Monday, November 9, 2009

Working at Rig 30, Kuwait

Monday, September 14, 2009

What is Oil and Gas Drilling?

Oil and natural gas has been found in geologic strata of Earth from the surface to depths exceeding 30,000 ft (9,144 m). Bogs and seeps in the ancient world were the initial source of oil and gas. As advancing economic systems and industries emerged with the development of nations and expanding populations, the need for plentiful and more efficient sources of energy were required. Hydrocarbon based fuels emerged as that more efficient energy source replacing wood, peat, and whale oil as primary sources of energy. As demand for energy increased it became necessary to gain access to deposits of oil and gas below those readily accessible on Earth's surface.
In the United States, one of the best-known oil seeps was at Titusville, Pennsylvania, and it was there that, in the eighteenth century, American entrepreneur, George H. Bissell, directed his attention. He hired a former railway conductor, Edwin L. Drake (1819–1880), to drill for oil, and on August 27, 1859, the oil well struck oil ("pay dirt" in the language of the drillers) at a depth of only 70 ft (21 m). The oil industry had begun. This market would prove to be international in scope and have seemingly limitless potential, thus drilling for oil became a very serious and sometimes very rewarding business.
Geologists and engineers had been drilling for water for quite some time and initially applied and adapted that technology in the early search for oil. The ancient Chinese practiced the simplest form of penetrating Earth by employing the "percussion method." The percussion or impact method penetrates the overlying earth by raising and dropping a heavy tool repeatedly in the same spot to break the dirt and rock enabling it to be removed or bailed out of the hole. The impact drilling technique was used to drill the first oil well in Pennsylvania, and it employed a chisel-like bit suspended from a cable to a lever on the surface. The up-and-down motion of the lever pounded the bit into the bottom of the hole and slowly chipped away pieces of rock. This was a slow process that had to be stopped periodically to remove the rock chips from the hole. For this method to work, the hole also had to be free of liquids, and it was this "dry" drilling that usually resulted in the "gushers" as often depicted in movies as a successful oil well strike. Before the advent of well control technology, gushers were a common and hazardous event.
Today, almost all oil wells are drilled by the rotary method. The rotary drilling method was first developed in Europe in the 1930s and soon replaced the percussion or cable-tool system. The method takes its name from the fact that a bit is rotated into the earth. The bit cuts or drills its way down. Rotary drilling equipment is complex, and a full course of study in its own right, but the essential components of a rotary drilling rig include: a rotary table, a bit, the drill string, a derrick, drawworks, mud handling system, prime movers and drill line.
A rotary table is a platform with a rotating device through which the drill string is passed into the hole that can be mechanically engaged with the drill string to cause it to rotate on bottom. Today, rotation is often provided by a "top drive" or "power swivel" mechanism fixed to the upper end of the drill string instead. A rotary bit may come in many configurations designed specifically for the type of rock it is to drill through but will typically have several roller cones with teeth of hardened metal and or industrial grade diamonds. When forced against and rotated on a rock surface, the bit shatters the rock into "cuttings."
The modern drill string is the pipe that is used to extend the drill bit into the borehole and may contain drill collars for added weight, sophisticated monitoring and surveillance equipment to provide real time information back to the surface and guidance systems.

