Jan 30 2010
Up High on an Oil Rig
I’ve always been fascinated by mega structures and oil rigs is definitely one of them. Ken invited me to go for the christening of the oil rig project he was working on with Ensco. Yup the same peeps who hosted the NYE yacht-party.
So there. Ensco 8052. His baby. It is so huge, my lens is simply not wide enough.
The christening of an oil rigs is very much similar to how a newborn baby is baptised in a church. Similarly, a baby’s christening is also known as the naming ceremony. So on that day, Ensco 8052 was officially named.
That was the pastor giving his blessings to Ensco 8052. A short heartening prayer was offered. Wondered if other religious man will be engaged if the client is not American.
Anyway a highlight of the christening was when the very important lady, Ms Cambria Reinsborough pressed a button and a champagne bottle was smashed onto the hull of the rig signifying the start of a glorious for this vessel. Ah this ritual is very important because apparently maritime superstition held that a ship that wasn’t properly christened would be considered unlucky and a champagne bottle that didn’t break was a particularly bad omen. Anyway all went well and with the most enthusiastic round of applause and a brief shower of rainbow confetti, Ensco 8052 is off to a good start!
Can you spot the champagne bottle? By the way, when I told Ken that using a button to smash the champagne bottle seemed to spoil the fun. I felt that the ceremony will be more kick-ass if the lady smashed the bottle manually. Then he told me about the Curse of Camilla. Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall was the honored lady who christened a passenger ship in 2007 and the bottle didn’t break. Turned out the first few cruises were marred by a vomiting bug which afflicted passengers. Hor hor. He also mentioned that the infamous Titanic was launched without a christening ceremony. Ok point taken.
Ah I can’t stop admiring this mighty rig. Isn’t that magnificent? Woah my eyes practically gaped in amazement. I was so fascinated by the super huge structure! Fyi those slender columns you see will be submerged under water when Ensco 8052 start drilling the seabeds for oil/gas. The idea of these columns supporting a platform deck at a significant height above the sea surface is kinda freaky to me.
Felt so tiny when I stand next to that humongous rig. Even the ropes I saw was monstrous.
And I was told to be wary of the thruster. lol.
Ben, pls. I know what you’re thinking. No. Not hard gay. The thruster I meant works just like a propeller. It pushes the vessel and is meant to keep the rig in a fixed position when the environment condition becomes extreme. According to wiki, an oil rig is used to house workers and machinery needed to drill wells in the ocean bed, extract oil and/or natural gas, process the produced fluids, and ship or pipe them to shore. That’s a mouthful isn’t it?
Oil rig 101.
Ensco 8052 is a Semi Submersible rig which floats and stay upright. I guess this type of platform is good for urgent projects because it could drill a hole in the seabed then quickly moves to the next location. If you are interested to know more about oil rigs, check out this wiki entry on oil platforms. Personally, I think the jack-up rig is pretty interesting.
After the ceremony, came the tour which I am so excited about! Personally, climbing up the stairs was a scary enough. The horrifying wire cage elevator was worst. It jerks unexpectedly and I almost thought I’m going to fly out of it just like how Charlie flew out of Willy Wonka’s glass elevator.
After surviving the terrifying elevator ride, I landed on a large deck. Everything was perfectly fine until I looked up. I was a little perturbed by the steel beams. Ok maybe perturbed is an understatement.
Getting more and more paranoid that this thing will land on me, I escaped to the control room. Couldn’t make sense of the buttons though it looked simpler than those dashboards we normally see on spaceships in sci-fi movies. Coolness.
Goofing around at the living quarters. Guess what, there’s also a gym and a TV room with a huge LCD TV on board!
Popped by the pantry for drinks and muffins. Finally I could take off the helmet.
That’s the end of the indoor tour and we were directed out to the open again. Wacky photo moment with me and darling Sok Hui.
Ting-ling-ling lunch is ready! Lol. I’m pretty sure that’s not the purpose of this bell. We also shared some fun moments at the helipad. Especially when Timmy decided to propose! So sweet!
Haha It was just for fun! He already proposed to Nic, his lovely fiancé weeks ago I think. But nonetheless, it was still laudable act. Haha. Just like a typical scene from some Mediacorp drama. If you recall, Keppel did ran a drama series on Channel 8 featuring Christopher Lee with hideous white hair.
Before I end my post, I want to say that I’m proud of Ken being part of this project. Silly-billy looked very happy in the following picture.
Though the science behind how you guys put this astounding thing together still baffles me, I’m aware of the loads of man hours took to build this. This explained the extra hours/OT you needed to put in. All is forgiven. (:
At times, Cablenazi have to go offshore for couple days to run checks on the equipments and I wish I can get him to smuggle me into the cabin! Can’t whine to him for couple of days is quite torturous. I heard that one of his friends is involve in a floatel project! A floating hotel! Would you like to spend a night at a floatel? Could you imagine the excitement and drama of the oil adventure, life on board an oil rig? Honestly, I don’t mind the experience! Sounds fun! Imagine wearing the white telly-tubby overall and walking around pretending to be an engineer for a day. lol. I’ll probably drive my colleagues crazy.
Though interesting to the uninitiated, the nature of an oil rig’s operation — extraction of volatile substances sometimes under extreme pressure in a hostile environment — means risk, accidents, and tragedies occasionally occur. Now it seems pretty scary isn’t it?
(:
Thanks Ken for the invite and all the guides on the tour for your sharing. Well done folks for the successful delivery.
I like this entry. It is fun to read on a Sunday noon.
Glad you liked it! It was a fun tour.