Inside the Most Advanced Offshore Drillship on Earth
00;00;00;02 - 00;00;22;27
Unknown
Welcome to energy 101. I'm also joined by Marc Meyer. So Marc Meyer has a plethora of experience and we are doing another offshore episode. And it turns out you have experience there. I mean, I just assume he's done everything like and he hosts our show, which is our topical show news. And you bring up a topic and he'll he'll start talking and he knows.
00;00;22;28 - 00;00;49;12
Unknown
So it's really cool. So you know what or what is your experience in offshore? Oh, a long ago, I spent a short stint as really an intern and there is no oil company today that would ever have this program. But when I was still in college, Chevron had an internship where you could take a year off and work seven and seven, and they ultimately broke out.
00;00;49;15 - 00;01;19;07
Unknown
Us interns as drilling representatives, as we were called or company man is more common, moniker. But yeah, I, I spent all of my time, mostly jack ups and a few online barge things never work. Flutter, was talking to Justin where we got started, kind of joking around and asking if he was getting service or some subsurface sort of certification.
00;01;19;14 - 00;01;47;10
Unknown
That's way beyond that. With what Volaris is doing with their advanced, well, control and BP. But yeah, it was it was a good first vantage point for the industry. It's new. What I really, really want to do unfortunately rig count in the Gulf of Mexico or the course that year for Chevron went from, as I recall, when we started that program from 26 to 8, by the end of the year.
00;01;47;12 - 00;02;15;28
Unknown
And so, yeah, so, so a few things, the, mobile Bay 861 underground blowout, which is a pretty famous, that was off of, submersible, at about 23,000ft. And then Norfleet, as I recall, and they lost the drill string because the elevators failed about 600ft off bottom with 19,000ft. Of course, Tulsa had about 4000ft of open hole.
00;02;16;00 - 00;02;43;20
Unknown
And the surge that led and it started flowing and they shut the blind rams and four hours later they had shallow flow of very sour gas. And so it took about six months to to get that problem solved. And so, yeah, got to see a lot of interesting things. We had our own facility, drilling facility with simulation.
00;02;43;20 - 00;03;09;29
Unknown
We even had a mock rig, a double out there, out right off the Hardy Toll road and would do kind of field type, well control with, pumped in gas bubbles and circulating those out as part of our, our training regimen, but nothing like and I've, I visited one drill ship in my later career and was absolutely fascinated by the technology, by the capability.
00;03;10;04 - 00;03;37;12
Unknown
And, you know, everything from safety to just dynamic positioning and water depths that were that we're working on. So that that's the background was the driller had gone on to do many other things, but, that was my kind of foundational experience in the industry. Yeah, that's cool stuff. Justin from Belarus, from Australia. I'm a driller.
00;03;37;14 - 00;04;02;27
Unknown
I've worked offshore for all like 18 years going on 20. I've always worked away. So I was previously in the military, in the Navy, and then I just walked off from the Navy into offshore. And yeah, I just started as a rest about saw the rig floor. So that's where the action is. And then have spent the rest of my time.
00;04;02;29 - 00;04;31;20
Unknown
Yeah. On the Drupal and, yeah. Trying to be a driller, I guess. The industry's taking me from Australia to New Zealand to, Angola. Back to Australia, now to Egypt. I've lived overseas. I've worked overseas. You know, it's. Yeah, it's been amazing, career so far. So. And all varieties of offshore drilling equipment.
00;04;31;22 - 00;05;04;06
Unknown
Yeah. So I started on, like a conventional semi, so. Yeah. Yeah. Basically conventional semi, in Australia, and then in 2013 got the opportunity. And so like, you know, the industry was booming and you know, everyone's building drill ships and fancy Saab systems. So yeah, I just got lucky that, one of my, a good friend of mine was working in Africa and a ship, and he, he was like, well, you need to come here.
00;05;04;08 - 00;05;26;19
Unknown
So we tried for a while, but I couldn't get a foot in the door because I didn't have solver experience. So I was like, how can you make the change to soar? Very few can't get the experience. And then, luckily for me, his I'd snapped his leg in half. So, yeah, he's had snapped his leg and, yeah, I got the call up and said, hey, can you come?
00;05;26;19 - 00;05;57;17
Unknown
Like now? And two weeks later, always on a drill ship in in West Africa and Angola. And yeah, I'm sort of like never looked back from that. So it was definitely the, the right move, making that change because otherwise you just sort of get left behind on the end of a break and, yeah. And then so I got drew ship experience and then I'll come back to Australia, back on Florida's always back, always cyber.
00;05;57;19 - 00;06;18;01
Unknown
And then and then yeah, now end up on a drill ship in Egypt and, on MVD, so yeah, for me, MPD feels the same as cyber. Like, if you don't make that change now, you'll just end up getting left behind. What are those two? Cyber? And is it NPD? Yeah. So NPD is manager pressure drilling.
00;06;18;04 - 00;06;47;26
Unknown
So that's just, a form of drilling, I guess. So conventional. There's just conventional drilling where we're drilling with mud white, you know, holding back with hydrostatic. That's the conventional way that we drill. And NPD is allowing you to drill with a lot of mud white, but holding back pressure on a choke at surface. So it's just allowing you to drill these tighter wells that we couldn't drill before.
00;06;47;28 - 00;07;11;28
Unknown
This is opening up. Mbpd isn't new, but what I would say is new is that, for example, like every drill that we have now coming out will have mbpd system on it. So the deeper we go in the tide of these reservoirs, that previously couldn't be drilled now can be drilled using NPD. Yeah. So it's kind of like the offshore breakthrough of horizontal drilling in a way.
