Oil Rig Life
Eddie Offshore
When you get your chance to be come one of the elite offshore TIGERS, and you will if you try hard enough and follow what I recommend. As I’ve said before you will love it or hate it but you are half way there to gaining oil rig employment simply by looking at this website today.
Now I will tell you about life on a rig, it’s similar to a small close knit village or town, at the head of the community is the O.I.M. (Offshore Insulation Manager) who is lord & master…The guy everyone is nice too.
Then the oil rig community is split into basically four sections or families. Firstly, there are the oil company men who either work directly for the oil rig company or through recruitment agencies.
These people look after the day to day running of the oil rig making sure that the oil flows smoothly which includes the general day to day management of the rig. They also run the control room where they make sure the right valves are open or closed so that the sour gas is being flared off correctly.
They also have health and safety managers (safety officers) who are responsible for the overall safe running of the rig. They coordinate with the control room and maintenance teams before any a work permit is issued and any work is carried out on the rig.
With in this family group there are also engineers whose responsibility it is to look after maintenance of the oil rig either day to day maintenance, break down or a planed shut down.
The next three families come in no particular order as they are all as important as the next, but I will start with the maintenance crew as that’s what I was part of all my years offshore working as a multi coded welder.
The maintenance team or super heroes as we called ourselves…
This team would normally be made up of a supervisor who would liaise with the maintenance engineer before passing the planed work load onto his team (known as the bears).
The bears would normally be made up of the following trades, welder, pipe fitter, or plater, two riggers and a scaffolding team plus their back to backs. Basically we were there in case any think broke and we would fix it.
If there was any modifications to be done that was also our job, if there was a planed shutdown for maintenance we would all work together as a team to have everything rigged up and ready to go on the start day, no ifs or buts it would get done.
Now we come to the catering and helideck crew which are sometimes employed by the same company for this example we will say they are. The helideck crew are the first people you meet when you disembark from the chopper normally it’s the H.L.O
(Helideck Liaison Officer) who opens the choppers door, he will then escort you to the heli admin where you will be given your berth and if you are lucky a bottom bunk
So if you follow what I recommend and you gain a start on the oil rigs, make sure you are very nice to this person…In the mean time the rest of the helideck crew will have taken your bag to the reception where you collect them and go to your cabin (there are no bell boys).
You have to change in to your work gear as you have to start work straight away unless you are put on night shift, if you are in luck the galley may be open for lunch or dinner.
This brings me to the catering team led by the camp boss who is responsible for over seeing every thing from the food to cleaning the toilets and the duty free bond or the weekly game of bingo…Don’t laugh you get to look forward to it.
His team is made up from Chefs, cooks, bakers and bottle washers, each one as important as the next one as they feed you clean your cabin and do your laundry and generally keeping the rig ship shape.
It’s a bit like having your mum out there well may be not but you get the idea…One person I nearly forgot about is the medical officer (the medic) who’s there to look after you if you get injured so this is one person you don’t want too see much of.
Last but not least are the boys at the sharp end of things and what I rate as the hardest job on any oil rig. THE DRILLING crew which includes the Driller (Boss man). Assistant driller, Derek-man, roustabouts and roughnecks.
Now these boys are out in all weathers no matter what, sometimes they do get covered in the black liquid gold…I really admire these lads, there’s not a shirker amongst them and the way they work for each other has got to be seen to be believed and when they come down from that drill floor you can tell that they have done a hard shift It’s the type of job that you really do need to be cut out for.
When you speak to the boys they love it, seriously, they say it’s like a second family and look forward to bad weather and problems so they can test themselves out…
Seriously, if you have not got a full trade and you want to get on an oil rig this could be for you. It is the hardest of all oil rig jobs but provides the most satisfaction as they truly work for each other 24 hours a day. It really is a pleasure to watch.
Real Oil Rig Employment
Top Of The Oil Rig
Oil rig employment can certainly be testing, emergencies can frequently occur, you have to be ready for action if you are serious about oil rig employment, it’s like being in the forces, you have to work as a team. In my time there were many oil rig emergency situations one of them particular I have listed for reference.
While on board a North Sea oil rig approx 150 miles off the Aberdeen coast some time in the 1990’s during a routine shut down for maintenance. At round about 10am there was an almighty bang and the oil rig shook like a jelly then a few minutes later another bang.
At first every one froze thinking of the last disaster in the north sea in the 1980’s which we do not like to talk about, the explosions were every 4 to5 minutes, by now we had regained our composure and we went in to survival mode for which we had been well trained for, but this does not stop you going into a cold sweat and your backside twitching with fear and the adrenalin pumping faster than a formula 1 racing car.
By this time the muster alarm had been sounded and we all made our way to the life boat stations for what now seemed immanent evacuation off the oil rig as the explosions were still happening on regular bases.
After sitting in the life boats for 15 to 20 minutes we moved to the oil rig heli deck where we were evacuated by chopper to near by oil rigs. I was one of the first off and when I got on board that chopper there was a winch man ready for action, another crew member controlling a monitor used for detecting bodies in the water and a pile of body bags on the floor.
It brings it home just how dangerous and volatile it can be working offshore on an oil rig. The oil rig evacuation went smoothly and every one got off safely and with out panic.
On returning to the oil rig a few days later and after the situation had been brought under control. It was found that while the low pressure flair was still alight and some one had given permission to take a valve out of the high pressure flair resulting in a chimney affect sending melted condensate gas to the top.
Which in turn was ignited by the adjacent low pressure causing the explosions, thus causing some of the welds round the tulip pipes at the top of the flair to crack, this needed repairing before the rig could go in to production and this is where yours truly come in.
