ships small rollers were fitted. (On the third ship, built in Fremantle a proper stern roller, as we see today, was fitted.) Fences were retro fitted on all ships. The Seamen's Union became involved in the Off Shore industry during this time and to give credit where credit is due they, or their members, also came up with some bloody good ideas, including the remote removal of the pelican hook pin.

When she was anchored up we had to do a run into port, about six hours away and also take the toolpusher with us. The bastard came into my cabin, I could barely stand, and demanded a whiskey. I didn't have any and even if I did he would have got the same response, as Hugh would say "eff off". I crashed when we got alongside and they couldn't wake me. Happy days, never again Yank Supply Boat or not. Glad to say she was eventually replaced by an Australian vessel.

And that reminds me, much later, and by this time I was working for Burmah, I did the Company Man bit for an anchor up of the "Ocean Digger", also built at Fremantle. She was some distance off the coast and the helicopter's were operating out of Darwin, but the supply base was in Broome. Pax space was tight on the heli's and I wanted to go back to Broome anyway so I elected to go by the Yank supply ship. What a shock. Two cabins below the bridge for the two Masters (no mate) then two communal cabins on the main deck, one four berth and one IIRC six berth. The senior man in the six berth, who was the second engineer, got the top bunk forward under the one and only weak punkah louvre. The watches were 12 on 12 off, second doing the nights so I hot sheeted with the second, the only time I have ever been in an engineers bed. There was a freezer container for rig cargo welded down on the deck just abaft the superstructure for this particular job. It broke down because the machinery was open to the weather. So the motor was moved to a small store locker but then there was insufficient air circulation and the motor overheated and broke down again. Nothing fazes these Yanks. Cut a hole into the cabin bulkhead and put the motor in the cabin, there's air conditioning (one punkah) in there as well. Noise and heat didn't allow much sleep, even in the senior bunk.

Too much in one session, I could go on mind you, but I got carried away, sorry. Just add that, during another anchor shift, the Yank supply boat got lost (see above). There was a new Master on the rig, a man I highly respected, ex President Lines Master, who radioed back, "Just drop your anchor where you are and we'll come and find you". So the oil rig went to the supply boat. This Master had the same opinion of the oil field as did any seaman.

Dave
  s ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: fs 
  To: bitlist at lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com 
  Sent: Tuesday, January 12, 2010 6:38 AM
  Subject: Re: [BITList] Drillship stuff


  On a couple of the drill ships that I was on we had Flume tanks to give us extra stability which I seem to remember had mixed blessings in the hands of some of the lesser experienced operators
  I joined the "Ben Ocean Lancer" in Singapore around 86 while she was refitting, never sailed on her though as when I went home on leave I was offered a job on a production Platform offshore Spain which sounded much better than New Guinea where the lancer was heading, turned out to be another of my mistakes as she went from there to Greece for a couple years whereas the job in Spain finished up after a year, story of my life if there's a choice to be made I can always be relied on to make the wrong one 
  frank

  On 1/11/2010 11:55 PM, HUGH wrote: 
    I'm afraid I didn't sail on a drillship - Scotts built them, mid to late 70s, and I did the downhole stuff and BOP handling.  Expertise in that field on the Clyde was not commonplace, so, when the orders were placed, those and such as those of us went to lectures, so we could at least talk oilfield until our skills caught up.  The first ship delivered, Ben Ocean Lancer, was to a Dutch hull design for an American company overloaded with cigar smoking supers and convoluted channels of communication.  They hadn't a clue about the difference between a ship and an oilfield in Texas.  Nor had their approved suppliers in the US of A.  We got used to receiving documentation warning us in red type that the pump should be installed by a qualified electrician.  Also common were drawings sent in advance of equipment delivery, wholly lacking in anything that would tend to let a draughtsman work out where the hell to put it, and how to secure it. "We'll weld it down ourselves," was often heard in response to an inquiry.  All of this crap, and more, had to be sorted out, and was, though only at the cost of overloading the poor chap who spoke something like the same language as us. We learned that, shortly after she left, they burned the four BOP handling winches off the seats they were welded to and put them over the side on the grounds that they didn't like them.

    The second ship, Pacnorse1, was a dream by comparison, and regardless of comparison.  There was one super, Sverre Barmen, with an assistant.  He only talked to the people actually doing the work and had regular meetings with them.  Great.

    All my drillship stuff is in the loft, somewhere.

    Hugh.



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