00;07;11;28 - 00;07;38;26
Unknown
Like just things have gotten more advanced. The technology's gotten better. Yeah, technology's getting better. We're just drilling bigger. Deeper. Wells. Yeah. Fundamentally, it's you're holding back the natural hydrostatic that if it wasn't choked back, you've got you've got a problem with a deeper depths. You've got too much hydrostatic for, for some of those formations. Yeah. So basically for example, the.
00;07;38;26 - 00;07;59;26
Unknown
Well that I just came off in Australia, we needed mbpd but we didn't drill it with MPD. But there was a section there called the Down Formation that was absolutely treacherous. So we needed to get through that and then case it off to be able to continue to drill Payson. So what would happen is, is the our mud.
00;07;59;26 - 00;08;21;21
Unknown
Why would you know a conventional mud, right. Was just, we'd have to drill with a lot of mud. Right. And then the OECD equivalent circulating density would would keep that at bay while we were drilling. And then as soon as we turn the pumps off to make a connection, we would lose the OECD. So we would lose that extra pressure on the well.
00;08;21;24 - 00;08;42;03
Unknown
And then boom, she's just coming, coming back at us. So if we had NPD at that stage, we would have been able to hold that back pressure there, keep that equivalent circulating density down hole. And then we would have and we wouldn't have been taken again the whole time. So it is yeah, a game changer for that.
00;08;42;03 - 00;09;08;16
Unknown
And I've just come off a well, we, we really, really needed it and we didn't have it and it would have made a world of difference. So it's just harder. Yeah. It was, it was just very, very difficult to get through. And then so basically we're taking losses the whole, you know, big losses as it were drilling. And then as soon as we would have a pump off event being a connection that would just come back at us over, over the connection.
00;09;08;16 - 00;09;28;16
Unknown
And then you have to treat it as a cake. So then you have to shut it down. You have to circulate it out. It's just about stuff. Absolutely. Nightmare. So once you're shot in and you're circulating out, there's a week gone. So you're in Perth, Western Australia. You know, I've learned a lot that that's where all the mining's done, all the offshore.
00;09;28;16 - 00;09;52;10
Unknown
Is that offshore is out there like culturally like like the way business is run. Would you say it's a lot of similarities to Texas? It kind of seems like, you know, it's like us having the Gulf. Yeah. So I would say the East. So NWA, we'd call the northwest Shelf. So majority of the drilling is done on the northwest shelf, which is like a very established area.
00;09;52;10 - 00;10;16;01
Unknown
And I would it's akin to the Gulf of Mexico essentially for Australia. Then there's off of Broome. If you go off Broome, up near the Timor Sea, there's a lot of big gas wells up off there. And yeah, it's a nightmare to get to. So you fly up to Broome and then it's like a three hour trip abroad, to the rig.
00;10;16;03 - 00;10;47;17
Unknown
So, yeah, there's some, there's some wells out there and then all the drilling is off Darwin. So the wells that I just came off, which was a campaign called the Barossa campaign, they were all drilled off of, Darwin and. Yeah, once again, just like really big bore gas wells, very, very difficult, drilling and that, like I was talking about before that Darwin formation is just, yeah, synonymous with like, eating beaches and creeks and it just gives you a world of hurt.
00;10;47;17 - 00;11;13;08
Unknown
But in Darwin, the north west shelf off of, places like corollas is where a majority of the rigs. But, you know, we went from 3 or 4 rigs now to one rig operating. So it's feast or famine in Australia. And at the moment it's a bit of a famine. Very much like Texas. Yeah, yeah.
00;11;13;08 - 00;11;45;00
Unknown
So what kind of water depths? There is for it can be quite shallow in between, like 100m to 500m. So yeah, it's like sort of mid water depth. It's a little bit too shallow. The majority of the wells have been too shallow for deep rigs. So that's why there hasn't been a lot of new drill ships of that coming down was they're slowly like pushing it out to those water depths where it's making it more possible for that to happen.
00;11;45;03 - 00;12;02;13
Unknown
But majority of wells that were been drilled have been drilled in that shallow water with moored semis. So, y'all, I feel like y'all can have a shelf with a drop off similar to the Gulf. Yeah, sure. And no one's out in the deep water. It's all on a shelf. Yeah, it depends what you mean by deep water, but we're not drilling in those.
00;12;02;13 - 00;12;26;06
Unknown
You know, it's very sort of rare to be in that thousand meters, 2000m of water. Why is that regulatory or, they just haven't pushed that far out. I guess the all those established wells, and yeah, all those established, yeah. Areas are sort of in that mid water depth, maybe more of the like the investment would be to.
00;12;26;08 - 00;12;50;26
Unknown
Yeah, look the investment towards it. And then the sentiment towards drilling in Australia I would say is like the UK. So it can be off and on. You got a lot to say about that. Yeah, a lot of people at the moment, you know, just aren't really that keen on drilling in Australia. We have a, you know, an amazing resource being gas.
00;12;50;26 - 00;13;23;28
Unknown
The majority of what we drill in Australia is, natural gas. And we should be the biggest producer of natural gas in the world. But yeah, unfortunately, the sentiment towards it is, not great. So yeah. And then the investment to for companies to come in as well obviously also isn't great. Well and you don't you know, from a pure prospecting standpoint, it sounds like there's been plenty to do and kind of midwater, you don't have to go out into the ultra deep water, which I think about as kind of 5 to 10,000ft.
00;13;24;00 - 00;13;48;11
Unknown
You can do the metric conversion if you want. Yeah. So. What, what what's the typical kind of generation of the floater when we talk about the various generations, what are we on now? And, so when I started we're on that the sort of gen, you know, moored semi is what, 20 years ago. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah 20 years ago.
