Pad 54

Right, so I am aware that I have been telling things backward and owe everyone a proper update, so I am not going to post another message until I've written this one fully.

I last left you with Sasha and I cramming our heads full of information on pad 54.
The following morning, a geologist called Radik joined us and took over explanations.
The way wells are drilled here, a rig first drills 4 top, or "conductor" sections; then comes back and drills 4 bottom, or "reservoir" sections, which is the interesting bit as that is where it all happens. When we arrived on pad 54 they had just started drilling the reservoir section for one of the wells; while they drill we are supposd to input the data into a big file that compiles everything about the well, and also send updates and reports to a bunch of people, including basecamp.

When Radik arrived, we had started drilling the reservoir proper, ie where the oil is (or is supposed to be!). Pad 54 is on the Vadelyp field, which is a new one, and so a lot of information is being gathered here to better understand the field. In the reservoir we took and described cuttings-this involved Andrey-the-technician running to the shale shakers every 5m and then every 3 m, and the geologists having to describe the cuttings . As always, it takes a while to get your eye in, especially when sharing, but Radik was there to help.


That evening, we reached TD=total depth, which means the bottom of the hole. As geologists, we need to make sure this doesn't need updating-scary stuff as 10m of drilling can cost/save a lot of money!
We went to bed feeling rather tired and all overslept! But luckily most of the report we have to send in the morning was filled out already.

That day, we spent a lot of time filling in the big compilation file (called Winlog), making sure everything was ready for Schlumberger, who were due to arrive that evening to do logging-this involves putting sophisticated machinery down the hole to find out about gamma rays, resistivity of the different rocks etc, which are translated into sqiggles which are then interpreted by geologists.
Schlumberger messed up their logistics and even though they arrived in the evening, they could not start logging before early morning as they did not have their radioactive source (for the gamma ray). We decided to have an early night as it was going to be a long day ahead, but before we went to bed we met Marc, the Schlumberger head engineer, who showed us all the tools (Gilles had asked him to explain everything to us, which was very useful) and explained how they worked in a very clear manner.



The next morning, we started at 5 am, with the Schlumberger guys running the PEX (standard set of logs); this took about 4 hours, during which we had to input lots of things into Winlog. After that, Marc invited us up to the drill floor to take a look at a special tool for the next set of work-as I mentioned, this is a new field, so base camp also wanted some pressure information, through what is called an XPT procedure. For that, a tool with retractable pumps is used to suck out as much liquid as possible and see how long it takes for the pressure to stabilise.
It was really great going up on the rig floor for the first time :-) as well as seeing this rather snazzy tool. Sasha then took me round the rest of the rig-he used to be a mudlogger so knows how things are set up.



The next 7 hours were spent doing the XPT; we were doing about 30 points, so Sasha and I split them up-I had a bit of free time then, to walk around and take some photos.
We needed to fill in the XPT data in real time, so that base camp could make some decisions on doing more points or not-this involved using a laptop in the Slb unit and running backwards and forwards with a USB stick (which tends to happen a lot round here anyway-no idea how things managed to work before USB sticks)
Things got a bit hectic at this stage as we were a bit delayed with sending the spreadie to basecamp, and I had to go and check the DSV was OK with our going back in the hole but I wasn't sure what I was asking for! Anyway, we did a few more points then pulled out. A very busy but exciting and interesting day-Marc explained a lot as the pressures were being taken so I feel really confident about that process. He was being very good at explaining anyway but I decided to let him know halfway through about the French connection, so he made an extra effort to answer my silly questions!
Next day, we had to wait for them to give us all the final printouts etc, then Sasha and I moved from pad 54 to pad 5.

Farewell pad 54

Well, this was by no means the nicest pad in the world, which seems to apply to the other SSK-operated rig here too, but after all it was my first one and I will always have great memories of...

The Good...






Sasha and Radik: geo-power!









Sabaka, having just been sniffing around in the slurry pit (doesn't usually have black oily marks on her face!)


















Sergey, directional driller (Sperry Sun)

















Eyvgeny, MWD driller (Sperry Sun)











The Bad...





My room-not that bad but did not have bedsheets when we arrived and the ones we went to pick up did not fit the bed; the carpet looked nasty and there was no water in the trailer











and The Ugly...









Nuff said.










That's it for now, will try to update a bit more regularly :-)