Oil Keeps the Lights On

After a year and half hiatus the lights are back on at Oil Keeps the Lights On! It’s 2⁰F (-16C). It’s dark with a light snow falling. The rig is lit up like a strange orange Christmas tree. There was less than 8 hours of daylight today. And I am back at work. Woohoo!

In some ways it is the exact same oil field I left a year and half ago (I didn’t quit, Covid shut it down). In some ways it’s the exact same rig even so much that it’s my handwriting on the whiteboard! In other ways it is a strange new world. Masks are part of life here now and not because the air is so cold it will hurt your face after a few minutes (that comes later in winter; it’s still fall now). But I’m not here to talk about Covid. Someday historians will ask us about it and we will tell our stories but that is not today.

Today I want to introduce you to the newest piece of equipment in our arsenal. The VHX 7000 Keyence Microscope.  This thing has more bells and whistles than a Mars rover and price tag to match. I’m not kidding this thing cost more than my house! This thing has 4 count them 4 user manuals!

This behemoth is without a doubt the largest microscope sent to the field. The boxes in came in looked like Christmas morning. It has some serious weight to it and takes up so much space we had to get the shop to make us its own special table.  When it is all set up it looks like an alien head on a stand and with its electronic hum you would think it’s alive.  At some point we will need to name it because we can’t keep calling it “the thing” forever.  The microscope itself is controlled by an all-in-one computer monitor that comes with a joystick covered remote.  But that is not what makes it special. No, it is it that it can take pictures. We’ve had the ability to capture pictures of samples for years with strange cameras that are secondary attachments to free standing microscopes.  This microscope has no eye piece so there is no way to look at samples without the monitor but there is a way to look at samples when you are hundreds of miles away. The hands off remote is surprisingly useful; with the old microscopes as soon as you would line something up to photograph you would inevitably bump something and the shot would be gone and you would have to start all over.

With microscopes just as with cameras it’s all about the power of the lens. Most microscopes can zoom in by 10, 30 and occasionally 50 magnifications. This one starts out at 20 times magnification and goes up to 100 times. Talk about your clarity! The most impressive and fanciest features about this microscope are the power of its lens and the ability to change angles. Not only can the lens focus at different levels and lengths but it can also do 2D and 3D pictures and measurements. So it can tell you exactly how big a grain of sand is by height, width and depth. But then! You can also look at the same grain of sand from all sides. The camera itself tilts and turns so that you can get not just the traditional straight down view but also 180⁰ view of the same grain of sand. Talk about your overkill! I’m not sure how useful that will be in our quest for oil but it is fun to play with.

I mean just look at that rock!

I know this sounds like a sponsored add and a publicity post bit it’s not. This this is just so impressive I had to share. This isn’t your grandpa’s oil field anymore. Times are a changing and the rocks have never looked better.

Well, it has been a whole year since I posted and a whole year since I worked. (And As predicted I don’t have anyone to talk about rocks with!) Early on last year I saw a meme someone had made about a time traveler coming back in time and learning that it was 2020 and the time traveler going something like “oh the first year of quarantine…”. At the time many people laughed and a few groaned thinking it can’t be true! But after celebrating the one year anniversary of “two weeks to flatten the curve” it’s looking more realistic that the end of this madness is not here yet.  I could fill a full post about the crazy Covid rules I have seen and I am sure you could too.

In some ways we are better off now than we were a year ago oil wise. ‘The other guys’ are in office now and that leads to stability. The rig count is up (348 this week last year) 432 this week. The price of oil has made a strong recovery after hitting negative numbers last year.  Currently at $63 a barrel for WTI. In Alaska specifically things are looking up. The rumor mill has it that Beastie (the biggest rig in North America) is getting commissioned and should be drilling before the end of the year. So it is a time for hope. Hope that this madness will one day come to an end and life can move forward. Hope that we won’t be on unemployment forever. Hope that robots will not take all of our jobs before we can go back to work. 

