Mishka

Meanwhile Mishka has found the best place to sit in the caravan and is very happy.

Caravan move

A few days ago (how many??) we skidded the rig to drill a new well. To do this they had to move our work unit backwards and sideways. They didn't switch everything off this time, and we needed to work so they moved it with us inside, hanging on to the computer screens to keep them safe. Which is unfortunately why I couldn't take any photos of the bulldozer dragging us with toe-ropes! But it was quite fun-the roughneck in charge usually came running round to the door, shouted in "ready?" "DAVAI" we answered, and the bulldozer went for it.
They moved us quite a lot and as a result we ended up on a little slope, which apparently was not these people's business to fix.
It took 12 hours of lobbying for the toolpusher to send his men to sort it out (Sperry Sun had the same problem). During this time Sasha and I were going completely mad trying to work while rolling backwards-of course the computers were at the top of the slope...here is a little video of Sasha climbing up our work unit. And...my chair had wheels too!

Crazy cowboys

I am still on pad 16 with Sasha K, training him to make sure he can do everything on his own.

Night before last, the PTs asked us to check a CBL (full hole) log and just make sure the data is OK.

This job is usually done by a company called TPG, and last time I did this with Radik I found that the engineer knows his stuff but the methods are just mad. Last time they didn't tell us when to come and check the data, which meant we missed it-although how useful it might have been is questionable as they were several hundred metres out in their calibrations.

This job is not part of the drilling per se, but of the completion (what happens next), which is why we are doing it to help the PTs. After the wells are cemented, they are closed off while the cement dries. Some time later, they are re-opened and a crane is used as a pullie to allow the wireline cable and CBL tool to run into the hole. Here is a photo of me with the crane and the TPG logging truck.

Anyway, this time Sasha and I made sure they would be letting us know when to come and take a look, and as it was a night job, planned that Sasha should get up and check the status at about 3am. Not because I am being lazy! But I cannot communicate on that level in Russian.

So he did, and all was well till we both got up at 6 and went to check again...to find that they had got completely stuck in the hole because the operator had gone to sleep while running in with the tool!!! The cable had kept going in and become all tangled up around the winch on the truck.

Then the engineer asked Sasha not to tell anyone!! because they were waiting for a specialist from Tyumen...of course, Sasha called Pasha, who was none too impressed, and we also called Vitaly (PT in charge) and let things take their course.

Currently there are two TPG trucks here, one of whose cables doesn't work (truck 1) and the other with broken computer systems. They have linked them both up but there still seems to be a problem.

Unbelievable.

Time

I am thinking of starting a campaign group for more hours in the day.

I don't really have time to blog but I'm going to do it anyway!

I had a crazy time from Monday evening last week. The next 3 days have merged into one, involving only 12 hours' sleep between them. We drilled the special section and logged it.

After that, it seemed like everytime I wanted to finally collapse into bed someone phoned/emailed with something urgent to do.

Since then things have been crazy busy trying to finish the report for the well drilled before we arrived (we are now on the 50 000 000 th revision) as well as the one for the well we drilled last week and filling out the winlog for the current well being drilled. Every time we send in the final version of the report someone decides to change the procedure...argh.
More soon, just thought I would let you know I am still alive (just!).

Argh

They did not include sleep in the job description for a good reason.
Night of logging ahead, already surviving only on strong Turkish coffees...

Celebrity teddies

Cheburashka and Mishka in the car are becoming celebrities in their own right around here.
The photo I posted below got passed on to Gilles, who circulated it to everyone with the Daily Report. He apparently has also printed it out with a "Safety First in SSFT" caption!

Here is a video of Cheburashka on my youtube account.

Awake?

I went to bed at 9.30am and got up about 2 hours ago, a bit after 3pm. All getting a bit confusing but I'm sure sleeping tonight won't be a problem ;-)
They are still changing the bit and the gamma ray so it will be quite long before we actually go back down and see some more data to help resolve our geological disputes...

YouTube

I have finally got myself a YouTube account so I should be able to post links to videos. Now I just need to take some...

Spoilt brat

is exactly what I am becoming thanks to all my new friends here :-)

The drive to Basecamp was really amazing; as it was such a beautiful day and I was on my own I could savour every minute of it.

In basecamp it was nice catching up with Anna, Alexey and Sergey R (who is doing end-of-well reporting). They were going to organise a trip out to Salym village for the whole of SSFT and use it as an excuse for team building but they couldn't find a cafe that could take more than 10 people!! So we had cake and tea in the main caravan and all the PTs joined us and wished me a happy birthday :-)

Then I hopped back into the car and drove back just in time before dark. It was just really nice to turn up just for a cake party and go "home" again!

Apparently the cooks had been looking for me at lunchtime as they wanted to wish me a happy birthday so I thanked them for the cake over dinner. Then I went to bed as I was feeling really tired and the interesting geology started coming in at midnight, so I got up at 11:30.

In half an hour I can celebrate my real birthday based on central European time!

Apart from all of the above, I really feel like a spoilt 5-year-old because today I have eaten:

-omelet for breakfast

-chocolate

-ice cream

-cake

-more cake

-even more cake

-a bit o' dinner

-cake again



AND I received:



-a large box of chocolates from Sasha

-a packet of French biscuits I like from Gilles

-a Cheburashka soft toy (it speaks too!!) from Pasha

-a Teddy Bear (Mishka, really cuddly and soft) from Anna



the latter two kept me company on the way home :-)























Thanks for all the messages and wishes, I have just had such a nice, memorable day :-)
Just one person missing to make it 100% perfect.