The derrick is the frame structure from which the drill string in suspended on the drill line using a system of pulleys known as the "crown" and "traveling" blocks when working in the borehole. The drawworks or hoist is the key piece of equipment on the rig and is used to raise and lower the drill string and control the weight being applied by the drill bit on the rock face on bottom.
Rotary drilling may be performed under certain conditions with compressed air being circulated down the drill string and back to the surface through the annular space between the pipe and the rock wall. However, the more typical well requires a heavier fluid system to be circulated into and out of the hole to cool and lubricate the bit, flush rock cuttings out of the hole, to stabilize the borehole, control fluid loss into the penetrated rock and to contain formation pressure. This fluid is referred to as "mud." Originally that is exactly what it was in relatively simple shallow drilling operations—but very complex fluid systems are now required for the safe and efficient construction of most wells. The mud handling system is a series of tanks, pumps, valves, pipes and hoses that enables the mud to be pumped into the drill string, out the drill bit and circulated back to the surface in a controlled manner. The prime movers are the power source of the rig and may be diesel or natural gas fired engines, electric motors or a combination of engines and generators.
"Turbo-drilling" has proven to be an effective approach under special requirements governed by well depths and configurations. A turbo-drill is a mud driven turbine that is placed just above the drill bit in the drill string. The mud flowing through the turbine causes the bit to rotate without rotating the entire drill string back to the surface thus saving wear and tear on the borehole and the drill string itself. Most early wells drilled as relatively straight holes directly down below the surface location. Today a fair percentage of wells are directionally drilled to subsurface locations from a remote or common surface location for a variety of environmental and economic reasons. This is especially the case in offshore and marine environments where surface facilities are quite limited, restricted and extremely costly.
As a well is advanced toward its objective it becomes necessary to hold the hole open and to ensure the isolation of various substrata from one another. This is accomplished by lining the borehole with "casing" or pipe. The size and quality of the pipe and the number of strings to be run is determined by the target depth, anticipated producing characteristics of the well and geologic environment to be penetrated by the well. At shallow depths, surface pipe may be driven into the ground and cemented in place. One or more intermediate casing strings may be run to various depths as required by conditions within the borehole. Sometimes a liner or short casing string will be run to extend the hole and not run back to the surface. A producing string is often run into the target formation. The annular space between all casing strings is usually left fluid filled and many are cemented back to the surface or back to a sufficient level to ensure a fluid seal between the casing and the bore-hole and pressure integrity throughout the system. Obviously the design of a casing program is very complex. It must be made with the end state in mind as each string is run within the previous string; thus each string must be sized to accommodate anything that must be passed through it. Once in place, the string becomes a limiting factor as to what can be run into the hole should conditions change the objective or requirements of the well.
As casing strings are installed in the well, casing spools are installed on them at the surface to provide structural integrity and controlled access to the annular space between that string and the next smaller one. Each spool is bolted on top of the previous one. Upon completion of a successful well other equipment is run in to enable the well to produce well fluids in a controlled manner. This is yet another very complex system whose design will be tailored to the unique conditions of the individual well. Production tubing is commonly run from the completed interval back to the surface and is secured in place by a tubing hangar placed on top of the upper most casing spool. A series of valves are placed on top of the tubing hanger to control access to the interior of the production tubing. A block is then placed on top of the upper most valve to direct fluid flow either into a loop or at a desired angle depending on the requirements of the gathering system leading to the producing system. Additional valves are usually placed "downstream" of the block and a flow control device or choke system is installed to regulate fluid flow out of the well. This configuration of valves, blocks and control systems make up what is called the wellhead or "Christmas tree." Well-heads come in many configurations depending upon the nature of the well, its location and operational and maintenance needs. Once the wellhead is installed, the drilling and completion operation is complete.
While there are significant differences between what is required to drill a well on land and in a marine or offshore environment, the basic mission is very similar. The differences in location conditions, design criteria, logistical considerations and related cost are enormous. In deep-water, the process can approach the most sophisticated technical operations known to man and an individual well can cost in excess of sixty million dollars, often to be paid early in the project life well before surety of the results of the effort is known.

See also Hydrocarbon; Oil spills.

Books

Howarth, S. A Century in Oil London: Wiedenfeld & Nicholson, 1997.
Jahn, F., M. Cook, and M. Graham. "Hydrocarbon Exploration and Production." Developments in Petroleum Science 46, The Netherlands: Elsevier Science, 2000.
Selley, R.C. Elements of Petroleum Geology. San Diego: Academic Press, 1998.

