news!

Readers!

many many apologizes for giving up my blogging activities so long.

my life took a 180º turn and many new things occured in the last couple of months :
- I am not anymore in Oman
- I am not anymore working for SLB
- I am about to get married in 3 weeks from now.

To be honest, I kept a secret since I started this blog. I was not really belonging to SLB. I was following a secondment program which lead me to stay 1 year and half in SLB Oman. I was due to stay 2 years but destiny had others plan.

within a couple of days, I passed from the rig in the omani desert to the trees of northern holland.
I moved from the narrowness of the logging unit to a spacious desk in a nice and luminous office.
I passed from being alone to engaged and about to get married.

life is full of surprises, one month already in my new position as a production geologist.
I almost forgot everything I saw during my stay in Oman. only the strong moments are still inside.
there are always + and - when you draw the sum up of an experience.
you smile when you remember the good moment you had, you are angry when you remember the tough ones.
but in the end, only the + will remain and you will always keep in a part of your mind some faces, moment and situation :)

R


I also remember and will never forget some people I had the chance to met, some places I had chance to be.

end of the dream

Readers,

I just came back from the beautiful Malaysia.
Many emails, many things to do .... the nice things are always short!

I will settle down and clear my table and then I will go back to my malaysian trip which was very rich ;)

R

small " escapade "

Readers,

we use to say that sometimes, we don't see the result of the hardworks immediatly?
I am agree ;)
I remember the beginning of this month, I had to do logistics in the base ( mobilization for jobs ) while doing my own duty ( tool calibrations ). My managers promised me extra days bonus.
I completed this job and another one. by the days elapsing , I just forgot.
few days ago, walking down to the office in town, I got a flash : My extra rig days!!!!

After elaborating a complex plan and presenting it to my manager, he agreed to let me go one week off. ( still now I am sure that he didn't understand my point and finally agreed with me :-p )

I have my week off but no idea where to go and also no friends to go with me :-(

ok , lets do something! lets be crazy! lets go to Malaysia !

I ever loved to have chance to visit Malaysia so I booked two tickets without thinking too much and now I am just packing my bags before going to the airport.

I dont know what I will do precisely in Malaysia for this week. I have a hotel room booked the two first days in kuala lumpur and a couple of friends living there. I don't bother myselt too much, I will plan on a daily basis ;-)
the only things already planned is relaxation! nowadays my brain is about to excess his capacity with this logs and others processing parameters that kept me busy the past week.

R

days off ?!

readers,

it has been approx. 2 weeks I did not post anything.

during this time I have been 9 days in France and now I am on the rig performing a so called " high profile" job. I will come back to this one in a dedicated post.

In my previous posts, I was discussing the feeling of being a stranger at home when a field engineer is going back home for some days off.
I have to come back on my words.
This time, I did not get this feeling. Maybe because I was falling in a kind of routine just before and I just needed to clear my mind. All in all, it was nice to stay at home just relaxing.

it lead me to think about a general idea that I often hear : Schlumberger is giving a lot of money to field engineer. Certainly! if you look at your salary statement at the end of the month.

but .... come back a little bit and wonder yourself . a salary is always put face to face with working time.

I have to admit and none of my coworkers will refute this,when you work as a field engineer, it is not a 8h/day job, nor a 35h/week job. it is a 24h/day job.
This position is really taking you mind and body. it just needs a total investment of yourself.

As I use to say, nothing is free in this life. there is a kind of balance, if you gain something on one side, you can be sure that you will loose something in the other one.
you will understand that having a good salary implies many things that I will let you discover by yourself.

knowing this, all the problem can be sum up as your own policy : what are you able to do in order to achieve your personal goals?
what can you put in the other side of the balance?

in other words , what is your limit?
R
PS : don't believe people who said that "sky is your limit"

dog days

Readers,

I was endlessy busy these days. Just time to settle down in the staffhouse after a whole well taken under my lead.
not to mention that I was on the job with 2 girls which according to most of the people here makes me be the " lucky guy" in the place.
Moreover, it was the first time I lead a " not easy, nor shitty " job and I did it with success.
Also, I have been in a very nice rig with very people, very nice company representatives.