00;13;48;11 - 00;14;14;02
Unknown
So a lot of dormant offshore wind around that were big down there. So you know rigs like the Ocean Bounty which is now the apex, ocean America, you know, so just nice old rigs, but, you know, everything's manual. And that was sort of the way that it went. And then the and then Atwood brought it down to Atwood was really the first one to bring down, like a cyber rig in Australia.
00;14;14;05 - 00;14;45;29
Unknown
And that was, what was that called? That was called the the Osprey, which is now the Ms1. So that's the rig that I just came off. So that was like the first fancy rig in Australia essentially. And yeah, first cyber rig. And then now you've got, Transocean down there with basically DP, DP style six generation seventh generation Cyber Cyber semis with the drew ship coming down now.
00;14;45;29 - 00;15;09;28
Unknown
So seventh Gen Drew Sheep is on its way. They'll be the end of this year. Which one is that. Yeah that's a scar. So yeah old ocean rig rig. Yeah. Seventh gen dual activity. Drew ship. Beautiful rig. And that's it. Seems like Transocean will sort of dominate the Australian market, and, that's. Yeah. Well, it seems like.
00;15;10;00 - 00;15;35;20
Unknown
So you are your position on these rigs is a driller. Yeah. And I understand drilling, driller on, you know, onshore. They're like in the doghouse. They kind of like, they're actually doing stuff with their hands. They got all the monitors. It's like the same thing offshore. Yeah. Little offshore. You know, it's good representation. So that photo behind you is actually of me, in the chair on the ms1.
00;15;35;22 - 00;15;58;29
Unknown
So. Yeah. Look, it's it's the same, I don't think. I don't think Mark knew that I was I was trying not to say that. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, it doesn't look like the the driller consoles that I remember. No. So, yeah, we're just sitting. We're just doing things differently now in the sense that we're sitting in chairs and off writing everything from the saw chair.
00;15;59;02 - 00;16;25;10
Unknown
So everything's controlled. You know, from the chair. It's the same sort of thing. But, you know, you're not over here with your hands playing Spider-Man and squeaking a break. But it's the same concept, in my mind. And one might say that you have more to monitor. Yeah. I'm not. I'm not too sure. Short. Like, definitely things, changing with, like what?
00;16;25;10 - 00;16;49;03
Unknown
Your role and responsibility is and definitely what is expected of you now has changed from what was expected of you, you know, ten years ago and especially 20 years ago. And it's just constantly, constantly evolving. So you need to evolve with it. So I was one of them. Red zone management is another one. Yeah. Everything is just constantly evolving.
00;16;49;05 - 00;17;08;14
Unknown
And as a driller you need to evolve with it. And we just we have become a lot more reliant on technology, you know. So you've got guys that a geotag now in red zones. You know exactly where people are. You where you're running like a hellion system. So you dictate how many people can be in the red zone.
00;17;08;14 - 00;17;27;08
Unknown
So 20 years ago, if you weren't standing underneath the blocks while he was coming down ready to throw in the slips, you were a lazy. Now you can't be on the rig floor, and the system knows if you're on the rig floor and you're not supposed to. You know, if the system knows you're in the red zone. So these things have just changed.
00;17;27;09 - 00;17;49;27
Unknown
Now that's like my response. That's the drill is a responsibility to allocate who should be the, when they should be there. So yeah, it just changes. All right. So like, are you physically making the decisions of, like, tripping a pipe or like, putting things down whole, like, are you are you controlling any of that remotely? Yeah.
00;17;49;27 - 00;18;12;09
Unknown
Like we're controlling everything with ID, so there's a share and then there's 80 shares. So on a saw were rigged on controlling the top drive and the blocks, mud pumps, all of that. And then the idea is in the other shit and he's driving what we would call the Hydra tracker. So the Hydra tracker is getting all of the plot in and out of the Derrick.
00;18;12;12 - 00;18;28;10
Unknown
And then he's transferring that to me in the blocks. He's making it up. Or the roughnecks who make it up with the Iron Roughneck. And then I'm tripping it in the hull. So, you know, to be honest with you, I'm a trooper. I would say the idea is probably got, like, a little bit more going on. So be honest.
00;18;28;12 - 00;18;45;23
Unknown
I'm just coming off and down. But, you know, we're just all working together to get this thing done. So, you know, on an old semi, the driller would be tripping out and then, you know, you'd be transferring the platform over to the Derrick man, and the Derrick man would be sucking the pot back and rocking it back.
00;18;45;25 - 00;19;04;22
Unknown
Now we've got an idea and a, controlling a, hydra raka. And he's putting the plop. You know, there's nobody up in the Derrick. Nobody is off in the Derrick. Yeah. And like I said, he's like, no one's even in the red zone. So, you know, everyone's either in a bomb shelter or standing completely out of the way.
00;19;04;24 - 00;19;26;13
Unknown
You know, this can be if we've got all those sleeps in, it can just be me and him. Then that's you. And you might put some guys up in the Derrick to spot fingers, just to let you know that they're open and closed, but you don't really even need anyone on the drill floor. Wow. Yeah. So why is all that, like, I guess safety moves being so, like that?
00;19;26;13 - 00;19;49;04
Unknown
I mean, yes, but like, they aren't, they don't seem to be doing that on land. Why don't they do it on. Yeah. Yeah a little awkward point on land. Land. It's always funny because like every time on LinkedIn I say these, you know, the guys on the slack line, these and like, everyone's just covered in oil for some reason, and nobody's got a hard hat on and a lot.