Birthday Girl

My day started really well today.
I got up at 6.30 just to check on the well and realised it was going to be a lovely day...no clouds anywhere in sight. It was also -37 degrees :-)
I then decided to not do the georeport and have a nice shower instead. As we were getting ready in the living caravan, I got an early morning phone call from Sergey R, Anna and Gilles wishing me a happy birthday :-) After breakfast, I headed over to the morning meeting and was presented with a cake and everybody's best wishes :-))
After which I was invited to basecamp by the guys there, so I will be leaving shortly. Back in time for 5pm I hope, as I have invited everyone for cake and tea in our caravan.
Till then...

Still nothing

Just had the best night's sleep...it was really quiet withno activity on the rig.
In fact it was so nice I am going to go back now that I have done the paperwork...

Operations

I love operations.
There is the theory and the rules governing how things should work.
And then there is real life, where nothing goes according to plan.
This morning, the top drive, which is effectively the giant drill which drives the bit into the ground during drilling, broke.
This meant having to pull all the way out and working out how to mend the thing. There have been a few interesting exchanges on the rig radio, including an recruitment announcement for a "superman mechanic"...(it is nice to have Sasha as I understand about 3% of what goes on on that radio normally and really hate missing out on the operational info and banter).
Been busy here though, preparing for the special drilling, when it happens...(probably on my birthday...somehow better than logging though :-)

Temperatures

Just a small comment on this front...I have now broken my temperature record by 10 degrees...which means...yes, that's right, -40 degrees!!
As we landed in Surgut on Tuesday night, I was half listening to the landing announcement when I distinctly heard "minus sorak" (minus forty) and sat up in shock, to the alarm of my neighbour.
The following day, it was -38 and since then it has got a lot warmer-it is now -20 (easy peasy).
The cold was an interesting experience...didn't stay out long but could really feel the sting on my nose and cheeks, and even the Russians made an effort to wrap up and keep moving.
So there you go. Real winter at last!

Typical morning

I realised this morning that there is something else I am learning here, and that is how to deal with/manage a very stressed and stressful lead geologist on the phone. Now that I have the experience and related confidence I find I can deal with the crazy phone calls a lot better.

Yesterday I was discussing the situation with one of the Sperry Sun boys, and when I mentioned the stressed GE-A he just asked "why?". This morning as I woke up, I found myself wondering, indeed, why. And I realised that so long as I sent everything in on time and stayed informed and calm I could deal with (almost) anything!

As there is nothing too much going on I wouldn't expect any queries but I now know better so I wasn't surprised to find new-Sasha (this is not Sasha A but the one who arrived last time from our more easterly Siberian venture-I will now call him Sasha K. He is working on pad 3 but it is not up and running yet so him and Andrey are doing CBLs in pad 54. They seek refuge here during the day) on the phone looking very tense when I arrived back from the morning meeting.

Instead of getting involved I left immediately for a chat, a cuppa and a few questions with the Sperry Sun guys (who are also dealing with the Gamma Ray(GR)). Sure enough, five minutes later a breathless Sasha came bursting in needing data I had already sent an hour ago. I told him not to worry, to go back to the caravan and do his own work and not answer the phone :-)

I took my time getting the latest update and being showered in chocolate (again) and made my way back. Apparently there had been 2 angry and confused phone calls in those 10 minutes, all about non-existent problems. So I sent the latest update just as the phone rang, and I picked it up calmly, answered all of Alexey's questions whilst conveniently forgetting to mention that Simon was asleep, and then as he started berating me for not sending any data I suggested he check his inbox for emails from 1 1/2 hours ago. It was an unusually short phone call.

And that, I have decided, is my Thought of the Day. Dear reader, WHY are you so stressed? Is it really necessary? Has reading my blog really been that hard on your blood pressure?

Ramping up

Well, yesterday was quite an easy-going day, just drilling down from the conductor section. We finished off the Winlog for the previous well so it's nice to have that out of the way, and started making the current one as complete as possible.
This well is interesting and quite exciting as it goes a lot deeper than the usual wells. It is going through another reservoir, below the normal one. So it will be fun to see new rock samples, and try and see if there is enough oil down there to take it further. It is quite a delicate operation as a mistake with depth could mean a blow-out, which is the worst thing that can happen here (basically the whole thing explodes in this situation-see here for an example)
Anyway, to prevent this we need to be a bit intelligent about the geology; luckily, we have some help from the drillers here (yes, it happens ;-) as we are measuring gamma ray while drilling, which means that we can see what rocks are there as we go.
Apart from that we had a visit from our PT friends yesterday-Alex brought Luke up for his first visit of the rig, so we took him up to the drill floor and around the rest of the rig. They also went to see the older wells (the ones below the Christmas Trees) (did I post something on that or just intend to? Let me check) and Alex explained to me how to see the difference between an injector and a producer. Here is a pic of me with Alex and a Christmas Tree.

Arrived safely

Hello all,

I arrived safely in Salym yesterday-now back online :-)
Sorry about neglecting the blog, still no internet access at home, but that should hopefully be sorted by next time.