But still I have this strange and slighty unconvenient feeling.It's like I have been falling in a routine : doing one job, finishing it, getting day(s) of field break , and go to another one. Already more than one year has passed for me and it seems to me that it was only few days.
I got some feedbacks for others MWD-mates that have been hitted because they did something wrong.sometimes I just want to screw up just to see if it is really real.
are these dog days real?doing one thousand times the same thing, and one time you do it wrong, you are being slapped just like a naughty dog which did not bring back correctly the ball?

Maybe I am thinking too much...

I promised to myself that I will not pollute my blog with my state of mind. the purpose was and is to inform.
I am still waiting for something which certainly will never come to me. I had a chat with my manager and he just bypassed my request untill I popped it up today in front of his face.
that's quite lame, but what to do?
I just want to quote an instructor I met in the school who said that the people you will deal with in the company will give you the picture : If you meet the wrong people, then you will think that the company is a crap and the opposite.

anyway, I could manage to get one week off to attend my brother's wedding in France. thats good to break the doggy routine.

R

PS: today is the Omani national day!

scope school

Readers,

First, I apologize for neglecting the blog for so long. I had a chat with a new friend, after that I was wondering what is the point to post something If I have nothing to post. then I was waiting for the inspiration to come.

Anyway, I finished my time on the rig and I went to the so called scope school. Just another course; lasting 3 weeks in Abu Dhabi. The purpose is to train us for using new generation tools. Quite interesting I have to admit. Running this tools in a day basis can totally change the perception of the job. it is like driving a car and driving a plane :-)

The school is very relax. Only few exams, nice classmates and the best instructor in SLB " mister Ali K."
Then , I end up having a lot of funs with my other classmates. Here comes the journal of events of the two first weeks of the school ( not sorted ) :

+ trying my first experience with ski in ski dubai : really funny despite the fact that I spent more time sitting on my ass than on my legs.

+ finding my bowling master : a malaysian guy ( see blogs ) just amazing. he did 191 points during one game. All his shots were exactly in the middle of the track. WOW , I measured the gap between a player and a player " du dimanche".

+ beaching and not " bitching" as certainly would think : water is warm, sun is soft, sand is sticky and taxi drivers dont allow people still wet to go in.

+ experimenting indonesian foods in a restaurant : nothing to declare except that I saw my friend ( indonesian ) who was soaking like a boxer after eating a small green chili. Impressive. I hardly believe that If I tried the same, I would not be here now typing this post.

+ practicing my languages skills thanks to my classmates : spanish, chinese, japanese, bahasa, arabic, french ( no just kidding for the last one ).

+ eating like a pig : the food is too good in the learning center. or maybe I have been used to disgusting food on the rig.


one more week to go, then I will be back in the monotony of my location...I hope something will happen very soon.


R
PS: dida daku gado gado!

anniversary

Readers,

It has been once year I joined SLB.
time goes very fast... it's like it has been yesterday I joined. we use to say : we always remember our debut.that's the case (thanks to this blog also ;-) )

So ?

What can I say about being a Field engineer for one year?

hmmmm almost nothing.

it's not like this is boring, or totally empty but just it's complex. Many parameters enter into account. I tried my best to be as synthetic as I could but still I can not give an objective feedback about this year in the company.We are dealing with clients, business needs, managers, family and finally we are just dealing between human beings. Each one has his own interest and aim. Pushing more on a side obviously means pulling more in the opposite.
to express my feeing, I would rather use this image :

you can spend hours to prepare and cook a meal, any time in the process if you just put a little more or little bit
less ingredient, it can affect the whole meal.

R

PS: I spent the last 10 minutes trying to find what I can PS for this time. Well nothing popped up but sharing this with you is actually a PS :-p

back to the business

Readers,

the good times are always short. I finished my vacations in France. Despite I did almost nothing " exciting " apart resting and playing video games, these 17 days lasted like a wink.I came back in Oman on 29th of August. I had the chance to kick off the ramadhan in town and the day after I went to the rig.