00;19;49;07 - 00;20;18;26
Unknown
Why this doesn't seem necessary to me, but yeah, that wouldn't fly offshore for a start. But, do or wherever trying to do is just reduce the risk and the, you just want to make it as safe as possible. And if guys on in the red zone, then they can't get hurt, right? So a lot of a lot of injuries either come from hand injuries which we can't seem to stop or things falling from above.
00;20;18;26 - 00;20;44;27
Unknown
Yeah. So, one of the mitigations to that now is like red zone management. Yeah. Keeping people out of that red zone. And with more automation we can do that. So what does the floor crew look like? Just the roles. What what are those. Yeah. So they as opposed to 20 years ago. Oh yeah. Good question. So have I guys.
00;20;44;27 - 00;21;15;03
Unknown
So I'm on a dual activity dropship. So they got, I think, six roughnecks and you've got a mine and an orc side. So two different sides. So rough necking is still involved. One rough necking, but for example, back in the day, we would we would make up BHO. Everything would be done online. Now, when we make make up BHO, it's bucked up on deck.
00;21;15;06 - 00;21;41;05
Unknown
It's brought up to the oxide. And then we'll make it up on the OCS, which is just the auxiliary side of the rig floor, and then it'll be racked back in the Derrick. So for the time it comes to the main side, they're just picking up that vhi and it's ready to go. So guys are still having to set slips and dog collars, but it's just not as physical as a word as it used to be.
00;21;41;05 - 00;22;00;03
Unknown
And now we're just looking for efficiency. So all of that is pre made before we run in the hull. So it's less exposure for those people. But it's just the exposure in a different way. So now we're exposing guys on the deck because we're barking. We're picking stuff up with the crane and then we're making it up on the OCS.
00;22;00;05 - 00;22;31;19
Unknown
But on the main we're just ready to go. Efficient was efficiency was I would say what's been lost is maybe some situational awareness because we're the crews. Guys aren't exposed to these things as much anymore. Locker raids on simple things like looking or you know, like these things just aren't drummed into you any more because I don't have to be.
00;22;31;21 - 00;22;57;06
Unknown
So that's definitely something that we are missing. If you're not setting slopes every 90ft and like, you know, once, you know, before you get on all those slips, these guys are still there, but they're not standing in the red zone anymore. They're not having to look up. They can't be there either in a bomb shelter or they're like at the back of the drill floor, and they won't come out until you've stopped.
00;22;57;08 - 00;23;27;26
Unknown
Yeah. So, it's just they have a little bit of a different role and responsibility now. But what I would say is that previously we didn't have to deal with all of this automated equipment. So now these guys have to understand how to use a port, catwalk machine, riser catwalk machine, which is on a remote. So they're driving that on a remote, understanding, you know, when these things fault, how to get around them.
00;23;27;26 - 00;23;47;04
Unknown
So to me, that's like the new skillset is understanding the equipment. What happens when something goes wrong? I'm curious what the, the trips look like, because, you know, you're on land, you're going 12 on, 12 off or 24 or whatever, but like you have to go there and live there for weeks or what does it look like for week?
00;23;47;04 - 00;24;07;13
Unknown
So 28 on, 28 off. Yeah, 28 days, 84 hour weeks. So like, I mean, I've seen videos of the helicopter and it has to land on this weird raft and then it rafts to the rig. And I know that's not the only way it does it, but. Nah. So we just, like, have a heli deck. Okay. Lands on the heli deck.
00;24;07;18 - 00;24;31;13
Unknown
Get off the chopper. You're on the rig. Okay. Yeah. And then you're just there for four weeks. You just get locked in. There's no day off. Like I said, you're doing 84 hour weeks, but you will. And sleep well. Yeah, but for me, it's just about routine. So for me, I think sometimes I'll operate, which is.
00;24;31;13 - 00;24;53;26
Unknown
This is going to sound terrible, but I operate better. At work than I do at home, because I can just get into a really, really good routine. And this was an even more haul was I don't have, like, kids to do. Well, I kind of do have kids to deal with because you're dealing with roughnecks, but, like, I don't have that distraction.
00;24;53;26 - 00;25;15;28
Unknown
It's just, you know, I know when I'm getting up, I eat, sleep, trying do my business. I can, like, plan out my day to nearly to the owl, you know, to the minute really, it's a great job for a certain kind of person. And, I mean, I could easily fall into a routine like that. Not saying I would want to do that specifically, but, I mean, what I mean, you're not working 24 hours a day.
00;25;15;28 - 00;25;50;01
Unknown
So besides sleeping, how do you, like, screw around? Like, what's the food like? Do you do the guys talk to each other? So for me personally, like, yeah, I'll just block out my time into either. But, training and then some sort of hobby or goal. So obviously my hobby in college is like photography. So if I'll just have, you know, I'll get up three hours early, usually go trying for an hour, sit down and write for an hour, and then block out some time for some editing.
00;25;50;03 - 00;26;14;18
Unknown
And like, I just have my day set out like that. I'm very conscious of making time, and this usually happens when you eat to socialize the your phone, can definitely get in the way of that. And, you know, for example, when I first started off show you would get on the rig and I took your phone off you.
00;26;14;20 - 00;26;40;20
Unknown
Now, we didn't have smartphones back then, but as soon as you got on the rig, they took your phone off you. They put it in a bag and they gave it back to you. When you left, there was one phone and one computer. So you were sort of forced into this, like having to socialize, which and, you know, it was like four man cabins and it was really, a little bit more personal and in your face, which there's pros and cons to that.
00;26;40;23 - 00;27;02;02
Unknown
We used to sit down and watch movies together, so on and so forth. You'd have to line up for the phone. There was a push button, you got five minutes, you know, it was. It is what it is. But now, you know, I've got Starlink in my room. There's a TV I can, get Netflix if I want.
