OCEAN STAR - Public off shore rig.

 A while back I wrote to Silver Fox about drilling after reading her posts on drilling  -- Looking for Detachment April 17, 21, 23, & 27, 2010 .  She mentioned she would like to see an offshore rig and I told her about there being one in Galveston that was opened to the public. I forgot all about it, but then at Christmas time I came across an ornament I had bought that had the name and stuff about it. I'm getting some hits on my oil rig post so I figured that's what is interesting people.  I though some of you might be interested in this stuff too.

More information about it is located here:  Ocean Star - Offshore Energy Center

Here's post card that I picked up to remember it by.

The back of the card had the photo by Dan Bischof

The information on the backside of it was: The Ocean Star
The Ocean Star Offshore Energy Center located at
20th at Harbor Side, Galveston, TX
Is open daily 10am-5pm.
Enjoy a completely refurbished jackup rig and absorb the
day-to-day excitement of offshore drilling and production.
For information call:  409-766-STAR (7827)


Here's the information that came with the ornament
 

Here are the edited versions of two of my letters to her. The italicized stuff is newly added info.

1st letter

  I saw you post about rig sitting.  It sure did bring back memories.  I remembered I used to really monitor the drilling rates because it help gauge what formations we were going through.  It gave us an idea if we were on track with our projected depths and help determine when to stop drilling so we could log the well. Timing and looking at the the mud chips was also a critical factor in determining when to stop. Also I used to hate collecting the samples, sometimes I would make brownies just to bribe the rough necks into getting them for me.  Do you ever resort to those types of tactics?  I used to love it when we would have mud loggers and a logging unit on site, that to me was the ultimate luxury.  The rigs I was on  while I was working were always going for oil. Just out of curiosity is that what you are going for oil too or are you doing water wells or something totally different?  I only sat on one water well when I was in school.  To me it seemed like they were just set up and hardly done anything at all before they had hit the target zone and everything stopped.  Most of the wells I was on  were about 3,000 feet if they were in north Louisiana while the ones on the gulf coast were usually 10,000 + deep.  These deep wells were usually the ones with the mud logging units. I liked the the gulf coast wells more because they were so much more exciting.  You never knew what you were going to encounter.  Did you ever work offshore?  I did a couple of times and that was a totally different experience.

   I thought it was neat to see the rite in rain books.  I never recalled having a book like that, and there were times I wished I had one like that.  I'm so glad they have finally invented something so practical like that.  

  I have been enjoying your blog.  I know its difficult to post things when you are out in the field like that and I appreciate the effort you are making.

2nd letter


  Years  ago (Spring of 2004) ago when my husband and I went on a cruise out of Galveston Texas, we had some free time before we could board the ship.  I couldn't believe it when next to the cruise ships they had a offshore rig open to the public as a museum/training facility. ( I now realize it is called Ocean Star -Offshore Energy Center). Of course we took the tour.  It was pretty good, and the way I remembered things. I don't know if its still there since I haven't been in the area since the hurricane hit the area. I highly recommend people seeing it if its still there.

  The one thing you got to keep in mind that every platform is totally different and has a personality all of its own, so this is typical but not exactly what I saw.  I worked offshore for a major oil company from Feb to July, 1986. I was on four different offshore platforms as a developmental geologist.  Technology has changed a lot since then so I don't know how much different things are now. Both onshore and offshore use rotary rigs.

  As far as onshore is concern,  I had a response to that about the mud loggers and such.  But then I saw a post on Accidental Remediation (here), by Howard on the drilling differences 4-21,20- 2010.  He summoned things up pretty well for onshore small rigs.  I tried to put my two cents in on offshore drilling but my comment was too long. It all got deleted when I tried to find a way to save it, so I could work on making it smaller. That day I just threw my hands up in frustration and decided I wasn't suppose to make any comments on the internet.  Maybe it was just as well since that offshore explosion has made peoples feelings about offshore drilling pretty strong.(So I sent Silver this letter instead)

  Getting back to onshore drilling.I worked as a developmental geologist vs an exploration geologist - I know only that aspect of things. I know nothing about discovering new fields, just how to get the maximum oil out of already discovered fields. (I was the equivalent of a miner.)  The rigs I were on we leased from the drilling company.  The drilling company would usually have a minimum of six workers working 8-12 hr shifts.  The tool-pusher was there the whole time, the other shift workers were: a driller, a derrick man, two roughnecks and a roust-a-bout.  The company leasing would always have a company drilling engineer 'The company man'.  Then when we got close to the zone the geologists would go out.  We would live on the rig until the job was done.  One time I was on a rig where anything that could go wrong went wrong (except we didn't have a blow out - but got very close to it)  I was on that rig for a month and a half -zero time off. They at least brought in a trailer for us.  Frequently accompanying us would be a reservoir engineer.