I have to work with a tool nammed SlimPulse. Quite hard to set up and generated a lot of headaches but now it is in hole and it seems to work fine... 130 more meters and it will be another story.

Luck is with me this time so far. I am doing mid day - midnight shift which is almost like a normal day for me.the client representative here speaks in French, its nice sometimes to have chance to speak his native language. Especially when you have to explain something really complex.

I managed to have internet connection at rig site with my phone and a bluetooth dongle. It is slow but very nice to be able to stay in touch with the " civilisation ".

R

PS: nothing to PS for this time

vacation mode

Readers,
I am on the second half of my vacations time in France. This is a good occasion to introduce something I found out. the field engineer / vacation mode.
It is easily understandable that there is nothing that can allow you to be one day a field engineer and the day after back home: the son/husband/brother/friend you were before.There is a kind of transition lets say.
When the vacations starts , I was still in " field engineer " mode. not very talkative, having short sleep and difficulty to eat normally. I was still checking my company mail and not really keen to meet my friends or simply hang out. I was not really involved in what happens around me. Well I just wanted to spend some time alone.

After few days, I started to be able to oversleep in the morning, starting to joke with my family and friends and also could eat normally and a lot of junk foods ;)
I dont know If others engineers feel the same when they are off.I was thinking that when we have 2 weeks off, it is in fact 10 days off because of this transition time between field engineer and lets say " normal guy" mode.
anyway, only few days remaining, I will try to breathe as much as I can some fresh "Provençale" air. When you are not home for a long time and you come back, you realize that you like your hometown.

R

PS: someone said that a man will always be attracted like a magnet by the land he was born in. I am quite agree ;-)

Airport

Readers,

20:51, Monday 11th of August : I am presently in the muscat airport lounge, awaiting for my flight to Amsterdam. fortunately I should be in Marseille tomorrow morning at 11:20.

Lets move in the past few days after the " last shift".

As I mentionned several times, Nothing is really smooth and as per the plan.After my Last shift, I should have been going to Kish Island and commute to Dubai the day after. But....
My supervisor " forgot" that we are in an offshore rig. It is not like we just go out from the rig, take a taxi and go wherever we want.
following this, I took, at night, a boat going to Lavan Island.I was angry as going to Lavan Island means that after I have to go to Tehran and then go to Kish which add all in all 2 - 3 days to the trip.
My dream to leave the day after was already very high in the sky out of my mind.
- Ok!- what to do? there is the magical sentence that everyone likes to pop out in this case of situation : " welcome in operation"
I spent one day in Lavan Island. Arrived early in the morning and surprised to be ok after 8 hours of swelling boat.nothing to signal about the island itself, it is just like a rig but in an island. Accomodation are very raws, no shops of course just a common canteen for everyone here. After chatting with the Boss of the island, my plan to Tehran was arranged via Ahvaz for tomorrow morning.I need to thank the guys from SLB testing who took care of me and gave me the best room available.
I took my flight to Tehran via Ahvaz, city in the north west of Iran close to the Iraki border. Nothing to declare except that the flight standard are not really the same here... apparently I was the only guy in the aircraft who was wondering if it was normal that the plane was not really stable.anyway, I arrived in Tehran in one piece and alive. that is the essential.
In Tehran, I just had time to enjoy the scenery of this wonderful city ( I defintitely think that I must come back to visit this country). I commuted from terminal to terminal. the driver was driving a citroen Xantia, of course we started to chat about the best french car :) I suggest him to have a look to the peugeot 407 or the 607.
while going back to Kish from Tehran by flight, I got confirmation that the flights standard are really not the same...but one more time, it looks like normal for local people. Anyway, I arrived in one part.
Once I kish, I went to the flamingo hotel, very nice one. in the morning just time to say goodby to everyone and I was in the plane going back to Dubai.
In Dubai, I commuted terminal and bought some souvenirs foods in the duty free. and then , I was in the oman air flight towards Muscat.It was good to see the very friendly flight attendends of Oman air. I am not telling that so far I always meet gloomy people in the planes. But I have to
admit that people from Oman air have something else;-)
few hours after, I was in my bed and thinking that it is really good to be back in "the Lair". Lets see what the guys will tell me in the office.
In the office, I was quite surprised because all my managers urged me to take days off and my expenses claim sheet was signed without any checks.
It was really strange to see people asking you for going to vacation. In most of the case it should be the opposite right?
So even they like me too much and they do care about my health, even they dont want to see my face around ;-)- who knows??? -
Well I am not going to think too much about it,I am on vacation going back to Home, 21:20, Monday 11th of August.
R
PS: Muscat airport Lounge is awesome :-)

