Where oil rigs go to die
theguardian.com
theguardian.com
> I asked him if it ever seemed a pity to break up such monumental and characterful structures. Did he look at Winner in the way that I had come to look at her, in the way her former crew looked at her, as something dignified? Sari said the only emotion he could feel about Winner was relief, when she was gone, on schedule. But not long ago, he acknowledged, he had had a wobble. It was over those two young Ensco rigs – Ensco 6003 and 6004 – that had come out of Brazilian waters. When Sari won the right to scrap them, he took the unusual decision to sail the rigs under their own power from South America to Turkey. “I piloted one myself, for the last mile to Aliaga. I wanted to try it out.” Sari mimed adjusting thrusters, striking buttons. “Everything was like new, all the controls.” They demolished Ensco 6003 and 6004 over the course of about 10 weeks. “Beautiful machines. Beautiful machines,” Sari said.
Afterwards, To get a better appreciation of how dangerous the job of ship breaking actually is, I looked for some videos.
"Scrapped: Chittagong Cutters" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fqrRhqv0Iw
"The Ship Breakers" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdYK2vb6McE
We were all surprised how fast they went. Not fast fast, but in the space of 10 minutes, or so, could clear several hundred meters; the visual comprehension that something we know can move but should not, is. A contradiction of logic and intuition.
I've lived in Chicago for my entire life, and I often think about how amazing it is that we as people have constructed things as large as skyscrapers and highways. But oceangoing vessels can be just as large, and they move.
Then again, in that respect, it has similarities with many other kinds of labor as well.
It's fascinating to see that, though challenging, the owners in this case were persuaded by factors other than just money, and this work was performed at a place that appeared decidedly less dystopian than what you see on the tidal beaches of Southeast Asia.
Great article, though. This is the long-form content I like to read. It informs by painting scenes and portraying moods. It's not just obligatory anecdotes, but prose that takes you there, makes you see an issue through the different players' eyes, and makes you think.
"The power of habbit" showed that once you got safety pinned down you can expect for it to spill over in other parts of person life.
As far as I'm aware, this is how the North Sea sector (which has hundreds of rigs that will eventually need decommissioning) is regulated. Environmental and occupational standards are rigorous.
One of the segments, Brothers, is about the Gadani shipbreaking yards in Pakistan: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xr722r_working-man-s-death-...
The other episodes are worth watching too, particularly the Indonesian sulphur mine and the Nigerian butchery. The first of these is also a tourist attraction, and they film tourists doing it for kicks while the workers talk about seeing their friends make a single misstep, fall into a sulphur pit and boil to death in front of their eyes.
Will try to check back on this thread in 30 minutes if anybody has questions that I can answer.
Edit: just checked, no questions. At work in a few minutes so I won't have time now.
And how advanced were the electronic systems on these rigs? I suppose they had to run everything from SCADA through to heating for accommodation blocks?
It depends. Satelite was often a fallback. When they where moored and in operation they would often use microwave-link to a nearby "access point" (another more permanent rig with fiber connection to shore).
And how advanced were the electronic systems on these rigs? I suppose they had to run everything from SCADA through to heating for accommodation blocks?
I only know about the radio and radar systems. I would describe the ones I supported as reasonably simple except for the fact that signals had to pass through a number of networks belonging to our customers, our customers suppliers and even competitors before reaching their destinations.
Many years ago I trained as an industrial electrician but programming was my first love, eventually moved into software development but I still miss some of the more fun bits of been a sparky.
No, I didn't write any of this software.
Many years ago I trained as an industrial electrician but programming was my first love, eventually moved into software development but I still miss some of the more fun bits of been a sparky.
I tried to become an electronic engineer but ended up in computer systems. I'm hoping to pick up the arduino together with my children soon though.
The awarding of contracts for deep sea drilling should be tied too responsible clean up
For some platforms you're absolutely correct; those with gravity-base foundations whose foundations were used for hydrocarbon storage are a technical and environmental nightmare. Unfortunately it's damned if you do, damned it you don't; removing them completely risks catastrophic spillage, leaving it in place also risks damage in decades to come. It was regretfully not well-considered in the wild west days of offshore drilling when many of these concrete-base platforms were installed.
Many (most, but I haven't checked the numbers) other platforms are supported by steel towers, and these did not use their foundations for any sort of chemical storage. By law (in the North Sea at least) when these are removed they must be fully removed. Challenging, but not a considerable environmental risk.
One is mobile and needs to sail around the world. The other is stationary and will stay in one place.
How the heck does one become a "salvage master"?
I guess it has more to do with the fact that there are a ton of jobs out there that are mostly "unknown" by ordinary people. Maybe it also has to do with location (ie, you're more likely to know about the idea of being a "salvage master" if you live near any place that has such companies as employers).
At the same time I wondered "did she wake up one day and decide to become a salvage master?" - and how do you go about doing that?
There are many jobs like this, all with somewhat obscure titles; some you can see how someone might fall into this line of work (ie - working up the ranks, or horizontal transition from another area, etc) - but others seem like they'd require such a strange set of disparate skills (as is alluded to in the article) that you have to wonder just how one lands that kind of work?
It's not for me (though the idea of world hopping to supervise and assess ships for salvage does have a certain "romantic" appeal - but I know that's a false idea) - but obviously it is for others. How they get such a position, though, is the question in my head...
https://careers.boskalis.com/testimonials/sylvia-tervoort/
I found the description of her character fascinating. It reminded me of another character whose book I read years ago:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004RVNHYE/
Freighter Captain, by Max Hardberger. Here's his wikipedia:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-3974...
After reading this article I actually had to check it wasn't by her - both of the authors have a similarly wonderful style of melancholy prose.
I find interesting that by even reading about boats one tends to humanize them but it seems to not happen with planes and cars.
Probably it has to do with the long relations kept by crews and the ships they sail in.
Some boats become decade long institutions, and living aboard a 'thing' that is dynamic and alive with motion is probably very emotive.
Even small sailing vessels are often designed to be lived aboard and occupied for days or weeks on end.
Cars and planes can be very transient in comparison.
Sure, most people I know don't care about their cars, it's just a thing they use every day. But go to any car enthusiast meet and they will tell you how their car has its own character(and usually has a name too).
- an old, cheap rig may be nearing the end of (or has surpassed) its fatigue lifetime. Corrosion, subsiding into the soil, etc. are all factors too. It might be outright unsafe to occupy.
- expanding one platform into others or into an artificial island is a monumentally expensive and challenging task; it's not going to happen for some fantastical micronation project.
Oh, come now, just string up some rope bridges between them and hunker down on your platform when the weather gets choppy. You need to play some Zelda games or watch Waterworld to expand your imagination!
- these rigs being decommissioned are quite possibly structurally less safe and have not been upgraded or designed with the safety features of more modern rigs
- there's limited accomodation space
Or, if you were suggesting that they might be repurposed once near/ashore:
- there's plenty of existing disused space that could be converted to housing;
- decommissioning often means breaking the rig into pieces to be brought to shore, so the expensive cleaning and reconfiguration necessary to turn it into a shelter might not even be possible with a bunch of rig "chunks"
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-03/that-time...