Travel over was pretty uneventful, flight to Moscow was doubly enjoyable on BA after 18hours on Thomson planes!! Ditto UTAir business class, though didn't get caviar this time...standards, tut tut...Travelled with Simon, Robert-Jan and a new guy called Luke who will be replacing Murat as a PT. Arrived quite late in Surgut as usual, only managed to sleep 1 hour before getting on the train. The train journey took 6 hours this time, one of which was spent sitting in a random village for no apparent reason...building the tracks maybe. Managed to get some sleep though luckily.

Yesterday evening Simon and I drove up to pad 16, which is the new location for rig 4...I feel like I've arrived back home :-)
Luckily there was nothing on last night so had an early night. It was nice seeing people here again at dinner and this morning. The canteen has completely changed-it is brand new and much bigger; the interaction with the cooks is slightly different as food needs to ordered through a window rather than being able to walk into the kitchen so I am rather glad that the one thing I master in Russian is food!!

Did a CEL job this morning, nothing too exciting, a rather unhelpful Russian crew so I had to put my foot down and get answers (in Russian-all good..hmmm) but nothing much else. Pasha (DSV) is well and stressed (as usual) because he has new toolpushers who are inexperienced and taking ages to do everything, so no drilling till tonight. Now is a good time for us to catch up on what's been happening...

More later. I have a bunch of posts I want to write about time off, which will come in below this one...

Dominican Republic

Edinburgh

After landing in Heathrow at 7am, I hopped on to the first flight to Edinburgh (feeling very glamorous as I bought my ticket at the airport ticket counter) which was at 8.30 and happened to be the same as Matthew's. Although yet again I got access to the business lounge but had to leave him at the door...
Had a good day yesterday discovering Donald's lovely new flat and catching up with Scott and Jonathan when they arrived in town. I feel like a character from an Alexander McCall Smith book...especially now that we are fairly close by :-)
Had a good long sleep last night and gathering strength for tonight's Burns-themed adventures...more later.

Nightmare journey

Well it is 4:50am Moscow time and I haven't gone to bed yet...
According to the original plan I would be cosily tucked up in bed in London, ready for an early flight to Amsterdam to go to 4 meetings at the office.

Instead I am still in Moscow, because of the following:
- flight from Surgut did not manage to land in Moscow due to the poor weather conditions. We were diverted to Nijny Novgorod-thank goodness I was flying in business class, with a colleague, so we could just sit and wait in the lounge. All Moscow airports as well as the Nijny one were closed after we landed
-left Nijny N after 5 hours-there were still 20cm of snow on the runway
-arrived in Moscow Vnukovo at 6 which meant I missed my original flight-had already rebooked to the next one, at 9
-got completely stuck in Moscow traffic, despite the driver's knowledge of back roads and very good zigzagging skills: arrived in Domodedovo at 10:30. Had already rescheduled flight to 5:50am today. This meant cancelling flights and meetings in Holland.
-all hotels near the airport were fully booked and I did not have time to travel backwards and forwards to anywhere else so stayed in the airport feeling grumpy about BA not opening their check-in early for business travellers so we could wait in the lounge overnight. Finally got some food though
-got to check-in as it opened to be told there was a problem with my ticket and to wait till BA agent turned up an hour later...tried phoning the BA helpline which was shut...poor employees need to sleep, to have enough energy to go on strike...grrr
-finally got a ticket after pushing the girl to try a bit harder as she was trying to send me back to my travel agent
-here I am in the BA lounge, just had a foot bath and going to grab some snacks...
-if the flight isn't delayed, I hope to get straight onto one to Edinburgh when I arrive in Heathrow...was going to go this evening from Ams but ticket now cancelled...

Nothing could be done about the situation, which was the most frustratingthing , along with the fact that colleagues flying to Moscow Domodedovo from Surgut (flight I took last time) 45mins before us managed to land-I should have been on that one!! We had planned a day trip to Moscow with Ravil, in case he missed his connecting flight (he did) so I was rather disappointed as I was looking forward to finally going into the city, and potentially catching up with Mischa.

Oh dear.
:-((

Photos from the Pad tour

I have put these in with the original post. Michal returned from the wellsite this morning bouncing off the walls-he seems to have really enjoyed his time out there!

A quiet day otherwise...Anna just went home this evening, so now it's just Sergey and I, holding fort in the office.

Gilles left on Sunday morning and CJ is only arriving tomorrow, so we made ourselves a new boss...

Friends reunited :-)

People

I really like working in a place where I know people and they know me. I like the fact that people will always say good morning to each other, and that I know someone with a bulldozer who can clear the snow away from my front steps. I like the fact that when I go back to a rig, everyone stops to say hello, and I get a hug from the cook. And I like knowing that I can ask anybody many stupid questions yet they will still trust me to answer theirs at important times, because yesterday we had a cuppa and laughed about my bad Russian.
The human touch...
Oh dear, rather too earnest, so lest I make anyone queasy...back to work.

Round trip

Yesterday mid-morning, Sergey, Michal and I went to the wellsite.
I was the designated driver, so it was back to the Niva-another one, with an interesting transmission...I could hear rattling sounds if I took my foot off the accelerator; the steering wheel was very hard to turn; the car generally pulled to the left...and those were just the obvious ones. Let's not mention trying to reverse down a road with no reverse lights...









