Smudger Snippets
Created | Updated Jul 19, 2005
Heat Wave
I was reading some through the threads earlier today about this recent heat wave we are having just now, and this story came back to my mind.
It was way back in the eighties while I was working offshore in one of the oil fields in the North Sea. We were installing some new modules at the time but production could not be stopped during the work as that would have been too costly. So with this mind what they actually did was flood the job with manpower so that the work could be done as quickly as possible, this would also work out cheaper as the cost of keeping men working and living offshore is phenomenal. Yet some how that old saying of Too Many Cooks comes to mind, and in fact it did work out that way, as all the different trades working at the same time did in fact mean that at times we got in each others way.
So before work started, what they actually did was build a block of flats on the accommodation barges deck, as there was no way the barge could accommodate all the men they would need. Now these flats as I called them were not what you might think, they were in fact prefabricated port-cabins stacked five high, with a staircase going up one side, and a fire escape down the other. The barge itself was not what you might think; it was in fact a semi submersible oil rig, which means it is a floating rig that can be anchored to the sea bed while they drill for the oil. So in fact the structure floats along side the oil platform and is connected by a bridge, which has to be lifted when it breaks away during stormy weather. On top of the deck there are usually some accommodation cabins, but not usually stacked to five high, which meant that when the barge moved in the heavy swell of the sea, this block of flats swayed along with the movement of the barge.
They had to accommodate twelve hundred men, which was the amount they had calculated in order to complete the job on time. Why the rush you may ask, well the weather offshore in the North Sea is very rough for most of the year which leaves only a few weeks of calmer weather in which to carry out any such work to the rig, they call this the Weather Window. It was during this weather window of just a few weeks that we had to complete all the work that was required, and there was indeed a lot of work to be done.
What they were actually doing was increasing the rigs capacity to produce oil by a factor of four times! This meant we had to install six new modules required for this, one at a time as they came, by means of lifting them up from another flat barge with the largest crane of its kind in the world. Not only did we have to position these modules, but we had to connect all the pipe works linking them altogether in order for them to function. So the weather window was in fact the most critical part of the whole operation.
While we lived in this block of flats as we called them, a lot of the men felt sea sick with the motion of them swaying, and being so high up above sea level did not help at all, as it made the motion even greater. I was lucky really, as all my time in the Navy meant that I did not feel sea sick, even though I live on the very top floor.
I was on the night shift during this job, as we worked twelve hour shifts around the clock seven days a week until completion. Of course even although you felt really tired after your shift, a good sleep was not always guaranteed as you had to contend not only with the noise of the construction work but also the noise and smell of the choppers as they came and went throughout the day. They were flying every day bringing out supplies and of course the men, as they changed over every two weeks of their Rota. They even had to move the flight deck form the rig over to our barge, as it was being re-located as part of the contract, which meant of course they put it right on top of the block of flats.
This was in fact the only logical place for it, as it was the highest part of the barge, and it would have too dangerous to place it any where else. It was the smell of the spent fuel that used to wake me up rather than the noise, as it was a pungent smell of burnt paraffin that came wafting through the ventilator system, hence the nick name Paraffin Budgies.
Anyway, part of the work involved meant shutting down one of the two flare stacks; these are basically large burners where they burn off all the excess gasses from the oil as it is brought up form beneath the sea. There is always at least two of these flare stacks, in order to keep them burning which ever way the wind is blowing, as they have to point the large flame away for the rig as a fire precaution. Well for a few days and nights we hardly slept at all, the reason being was that due to the other flare stack being shut down to carry out maintenance work they had to use the other one. This unfortunately was closer to the barge, which meant we felt the full force of the immense heat. To make matters worse the block of flats were the closest part of the structure to the flame, and being stacked five high made them even closer! We tried everything that we could think of to cool the cabins down, we even went to the extent of placing all the tin foil we could find, over the windows trying to deflect the heat. This did not go down too well with the chefs in the galley as we had pinched every scrap of baking foil form the galley and the stores.
We even tried positioning a fire hose on to the cabins allowing the water to run down the side in the hope that it would cool us down, which it did to some extent, but unfortunately not enough. The bottom line was we just had to put up with this sweltering heat, which was in fact blistering the paintwork of the cabins, until the other flare stack was finished or the wind changed. Which after a long suffering period of three days it did, the wind shifted direction which sent the enormous flame in the opposite direction, leaving us at last being able to sleep. So I suppose that was the worst heat wave I have ever experienced in my life, and that includes my two years in the Gulf with the Royal Navy.