The last shift

Readers,

One week and few days ago I was narrated the second episode of the trainee life. I was complaining that this job was too flat.Well, I guess you noticed that each time I say that the
job is getting bored, something will happen. Indeed, We ended up with two tool failures in a row. The likeliness of this event is very small. Anything can happen, and this is a very good example.
In between this, we got a fire drill simulation... That brought a lot of information for me : I can wake up from my sleep, put my lifejacket and go to the muster point correctly.I also see a lot of people who are not able to properly wear their lifejackets. I am sure that most of them are
not able to swim. What will happen in case of real emergency?

Anyway, I had to fight by emails with the supervisor in town. I asked him to release me from this rig and let me go back to Oman. he wanted to let me stay here till the end of my Visa but I definetely dont want. Almost 30 days here, it is more than enough I think. So after pushing like a rugbyman , I finally got him to confirm that I will be off today, the only problem is that he
said " I will try to...". We all know that " I will try " is definitely not equal to " I will do". So lets see

what will happen???

Hopefully this should be my last working shift. My
reliever is expected to be here today anytime. Few more
hours to go. As my senior french coworker use to say :
you can not be sure untill you have the two feet inside
the plane / boat / car / chopper.
By that time, I wish all the best to my kohai who is
expected to live her first day in this company today.
Enjoy!
R
PS: I have nothing to PS for this time.

Trainee wars episode 2 : the engineer 1 or eng-1 "School"

Readers,

3:40 a.m. alone in the unit, time drilling. almost nothing to do.

I had a click. why don't I write the second chapter of the SLB field engineer in this trainee life.

Here we go!

the previous phase is quiet similar fro all the segments. unfortunately, the school is specific to each of them. If you are not from D&M this post is not for you.

The school phase does not start from the day 1 in the training center. It starts earlier. Lets say 2 weeks before as average.
2 weeks before school, you will do the "entrance exam". this is not much than a online test supposed to cover all the knowledge you should have learnt during your first months in the company. The pass mark is 75 %, if you fail it, you have a second chance to pass it, but this time the pass mark increase to 80%. if you fail it one more time, you are simply dumped by the company.

Quiet brutal isn't it?

well, it is understandable. if you are not able to get the mark to this exam, you will probably fail the school. the school expenses are taken by your location. Pretty normal then that they will not be motivate to put further money on you if you fail the entrance exam.

Don't be scared, if you went normally through the learning process, it will be easy for you. I noticed that also people tends to put useless pressure on themselves for this test... especially ladies.
Officially any kind of cheat during this test is strongly prohibited and can result to disciplinary action.
To be honest, if you do it during the same time another trainee is taking it, you can communicate. You can even ask to an engineer to help you if you don't know. Your manager is enough busy to keep watching you for one hour.

After passing this easy step, you need to review with your manager. Basically it is just a mean for him to check that you did not cheat (too much) during the entrance exam, and you understand at least the basics. He will also validate your fu****g control cards, your quest records and then you are ready to finally go to the school.