Anyway, we went to pad 7, where things started to look like a geologist convention as all geologists and technicians seemed to appear at the same time...9 of us +Michal! I got a hug from my friend Irina in the kitchen, which was nice, though I had to tell her I was not coming back till next shift.
We left Radik and Simon to it, and drove on...we went to visit pad 5 and then took the winter road to pad 16 :-) this time I took lots of photos but they are on someone else's camera so I will post them tomorrow. Then on to pad 20 (the first one built here!) then pad 1, pad 9 and finally pad 26, where we dropped off Michal. He will be staying in the field for a couple of days to see what it's like.








Sergey and I then drove to pad 54 which was the original reason for driving out: we wanted to see a VSP-Vertical Seismic Profiling- log. It is basically a way of seismically imaging the borehole, which would have been really interesting to see. Except...yes, this is Operations, and things just don't turn out as we want them to. So we just joined the other Sergey and double Sasha for dinner.
Apparently in Russia, if you stand between 2 people with the same name, you can make a wish. So loads of things should happen to me now!!
Got back around 9pm and had an early night, but I still feel the need for a/many lie-in(s). 2 days to go...

Good Day

Today I am having a good day, keeping busy with my new end-of-well report. I am trying to set a speed record but this one won't work out: it is a complicated well where many things went wrong.

and...

I went skiing in the afternoon!!!

This was my first time cross-country skiing. Good exercise...but I can't say I enjoyed it! I spent the first 40mins failing to understand how to move forward rather then backwards, and the last 5 mins finally slipping and sliding my way out of the Taiga. Give me slopes any day...although I
will try it one more time in case I manage to do it AND find a way of enjoying it too (and if my arms haven't fallen off in the morning).

Here are a couple of photos of my patient co-skiiers-I don't know the name of the girl with the white coat. One of them is Oxana (HSE girl, organised the skiing, eating her glove), another Svetlana (standing next to me), who lives in the neighbouring room. Michal is a Polish guy on a week trip over from Rijswijk.

Fun office

I’m loving every minute in this office-whether Gilles is shouting down the phone, whistling, explaining some geology to me, eating somebody’s chocolate, negotiating even better work from loggers or flogging good French coffee to everyone. Anna just stays cool through all of it and gets through tons of work; and it’s just great to be around Sergey again. I love it!

Still here

That's it, I am officially the worst blogger in the world...sorry about the long silence.

After arriving in Basecamp I thought I would take a couple of days to settle in and find my bearings. Like in every office-even when it is just a caravan-there is a work pattern, which I like to understand before creating my own space.

I spent Wednesday working on my first end-of-well report, trying to bring together all information from the drilling part (ie what I have been collecting in the field, but in this case for wells drilled a year or two ago) as well as for the completion part (ie what the PTs do to the well after we leave it cemented; mostly perforation, which involves shooting holes into the cement/casing at the height of the reservoir, in order to produce the oil).

Wednesday was also shift change day and saw the arrival of Simon from Rijswijk, on his first rotation. He is here to look at the exploration wells but while we wait for the new rig he will be trained on the production wells. He stayed here on Wednesday night and went out to pad 7 yesterday evening, so he is now in the good care of Radik.

Yesterday was a rather busy day-I was hoping to finish my first report but after an internet-less morning some people from Rijswijk and Tyumen were visiting so a lot of the day was spent helping them get organised to go in the field, and then attending a training course from Paul vdH on reservoir fracturing. I didn't know anything on the topic so it was very interesting for me.
After that I went to a well completion meeting with the PTs to see how that goes, which was nice because all but one well discussed were wells I had just drilled on pad 5 and pad 7.
So here we are today, and I am just proudly finishing up my report...before starting a new one. Gilles will be here till Sunday and it is fun being in the office with Sergey as we can properly catch up, and Anna (TA) who is efficient as ever.








Here is a photo of some of us in the office: Sasha, new Sasha, Sergey, Anna and me.

Basecamp

Sunday was a quiet day, where we just had to control a couple of CBL logs from the bottom of the well to the top. These were performed by a bunch of Russian cowboys in true Soviet style...some of their calibrations were out by 245m!!! Fun for the geologist.
Yesterday we decided to tidy the work unit ahead of the pad 7 rig move; we took a whole load of old folders to basecamp, where Radik also did his GPA.
Today I packed up my stuff, finished off some bits with Radik and moved to Base camp. I will be staying here for a week, learning how to do end-of-well reports, which include completion (what the PT guys do to the well after we have finished with it. More on that later.
So now, after a lovely cup of Verveine offered me by Gilles, I am heading off to bed...

Snegurochka

Rather late, here is a little bit about what happens for New Year's (the one we also celebrate in the West).

Christmas here in Russia, as I might have mentioned, is not really celebrated; lately, people have started to mark the occasion as it a good excuse for another party, but there is no real meaning/history behind it.

New Year's in when it all happens. People here started wishing each other a Happy New Year around midday on New Year's Eve. This is the time when gifts are exchanged, and for well-behaved children, a visit from Ded Maroz (Father Frost) is in order. Now Ded Maroz is very similar to our own Father Christmas, except that this one takes his granddaughter along to help him give out presents to children. His granddaughter's name is Snegurochka (The Snow Maiden) and here is one of my favourite pictures of her. For anyone familiar with the works of Rimsky-Korsakov, this is the same Snegurochka.

More on Ded Maroz here.

Snegurochka features in many different fairy tales, but most have one thing in common: in the presence of warmth (eg the end of winter), she melts and dispappears...

