"Half Nerd, Half Cowboy"

That's how one of my Malaysian colleagues described our jobs as field engineers, and I can definitely start to see where he came from. I thought it was about time I showed everybody what I'm actually doing for a job, outside of driving through the desert and living in sketchy accommodations, so I've got some pics from my second job, where I spent even more time on the night shift. I finally got my ID for Saudi Aramco, which means I can start to visit offshore rigs. I'm definitely getting excited for that first call to go offshore, both for the unique experience and the helicopter ride. I've been here in Al Khobar for the last two weeks, so it's about time I get back out to the field. I also luckily got my first paycheck, which helped fund my new BlackBerry (pin: 23B9E8F0), as well as a sweet Swiss army knife.

I've also learned a couple more interesting facts about life here in the Middle East after talking with some of the younger guys:

- it costs roughly 200,000 riyals (about 53 grand) to get married, which includes paying the bride, her family in gold, and a hotel room for a month after the wedding

- men can have more than 1 wife, but are limited to 4 (wouldn't want to go overboard), and Saudi Arabia's first king had 22

- everybody seems genuinely happy to see each other every morning, which makes work way more tolerable

- camel's milk is apparently an extremely potent aphrodisiac

- families are huge (I've met not one, but 2 guys who have at least 12 brothers and more than 1 sister)

Anyway, these pics should give you an idea of what i'm actually doing:

My segment of SLB uses the tools seen here. That big string that is going up to the rig at about 45 degrees is our Coiled Tubing.

We use the tubing to pump fluids/gases down into the well in order to do provide the clients with a variety of solutions. If you actually want to learn about this, just shoot me an email (jmacguid@gmail.com)

I'm next to the giant spool that holds our tubing. In case you're wondering, that rig is probably 175-200 feet tall.

Inside the control cabin, where we monitor all of the data for our tools.

Half nerd

I've gotta hand it to Saudi Arabia. They have some marvelous sunsets out in the desert. Pictures really don't do them justice.

One of my Saudi buddies, Ali.

Who says oil isn't eco-friendly? Don't worry, nothing's on fire. That's called 'flaring,' which is basically a way to relieve pressure in the well by venting the fluids/gasses that are downhole. If you're flaring diesel, it tends to ignite. 

Flaring also leaves a nice healthy trail of black all across the desert.

First picture taken with my blackberry.

Doing a nitrogen transfer. Liquid nitrogen is -320 degrees Fahrenheit, so we have to use to extra safety precautions. We use nitrogen by converting it to gas and sending it downhole to help stimulate the well.

I guess if you've worked in the company for 30 years, you don't need the extra gear.

Afternoon at the corniche, which is kind of like the beach/boardwalk in Al Khobar

Cricket game

Totally reminds me of Men in Black

First steps in the Persian Gulf

Another mosque

Lots of guys fishing

I need to stop trying to be artistic

Cool restaurant along the corniche

 Hope everyone back home is doing well! Glad to see Michigan took a turn in the right direction, inshallah (Arabic for 'God-willing.' People say it every third sentence here).

2010: Quite a Year

Today I finally got back from my second job and decided it was appropriate to dwell on the amazingly unique year I've been lucky enough to have enjoyed. After having some time to think about it, 2010 for me was absolutely a year of transition. I called it my redshirt year and it definitely started out with extreme anticipation/uncertainty about the future (and with a fantastic New Years Eve party). By the onset of 2010, I had interviewed with Westinghouse, Raytheon, Eaton, Lombardi, and Schlumberger, but hadn't received any offers. I decided to take the GRE (standardized test for grad schools, especially engineering ones) in case the immediate job market was less than promising. Plus the scores were good for 5 years so I could always use them to go back to school even after working in the real world for a while.

It was around this time that dad floated the idea of doing a project for Michigan CAT that would utilize some of the skills I developed as an industrial engineer. I decided it was probably good to get busy. I had been lounging around Ann Arbor, occasionally working out, watching classic movies, practicing piano, and studying my GRE vocabulary. So I decided to take a crack at it.