In some ways we are exactly the same as a year ago. A year ago today I left the rig and the slope for what felt like forever. I have hopes of going back. Someday that rig will come back on line and in the office they will find directions on how to turn napkins into masks and the new guys will think to themselves ‘what a crazy time that was!’ Getting on that plane on that last day was the closest I have felt to be in a dystopia movie. We have to leave and we have to leave now. Everyone on the plane! It was a crazy few days there. I am still convinced that people on the slope had Covid before the world knew to fear the virus.  As I said though it was not all bad.  Flying during Covid was not that bad. A whole row to yourself, or even a whole plane, fewer people, no crowds in the airports.  After I got off that plane and another one, I applied for unemployment. I am grateful that I live in a world and country where we have a system in place to help those in need when they need it. When I went thru my first down turn in the oil industry I was reluctant to take unemployment. I had worked hard, saved my money and paid in to the system, but I thought unemployment was for people who needed it. But as it took me week after week to find a new job, I was glad that I had listened to the advice given to me and taken unemployment. This time around I knew Covid was going to be with us for a long time and there were going to be people who needed help and I knew I was going to be one of them. So without hesitation I applied for unemployment. I’m still not proud of it but it has been a lifeline. The system is not perfect and there are lots of loopholes and problems and the rules change every week. I have had to call more than once and try to figure out why my benefits have stopped or what the new rules are. Of course they don’t give money away for free. You have to earn it. I have to actively look for jobs every week. And I do. I have even found a few that almost called me. There are a few jobs out there and that is a sign that things are maybe someday going to come back. I know the system is built on other people paying in and the workers working and someday the well will run dry. When I was working I did not begrudge paying in to the system. We are lucky to live in a world that thinks of others and helps when needed. Trust me it’s not a lot of help by any means but it is better than a poke in the eye.  

This forced vacation has been good in some ways. I have not had to work nights in over a year and sleeping at night is amazing! I had time to work on my garden over the summer, something I could never do while on an oil rig. I have worked on a lot more projects around the house. Painting inside and out, cooking a lot more especially as restaurants remained closed or take out only. I have had time to work on all the arts and crafts projects I said I would work on someday. We tried to travel a little locally but it is just not the same when all the attractions are closed. I even got to spend all the holidays in the same place! From Halloween, to thanksgiving, Christmas, New year’s, and my birthday! Something that hasn’t happened since college! I have even found a way to volunteer some of my time teaching English to Ukrainian college students.  And as someone who teaches on zoom now, I can categorically say I despise long distance learning.  The best way to describe zoom is a digital séance. ‘If you can hear me smile and nod’ ‘we can see you but we can’t hear you’ ‘is your microphone on?’ ‘I can hear you but I can’t see you, if you can hear me make a sound’.  I never thought I would find anything in the world that I disliked more than the flat parries of Kansas but Zoom is pretty high up on the list of terrible things. The students have been great even in these horrendous times and they tolerate my silly antics. I’m not a trained educator but I have a lot of respect for the ones that are.   

I look forward to the day I can go back to the oil rigs. I will hate to leave my garden and home life. This is the longest my husband and I have been in the same place since we got married (and it has made a big difference). I suspect that before I can return to work I will have to get one of the many vaccines for this nasty virus. I am not yet eligible seeing as I am young and healthy but I hope to get in the line someday. Until then I have to figure out how to grow sweet potatoes and find some pizza seeds. I have looked everywhere for pizza seeds to plant and I just can’t find them! I had hoped to add them to the garden this summer. 

P.S. Has anyone else been watching what is happening in Iceland?!?!?!?!?! Road trip anyone??? 

As I leave the slope today it’s possible that more than just this well has ended. I started this newest of jobs only 5 months ago but today could very well be my last day. When I came to work a month ago the world was just starting to change as I sit here on the plane in my mask and gloves I’m not sure what kind of world I am coming back too.

Every ending is a mixed bag of emotions. I am relived and happy to be done with yet another project successfully finished. I’m hopeful of getting to see my family and husband again soon. But I’m also a bit sad. Not only because this might be my last time on the slope (for a long time or ever) but because I actually really do enjoy my job. I know it doesn’t always seem like it but I love the fact that I get to work strange places with a great group of people and that I get to use geology every day. So many of my peers have gone on to other things of course I’m not climbing mountains or predicting volcanoes every other day but I still get to talk about faults and rocks and crazy stuff every day! I know it’s not everyone’s jam but it is mine! I will miss having people to talk rocks too.