00;27;02;05 - 00;27;20;01
Unknown
So I'll say a lot of people just end up retiring to their room. And I would say the social aspect, unless you physically go looking for it and make a real effort to do it, I'd say we've lost a little bit of that, which in turn is sort of like lost a little bit of the true bonding.
00;27;20;03 - 00;27;42;27
Unknown
Most guys trying. Yeah, yeah, a lot of guys trying to and like, you know, the gyms now are amazing. I've been on regional sauna and ice baths and by train you just mean exercise or exercise. Yeah. Okay. I was like, wonder if you meant that or like freshening up on like. Wow, look at his arms. I know, yeah, there's a really good, gym on board.
00;27;42;27 - 00;28;03;28
Unknown
Like I said, I've been on places with, ice baths and so on is. And, you know, that's great. So you could definitely come out and lose five kilos. No problem. You can gain it, too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I in Australia, you could definitely gain at the cake fridge was incredible. Sometimes a bonus of working overseas is.
00;28;04;01 - 00;28;28;26
Unknown
Unfortunately, the food is quite poor. Which can work in your favor because you just eat less and, Yeah, you survive. Survivor. Yeah. In Australia, the food was, quite good. And especially the cake fridge and. Yeah. All right, you can get nasty pretty quickly. How many, how many people total in between? Like 150 to maybe 200 max, I'd say, depending on the rig you're on.
00;28;28;26 - 00;28;52;12
Unknown
But when you go into completion mode, that's probably when there's the most people on board, which would be in the higher, you know, 100 and even 200ft. Wow. But half those people are sleeping for the other shift, right? And stuff like that. So you either have, so you do days and nights and we work mid day to mid, not but then third party personnel and they do 6 to 6.
00;28;52;12 - 00;29;13;21
Unknown
So yeah it's sort of like every six hours you've got people changing around but true crew and deck crew in that midday to midnight and then everybody else will be 6 to 6. And what's your what's your crew change day monsters Thursday at the moment. Staggered. Yeah. Everybody's staggered by like a week or two weeks.
00;29;13;21 - 00;29;31;12
Unknown
Yeah. So there's always, you know, so it's not so, like, redundant and boring, right. Well, yeah. Also just to to, you know, you don't want everybody change. You know, you don't want all the two bosses changing with the drill crew on the same day. Yeah. Because then you lose the people that have been there like what's been happening.
00;29;31;15 - 00;29;52;12
Unknown
So I usually try and stagger it by either a week or two weeks. Yeah. See, what's the, how often are you interacting with the tool pusher or the or the company rep? Yeah. All day, every day down in the. Yeah. Most like, to be honest with you, most of them are pitched up in the doghouse. Yeah. So for us to push is in the doghouse all the time and the.
00;29;52;12 - 00;30;16;18
Unknown
And sometimes there's even a company rep there the whole time though. This be pitched up at the back with the, laptop. But yeah, you're always in constant, you know, for me, my direct supervisor is going to be the tool pusher, and he's the, you know, the the man I was speaking to first. I would love to hear some comparisons of what the hell you're saying, what, 50 years ago.
00;30;16;20 - 00;30;57;27
Unknown
Right. Not quite that long ago. Yeah. I've, you know, I've mostly jack ups, you know, some some newer jack ups for the there, that always had better facilities. We didn't have much in the way of gems. Although you find stacks away it out on the deck somewhere. Guys are running on the holodeck, but, Yeah, I think I think during my time, there may have been 1 or 2 rigs that had an iron roof deck, and none of them had top drive, which has been an absolute game changer.
00;30;57;29 - 00;31;27;17
Unknown
And so, yeah, it was there was a lot of spin and chain. There was, you know, quite a bit of, of old school stuff. I've, I've even, I even worked on some rigs where you're batch MC mixing cement, you know, with, with sacks on, on a long string. That's no fun. And it was 2:00 in the morning and the weather was about 26 degrees, so kept freezing up the, the, the unit.
00;31;27;17 - 00;31;57;24
Unknown
So. Yeah. It there's and it may have been a little bit of a, a different experience because I was never off. You know, it's always something to worry about for the company man. Particularly if something goes wrong and your drilling superintendent hears about it, you're going to hear about it the next morning. So. But yeah, it was still technology was starting to emerge.
00;31;57;27 - 00;32;21;17
Unknown
And, but we didn't have any computers. We had, you know, sometimes we'd spend all night trying to fax a log back to, back to the regional office, you know? Yeah, I think one of the things that,
00;32;21;19 - 00;32;48;27
Unknown
I'd like to hear is kind of contrasting the, the, kind of the way the offshore regulation has changed in the US since Macondo. And, you know, we've got, I think, I think it's still in place, redundant BP stocks, testing frequency, all of those things. What what is the what is the regulatory landscape offshore like in Australia?
00;32;48;27 - 00;33;21;04
Unknown
I'm sure it. Yeah. So we're we're following the same regulatory. Well we have our own regulatory body called CMA which is like your Bessie essentially. And one might argue that it's you know, so it's well, I've worked with a lot of Americans in Australia and they argue that they're even harder than Bessie. But then we're still following, you know, like a PR standard and then, you know, various policy and, also the policy of whoever we're drilling for, which will be then through a bridging document if something changes.
00;33;21;04 - 00;33;50;19
Unknown
But, yeah, we're following the higher standard. And, yeah, Nopsema is our regulatory body and yeah, they're very, very strict. And so when you come into Australia, you have to have something that's called a safety case. So before you can even come in, all of the, you know, the documents like this, the IG and everything is laid out in that safety case before you can even commence drilling, you know, all your environmental plans.