The school is a learning process which is during 9 weeks ( previously 10 ) which encompass both theoretical and practical knowledges.
for doing so, you will go to one of the schlumberger training center. for D&M there are 2 centers. SLC ( sugar land learning center) is located in Houston Texas and is mainly for trainee based in north and south america, some european trainee, and some african trainee. MLC ( midlle east learning center) is located in Abu dhabi Emirates. Trainee based in middle east, asia, and some of europe, africa go to this one.
there is a third learning center which was opening recently. STC ( siberian training center) is in russia and mainly dedicated for russian trainees. In the past, a lot of failures during the school were observed for russian trainees. the reason was english language problems, for this purpose they built , a russian training center which where lessons are lectured in russian.

You will arrive on day before the beginning of the class. You will be accomodate in two bedrooms flat shared with one of your classmate. Usually they group people under their nationality if possible, french guy with french guy, nigerian girl with nigerian girl and so on. Of course the flat is not mixed. there is no chance to share with a lady if you are a guy.

First day is an induction day, first contacts with instructor, classmates, learning center facility.

the typical week is : a lot of presentations for the 2 first days, practical sessions for the two following days and exam for the last day of the week. at the end, it is up to the instructor, he can modify the schedule for any reasons.

Following my experience, school can be splited into 2 parts. the first 4 weeks and the last 5 weeks.

the first 4 weeks are quite easy, exams are ok, presentations pretty simple to undertand and record, practical basics.
During this time, you will have time to enjoy every night with your classmates.
the last 5 weeks are very tough, rythm is increasing. More presentations, more knowledge and also more concepts "to understand". the peak is during the last 2 weeks. you will end up to work overnight and come also during the week end.

if you fail one exam during the school ( less then 75 % ) you will get a warning letter, if you fail another time, you will get a new warning letter and will be sent back to your location. most likely you will be fired.
this makes the school more complicated, especially if you fail one exam at the beginning. you will have a constant pressure on you. Just nightmares.

at the end of the school you will get your overall mark ( average is around 90% ). it looks simple but believe me, it is not.
After that, time to say goodbye to your classmates. Maybe the most difficult time during the school. Spending 2 months closely to other people can build very strong links. I am not surprised that a lot of couple are formed during school.
The last one who leave the accomodation may drop the maximum of tears as he will see everyone leaving.

Despite the difficulty and the pressure put on you. the school is the best time in the company. If you have a nice instructor, it will really be a unforgivable time. Especially when you know what you will endure after the school .....


4:23 a.m. still alone in the unit. still time drilling, still almost nothing to do.

Raf-Senpai

PS: I forget to mention that you will receive money each two weeks to "have" fun. it is not huge but it is enough to eat everynight at the restaurant, or playing bowling ...

Lost In Hole

Readers,

This is not a remake of the so famous serie "lost", not the title of a crappy porn movie, neither an ad for a golf club.In my previous post, I was jailed inside the routine of the job: Sleep during the day, come during the night and monitore this "so far so good job".

Right after posting it, something happened. The drillstring parted into 2 parts and the bit + the motor were left in the hole while everything else was on surface. We had to burry this motor and this bit in hole with a strong cement plug ( what a sad end to finish 2km downhole...). The plan was to reopen a new hole few meter upper than the cement plug. while trying to do this, we stuck the drillstring.

After 2 days of "earthquaking " the drillstring and pumping some pipe "lax" we freed everything.
All in all , it gave us 6 days of "vacations". Nothing to do during this time.

It is quiet uncommon to face these two situations in one well section ( Lost something in hole and get stuck ). following my logic, we only miss kick or a blow out or a rig evacuation to complete the picture.

Anyway, I am still waiting my releaver... he should have been here 40 minutes ago for taking his shift.

R

PS : I would like to wish all the best to my official kohai Seda. She will start very soon in the company. I am Raf-Sempai now
Ganbatte kodasai Seda-chan! (http://sedasendir.blogspot/com)

skin versus offshore

Readers,

According to my manager I will stay in this offshore jack up 3 more weeks.It will be in total 4 weeks.
after 1 week what can I share with you?

too much things but I would like to focus on the skin.

Epidermally speaking ( I dont know if this word exists, if no : copyright), you will pass by up and down. More down actually.