I am most definitely looking forward to the next chapter of my life and I know I will be back in Alaska someday. I feel very lucky and blessed to have gotten the opportunity to work this dream job. I’m not sure I will be back in oil but I know my love affair with Alaska is far from done. With views like this how could it be?

I call this blog Oil keeps the lights on because for us oil pays the bills and for millions oil makes the power we need to survive. With the state of the world these days it is hard to predict the future but oil will always be a part of it. I don’t know what the next chapter will be for me but I will share it with you as I go because oil will always keep the lights on for me.

Next adventure the unemployment line!

here are strange things done in the midnight sun,
By the men who moil for gold;
The arctic trails have their secret tales,
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge,
I cremated Sam McGee.

~Robert Service

The world is changing in many ways but staying the same in others. We are still here in the arctic, moiling for oil. But we have seen some strange sights. 15 hours of sunlight seems normal compared to the things we have seen.

Did you know there is a palm tree inside the Arctic Circle? It’s the only one I know of this far North. It’s a rare sight.

The well we are on has thrown us more than one curve ball. We have seen faults and problems with the mud.  But the most problems came from the floats that keep the mud from coming back up the hole when we make a connection. Turns a 10 minute process into an hour-long ordeal. Luckily, there is lots to discuss while we slowly and painstakingly drill this well.

Every day we get  new decrees and regulations on how to handle the coronavirus. It changes almost by the hour. Shocking, as we are a remote community of workers, but they keep changing people and everyone is worried. People would rather be home with their families and many have already left. Yours truly will be out of here just as soon as we finish this well.

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This week we have gone from business as usual to having a limit on the number of people who can get food at a time, and now we all have to have our temperature checked when we get in line for food. By Tuesday we will have to wear masks in all public places. Problem is we don’t have any public places! They close the camps to the public and the rig is a controlled entry for authorized personnel only. They have taken away most of the chairs in the dining hall and half the tables. But today they want to have a big feast for Easter. We shall see how this goes. I have seen doors taped off like the person inside was being quarantined. I have seen a rumor of a sick truck driver tear thru a rig crew faster than a California wildfire. Within 20 minutes everyone was wearing masks even though they had quarantined the driver and he had contact with only one person on the rig.  The masks are the industrial ones that make working uncomfortable on the best of days.

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And just when you think you have seen it all this week, you learn that they are closing the gym at 10 pm tomorrow. What are we going to do!? 

And then this morning, what a sight!  At 2:45 the Northern Lights were blazing a green and yellow streak across the sky while the sun turned the eastern sky blue. Eventually the sun won and the lights faded to the point I had to go back to work.

Now that I have settled in to the routine at work and the rumors about the madness have taken on a routine of their own I have time to reflect on the adventures had on the last days off.  Between bouts of watching the news and feasting on abundant salmon I got a birthday/sorry you can’t come visit present.  A shiny new fancy camera! Photos have been a part of my life and marriage my husband had a good camera on our honeymoon and took lots of pictures. We have had a camera on every trip since. I was almost always designated as the helper. Carrying the tripod, helping change lenses, carrying extra things, and of course being the main model. But now with a fancy camera of my own I see how nice it is to have a great assistant (and yeah I was a great assistant).  This time I had a great assistant too. I’m not sure how both of us having a camera and no assistant but that is future problems.