  I talked about monitoring drilling rates.  The theory behind that is if you keep a constant pressure on the drill stem you can get a sense of what you are drilling through by the speed in which the stem goes down.  Sandstones drill faster than, limestone or shale or dolomite or anhydrite or what ever else you are going through. We were usually looking for the porous sandstones, thus the faster drilling. Frequently we were drilling close to salt domes.  If our seismic interpretation were slightly off  do to processing - it would make our maps off thus we could in theory hit a salt dome.  Penetrating a salt dome is an absolute NO NO. (and here's the reason why Louisiana sink hole drains an entire lake and Wikipedia's take on it Lake_Peigneur.  There used to be a video that was mandatory to watch while being trained to work in the area - it's really impressive to see, unfortunately its been removed from YouTube.but if you ever have the opportunity to watch it, please do - you wont forget it. )  As you can see It causes all sorts of problems.  The good thing about a salt dome is they have a very hard cap on them.  Thus the drilling really slows down. When you see that, you have to stop and circulate the system to see what the problem is through the cuttings/chips. That's one of the main reasons we had to really watch drilling rates.

  Also the  faster the well is drill the more prone it is to drift at a slight angle.  We had to keep the holes straight because of the depths ( ex 1/2 degree over 10,000 ft)  we were going to could end us up on another lease.  When ever we changed a bit we had to take measurement to make sure the hole was within the permitted parameters.

  I talked about mud logging.  The mud is really critical to wells.  Because of the different zone it goes through it can change slightly with the different types of formations it encounters.  We used the same type of mud you used of barite and bentonite as a base also we use water or oil for the fluid mixture.  But as the well is drilled different chemicals were added to make it heavier or lighter.  You wanted to get a good mud cake built up on the walls of the well to prevent the sloughing off of the up hole formations that you mention.  The mud has to be heavy enough to keep the well from blowing out but yet light enough so that it does not go into to the formation causing lost circulation.  Since the mud is so critical there is usually a mud engineer on the well to.

  A mud logging unit is basically a traveling lab. The mud logger is in charge of monitoring and getting the samples from the cuttings.  The mud flows over a shale shaker so only a certain size cuttings/chips get observed. The unit has connections to the drilling floor so that the drilling rates can be monitored from the unit and not on the derrick floor.  Also it monitors the mud and mud logs are made looking at the cuttings or chips that circulate up. You create a log like an electric log that you use to compare to actual electric logs taken from other wells in the area. This helps you to see if your mapping interpretations are correct.  The one thing I always loved to see was that oil effervesces under a black light.  You would put your chips under that and look for it in the pores. I would spend almost all of my time in the mud logging units if there was one.

         After I tried to write you the first time, I went and saw a movie that was made locally by some college students.  It is called 'Haynesville'.  There is some movie liberties taken with it  (and some stuff is not technically correct), but basically what these men were trying to capture was the 'Gas Goldrush' that was occurring during 2008, in Shreveport at that time.  It is a documentary of how this gas play was effecting peoples lives. These are real people and the things that were happening to them over the year. They started out with nine individuals but only ended up with three that allowed them to print and publish the stuff. There are some things in it that make me want to scream over the industry and how they treated some people.

  The thing about it that I loved was they actually got on a well and were able to film the well as it was drilling.  You see the wells in the beginning and also near the end of the film. The wells in the film are very typical of the wells I were on, as far as the size and the number of people working on it. There is one major difference, because at a certain point the wells drill horizontally, and are permitted to do so.

  I really think you would enjoy watching that footage. (This is a well made documentary and is not amateurish at all. I don't know if you know this but after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the movie industry moved to Shreveport, from New Orleans.  We've had over 50 movies made in the area since then (see a partial list here.)  Right now Nicholas Cage is in town filming 'Drive Angry'.  Also Jennifer Garner and Ben  are here too- she's filming 'Butter'.  Plus they are making a TV show 'the Gates'.  These guys have been getting good training working in this area with all these professional movie makers.)    These guys want this film to get out to the public. (Since then there have been edited versions of it on TV - I didn't care for the editing because all of the neat stuff about the rigs was edited out so they could concentrate on the people.)



Well after I sent this, Silver Fox responded back and said I should have a blog to share stuff like this with others.  She convinced me to start this blog and I just want to give a great big THANKS SILVER FOX  to her. I'm so grateful you convinced me to get into blogging.