Yes, the offshore environment is narrow, so everything has to be stored at the same place. Chemicals, mud pit, You, engines, diesel .... You will navigate in this atmosphear full of chlorides, oil, smoke and other friendly mixtures.

- If you are about to go offshore :
take a face cleanser

- if you are already been offshore but you have never noticed this :
take a face cleanser for the next time

- if you are working only on lands :
take a face cleanser also

- if you are not working in slb :
you dont give a shit but take a face cleanser also... it can be usefull

Capiche?

Your skin will be the first one to remind you that you are working under "non normal" conditions when you are offshore!
So take a face cleanser or just avoid mirrors

R

PS: I am not working for nivea or whatever, it is just a serious topic hidden in a funny post ( well I hope it is funny).

Fish, chemicals and polish sweets

Readers,

thats was a joke!!! nothing happen...unfortunately.

it starts to be the routine for me here. already one week, working from 19h to 7 in the morning. The job is getting smooth so

not much to do.
I take the initiative to divert this blog from his serious contents for this post.

Two guys are using to fish from the jackup. They got very nice and big fishes. Looking the quality of the sea under us...they

should definitely not eat them.

The air here is full of chemicals, not very healthy, as the food they provide us in the galley. if you go offshore, take a

mask!!!

Thankfully, there is, there was (I should say), this pack of sweets from Poland. Chocolat - Framboise :-P
Oishi ne!!! as a japanese speaker will say. A good excuse to go to Poland I guess.


R

Ps: Sorry for the quality of this picture but you can see the life basket used to transport people from boat to the jack up

and vice versa. The only attraction here.

my first time offshore

Readers

it was my first time offshore.
the rig was a jack-up. for those who don't know what is it, try to imagine a triangle with 40 meters side length suspended by 3 legs which are put on the sea bed.


My arrival on board was "relatively" exciting. I had to jump from the swelly boat to a small basket with all my luggages and I was lifted among the sea to finally arrived on the deck. I am sure even action man would feel jealous. ;-)

The first contact ever with such a work environment was full of action...

After "landed" and did my first steps in the unknown place like armstrong on the moon fifty years back, I had to cross the jack up to see the rig superintendant.

It was smoky, noisy and the smell was very bad. An oxygen bottle and a massive pair of ear plug would have been more than welcome.
Just time to enter the accomodation area and climbs the 4 levels with my heavy bags. After exchanging few informations with the boss, I had to go to my room which is located 3 levels below, still with my bags....


If you have to go offshore, take only the minimum of the minimum , of the minimum.

It become more true when you will look at the accomodation provided. It is like a submarine.

after a quick chat with my coworkers I tried to sleep in this bed fitted for people less than 1m70.

I was dreaming that the jack up was slowly sinking in the sea and my room starting to be flooded by water. I woke up and was surprised to see that it was not a dream and we were effectively sinking. Before totally sinking, my first survival instinct was to power my laptop and write this post.

at the end, I want to tell thank you to all my frrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrdgfhrtsjdjmdcfdczgbtreahm

trainee wars , episode 1 : pre school period

Readers,

Lets introduce a part of humour in this blog (see post title). Well, its just an attempt.

In my previous post , I promised to sum up the three periods during the trainee life of a schlumberger D&M field engineer.Now , I am sitting in the base just waiting for moving to the rig very soon ( I hope). it gives me enough spare time ( too much actually).

Lets make it now!

First of all, this description is only available for the D&M field engineer. If you will work in another segment ( wireline, testing, etc...) it will not reflect what you will do specifically. however, it can give you an idea as there are general lines which are likely the same for all the trainees in all the segments.