Periodicals

Hubbert, M. King. "Darcy's Law: its Physical Theory and Application to the Entrapment of Oil and Gas." History of Geophysics 3 (1987): 1 –27.
William EngleK. Lee LernerLeonard C. Bruno
Old-Growth Forests - Properties Of Old-growth Forests, Species Dependent On Old-growth Forests, Dead WoodOil Spills - Characteristics Of Petroleum, Oil Pollution, Ecological Damages Of Oil Spills

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Sunday, May 10, 2009

Swift Codes for Philippine Banks

For all Overseas Filipino Workers who are remitting money to the Philippines via Bank -to-Bank transfer, you should take note always of the swift code. You should fill up the following recipient address:

Bank Name:
Bank Branch/Location:
Account Name:
Account Code:
SWIFT CODE:

Allied BaNnking Corporation - ABCMPHMM
American Express BAank Philippines - AMEXPHMM
Banco de Oro UniIversal Bank - BNORPHMM
Bank of China Manila BrJanch - BKCHPHMM
Bank of Commerce - PABIPHMM
Bank of the PPhilippine Islands - BOPIPHMM
ChIina Banking Corporation - CHBKPHMM
DevelopmenNt Bank of the Phil. - DBPHPHMM
East West Banking CorporatioOn - EWBCPHMMEY
Equitable PCI Bank - PCIBPHMM
Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank - HSBCPHMM
International Comm Bank of China - ICBCPHMM
International Exchange Bank - INXBPHMM
Land Bank of the Philippines - TLBPPHMM
Maybank Philippines Incorporated - MBBEPHMM
Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. - MBTCPHMM
Philippine Bank of Communications - CPHIPHMM
Philippine National Bank - PNBMPHMM
Philippine Veterans Bank - PHVBPHMM
Philtrust Bank - PHTBPHMM
Prudential Bank - PILBPHMM
Rizal Commercial Banking Corp - RCBCPHMM
Security Bank and Trust Corp - SETCPHMM
Standard Chartered Bank - SCBLPHMM
Union Bank of the Philippines - UBPHPHMM
United Coconut Planters Bank - UCPBPHMM
United Overseas Bank Philippines - UOVBPHMM
———
Please take note that Philippine banks do not use IBAN – International Bank Account Number. The only time you will use IBAN is if you are sending money to European banks.
————
PLEASE READ:
The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (”SWIFT”) operates a worldwide financial messaging network. Messages are securely and reliably exchanged between banks and other financial institutions. SWIFT also markets software and services to financial institutions, much of it for use on the SWIFTNet Network, and ISO 9362 bank identifier codes are popularly known as “SWIFT codes”.
It is the unique identification code of a particular bank. These codes are used when transferring money between banks, particularly for international wire transfers, and also for the exchange of other messages between banks. The codes can sometimes be found on account statements.
The majority of international interbank messages use the SWIFT network. As of December 2007 SWIFT linked 8,332 financial institutions in 208 countries.
The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) handles the registration of these codes. For this reason, Bank Identifier Codes (BICs) are often called SWIFT addresses or codes.
There are over 7,500 “live” codes (for partners actively connected to the BIC network) and an estimated 10,000 additional BIC codes which can be used for manual transactions.
http://www.swift.com/biconlinehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_9362http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWIFT

