Friday

I wake up at 2 am Friday morning with Paula telling me it’s time to calibrate. I get dressed fast and grab the stuff from the trailer.  This calibration is for our depth tracking sensor.  Depth is really important to what we do because the tool doesn’t know what depth it’s at. It only knows what time it is. Our surface system keeps track of what time matches what depth. That way, when the tool sending information, the computer can match the time with the depth.

This means we have to keep close track of depth. Starting first with calibrating properly the sensor.  This requires two people, one at the computer and one on the rig floor. Since last time Paula was on the rig floor and I was on the computer, we switch. I go up to the floor and attach a tape measure to the top drive. The top drive is the part of the rig that moves the pipe up and down inside the derrick. When you think of a rig, you’re thinking of the derrick which reaches up 100 ft or more.

I have the driller move the top drive up and down and take the right measurements, sending them to Paula to input in the computer as I do. I get covered in mud as it drips down the pipe onto my hard hat and back.  When I’m finished the driller tells me I have mud all over my face. We start to test the tool again. I’m fully expecting it to work perfectly, but Paula comes and tells me we have no signal. We start troubleshooting. By now it’s about 3:30am. We wake up David and try everything we can think of. Eventually we get signal we are satisfied with. I’m not convinced it will work at bottom, but at this point there’s nothing left to do. We send Paula to bed since she’s been up for a long time and is obviously tired. 

In that time we’ve arrived at bottom and are preparing to turn the tools on and start collecting data. I’m not surprised when the problem is even worse.  We again start troubleshooting. It seems like every fix we try makes it better for about 10 mins and then it gets worse again.  We have our Operations Support Center (OSC) working on the problem alongside us.  Finally the Pemex engineer comes and tells us we’re going back up the hole, to the casing shoe.  There’s less risk when you’re in the casing shoe because here the hole is enclosed in steel and not likely to collapse around you. The trip up to the casing shoe is a sign of defeat. We’ve lost a lot of time and our client is not very happy with us. We’ve ordered back up parts for Villahermosa so we can try again to fix the problem when they arrive.

David and I stop for breakfast. I take a shower and wash the mud off my face and out of my hair. It turns out I’m starving and I scarf down eggs and two pieces of toast before the parts arrive from Villahermosa. I’m in my pajamas, having expected to get some sleep before the parts arrived. David takes the parts to the trailer while I change.

When I arrive at the trailer I notice that it’s really really hot inside. Our generator has died. David points out that we have good signal.  We conclude that the generator was interfering with our signal. Everyone comments on how lucky it was that the generator died and we were able to figure out where the problem came from. No one thought to check the generator. 

I go to sleep for what feels like 5 mins (but was probably 2 hours or so) when David wakes me up. I’m confused and it takes me a few minutes to remember what’s going on. We have power back in the trailer again.  This time, I’m sure, everything will work.  And sure enough, we have great signal. We’re getting information from the tool and it’s coming in clear and with a lot of confidence.  We gladly tell the crew we’re ready to go back down and start drilling.

We sit around for the short trip and comment again on how lucky it was to figure out the generator was the problem. I start doing some of the reports that go along with problems of any sort. Non-Productive Time is something we usually avoid.  It costs the company money and the generator cost us a lot of money and some of our reputation. I also put in reports for other small stuff that’s happened in the last few days.

We arrive at bottom and turn on the mud pumps to start receiving data from the tool. Same problem as before. Unbelieving, we start troubleshooting again. We were so sure we found the problem.  We change out all the spare parts Villahermosa sent us. Each time we change something it gets a little better, then 10 mins later it gets worse again. Pemex comes and tells us we have 20 minutes to fix the problem or they’re taking our tools out of the well. That would probably mean the end of the contract for this well for my company. And we are scheduled to have work here for a few more months. Miraculously it starts to work.

We start logging data.  I’m on the drilling floor timing how fast the driller is lowering the string and thus our tools. When I’m satisfied that he’s going slow enough that the tool can send enough data, I go back to the camper. We’ve lost signal again. Paula changes the sensor cable. It works again. This time we have signal long enough to start drilling. We have software problems we didn’t know about before because we had no data.  However, software is my strong point. This I’m good at it. I fix it and before I know it, I’m in the camper eating dinner and in bed by 11. Everything is good. We’re drilling, we have data, everything is good. I promise to get up and return at 2 or 3am.