As I was the only welder on board that was qualified to weld this particular material I was asked as soon as I landed if I was prepared to go to the top of the stack, after very little thought I agreed but I must say my heart was beating like a drum at the thought of climbing and working at such a height. Any way after a safety meeting in which every one involved attended and a close look at the weather forecast it was decided to start the very next day.
We started our assent of the flare stack at about five thirty in the morning, as you can see from this photo it can be along way to the top of a flare stack. It took me three quarter’s of an hour to climb from the bottom to top but as you can see by the view it was well worth it looking down at the heli deck.
When the choppers came in they looked like toys and it’s not many people that can say they’ve waved to a helicopter pilot at 600 ft, I will never forget that day, the weather was beautiful the sea was calm and the flare stack just had the gentlest of sways which kept the adrenalin pumping.
We made an early start as the weather forecast was good for the next few days, as this particular job had the rig shut down we had to get on with it ASAP. We did not come down till lunch time then went back up till the end of our shift. To be fair they did send us thermos flasks of coffee up via a hand line, mind you when we finished that shift and went to the galley for dinner I was one hungry NORTH SEA tiger.
I then went to my cabin and took a shower, I slept like a baby ready to start a fresh in the morning, it took three days in all to complete the job and it was a hard three shifts I can tell you but in the end we were well rewarded financially. I must admit the camaraderie of the team work and the self satisfaction we all had knowing we got the oil flowing again safely will stay with me for the rest of my life.
Oil rig employment can be tough make no mistake, but the rewards and satisfaction make it all worthwhile. You just simply cannot get that type of satisfaction working an ordinary 9 – 5 job, if this is the type of working day that you are looking for? I suggest you make it a top priority to get on an oil rig and start your oil rig employment career.
Oil Rig Employment – Be Prepared
I’ am now 58 years of age and I can now sit back and reflect on my long career in the oil industry and think how lucky I was.
I served my time in the North East shipyards then graduated to sit work, but the real high light of my career was when I eventually made it offshore on the oil rigs.
In those days it was not easy to gain oil rig employment you had to be in the know or be related to some one which at times was frustrating.
Working offshore on the oil rigs is not easy by any means, you will love it or hate it. I was known as a North Sea gypsy this is because I moved from oil rig to oil rig.
I worked on many of the oil rigs in the North Sea and also support barge rigs such as the Auk, Claymore, Piper B, East Brae, Alwyn, To name but a few.
Your duties on an oilrig can vary from day to day but you never get two days the same, one day I could be welding the handle on the cook’s frying pan or be 600 foot up a flare stack doing weld repairs to pipe work as I did on the Piper Bravo.
And I’ve got the photos to prove it.
I could tell you all about the up side of working on offshore oil rigs but I will start with some of the down sides first then you can decide if it is for you or not.
When you are offshore It can be one of the most hostile environments known to man you may be in a force ten storm being lashed with rain, hail, snow and what ever else mother nature can throw at you but you have got to be out on deck keeping the rig working and more important keeping that OIL flowing at all cost.
It can also be lonely away from family and friends but if you are in the right frame of mind it is a career that you could not get any where else. Working on the oil rigs is of course financially rewarding, not only do you earn a great deal more money, you have that flexibility to have holidays all year round as you do get a lot of time off.
The down side is when it comes to Christmas, we used to try and fix it so that the family guys would have Christmas off and the single guys would work, then you would alternate and the single guys would have New Years Eve off for parties etc and the family guys would return back to the action as it were.
This would not always be possible so you have to realize that you may be away from your family during the festive holidays, on the oil rigs time does not stand still, you must keep production going and or keep the maintenance schedule on track so production is not effected, oil rig employment is a fast flowing environment and you have to be prepared.
Oil Rig Employment – How To Get Employed?
- Eddie Offshore
Oil rig employment is not the same as traditional employment in the sense that you are not applying for a typical job. Working on oil rigs is certainly a break from the norm.
Any one can apply for jobs on the oil rigs but what you have to be sure of is, is it for you or not? Sometimes you have to be careful for what you wish for as the saying goes as not every person is suited to life on the oil rigs.
Oil rig jobs are certainly not for the faint hearted, in fact, that is backed up by a stringent medical that you receive before you are even considered for oil rig employment.
The oil industry is similar in many ways to mainline manufacturing with reference to boom and down turns. When the oil industry is booming it really is booming and gaining employment within the oil and gas industry is more reachable.
When the oil industry is on a down turn it can more difficult to gain oil rig employment as of course the need is not there, and there has to be a need. This goes for any industry but more so the oil and gas industry.
The only saying goes, make hay while the sun shines, welcome to oil and gas recruitment, when there is light you need to be on your toes in order to get a start on any oil rig. Once you get a start on an oil rig and you can state oil rig employment on your resume that is the start of your oil rig career as it were.
The secret to gaining oil rig employment is to stop thinking or dreaming about it and start doing it, time waits for no one and no more so than in the oil employment industry. As the saying goes, if you snooze you lose.
Life is full of people who are going to do this or do that, what you need is a plan of attack and you need to go for it, give it your best shot and see where it takes you. No one will chase you, you have to be the one chasing to get a start in the oil industry and gain oil rig employment.
As well as knowing people in the oil industry you have to be on your toes and really put your name out there, it really is the case of right place at the right time and or swamping perspective employers with your details so they have no option but to ring you up and arrange an interview.
As well as knowing people in the oil industry you have to be on your toes and really put your name out there, it really is the case of right place at the right time and or swamping perspective employers with your details so they have no option but to ring you up and arrange an interview.