Generally, you have to start with the famous OFS1.It stands for OilField Seminar 1. I can not tell a lot about this one as I unfortunately did not do it ( see previous post ).According to all my friends, it is a very good experience. The aim of this course is to give you an insight of what we do on the field. The instructor will show you a lot of presentations and try to interact with you.You will quickly feel bored by the contents of the materials. I know you should wonder where is the fun here?In fact for OFS1, you will be sent in a very nice place ( kuala lumpur, paris, bombay, moscow, ..), you will be in a very nice hotel and everything will be paid for you. They will even give you some money for you to go out by night and have a nice dinner in a restaurant or whatever you want. You will be with 15 others new trainee, most likely from all other the world.You will also receive a bunch of items "made in " schlumberger like laptop, back pack, luggage bag.You will get a full set of PPE as well. PPE stands for Personnal protective equipment.
Everyone is unanimous, OFS1 is one of the best time during the trainee period.
During the last day, you will receive your assignement letter which will tell you where you will spend the next year(S) in term of location and business segment.For most of the people, they already know these informations , but for some of them, it was a surprise. You can potentially be affected everywhere in the world.

Straight from OFS1, you will fly, with the eyes still full of stars and very cheered to your new location.

Now :it is starting.

The contrast can be brutal. you will do the transition from a 4 stars hotel in Kuala lumpur to a base in the middle of nowhere. Everyone is wearing the PPE, the accomodation is not really nice.its hot/cold, noisy, full of people moving like ants and no one will pay attention to you.Once you will realize this, you will have to meet your manager. Basically every trainee are managed by the SQC. this guy is maybe the busiest people in the company. He has to quality check every data which goes to the client, implement new procedure in the location, check latest technical alert... and secondarily be in charge of you.Well to be honest, dont expect to spend a lot of time with him if your location is really busy.He will try to explain you all the things you have to do for the first couple of days but it will be too much informations for you.hopefully there are always more experienced engineers around and they will guide you and help you to find out the tasks you have to do. after one week of administrative tasks, you will start to go inside the more technical things.One more time the contrast will be brutal. If you believe that you have finished with studying right after your diploma, I am sorry to tell you that you are wrong.you will have to study (too) many things. there is no possibility to skip it as it will serve you for your future position and also has to validated in online test system.Luckily, you will have a mentor, who is a guy with more experience than you. He will help you.


The average of preschool period is 3-4 months. During this time you will spend most of the time in front of the computer. If you are lucky that your location is busy , you will have chance to go to the rig. It is actually nice as you will be there only as an "extra hand". So no pressure for you, no time constraint. Just browsing the rig to get familiar with all the components and all the people.
At the end of the preschool period, you have to pass an online test. the pass mark is 75 % and there is around 90 questions.If you fail it two times, you are out of the company. It is really severe but fair. It is really simple questions, if you have been through all the materials they gave you before. If you fail two times, they judge that you can not attend the first school and then can not perform the job.

If you pass it, you will just have to wait for few days before going to the engineer 1 school.

R

PS: During this time, you will really feel that you are totally useless for the company and you are paid for nothing.dont worry, You will slowly feel the opposite.

offshore survival practical

The offshore survival practical is the second part of the so called course. It needs to be done as well if you want to have the certification and then be able to enter any offshore rig.

I did it yesterday morning.

The place was the swimming pool of one of the best hotel in Kish. The eram hotel.
I had to be here at 9h00,I was at 9h15 because of communication problem with the driver.He does not speak a single word in english. I thought that he knows at least the basics but not really actually.So, I said him to drive me to the swimming pool. I did very simple and said him "pool".He started to drive and after 10 minutes he stopped me in front of a bank and started looking me.

"hmmm whats up " I was thinking.

After giving a call to my supervisor he eventually drove to the correct place.Later on i knew that "pool" in persian means money...

Back to the course itself.Arriving to the pool, just time to wear the coverall and the lifejacket.
We learnt how to " jump " in the sea in case of emergency evacuation.we also learnt how to make a line in the sea in order to minimize swimming efforts. After that instructor shew us how to step
into a life raft, how to properly approach a rescue boat.

the best was for the end : jumping into cold water.there was a small pool with water around 8 Deg C. Instructor told us to jump in it because most of the sea in the world are not really hot.I was the younger so they designated me as a first. I put first my leg inside in order to check ( even if in real condition , you can not touch the water before jumping in it). it was bloody cold.Then I jumped .... at the moment I was totally immerged I thought that I was dying. Its an awfull feeling because your heart suddenly got a shock and maybe pass from 100 beats per minutes to 200 . I could not breathe... it took maybe 5 minutes to calm down my breathe but the water was still cold.
Then instructor shew us how to keep the body heat with another guy.

we finish this session in a jaccuzzi in order to recover from this thermal shock.