Then on a casual drive home from the Detroit Auto Show with Kotwick and Hayes, I got a phone call from an unknown number, but I recognized the area code to be that of Houston, TX. Then I proceeded to learn that Schlumberger was willing to make me an offer for field work and I got to choose my location. My options were Egypt, Kuwait, and Oman. I hadn't really entertained the thought of working in the Middle East at that point, so I kept my questions simple: which one paid the most? The answer: Oman. Sign me up!

So with a November start date in ink, I started working for Oak Adaptive, a software company that works hand-in-hand with Michigan CAT to upgrade the software they used to conduct business, developing presentations that showed how Michigan CAT had really improved their business processes using Oak. I was re-united with a lot of the people I had worked with when I was just summer help and I forged some very good new relationships as well. I also had been in contact with an engineer who was working in Oman and found out a lot about the location I'd be at. 6 weeks on and 3 weeks off for a rotation, housing and food provided, a healthy salary coefficient, and 40% of the engineers would be women. Sounds great right? I certainly thought so.

I finished up my Oak project and moved out of Ann Arbor at roughly the same time (I was extremely lucky that the project ended literally a week before my lease was up in AA). I then embarked on a fantastic backpacking journey through Europe with two of my best friends from UofM, Kotwick and Hayes. We managed to step foot in France, Italy, the Vatican, Germany, Czech Republic, Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Spain (and even Belgium and Sweden, but only for stopovers). It was simply awesome. We met a ton of really interesting people, stayed in some sketchy hostels, enjoyed a couple sleepless nights, saw absolutely priceless and famous works of art, sampled local foods from each of the 16 cities we visited, and even met up with our friend Audrey in Berlin. We each went skydiving from 14000 feet, bungee jumping from 450 feet, and canyoning for what felt like 8 hours (feel free to ask me specifically about that one). We had moments where we hated each other, moments of unadulterated joy, and in the end it was truly a once-in-a-lifetime trip.

This took me to the middle of 2010. I lounged around Bloomfield for a couple weeks, passionately followed the World Cup, enjoyed an epic week up north for the 4th, and did some yard work for the fam before yet another fortunate project landed in my lap. Michigan CAT needed someone to help with their undercarriage business. So once again, I laced up my loafers and trekked out to Novi for round 2 of my real world transition. I was able to get an even better appreciation for the people of Michigan CAT during the next 3 months as I got close to everyone I worked with. I can safely say I had multiple women offering their daughters up to me for marriage (don't worry Leandra, you're still #1).

The timing of this project also could not have been better. Hayes was working down in Argentina and was planning a 2 week trek across that fine country. I had promised him during our Eurotrip that I would visit him during his stint south of the equator. After my CAT project ended, I hopped aboard a flight down to South America. I met up with Hayes and one of his old internship buddies in Mendoza, and we managed to visit 5 cities in 14 days, including the beautiful capital, Buenos Aires. We saw Iguazu Falls (think 'Niagara on Viagra'), went whale watching off Puerto Madryn, met penguins in Punta Tombo, sampled wines and steaks in Mendoza, learned how to play polo in Buenos Aires, and experienced unrivaled and breathtaking views of Patagonia in Bariloche. It was my second foray into an uncharted continent in 2010, and although it lacked the duration of our Eurotrip, it certainly was not devoid of quality.

This took me to Halloween and the final 3 weeks before I packed up to permanently ship overseas. It also brought me to the realization that the Omani visa hadn't gone through and that I would begin my Schlumberger career in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I knew I needed to make the most of my last couple weeks, so I spent a lot of time with friends and family and made a couple trips back to Ann Arbor to witness Michigan's embarrassing football spiral back into mediocrity, as well as SAE's continued dominance in the mud. I then said sayonara to America for a while and began my life in the oilfields of the Middle East.

So 2010 was pretty hectic at times, but by far the most interesting 365 days I've had in my life. I stepped foot on 3 new continents. Here in North America, I made trips to Chicago, Philadelphia, and Houston to visit friends and family. I saw 3 lovely couples tie the knot. I made plenty of new friends, got closer with many old ones, and unfortunately got further apart with some too. I've seen places I literally only dreamed about, and met people from all corners of the globe, of all creeds and colors, which can only be a good thing for one's growth.