00;33;50;21 - 00;34;16;23
Unknown
A lot of the places that we're drilling in are very environmentally sensitive. So I drilling usually close to, you know, a Scott Reef or, up at Ningaloo. These are very close to these, like, you know, really, really beautiful places that, people don't want damage. So, yeah, there's a lot of eyes sitting on when we, when we go to drilling.
00;34;16;23 - 00;34;36;07
Unknown
And that's why we predominantly drill with, water based mod, you know, oil based mod is very difficult to even get over the line. And anywhere else in the world, you just drill with oil by based models. No problem. But then Australia just makes like such a big deal about it, which has its pros and cons, I guess for from a drilling side.
00;34;36;07 - 00;35;02;17
Unknown
But what's the, how often you testing BP's? Yeah, every 21 days. And how long is that test take? Well, we have to running with a test tool, so all depends what pop up on the configuration. But usually, Well, you can mi see anything, you know what I mean? So it it doesn't it, it's good if it falls within that time.
00;35;02;17 - 00;35;30;24
Unknown
But, if it does, it's. I would really, you know, you try and plan these things for like this section so we don't fall out of compliance. But, if we go over that, then we'll just missy it and put a management a change in and then extend that time. But it does involve like, you know, if we're drilling, pulling all the way out and then rounding in with a test tool now to test to be open to do all the testing, let's just say 12 hours.
00;35;30;25 - 00;35;56;16
Unknown
Yeah. You know, what are you physically doing that has to be so we'll run a test tool down. So plug the plug lands out in the world ahead. That will usually have an assembly on it with a mandrel. And then based on your closing each component and then testing it with, cement unit, so you're running a double Dutch, which is basically a two way sub.
00;35;56;18 - 00;36;15;23
Unknown
And then, yeah, you're pumping light down the back side and then testing and then we'll, we'll use a cement unit to pump up the white and then test our surface equipment. So at the same time, but yeah, basically just testing all the components of the BP and making sure that they can hold whatever pressure you've come up with.
00;36;16;00 - 00;36;37;23
Unknown
It's either determined, pressure, like the max pressure that you're going to see for that. Well, and it's kind of like you don't really think about it. It's routine. Or is it kind of like you always wonder if something's not a routine test. It's, but pressure testing is, a horrible time. Yeah. It's not a nice time.
00;36;37;23 - 00;36;58;22
Unknown
It it never goes the way that you want it to go. There's always a lot of. It feels like there's a lot of time pressure on you, because usually, you know, you've stopped to do these sorts before you're going to do something else. So yeah, just, you know, if you're chasing leaks and if it goes smoothly, then it's like, it's great.
00;36;58;22 - 00;37;26;19
Unknown
You're sitting there and you're just testing. The cement is testing and it's great, but it never goes that way. And then you just end up chasing valves and yeah, the more leaks, the more phonecalls you get, the more stress is involved. Shift gears a little bit. Are you are you on Wells today? Like, you know, we've got some of the majors that have these big centralized remote operation centers.
00;37;26;19 - 00;37;57;11
Unknown
We are wells that you're on where you've, the do you have communication and, you know, sending all the real time data back to a remote operation center for an operator? Oh. Everything's love. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, everything is live. So everything's going back to the, you know, the the client's office and everything in real time.
00;37;57;11 - 00;38;22;01
Unknown
And they. But they see a different screen. So usually they're seeing the middle of the screen. And then for us, like in Houston, I can be seeing our screen, you know, that can be live action here in Houston for what we're doing. Yeah. Everything is is live. And to the point now where they're talking about having cameras in the dog house and, you know, constantly being monitored.
00;38;22;04 - 00;38;46;21
Unknown
So a camera will be able pitched up behind you and watching everything that you do. So that hasn't come in yet and, can't wait. Yeah. Yeah. Of time. Yeah. I really hope it doesn't have a microphone on it. Because you would really hate to hear what people have to say about. Yeah, I wouldn't that would be very uncomfortable, to be honest with you, if that happened.
00;38;46;21 - 00;39;19;18
Unknown
But, it definitely sounds like it's coming, for sure. Well, let's wrap up talking about, you know, you brought up the both, you brought up that the rig counts are kind of less whether it was out in Perth or out in the Gulf here, like, is that like, you know, somewhat like the smaller companies are the majors, like, is there are we on a downfall of the rigs being out there for me, like from what I see from, from Lara's standpoint is not I wouldn't say that it was a boom, but a lot of rigs are going back to work and I'm a prime example of that.
00;39;19;18 - 00;39;47;18
Unknown
So in Australia it ended and I probably should have lost my job. But because we have our drill ships coming out of, shipyard and I just didn't have the people which allowed the opening for someone like me to get back on a cruise ship and work internationally. And there's three, 3 or 4 more drill ships coming out of shipyard, to go back to work.
00;39;47;18 - 00;40;09;20
Unknown
And if you look at the money that village in particular has spent on the rig that I'm on alone to upgrade it and to get it into that position, that tells me that they know well if it's used, even where we're going in Egypt, that there's a lot of work. The contract might be for a year at this point in time, but you do not spend the amount of money that they've spent.
00;40;09;23 - 00;40;35;00
Unknown
If for a year's work, you know. So there's definitely the international side to me is picking up from West Africa, Egypt. Those places are not Brazil especially those places aren't slowing down. Now, the UK and Australia can do whatever they like and try and ramp down all they want, but for for whatever optics I want to, you know, for however they want it to look.
00;40;35;00 - 00;41;03;22
Unknown
But from the rest of the world that ramping up and what we see, you know, we spend inherently a lot of time focusing on land rigs and, commercial land rig count for spreads. Those are much shorter cycle time type of operations and projects. So you can lay down rigs quickly and pick them back up. Offshore is inherently stickier, particularly international offshore.