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With my shiny new present comes a learning curve. Learning the system and the proper way to use it. Learning about things like F-stop, aperture, shutter speed, and exposure. I now know all kinds of things about the exposure tringle but this is not a camera blog this a post to show off my photos so I will spare you. In short I was gifted a camera and got a whole new hobby complete with learning and trials and tribulations. The first step is to compose a winning photo, this takes lots of practice and trial and error. I got lucky a few times and got one or two good ones. After that comes the editing and cropping, I’m not even close to good at this part. It takes a lot of time and patience. Sometimes I have the time but patience has never been my strong suit. There are lots of rules about how to crop or edit things. Like when it comes to the size of a picture it should keep the same ratios it was shot in or avoid square crops. But what most people don’t know is that the library does a fundraiser every year where people get to decorate an 8X8 block of wood. I’ve already picked out which picture I will be submitting for it. When it comes to the editing the best advice I heard was to make the very best picture in the camera first before editing. If you find yourself always cropping smaller maybe zoom in more or get closer when you take it. Or if the exposure its wrong learn to change that before the picture is even taken. But after all the computer work is done comes the much more fun part of figuring out the size and material to print it on. Then the extra exciting part of seeing the thing in print and going “wow” that came out way better that I thought! Some get put on the wall directly and some get framed up first. After coving every wall with new art it becomes a bit of a challenge to find place to display your handy work.

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The adventure starts with finding things to take pictures of, and ends when the prints come back from the printer. It is very exciting and trilling. The adventure takes me all kinds of place from waterfalls in the Gorge to the beach, wildlife preserves, historical forts, aquariums, even just a walk down the street can provide inspiration.  Inspiration is everywhere! Now that I’m back at work and the world is still covered in snow and darkness I’m very glad I took so many pictures of spring! I now have a new hobby to keep be busy when I get laid off.

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The world has changed drastically in the last two months. And it is not done yet. It seems every hour brings new developments. It is a very scary time. Global factors have influenced my life drastically, limiting my travel and most devastatingly, threatening the prospect of my work ending.

The price of oil is influenced by world events in ways no other industry experiences. Right now oil prices are down because of Russia and Saudi Arabia. This isn’t a new story for oil. They tried this exact playbook a few years ago. It hurt us then too but we recovered. Time will tell how we do this time.  People ask why not keep drilling even just a little bit when the price of oil is low? It has to do with storage. There are only so many places oil can be stored after it is out of the ground. The way it works is the oil companies find oil, then drill a well, then produce or pump oil from the well. The oil is transported to a refinery where it becomes gas, diesel, motor oil, petrochemicals, and many other things. After that it has to be shipped to market or stored. If there is a surplus of oil, meaning more is being produced than consumed, like now, the extra has to be stored. The price drops when there is a high supply and low demand.  So more gets put in storage. At some point the price of oil can even go negative, when the storage gets filled. And processed oil has a much shorter shelf life. Also, when drilled wells are left idle they can get corrupted. Water can penetrate, or the rock can collapse, or the steel can rust. It’s better to leave the oil untapped and wait for the price to rise until it is profitable to produce it.

This week, everyone’s industries are being affected like oil.  My own travel has been affected by the current global pandemic. Way back in January when I had a very few days off I was able to travel to Italy and return to the US without problem. I remember as I moved around the airports that a few people had masks on and no one had gloves on. I remember an information help guy at the Rome airport not wearing a mask and then 10 minutes later I walked by again and the same guy did have a mask on. When I next left Alaska at the end of February I didn’t travel to Italy.  I thought it might be difficult to get back for work on short notice, so I stayed stateside. When I traveled there were few precautions or problems. I saw a few in masks but mostly everyone was going about life as normal.

Then while on days off I watched my other home slowly catch fire with coronavirus.  This week when I came to work there were a lot more masks, mostly being worn wrong, and some people with gloves on. The airports were strange. A few more shops and restaurants were closed. The crowds were less, but tense. Everyone seemed on edge, not like happy travelers. The lines were not there. People hung around the TVs listening to the news more, or were watching their phones. The only thing I can liken it to is how people acted on 9/11. Everyone is on edge and there is nothing they can do. They can’t find the enemy to fight, they can’t find a way to help. And that’s the most demoralizing part about it. People want to help.  People need something to do. It’s our nature. But how can we in this time of struggle?

The price of oil has changed our work. We are no longer talking about big projects and future wells. We got the news today about which rigs will stack out (stop drilling) and who will stay. In short, of the 5 rigs 4 will stack out at some point in the next few months and one will keep going for now. We all expect that one to go down as well.