At this point you might be thinking, "damn, Jeff likes to talk about himself." Well A: duh! and B: everything I experienced and everything I saw and everything I did was only even conceivable because of the support of my family and friends.  Everyone reading this blog has contributed in some positive way to my life, and in return I want to share my experiences with you (hence the blog).  Some people offered financial support, others moral support, advice, an open ear, a friendly beer, and a myriad of other ways to keep our relationships healthy. I can only hope that this year I've reciprocated even 1% of the happiness I've found through all of you, because 2010 was ONLY possible and enjoyable because of you.

I want to extend special thanks to my parents for allowing me to burden them financially for a few final months before I left, even though I know the toll on Mickey is probably much more! Thanks to B Henry, Parke, Sarah and Hubie, and Uncle Keith for continually providing me with unnecessarily copious amounts of alcohol in the weeks that preceded my departure, if only to insure that the lingering effects of those hangovers would be enough to get me through the months of sobriety I'd have to endure. Thanks Sara for giving me an idea of what the hell I'd be getting into over here in the desert. Thanks to the Michigan CAT crew for keeping me sane during my hours of mindless trudging through CTS.

And to the rest of you, thanks for your support. Trust me, it helps to know that people back home still care about you when you're spending endless night shift hours in the middle of the desert on an oil rig. A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! (I spent my new year's still on the rig, watching Al-Jazeera tv with one of my Syrian co-workers; quite different than the Chicago trip the year before).

May 2011 return the good graces that you shed upon me in 2010. So long for now!

PS, as I finished writing this, I saw both the UofM and MSU bowl scores. Shame...

First job

I need to first apologize in advance. This will be an abbreviated post, since I just found out that I only have 7.5 hours until I leave for my next job, which means i will have had less than 36 hours from the end of one job to the start of another. Time certainly flies. It also means I will once again have no internet out on the rig and this job will probably last for at least a week and likely closer to 2, meaning another post is highly unlikely

Life has certainly been exciting though. I finally got to go to my first job. The way SLB works is our clients request services for their oilfield and then we drive out to their rig and perform the services. So far, I've only been at our base, cleaning and learning about the tools. Now, I now finally got to see everything in action.

I decided it's probably easier if I just let the captions to the pictures do the story-telling. And I'm running short on time and still need to re-pack and all that.

The start of my drive from the airport to the rig. Literally the only thing we saw was a pipeline

Your thoughts on being 20km from Iraq?

Yup, pretty much nothingness

The Rig!!

The accomodations. I got my own room.

Rig at night. PS, it gets unnecessarily cold at night in the desert

View from the rig. Serious desert.

These containers were the accomodations

No toilet seat...

To Mike Lazzara: this might've been the best gift ever. I worked night shift on the rig and the guys I worked with fell in love with this flashlight. They were absolutely mesmerized and hadn't seen anything like it!

Getting ready for the 1200km drive back to Al Khobar

I really am impressed with the beauty of alot of the mosques.

First sit-on-the-ground meal in Saudi

Genie in a bottle?

Just like Argentina: stray dogs everywhere. Somewhere Bob Barker is bawling his eyes out.

Camel herders were all over the highways. Apparently roughly 3 camels are worth 1 automobile.

Camping season

I couldn't tell if people were camping there or actually lived there

Don't think they have those in the US

Like I said, sorry for the brief post, but Merry Christmas everybody!

Settling In

Now that i'm into my third week in Saudi, I've started to settle into the job, which is nice. I think any culture shock has definitely worn off, since I'm pretty much used to just not seeing women's faces and being sober for weeks on end.  My days start early, usually about 5:30am, where a cold shower is followed by reading the news and eating saudi fruit loops (not nearly as good as the american ones, but better than sand). We get picked up at the housing complex and get to the base by 7, where we are greeted daily by the Saudi military guards, who thoroughly inspect the car. Apparently about 6 years ago, some terrorists attacked a building that SLB people worked in. Since then, security's been way more strict. Don't worry everybody, I haven't felt unsafe yet!