00;41;03;22 - 00;41;34;00
Unknown
We have multiple contracts and those wells are what's what's kind of typical in terms of spud to TDI. For the wells that you've been on lately. Yeah. Well, I think these ones we're going to a reentry first, which is just it just has too many variables to know a time. But the well off for that is exploration lot from, you know, top to bottom and then talking like I think it was like 140 days to do that.
00;41;34;02 - 00;42;03;03
Unknown
So yeah, it depends how you do it because a lot of places will normally batch through. So they'll batch drill down to the low completion, and then finish off that. Well, some rigs will batch through batch to all the top all come back and then do all the sections down to the low completion, do all those and then come back and then gear off and just do all the other completions.
00;42;03;03 - 00;42;24;19
Unknown
So yeah, it's hard to know the timeframe on that because everything's batch. But if you go from like top to bottom, which we will be doing, he is it's like 140 days. It's and that's on paper. I got a, I got a funniest experience. Scariest experience? Yeah. You said you have stories like you're just sitting in that room all day.
00;42;24;25 - 00;42;44;25
Unknown
How interesting can I get? Well, then. Pretty interesting in Angola back really now. So we just the guy was asked, you know, can you, can you up the port. So when he goes to the port, usually just chuck the port warper around on one side and then just stand there and we'll just watch it as it comes up.
00;42;44;28 - 00;43;09;01
Unknown
When you're rotating the he just grab the plot Whopper, double wrapped it around and then held on to it like we would pull it out of the hull. And then that thing just picked him up and like, picked him up and got, I don't know how many rotations he got, but. And then just flew him across the freight, you know, across the room floor before you could even get the rotation off.
00;43;09;01 - 00;43;34;27
Unknown
He was gone. Yeah. Like, well what are you doing. And then in the same token, which this might not necessarily be the scariest, but you know, it's pretty scary once again told to warp the port and just, you know, language barrier, whatever it is. And the guys go out there and just throw the sloops in. So back, you know, rotating at 120 rpm back framing.
00;43;34;29 - 00;43;54;14
Unknown
And the only thing that saves you is that you're coming up, you know, not going down. But yeah, they just throw the slips in. So now you got the sleeps in The Hague on 140 rpm trying to get that off. As you're picking up you're compensating. Well that's pretty scary. But yeah so that's nice. Yeah. It's pretty good ones.
00;43;54;17 - 00;44;15;07
Unknown
Those are some of them. All right. Well, the only thing left to talk about, I mean, there's plenty, but is this photo and your photography, so, you know, Colin, our founder, he's he's full of, you know, being a roughneck and posting on LinkedIn and being like, you know, let's let's, like, film what we're doing. Let's show off and have some fun.
00;44;15;10 - 00;44;36;02
Unknown
And, you do it in a more classy way by taking these amazing black and white elegant photos. And, we picked out this one, which I don't know. That is you. That's me. Yeah. So you, like, set up the camera yourself, too? Nah, I got my, Because I'm always the one taking photos. So then my idea was always picking up case, you know, running in sideways.
00;44;36;05 - 00;44;52;21
Unknown
And then my idea was like, man, you're always taking photos of us, so I do. I mean, you get a couple of photos, you and you like, you know, usually I'm like, no, I don't want my photo taken, but, but yeah, so he, he, he set off and then he took some photos of me. So, so he took that photo.
00;44;52;25 - 00;45;09;27
Unknown
He actually took that photo. So we're gonna, take our money back from you, and we're gonna pay him. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a banger, man. Like we were going through all the all the things you've done, and, I mean, just the dog house is just so sick and, like, it's straight up looks like science fiction matrix, but that's real life.
00;45;10;03 - 00;45;35;19
Unknown
Yeah, that's that's a real life dog. Now, you know, I'd say that this. There we go. More now the deal is 12. We just actually upgraded this all the system and Yeah. So brand new system, big screens like, you know, I've been on drew shoots before and rigs. And when I step on this thing that that is impressive, you know, like, sort of like, feel like a kid and, you know, just it is an impressive rig.
00;45;35;19 - 00;45;57;16
Unknown
It's big. So probably one of the biggest cruise ships like that model going around that Disney model. And yeah, the dog has like, you know, brand new glass brand. You saw the system, you know, even brand new chairs in regards to the like the seats. So I look forward to getting some fresh, photos with that dog house, because that's pretty.
00;45;57;19 - 00;46;18;16
Unknown
That's pretty nice. But, yeah, I'd been extremely lucky with, villas that they even allow me to do this. Right. That might come to an end here in six months time. Because I don't think the other company will allow that to happen, but most companies would shut it down for sure. But I just wouldn't let that happen.
00;46;18;18 - 00;46;42;19
Unknown
But they have just been so supportive and, Yeah. Yeah, really supportive of of me doing and, you know, same with the crew and my upper management and yeah, I get to pursue like a hobby. And, I just think that it's so important for people to see what we do, and nobody sees what we do. Exactly. And it's very, very hidden and, like, big secret.
00;46;42;19 - 00;47;04;18
Unknown
And I don't know why. And it obviously has to do with branding or protecting the image of whatever it is. In my opinion, it's the wrong move. And that's just from someone who works in the industry. I think people should be seen. And, you know, I think these photos hopefully do a little bit of justice to that for those people.
00;47;04;25 - 00;47;30;01
Unknown
It's beautiful. What got you into it? Like, how did you were you doing it before? Like, you realize Volaris is kind of loose. It's like, that's a cool hobby or. Nah. So what happened was, is I, started traveling around Australia with, like, me and my wife. We sold everything and we brought a caravan and we took our kids, and we travel around Australia for two years while I was still working.