The camp life has changed too. Two days after I got to work they asked everyone if they were ok with staying up here for a longer hitch. Anyone who can see the price knows to always say yes to that question.  The following day the news came out that they have suspended northbound flights for the next two weeks. That means no one else is coming up. They say it is out of “an abundance of caution” so we can keep the virus off the slope and out of our remote locations. But it means that we will work until the end, then pack it up and lock the door and hope for better times to come. The camps are nice and clean and way better than some I have stayed in before. They changed a few things to keep us safe from spreading disease, but that is normal for us. We have 100+ people crammed into these remote camps. When one person comes down with a cold we all get it. We always try hard not to spread anything.

While these bleak world events swirl around us, life goes on in the arctic. Yesterday was the equinox and the light and the dark were balanced. We are getting more light now and working towards that 24 hour sunshine. I get to see some of it now and that makes a huge difference. Not only do I see it on the way to work but now it’s starting to get light by the time I go to bed too.  We had a lovely sunset today! The wildlife is out and moving. I watched a red fox chase an arctic fox across the snow last night. They were so quiet, if I hadn’t seen them I wouldn’t have heard them. The artic one got away! I saw him today. It has been way warmer than it was when I left last time! It’s lovely spring weather here! With spring always comes hope. Hope for a new year, hope for a better year.

With the reality that work might be ending soon, I realized that as of this month I have been back to working in the oil field after the last down turn for 3 years. I worked for 4 years the first time and was laid off for a year and now the second act has been almost as long as the first. So a total of 7 years working oil. It’s more than some get and less than others. Will I get to come back again? Will I find something better? Is there something better? I don’t know the answer to any of these questions. I am grateful for what I have. For what I have done and for the fact that I got to work my dream job even if it was only for a few months. I’m thankful for all the friends I have made and the places I have been. I am most definitely grateful that I got to come back to Alaska. 

With so many changes to life as we knew it all we can do at this point is wait and hope. Wait for this madness to pass and hope for better days ahead.

I can’t tell you were I am, or what we are doing geologically, but I can tell you that it’s cold and we are surrounded by ice. 

These are opening lines to letters home from exploration season. It’s very hard to have a blog during exploration season, because our work is “tight hole” and “Loose lips sink ships.” It feels like I am a war correspondent.

 We are in the far north, at the end of an ice road, surrounded by a desolation of ice and snow. Most people think the tundra is a sheet of frozen ice, perfectly smooth, covered in deep snow, ready for ancient explorers. This is not the case. We actually have very little snow on the ground. Yes it is all white, but you can still see grass stalks sticking up. The grass is caked with snow and looks more like strange albino cattails. There are small rises and dips in the crystal prairie, occasionally dotted with small animal tracks. The elevation change is measured in inches rather than feet. The only places that are truly smooth are the many frozen lakes surrounding us.  They’re covered with some of the finest powder ever seen. If there was any kind of slope, the skiing up here would be the best in the world. 

There is beauty if you know where and when to look for it. For example, the sunrise and sunset have never looked more beautiful. A great orange ball slowly sinks into the cloud and exhaust haze, causing the long orange and pink glow that serves as twilight and lights our path to work. Some days the horizon is crystal clear and you can see the instant the orange ball “touches” the ground. Other days, the exhaust cloud makes the whole place look like it’s trapped in a fog bank. Why is the exhaust so thick, you ask? Well, two reasons. The first is that we never turn a vehicle or generator off this time of year. It’s so cold that if we did, the engine would die and not work again for 6 months. The second is that all that exhaust has nowhere to go.  It’s so cold that it can’t rise. If you want to know which way the wind is blowing just look at a smoke stack. We are literally making our own weather. A few rare days the wind has blown hard enough to clear our cloud away and we have stunning visibility of 5 miles or more. Yesterday was one of those days, and on the way to work (from the man camp to the rig), we saw two red foxes hunting on the tundra. They looked black against the light and I’m not sure either one got the mice or voles they were hunting, but they were beautiful to watch.  The sky also provides beauty in another way. If you can find a reason to get away from the rig lights, and the clouds part, and you look up, not only do you see some of the most spectacular stars, but you also can see the Northern Lights. We are so far north you have to look to the south to see them. Sometimes they are weak and slowly dance and wave across the sky from horizon to horizon, other times they are like a little kid’s sparkler and wave and dance in such a hurry it is hard to see the whole dance. In doesn’t matter how many years you have worked here, or how many times you see the lights. Every time is still magical.

