My project in the GoM

The producer is supposed to bring on the well soon, 70 MMCFD of natural gas and 12000 BPD of oil. I am trying to get my part completed fast, the final details i.e. getting SCADA working, VRU (vapor recovery unit) functioning, communication between two offshore platforms, LACT meter flow computers calculating, and so on. When you think you see the light at the end of the tunnel, “shit happens” as Forrest Gump would say.

The I & E inspector lost his brother yesterday to a massive heart attack at 60. This morning, there was chaos on the platform. Some one was alleging that one of the construction contractor’s hands did drugs. It’s an absolute no. I had to get the person off the platform and had to send a person to the platform to drug test all the construction hands. I was also told that one of the guys’ wife was going out with some one back home while he was working hard offshore to make a few bucks. Weather has not been cooperating either stopping the paint job. I was stuck on the platform a week ago, as helicopters would not fly because of dense fog. Now, helicopters fly sporadically. Sea is rough for supply boat. We have an arctic front. Texas is experiencing ice, sleet, and freezing rain.

However, “we shall overcome”, my mechanical inspector tells me. Such is the life in offshore business. Besides technical issues, dead lines and cost overrun, you have to deal with personal problems, drug problems, weather issues, logistics, and grocery for the crew in the middle of nowhere trying to build a facility sleeping on hard bunk beds away from home.