More on Snegurochka here.

On New Year's Eve, we went to pad 54 to cheer up Sasha while he supervised the logging there. We left for a couple of hours to go to the CPF, where entertainement, food and (alcohol-free) bubbly were being provided. The show was fun for an hour, a bit less so for the next 45 mins...

It was a mix of songs, mostly traditional NY ones, of games such as drawing pictures with a blindfold, and people from the audience acting a little play being read out, involving Snegurochka being captured by a lion and saved by Ded Maroz! All pretty jolly. Also, quite a few people were in fancy dress for the occasion.

After popping the champagne and very large party poppers at midnight, we returned to pad 54 geo-unit where we had our own party.

A few days before NY, my DSV had started calling me Snegurochka, which quickly caught on...so I walked around wearing tinsel for while ;-)

And so to finish, here are a few more pics from the our little NY party...

Still alive!

Sorry about the complete lack of blogging. Time has flown over the last few days.
Logging was delayed until Wednesday night. We decided to be clever and split the task, as it was a long PEX followed by XPT. Radik controlled the PEX while I slept and I then controlled the XPT while he slept. Yuri the trainee came with me to see what XPT was like and help me with data transfer.
So I actually got about 6 hours' sleep that night, which was rather good, and started XPT at the very reasonable hour of 7am. The engineers this time were Andrey for PEX (I had met him once, on New Year's Eve, when he had been incredibly grumpy but that turned out to be related to the fact that he was in his work unit instead of at a party) and Vlad for XPT. Everything went incredibly well-PEX was very fast (we just missed a record I think) and XPT was very smooth and produced excellent results :-) everybody was pleased with the whole thing, especially this happy bunny.

So Thursday afternoon we waited for the slb boys to bring round all the data, after which we went to pad 54, who were having a disastrous logging run with Irina and Max (failed tools etc) and who were also coring (which was going badly too but we wanted to see a bit of the process). We then dropped Yuri off at basecamp before returning rather late to our pad. On the way back we checked in on pad 54 again to find that the guys there had managed to convince Max to sleep in the work unit rather than in the (very uncomfortable) Doghouse (which is the name for the Slb unit that transports their materials and acts as a place for them to sleep).





Yesterday we worked on Winlog and prepared everything for the new (and final) well here, which they are starting to drill today. In the late afternoon they skidded the rig (ie moved it so it could be above the new slot) by 40m! It was fascinating watching them pull it along, and also going out again afterwards: the whole view has changed and we are now next to the pump building.
We couldn't do much yesterday evening as we didn't have power due to the rig move. In fact, this morning the caravan was freezing-it looks like it was switched off all night, and that it was moved-despite their having told us they wouldn't need to. Luckily, nothing was broken and it is pretty warm outside so nothing got damaged by the cold in here.

Photos: Radik and Niva606 on the road to basecamp; helping the guys in pad54 with their core samples; Radik and I before the rig skid

Weather

yes, you guessed it: logging delayed. They have another drillpipe washout, near the bottom. Hopefully this means a good night's sleep though we'll have to see.

In the meantime I realise that a weather report is overdue. I was about to start whingeing about how warm it is when it got a lot colder again today. And with the cold came the sun.

So I switched back into paparazzi mode and took a bunch of photos this afternoon as I wanted to share how beautiful everything is here. When I arrived we had almost a week of -20/-30 but then overnight it warmed up to -2 and snowed for 3 days. Then it went to 0 or even +1 and things started melting a little-just enough to form the most amazing arrays of icicles everywhere.

The trees are covered in snow and look magical. It is really easy to imagine fairy-tales involving wolves and blond princesses taking place in the woods. Especially when driving through them on winter roads...(my case of Force Majeure was laziness I'm afraid).

It is so much fun to have Christmas trees covered in REAL

snow! I was hoping to get a picture of one next to a drilling "Christmas tree", which is a structure found near wells (I'll catch a pic tomorrow) but settled for this one.

Welcome sight

вода = Water

Chinese whispers

We had an good trip yesterday, starting by going to pad 5 to rescue my towel, which had got switched by an enthusiastic cleaning lady. However, they will only give it back to me in return for the other one, so I have to go back again.
After that we drove along a winter road to pad 16, so that I could see where it was, and more importantly, drive through the forest...it was really lovely and I was so annoyed with myself at not having brought the camera. I have promised myself that only a case of Force Majeure will prevent me from going along there again today.
The winter road is so named because it is no more than a track through the forest, and it was easy to imagine that this is what working here would have been like not so long ago. It is completely impracticable in the summer as it is effectively a swamp.
After this fun excursion we went along to the CPF, got the admin sorted although failed to find a mechanic for the car, which was broken, again (handbrake not working, again). By the way, did I mention that although the trusty Nivas look like something from the 70s (see earlier photo), they are actually only 2 1/2 years old?
As for the story about the lorries-well several did in fact fall off the road, but the road closure was actually caused by a silly sand truck driver forgetting to lower his tipper, which then took out half an electrical archway (cables tend to run over roads in arches as burying them is not practical)...I will try to get a photo of one of these later today.
Now though, I need to get back to work as we are drilling through reservoir. This means that logging will take place around 1am...hmmm. I might not be able to post for a little while again, especially as we are also doing an XPT run.
Oh and by the way, we have water again!!

