When I Worked in the jungles of Irian Jaya in the 1970’s (Indonesian half of New Guinea)

A sketch I made of one of the rigs I worked on in the jungle.

In the 1970’s, Irian Jaya was still one of the most primitive places left on earth. I worked on exploritory, heliportable (no roads, so the drilling rigs were broken down into 4,000 lb sling loads and moved by helicopter) primarily in the Asmat area. This is where Rockefeller went missing in the late 50’s and was believed to be killed by headhunters.

I always carried pen and ink to capture local culture and my environment. I gave the above sketch to a Canadian driller as he finished his contract and was heading home.

Typically, a base camp was set up on a river. Equipment was brought in by barge and off loaded there. A drilling site was preselected within a 20 mile radius of the base. People with chainsaws would clear enough jungle so a bulldozer in multiple pieces could be flown in and assembled. After clearing was complete, the substructure and rig would be flown in piece by piece.

Below was a fax we sent headquarters indicating our multi-million dollar operation was stopped by 20 natives with bows and arrows.

One of the natives primary sources of protein was from grub worms they cultivated from sago palm trees they cut. Naturally, this was where the oil company decided to drill. An agreement was made and drilling began. One night an Indonesian rig hand jokingly told a native that we were going to move during the night and not pay them (moving took many months). The next morning the rig was surrounded by natives dressed for battle.

Made perfect sense to me:

A multi-million dollar operation shut down by 20 natives with bows and arrows wanting to be paid for grub worms. Not something you see everyday.

A sketch I made of one of the natives. Even then, they were still very war-like. We had a similar issue while we were working for TOTAL (oil company out of France). We were just rigging up on a new site when natives from the surrounding area came out of the jungle and demanded a sack of rice for the use of their land. Seemed fair to me, but The oil company refused to pay (saying they might want something else next time) so we were shut down again with bows and arrows. Eventually they were given their rice and we resumed drilling operations. Should never have happened

Flaring a well after reaching total depth in order to help determine it production capabilities.

My family and I lived in Singapore at the time. For crew change, we were flown on a chartered small jet to an island off of Irian Jaya. A twin engine prop plane would pick us up and fly us several hours into the jungle, landing on a short, makeshift runway. A helicopter would meet us and take us further into the jungle. We would leave Singapore around 7:30 in the morning and arrive on the rig around 4 in the afternoon. At the time, most of the jungle we flew over was still uncharted topography.