We have a meeting every morning and then it's basically me working in the yard with the operators, in what is essentially a glorified construction worker's role. Doing lifting, cleaning, hammering, fixing, and generally getting involved with all the tools I will be using out in the field. The guys I've been working with are pretty cool and try to be helpful when I ask them questions. They also come from all over. Lots of Saudi's, Egyptians, Syrians and Filipinos, a few Pakistanis, Tunisians and Yemenis, a Canadian, and a couple of people from Russia, Argentina, Sudan, China, Malaysia, and Bahrain. Pretty diverse crew overall. Some days I get stuck behind a computer, which generally sucks because I could be doing that back in the states. It doesn't suck, however, when there's a huge sandstorm outside, such as yesterday when I had my first experience with such a phenomenon. Even though my total time outside was probably no more than 15 minutes, I still managed to get covered with sand and get tremendously chapped lips.

Every day I grab lunch, which usually involves inhaling multiple PB&J's that I packed, and then back to the yard again until about 5, when the van takes us back to the complex. Then it's cooking dinner for myself and doing more online training. The training is actually quite interesting, since just yesterday, I finally learned how a combustion engine works (so much for having an ENGINEering degree). There's a comical amount to learn, so every night I need to study. Just because college is done doesn't mean school's done.

I also found out I'll be going out to jobs soon, which is where the real fun starts. Unfortunately, I still have to wait for an ID from Saudi Aramco, the massive national oil company of the Kingdom that also produces about 75% of the country's revenue. The more exposure I get to the tools and the more confidence people have in me, the more jobs I will see, which can only help.

I also got to participate in some pretty cool training the last 2 Saturdays. First was H2S training. For those of you who don't know, H2S (or hydrogen sulfide) is a gas that is sometimes released from oil wells, especially in the Middle East, and can be deadly at certain concentrations. I learned basically how to operate gas masks, and the masks and tanks that firefighters take into burning buildings. This past Saturday, I did Offshore Survival, the bulk of which involved what to do if your helicopter crashes, along with sea survival. Helicopter is the only way to get to most offshore rigs, so I learned how to survive if our chopper goes down. This was actually pretty awesome. After lectures, they took us to this big indoor pool where they had a helicopter shell (roughly the size of our den, see pic below) attached to a cable.

basically what our 'helicopter' looked like

We climbed into the shell, strapped in, and they proceeded to submerge the tank completely! Count to seven, unbuckle, punch out the window, and get to the surface. Sounds easy, right? Well it gets more difficult when they not only submerge you, but spin the shell completely upside down to simulate capsizing. This was certainly more challenging because you get a lot of water in your nose while upside-down, and you basically have no idea whats going on until you hit the surface off the water and inflate the life jacket. Either way, it was cool, and since I'm not the world's greatest swimmer, I know I can at least probably get out alive.

I've had some interesting conversations the last couple weeks too including hearing the Pakistani viewpoint of Wikileaks, learning every possible way to handle the Saudi toilet situation, and giving a facebook tutorial for one of my Omani friends and trying to explain why he shouldn't put 'Interested in' both Men and Women, even though he put Looking For both 'Friendship' and 'A Relationship.' I guess in the Middle East, some things are just assumed.

Ok, here's a couple pictures of life since my last post. Enjoy!

the cowboy safety shoes might look sweet, but trust me, they're not

Kotwick and the Omani bros experiencing some Arabic pizza (ps. delicious)

BBQ for the dudes at our compound

Thank God the customs dude didn't confiscate my A-1 sauce

apparently they're more comfortable than jeans

(sober) gazebo party

Great view, eh buddy?

Trainees...

view outside the housing

Who can read arabic?......It's Krispy Kreme!

Giant shopping cart outside the Hyperpanda, the Saudi equivalent of Wal-Mart

facial hair after 1 week

Facial hair after 2 weeks. yikes

sandstorm

Look like fog? Nope, it's all sand