No water

Yesterday morning several lorries fell off the road again. No injuries, but one of them was a sand truck and it crashed into one of the pylones. To cut a long story short, the main road was closed all day yesterday and is only open for a few hours today.

Unfortunately we have run out of water here on pad 7, so everyone is a bit smelly and has been eating out of plastic plates. I hope we get some through soon as I would really like a shower...and I need some laundry doing. All trivial points of course, as we haven't run out of drinking water but as always, the small things make the biggest difference!

Off to CPF with Radik now to renew our trip sheets/find out what's going on/drop off some of my old clothes in the charity box. More later...

Orthodox Christmas

Yesterday was Russian Orhtodox Christmas. This is not as big a celebration as New Year's, but everyone was still happy for an excuse to eat nice food and drink nice things.

The cooks yesterday really treated us. In the morning they had baked fresh cakes, in the form of crowns, and also made "bubliki", a type of bagel, which were strung up onto the windows. This reminded me a lot of some German traditions. The evening meal was a treat of salmon, both cooked and fresh, caviar, shrimps, rabbit, and huge chocolate cakes. There were bottles of beer and wine (all alcohol-free) to drink. Ochen vkusna! (very tasty). All in all a very enjoyable evening.

Here is a photo of some of the bits; unfortunately I could not take any photos of the loaded platters as the canteen was too busy and the food was disappearing at the speed of light...here you can see one of the Christmas crowns as well as a persimomm...first time I come accross one of these, and it is much bigger than I expected.

Yesterday we also finished off the Winlog for the well we logged the other night, while the next well started drilling. I was training Yuri as Radik was down with an upset stomach-what a day to choose for that...

I also managed to finish off some jobs that Alexey had been nagging me about, as well as complete my GPA (goals and performance appraisal) so I feel a lot better for that. Although I think I should now amend it, adding in the title of "career's advisor and GPA assistant to Salym staff"! The boys here have been asking me for a lot of help, and when I felt like a break I went to see Pasha for a cuppa and he promptly asked me to check through his too!

Cheburashka

Before I go to bed I thought I would write a bit about Cheburashka.

During one of my many tea breaks, Pasha-the-DSV mentioned "Cheburashka". Wondering what this was, I googled it and found out a lot about this lovely little creature who is such an integral part of Russian culture.

Cheburashka is a little animal who was found in a crate of oranges by a shopkeeper. When he got out of the box, he was very clumsy as he had travelled a long way and eaten a lot of oranges. So he fell off the table and the shopkeeper decided to give him this name, which effectively means "little tumbling one" (although I do realise that now somehow sounds like something you would associate with teepees!).

I have found one of the episodes on youtube, although I would like to see the first three. I have been watching this one a lot, to practice my Russian (can I manage the level of a 5-year-old??) and understand this national obsession a bit more.

The original animations came out in the 1970s, but the one I have seen is surprisingly ironic about everything being broken, etc. Or maybe that's just my post-Soviet perspective. Anyway, this is what generations of Russians have grown up with, and they name a lot of things after him, if they look in any way like his head, or simply as an affectionate term. Also he was used as the Russian mascot at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.

He has 2 friends, Gena the accordion-playing crocodile, and Shapocliack, a crazy old lady.

This is the kind of thing I would never have found out by just visiting as a tourist...:-)

Unexpected logging

When I arrived on pad 7 I expected to have a little bit of quiet time to sort out my end-of-year review etc. This is Radik's pad, and we have a trainee with us (a PT, learning about the wellsite) so logging yesterday afternoon was due to be done by them. I was planning on sorting out some admin jobs for Alexey, then getting a fairly early night as I has stayed half the night before naughtily finishing my book.

In the afternoon though, Radik got a call from basecamp from the PTs (production technologists-they do the next stage of the well normally, to production). They needed him to oversee a process happening on pad 5. So the logging job came to me, and with it a delay which meant they only started at 9:30 that evening...yes, another round-the-clock job, but I only lasted 22 hours this time before need to sleep for an hour-after all, I had only slept 3 hours the night before!

It was nice being in control of the logging again, without being told what to do, and even more fun teaching Yuri, the trainee, who was very enthusiastic.
The logging went very smoothly and pretty fast too; the engineer only made one mistake with the data, which I was nonetheless glad to have spotted. This time we had Maxim again, and Irina, although she was only there to supervise so didn't have to interact with her too much-not that she spoke to me during the night or anything.

So this morning, after sending off various documents and going to the morning rig meeting, I went to bed for a sleep cycle and felt much better for it. The rest of today was spent trying to put the data together sensibly although slowly!

I am rather tired so off to bed in a minute...still hoping to do my goals and appraisals/end of year review...zavtra ;-)

On Pad 7

Well I mentioned to Sasha that I wasn't happy going to pad 54 and he spoke to Sergey and the message finally got through. So I spent the day yesterday in pad 54, then moved here on pad 7 last night. I am feeling a lot happier now! Especially after spending a nice long time in the shower.

There is so much I need to write about and I have no idea where to start! So I am going to fire up my laptop and write up everything I can think of, then organise it into posts.

In the meantime here is a photo of the nice food laid on at the CPF for New Year :-) (it's like this every day ;-)

Address

I have finally worked out how to receive post here :-)

Moving around

Sorry for not posting but we have been moving around a lot over the last few days.
Am about to have to leave for base camp again but let me summarise today (a bit of a frustrating one).
Firstly, though, the rig is moving from pad5 to pad 16 so we have not been drilling anymore, but they have been packin gup the rig and it looks really funny without its "insides".