00;47;30;04 - 00;47;47;21
Unknown
So. And while I did that, I said, well, look, I'm gonna I really want to get into photography. And my sort of theory was if we're going to travel around with our kids and pull them out of school, then I want to document every second of it. So that's what I did. So I had all this camera gear and I was learning photography.
00;47;47;21 - 00;48;07;07
Unknown
As I was traveling around. I was lucky the all the way, that I had the time used to be modular. So we've always sort of worked together here and there. And he was not only my boss, but of also he's my friend. And he used to, you know, back in the day, it wasn't a problem to take photos.
00;48;07;10 - 00;48;24;29
Unknown
So he used to I remember he used to and he had all these photos of me when I was a roughneck. And we were discussing it one day, and I was like, we don't have any of that anymore. Why? And he was like, yeah. And I so I just brought my camera to work and instead of asking for permission, I just ask for forgiveness.
00;48;25;01 - 00;48;49;28
Unknown
So I started taking some photos and then I just edited them and then gave them to him. And then that went to the office, and then the office went, oh, we can get some, good imagery here for free. And, yeah, look, everyone's back has been scratched. And the laws of getting free images, which is great because like a lot of the marketing images for this year, all my images.
00;48;49;28 - 00;49;11;20
Unknown
So it's like, really, really cool to see that. And like I said, I get to pursue a passionate work. And also work is such a cool story. Yeah. I only have one more question though. Yeah. What's the camera? So the camera now I have three separate cameras, so I've a like a M11 monochrome, which is like my favorite camera.
00;49;11;20 - 00;49;40;12
Unknown
So that's a black and white camera. It's a film camera. No, it's not a film camera, but it is just a black and white camera. So it's a brand, like a oh, like. Okay. Yeah, yeah. And then I'll have a, like AQ2, which is a nice small point and shoot color. Really beautiful camera as well. Fix 28 millimeter lens and then I have a SL, SL to so because I knew that that would need corporate shots.
00;49;40;14 - 00;49;57;03
Unknown
So they're gonna need some color shots. So I just got the SL two as well just to cover that base. But if you could just give me one camera, I'll just take the M11 monochrome and shoot black and white for the rest of my life. But yeah, that's cool man. You guys are you have like, what's your like your biggest press.
00;49;57;03 - 00;50;23;28
Unknown
Like it's the biggest like magazine or website. Like you got any representation they use your image in. Yeah. Color on your wall. I mean you're only on so like, like vlogs have used them. And then. Yeah. A friend of mine, Chris Wilson back, and he has a company called labradoodle, and he decked out his whole office, with my images.
00;50;23;28 - 00;50;48;01
Unknown
And he was really, really supportive guy and very supportive of photos. And, he actually did his boardroom, the security, you know, the privacy glass around. I didn't even know you could do this, but he used my images as that, privacy, like a sticker. These black and white images. Man. That looks. Yeah. It's so cool. I didn't even realize you could do it.
00;50;48;04 - 00;51;11;01
Unknown
But apart from that, yeah, yeah. Not many places have, asked to use them, so. Yeah. Missing out. Well, it's it's deserved. You got anything else before we wrap it up here? Favorite places in Houston when you're here? Hell, yeah. Favorite places? I actually don't know Houston that well. So every time I come here, I just.
00;51;11;01 - 00;51;34;14
Unknown
I'm right near the Galleria, so I'm a big food fan. So I did Nobu, which we have a Nobu in Perth. So I was like, I have to do Nobu here, which I did do, but yeah, I just get absolutely smashed on the US dollar conversion. Oh my god. But anyway, it was a nice meal. Ties to Texas have to go classy.
00;51;34;14 - 00;51;57;22
Unknown
It's really close to here. Yeah. Classic ties. It ties to Texas. I mean, what about cuisine in general, right? Like, you got to, like, got to hit the Mexican and, like, barbecue. Barbecue Mexican. I did the Brazilian one last night. Like a trust area. That's where they bring out the mean. Slice it? Yeah, but as for the city, I haven't really seen much of it because I'm always, like, on a close to the night time.
00;51;57;24 - 00;52;15;11
Unknown
So I've done Topgolf. I don't even like golf, but you're almost like you need to go to top golf, all right? And that was actually pretty fun for someone who doesn't like golf. Oh, that's I think that's the point. Yeah, yeah. Houston, you'll you'll learn it has its bubbles and you really have to learn where to go. It isn't a it isn't like route the route.
00;52;15;11 - 00;52;31;03
Unknown
It's going to be Paradise. So you're going to go through ugly spots, random spots and you got you got to go with the locals. You got to figure it out. But, I like you got a good fresh start. Yeah. So next time you visit, or if we so get you this week, show you around. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00;52;31;03 - 00;52;50;02
Unknown
And I, each time I come, yeah, I really try to make a point of meeting people face to face. So last time I came, I met a guy called Sydney. I sort of put out a post, and he was the only one who replied. And, yeah, he came and met me in the hotel. I'm like, he's a big photography fan and a big like a fan.
00;52;50;02 - 00;53;15;11
Unknown
So yeah, we talked a lot three hours. And his wife said he was crazy, like, who are you meeting? And then this time, you know, there's you guys and, I'll meet up with Sydney again. And yeah, just like LinkedIn has been a great platform, for networking, but for me is like, there's nothing better than face to face and just meeting people and,
00;53;15;13 - 00;53;34;02
Unknown
Yeah. All right, man, that's cool. Well, thanks for coming out now. Thanks for having me. And always thanks for the great adventure support. You know, like, yeah, Claude has been also very, very supportive of me and my work. And you wouldn't believe how busy, editing photos and then replying to people on LinkedIn can be so,