I can not guarranty that I will remember everything I learnt during this offshore survival course but at least I know now that they are lying in Titanic movie. the water was around 1 or 2 Deg C. So I can not believe that this guy had time to do whatever in the sea when the titanic sank!!

R
PS: no PS for this post

offshore survival : life bouy and vomit bag

Done !

I am officially an offshore survivor. I mean, now I am able to surive in offshore environment in case of accident.
well this is what the certificate I got means...

Offshore survival is a mandatory one day course you have to take before going to an offshore rig.It is composed by 2 parts : the theory and the practical.

The theory part is just like a lecture. The guy will give you some details regarding life jackets, life boats and many other things you have to know.
I learnt a lot of things and I want to focus on two particular things that I will share with you readers.

The first one is the life bouy. In case of someone is overboard, we have to throw the life bouy.Usually we think that the life bouy ( or life ring) is sent to the guy and then he has to catch it and eventually he will be pull it back on board. actually this is wrong. the correct practice is to send the bouy without tighten it to the ship or the rig.you are certainly wondering Why it should be like this?In fact, the bouy is orange and then easily we can see it. we have to throw it and then let it goes in the sea. it will be driven by the current. obviously the man overboard should have followed the same direction than the one taken by the bouy.Afterward, When rescuers will come, they will go straight to the bouy. From the bouy, they will start to search with going
forward and snaking.

The second is linked with vomit bag.if for any reason you are in a life boat or rescue boat. you will find a vomit bag. Most of the people will have sea sickness and then start to vomit.

The use of the bag is not "only" for keeping the vomit and then throw it away.It should be re used several times.the procedure is : every time you vomit , you have to take back your vomit.It means that you have to eat it back!!!

it looks really trash and almost impossible to do but believe me it can save your life.

The instructor personnaly did the experience few years ago when he was lost in the sea for 10 hours.He said that he had no vomit bag. so he started to vomit everything he ate and drank.When his stomach was empty he started to vomit his gastric juices which are highly acid. Then he fainted because acid started to penetrate and attach his lungs. fortunately he was rescued but if he had to wait for 2 more hours, he must have died.there is 2 benefits in this : you keep "something" in your stomach to vomit and you avoid being dehydrated.This can also be applied in aircraft and so on...

hope it helps!

R

PS : next post is offshore survival practical session.

Persian gulf beach

Yesterday with some co workers, we played beach volley (as every night) in the famous persian gulf beach.

You know, men are prone to challenge themselves so we played during the last days a couple of games :

- first day it was a game north africa versus arab :due to my algerian origin, I was in north africa team. the team was composed by a tunisian guy,a libyan guy and me.We played against a sudanese guy ( who is not really arab), a lebanese guy and an omani guy.We drew.
- second day was arabs against persian. this time I was consider as an arab.Despite an attempt of destabilisation of my irani friend, who during the game put off all his clothes to be only wearing a slip : We won

- yesterday was a particulary motivated game. no more country or cultural opposition. This time it was segments game.D&M (my segment in schlumberger) against Testing. Guess what ? we won...

I think I am a winner.

today, I am starting to be serious, I have to setup for a nuclear calibration tools. The source should arrive tonight so maybe I will have to stay overnight at the base. then I have to follow in the morning with offshore survival course. Last step will be going to the rig.
this post can resume really well what is schlumberger life. Sometimes it is really flat, you just enjoy relaxation with friends, then everything pops up at the same time. It makes you really busy with almost no rest for few days.

Lets see what will be the offshore survival course.

R

PS: nothing to say just I am used to put a" PS: " in all the posts.