This morning, then. Woke up at 8 as there was no geo-report to send. Started tidying work unit a bit, thought I would do some of that and then have a shower. Prepared to back up our latest files...and the power was cut. This was because of the rig moving...and we lost all internet and phone lines too. So in the semi-darkness we had to run around trying to get the place tidy before it became too cold...and then scuttle over to the living unit and pack everything there (yes, including giant bag!). By the time we had finished, with the help of the technicians, it was lunchtime. We drove over to pad 7 to get some food, then had to wait on the computer there, which was not working, for some documents. Then the car started playing up and we had to go to CPF to get it sorted, after which we finally made our way to pad 54 where we are now. Dropped bags off in the living unit, and now we need to take Sasha to Basecamp as he is going to spend the week there learning something new. Not feeling too excited as I don't like pad 54 (although there are now about 5 dogs) and I feel I need my own space (cabin fever, too long woth Sergey!) for a bit. I'll see what I can do tomorrow about that as I don't have the energy to move again tonight!

Happy New Year!

с НОВЫМ 2007 ГОДОМ / BONNE ANNEE / HAPPY NEW YEAR!

From:

Front row: Radik, Andrey, Ivan (new technician)

Back Row: Sasha, Sergey, Florence aka Snegurotchka

all in the geo-unit on pad 54, where Sasha was logging.

More later...

and a bit more

Incidentally, I just dropped by the DSV (Pasha) to have a chat and a cuppa but he was looking rather stressed and I found out that they are having problems with the casing, which is stuck quite deep down. That could quite easily have been our XPT tool *blanch*blanch*...

24 hours later

Well it's been another 24-hour job...although I did manage to catch 3 hours' sleep this morning between 4ish and 7ish.

SLB took a while to prepare everything after my last post, so I sat in their truck and made sure they had everything they needed in terms of data, and got to know them a little bit. We had 2 engineers here, one of them the main XPT specialist in the region as the other one didn't have any experience doing it.

The PEX went well, with the tool (see diagram below) jamming a little bit at the bottom of the hole but not much. We finished that just in time for dinner, after which Sergey and I chose the XPT measurement points and they started on that. This time everything went pretty smoothly with the process so I am rather chuffed about that as I wrote the procedure! Here is a pic of the XPT tool I found on the SLB website...pretty snazzy really :-)

We did have some problems though because the tension on the cable was extremely high, which means it got very close to snapping at some points and that would have been a nightmare. Gilles is only arriving tonight on his shift so I had to phone Alexey knowing full well that he didn't have a clue what to do, whether to stop or keep going. So I checked with the SLB engineers that they were OK to continue and we proceeded cautiously.

We finished at about 1.30am and after sending out some paperwork, Sergey, who was completely knackered, had a 2 1/2 hour sleep while I waited up for the engineers. Just before 4, I decided to go to bed for a bit, with Sergey sleeping int he work unit. 10 minutes later, SLB came along with the data to be checked. Sergey had to send them back 4 times due to mistakes as they were really tired; after that he told them to get some rest and it was agreed that paperwork etc would be sorted out later. Sergey started working with the data a little bit. After an hour of panic, he woke me up around 7.25 to come and help.

Basically the SLB engineers had made a mistake with their calibration and forgotten to apply a parameter to a curve, which means it was out by about 5m. The big worry was that this might have meant that all the XPT points had been taken in the wrong place...and $35,000 down the drain. Of course, we should have noticed the problem when accepting the data, but Sergey was just too tired and hadn't thought of comparing old and new curves (not a mistake we expect to happen, but isn't that the case with all major problems?).

We managed to contact the engineers via via, and they came back to see us and try to sort things out. They looked rather worried when they got back so I assume their manager had had a word! We managed to sort that, and a few other problems, out this morning and they have now left.

Yet again, I am completely knackered and not 100% satisfied, because something went a bit wrong-although not with the XPT this time at least :-)

Sergey has gone to bed already and I don't expect to see him before morning...he has the most fascinating effect on me when we are both tired and doing a night job. You can watch him physically fall apart as the night goes on, and I am convinced he has fallen asleep while standing before. He definitely has while reading out numbers to me!
Well funnily enough, the more tired he gets, the more bright and cheerful I get, which is rather surprising for me as I don't usually react well to sleep deprivation and would be more likely to try to lock him away in the sleeping caravan for lack of patience! It's almost like something is challenging me to resist, to keep going even though he is dropping like a fly.
I do hope Gilles is not reading this though as I suspect I might be doing quite a lot more night shifts in the future!!

Well anyway I have decided to stay up a little longer, and watch a film as my brain doesn't feel up to my book-although I am dying to find out the answer. I am currently reading Jeffrey Archer's False Impression ; it is the first time I read a book of his and I am really enjoying it.
Anyway, I'll just watch a mind-numbing (or is that a numb-minded) film and then go to bed. Hopefully that will kill my jetlag (yes, I am actually feeling that) as obvioulsy my recent patterns have done nothing to help...7.30 really did feel like 2.30 am this morning...

Logging still

Well, complete change of plans again. Schlumberger started logging after lunch yesterday but got stuck in the hole, so after pulling their tools out the russian company came and did the CBL logging after which the drillers did what is called a wiper trip, which effectively is a way of cleaning the hole so the logging tools can pass through.

