I've only come for a look !

"Here's a beauty"

A few years ago when times were different and red tape didn't encircle the world, I went out to Abu Dhabi for an interview for quite a large and promising drilling company. I'm posting this just to let the younger generation know how things rolled in those days, and certainly not for blowing my own trumpet....

Here goes.....

I went to Abu Dhabi for an interview with Mr. X who was the GM for XXX, all went well and he said that he wanted me to go and have a look at the latest job site which was currently about to pull pipe. I went along with Mr. X who dropped me off at the site, and immediately I noticed that the rig was at the wrong angle for the pipes that were breaking off on the jaws. Anyway after I'd been introduced to the guy in charge Mr. Y, I mentioned the rig angle and the pipes springing off when broken, anyway, I said I'd change the angle for him which I did, dressed in my Sunday best interview clothes, then after about ten joints in I noticed that the dead man on the rig was moving, so I advised?Mr. Y?that we'd better stop now and sort out the dead man, this I did with help of two very good Philippino welders who helped me to weld the Larsen piles to the rig. Anyway, another five joints in you could see that the dead man was not going to hold. I suggested to Mr. Y that we stop the job now before we were too far into the hole with the pipe in case we lost the dead man and stuck the pipe. Anyway along with the welders we pulled the dead man to pieces and found that whoever had prepared the dead man had used two Larsen pile sheets which were only two feet into the ground, and an 8"?I beam !??As you can imagine, whoever had prepared this had no idea of the tonnage involved in pulling a thousand meters of 52" pipe into the ground with an HK 400 ton pull rig. I then suggested to Mr. Y?that we find a large I?beam of at least two feet by twenty so that I could build a real dead man for the size of the rig. Anyway after a great effort from the welders we had created a decent-looking dead man, but unfortunately due to the rock beneath the rig, and hence the lack of depth to the piles, it was a very dicey situation. Whoever set this up should have been roasted !?They should have bore piled the rock, then set the dead man, but they didn't. Anyway, that was the situation that I was faced with, fifteen joints in and a dead man which I really didn't have too much faith in. We commenced operations again and I suggested to?Mr. Y?that he stay in the drill cab with the drillers, and keep it calm, with no violent operations, nice and smooth and consistent.

Anyway as the evening went on I realized that I was going to need some more hold on the rig so I went and asked the boss from Gazprom (The Client) with hand signals and pointing as he didn't speak English?if I could borrow two side booms with their operators. He agreed, I then chained the two together to the rig and coordinated the operations of the side booms with the movement of the rig.?This carried on for forty-two hours until the pull head came up and all was ok....... Mr. X came to the site as the pipe was pulled, the client turned up and thanked me for what I had done with a big grin on his face, and Mr. X under instruction from the company owner hired me on the spot.?If Gazprom had known that I was only there for an interview and that I did not work for anybody there, and if we'd lost that pipe, no doubt I'd of been on my own in a very small cell in Abu Dhabi......?So after 42?hours of constant work organizing the equipment to be able to?wrestle the pipe out of the ground, I think I'd had a pretty unique interview......?Ticked all the boxes without even seeing anyone from HR......

The moral of the story is........ Always take your boots and overalls as you never know what's coming next....... Mr. Y was a fantastic bloke to work with, who took advice without offense and didn't let his ego get in the way. I believe he's still out there pulling pipes...... What a laugh.......