IBAN (International Bank Account Number)
In europe among the european countries, ever since they acceded to euro currency, the interbank payment transactions had become very easier, cheaper and under single currency euro. It became mandatory for Banks in the EU to issue IBANs, on request, on all accounts from 2001. By introduction of IBAN (International Bank Account Number) one single account number is enough to receive payments from europe or worldwide. This IBAN account number contains information about
* Beneficiary Account number* Bank Clearing Code (BLZ in germany, Code guichet in france)* Destination Country
Besides this, each bank worldwide are allotted and identified by a unique code known as SWIFT code or BIC (Bank Identification Code). The SWIFT organisation is responsible for allotting SWIFT or BIC codes to banks worldwide. Their website is swift.com. They also publish very latest updated SWIFT codes for banks or institutions in their website.
The IBAN was developed to facilitate payments within the European Union. Customers, especially individuals and SMEs, are frequently confused by differing national standards for bank account numbers. The IBAN is not yet used for routing, because the IBAN has not been widely adopted outside Europe, among other reasons. The ECBS expects that adoption may take up to ten years, so it remains necessary to use the current ISO 9362 Bank Identifier Code system (BIC or SWIFT code) in conjunction with the BBAN or IBAN.
At present, the United States does not participate in IBAN, although in Mexico they have a similar system called the CLABE. Any adoption of the IBAN standard by U.S. banks would likely be initiated by ANSI ASC X9, the U.S. financial services standards development organization.
Currently all European non-CIS countries, as well as Israel, Tunisa, Mauritius, and Turkey participate in the IBAN system, while the rest of the world remains outside of it. British dependencies (except Gibraltar and the Crown Dependencies) don’t participate in the IBAN system.
http://www.aib.ie/servlet/Satellite?cid=1141324680684%26pagename=IBHelpInfo%2Fib_main%26section=S005%26c=IBContent_C
http://www.europebanks.info/ibanguide.htm

FAQ on SWIFT, BIC, IBAN:
http://www.querycat.com/faq/c47473861dc9cfd4865c71a92c0e0f6f

Friday, April 3, 2009

My Vacation time- March 2009

I am going back to Kuwait tomorrow, 5 April 2009, to work and earn a living for my family here in Manila, Philippines. Since my flight is 11 pm, my plan is to go to church in the morning , spend the rest of the day with my family before going to the airport. Every time I am leaving family, i always have this anxious feeling... but I always trusted the Lord that He will protect me as well as my family. I always pray that I will be coming back home in one piece. Likewise, I will be coming back home with a complete and a happy family.

This vacation is one of the most memorable one for me. I have two kids who graduated this year, to be proud of. One is my eldest, Ameel, who graduated last 28 March 2009 from High School from San Sebastian College, and the other one is my youngest, Jasselle, who graduated as Salutatorian last 31 March 2009 from Shiloh Christian Academy.

Both celebrations I attended personally, for the first time in many years,and this is the life I have been experiencing since I left for work abroad in 2002. I am not complaining. I chose this life which is far better than any job abroad. Now, I have the priviledge to go home every month and not miss some of the most important event in my family. Like what I said I am not complaining, if there are some good things in this life, there is an equivalent sacrifice on your part. Life is like a railroad, it is always a parallel life. One rail is the good stuff, blessings, if you like, in this life of yours. The other one, is the problems, sacrifices or sufferings that will not let go unless God remove it from your life. But in both of these tracks, God has promised us , His presence and His Word, that He will not leave us nor forsake us. That's good news!

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Life at an Oil Patch

Oil rig professionals have a unique life in the oil patch. He is working for his family, in order to support their daily needs, in almost always remotest areas. Be it in the sea, in the desert, or in a thick jungle, life is harsh and spartan but the compensation and the short work rotation makes this job attractive to most people.

Unlike the normal 8:00 to 5:00 jobs, you don't have to commute daily and survive the hassles of heavy traffic in order to report to your job. In the offshore setting, just get out from your bunk, take a shower and walk outside the accomodations and there's the rig floor or workplace, on the other side of the platform or a deck. In the onshore or land rigs, just take a bus or maybe walk to the rigsite. You don't have to cook your food, the food is served daily by a contract caterer. The laundry, just put your old and dirty clothes outside your doorstep, and the next day, you have clean coveralls to wear for another day's work.


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At my office

Friday, March 27, 2009

Rigs where I Worked Before


An Offshore Rig ( Jack-up type) in the Persian Gulf

This an onshore/land rig in Saudi Arabia