This took all night so I had a good sleep from 11pm till 6am, got up and did the geo-report, had breakfast then went back to bed as I was still feeling completely dead. I got up at midday and had a shower and have just got in from lunch to find we are starting logging in 1 hour, with a new SLB engineer, as Irina is too tired.

So tonight will be the all-nighter, but I must admit I feel a lot better prepared for it now.

BTW if the link to google doesn't work, please go to google maps and type in "salym, russia" and drag the map so that salym is in the bottom right hand corner.

Helicopter crash

I have just read this article about the helicopter crash last night in Morecambe Bay.
Bizarrely, I dreamt of being in a helicopter crash in the North Sea last night-I had been thinking of what it would be like commuting to an offshore rig yesterday evening and my brain was obviously chewing over it. In my dream I remember surviving the crash thanks to the survival techniques we get trained for, but couldn't work out if everyone had survived.
Very sad news, and it feels all the more real now that I am working on a rig.

Where am I?

A lot of people have been wondering where the places I describe actually are. So with the use of Google maps, here is something to give you a bit of an idea:

Firstly, this links to a map where you can see Salym village (green arrow, bottom right); the image below shows a close-up of the top left hand corner of the Salym map, which is where the different pads are. You will probably need to use the rivers as a guide to finding how the 2 match up.

I have been using Google Earth online; when I get a chance I will make a much better map with the proper GE on my computer.

Logging soon

Well I went to bed at midnight last night after deciding that it wasn't worth waiting up for TD, as no-one had been supervising the reservoir section anyway. I got up at 5.30 this morning to prepare the geo-report as well as the rest of the paperwork and data for the PEX and XPT runs. Things have taken a bit longer with the drillers so we are going to start logging with Slb in about 1 hour.

Sergey Ryzhkov is here to help me-we have a rule that there should always be 2 geologists for the XPT logging. This is going to be my third one (first one where I am in charge), and after the general panic and problems with the last two, I am hoping this one will go smoothly, especially as I am the one who revised the procedure etc...I would prefer to be fresh and chirpy, which is not the case (already!) but then there's nothing like being thrown straight back in there to keep the mind focussed.

The Slb engineer is going to be Irina-not feeling very happy about that; in fact it rather took the wind out of my sails when Pasha-the-DSV told me that. He is also not looking forward to the occasion, although he will only be popping iin occasionally. She did a PEX last night with Sergey and he told me that she is overtired. With her natural sweet disposition, this will be interesting, especially as this is her first XPT...

Sergey arrived an hour ago and we had lunch. He is already looking completely knackered and it's only day 0.75...he has gone to get some sleep and I said I would keep guard, as I have had the luxury of 5 hours' sleep! Oh dear.

The weather here is cold (-25) and sunny :-) so I am happy. Still fighting the urge to go out for a walk in the sun, which is my body's natural reaction to what it thinks is nice warm or at least bracing weather. The sun is really low now, sunrise lasted about 3 hours, and now at midday it looks like about 5 pm on a normal winter's day (whatever that is). I am looking forward to a long and beautiful sunset...

I cannot resist the bed in the work unit any longer so am going to have a quick snooze as lunch is having its effect!

Arrived safely

I am now sitting on pad 5 after a fairly straightforward journey.
Set off yesterday morning at 6am and it took under half an hour to get to Heathrow! There weren't exactly many people on the road. After sitting back in the BA lounge for a bit, got on the BA flight which went smoothly; only 11 people in business class (can take up to 35 people).

The transfer from airport to airport in Moscow was fine too, with only a bit of time spent stuck in traffic. All the cars were covered in a dull black layer, which is what is put down on the roads there when it snows. Moscow temperature: -5 deg with snow.

Found Sasha in the business lounge and flew to Surgut, also uneventful. Found out that a bus had been organised the next day to take everybody to basecamp, as there weren't enough tickets left on the trains. We left at 8.30 this morning, which was quite a reasonable time.

Slept most of the 5 hours to basecamp, then spent a few hours there, were Stijn handed over and we discussed what is next. Then drove on to pad 54 to pick up a technician (new one called Ivan) then onto pad 5 where we had dinner, after which the boys left.

Here, they have had quite a few problems drilling today so everything has been delayed. Drilling was supposed to be finished today but they are still at it now, so it looks like a rather short night for me! Tomorrow there is a PEX and an XPT planned with Schlumberger, so that will take about 16 hours...due to jetlag, I am not yet tired and I assume my body will just adapt to sleeping when it can (again).

I briefly met CJ at basecamp, Gilles' back-to-back (B2B), but he has left this evening and Gilles doesn't arrive till Saturday, so we shall see how that goes-Alexey is in charge (-ish)!

When we stepped out of the airport in Surgut last night around 1am, it was -7 and snowing. As I came out I looked up to see an enormous Christmas tree...I will have had a white Christmas after all :-)

I'd better get on with looking at the well so far and preparing for tomorrow-it's now -20 here by the way so pretty chilly!

London

I arrived safely in London and am now enjoying my time here, catching up with people, making the most of the run-up to Christmas, sorting out the flat and doing loads of cultural fings too :-)

And I have blogging-withdrawal symptoms...but am trying to keep well away from computers for a bit.

Back on here in 2 weeks...