Monday

I’ve been wanting to try something a little different for a while now and I think I found a good chance to do that.  After being in Colorado for a while I’ve realized how hard it is to figure out what I actually do day-to-day. I’ve decided the only way to give a picture of that is to actually write about the day-to-day on a day-to-day basis. Of course I’m under no such delusion that I’ll actually be able to do that all the time, so we’re going to try it for a week.  Originally I wanted to start on Monday because I was in the base and figured I’d start a new job and you’d get to see all aspects of my job, at the base and in the field. Of course I was correct and thus it’s already Wednesday and I’m at the rig after being up all night and I have no internet to post. So I’m going to still start with Monday, but you probably won’t be reading this Monday. Or Tuesday. Or even Wednesday depending on when my internet gets here… So think back to Monday. Pretend its Monday.

Monday I woke up to someone slamming their door downstairs. I looked at my phone and realized I didn’t set an alarm and the car to the base was probably arriving in 5 mins.  I got ready super-fast and sure enough the car was there. They didn’t have to wait for me very long and we were on our way to the base. I breathalyzed into the base (I was sober, not a surprise at 9 am) and went into the office. 

We have a million trainees right now, and a lot of them are at the base getting ready for school or getting their training done so they can go to the rig. Because of this the engineer room was full and I went back to sit in the conference room at the back of the office with a few others. I arrived back from a job on Sunday, so in addition to my computer, I was also responsible for the two work computers we had with us on the job.  I locked up all three computers. I also introduced myself to two new trainees we (more Americans! I’m not alone anymore!) and checked in with another trainee about to take his pre-school test.

Paula, from my last job, came in a little after me.  She came back from school a week ago and then we went on a weeklong job together.  I’ve been trying to have her do as much as possible to get her ready for being on jobs alone.  I gave her some instructions on what we had to do next.  Then started working on final reports.

When we get back from a job, it doesn’t end then and there. We still have several deliverables. We have to make a final set of logs for the client.  The logs are the reason we’re at the job and it’s our final product. They have to be done exactly right and they can take a lot of checking and rechecking before they’re exactly right to deliver to the client.  That’s not all.

We also have to deliver information internally to two different parts of my company.  The first set of information is about the entire job and every step along the way.  This information I work hard at gathering while we’re at the rig and so it was complete.  The next set of information is a little more complicated for me.  I’m an MLWD engineer. I run MLWD tools which collect information downhole and send it up to me.  One day, I will be a directional driller (DD), who steers the well and makes sure it’s not going to collide with another well and that we get where we’re going. Normally, we work as a team.  My company sends two MLWDs and two DDs to a job. I do my stuff and pass it to the DD who does his stuff.  Lately, I’ve been on jobs where my company is not the DD.  We’re hired by a DD company to provide MLWD information to them.  But my office still wants the DD information. This means I’ve been learning how to create the reports and use the software the DDs usually use. It’s been a bit of a hard learning curve and it means creating twice as many reports as I usually have, but  it’s good to learn.

I had some doubts about my reports and some of the stuff I was doing, luckily there was a DD in the office and so I asked him for help. Then someone brought in tacos. We took a breakfast break for tacos. They were tasty.  Tacos are a food that is appropriate for all occasions in Mexico. I approve.

Next we were ready to print our final logs. The printer in the office was broken, so Paula and I ran over to wireline to borrow their printer. We got there, printed the logs and started to leave when we noticed it had started raining. A lot. Like a torrential downpour.  We decided to wait for a while; usually it will rain really hard for a while and then stop so we figured it was only a matter of time.  After about 20 minutes though it doesn't look good.  We put the logs, our phones and keys and a shirt in a box then made a run for it. The whole base had flooded and so we ended up running through 10 inch puddles for a good part of the way.  We made it back to our office completely soaked.  After getting laughed at for a while, we put together the final client envelopes and were finished! Mostly.

Next comes the post-job meeting. I delivered all my DD reports (I was mostly successful with them, yay!) and then sat down with Paula, my engineer-in-charge for the job and the engineer that planned the job. We talked about what went well, what didn't, what needs to change, etc.  We had a tool failure so we also discussed that for a while. 

Then we asked for a car and went over to our other office, located more in the city of Villahermosa. Here we delivered the last set of data. Finally, I was completely done with the last job. Good thing too, because they've told me Paula and I are going out again to another job the next day.

Knowing I’ll be on the rig the next day, I have a quiet night at home.  I make dinner and read and watch some TV. Have some downtime, since I know the next week could be really crazy!