 The most common questions friends and family ask is “How cold is it?” And when you first get here you start by giving them the number “Oh, today it’s -35” or “It’s -45 out right now”. But what does that actually mean? We have been here for 18 days right now, and we have only seen the thermometer rise to about -35 for two days. Count them two days. On those two days you could walk outside without the parka on and go “Yeah this is nice” for about 5 minutes. The cold didn’t suck the warmth out of you as soon as you stepped outside. Your face didn’t hurt after walking 10 ft. The rest of my time here, the cold in the biggest enemy.  The Artic can literally steal your breath away. Any patch of bare skin feels it first, but that is quickly followed by your lungs. Every time you breathe in, you feel the icy hand reach down your throat and try to squeeze a little more heat out of you. Fun fact, the air you breathe has to be at body temperature and moist when it reaches the lungs in order for oxidization to work. That’s why when you breathe out on a cold day you can see your breath. And why if you aren’t careful you can get dehydrated quickly in the Artic. Thankfully, my job is mostly inside. The guys that spend a lot of time outside have layers and layers and layers they put on. Hands, face and feet are the most critical. They get the cold the first and worst. Even inside the wrong pair of socks can ruin a day. Your boots never change but your socks do. The boots are insulated and against the cold ground you need it. The problem comes at the socks. If your socks are too thin you toes will be cold and stay cold all day. If your socks are too thick they won’t fit in your boots. If they are thick and still fit in you foots your feet will sweet all day and by lunch time your feet will be cold and nothing you do will fix that. so socks have to thick enough and warm enough to keep you warm and dry but not so thick that your feet over heat. It’s a very fine balancing act.

So what does it mean when it’s 45 below? Another fun fact, 45 below is the same in Fahrenheit and Celsius.  It is also below the point where most companies say it’s time to stop working. Not this group! We work on, cold or no cold. The problem is when we get to -47. Two degrees. Doesn’t seem like much right? It’s enough. Minus forty-seven is the temperature when steel gets brittle. And everything we do involves steel. When it’s so cold your coffee in an insulated cup, gets cold before you reach the truck. When you feel the hairs in your nose turn to ice crystals and stick together after 3 breaths. That’s what we mean by cold.

I can’t tell you were I am or about the supper cool tools we are using or what the rocks are doing but I can tell you that it is cold.

Most jobs have their own fun acronyms and slang. Let me break down some North Slope speak for you.

These are spikes. They are literally tire chains for your boots. They go on said boots like so. There is a fun little dance you do when trying to get them on and off with a backpack on but I will spare you. Their only purpose is to be a pain in the butt, or rather, to keep you from having one falling on the snow. The trick to walking in the snow, even with chains on, is to walk like a penguin– small quick steps at an angle.  That will get you there upright and dignified, as opposed to the rambling long stride that suddenly leaves you flat.

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I started with spikes for a reason, because the next one is the called the spike room. This is not the changing room or the room where we keep the spikes (this is not a medieval castle of torture). The spike room is traditionally the farthest into a camp you can go with your chains on. Just like on roads, chains tear things up when there is no snow. So camps make you take off boots or put on covers to keep the place clean and dry. So if you are stopping for lunch and want to run in and grab a quick bite, forget about it! Boots off!   And that is where the spike room comes in. Normally it’s a room right next to the door where you can pop in quick and grab a bottle of water or a bag of chips and keep those spikes on. This room is where the leftovers go to be packed in lunches. This is where every snack you could ever want is, and the popcorn is fresh all day long. The ice cream machine is around the corner. In short, it’s like a really well stocked gas station. Some think it is the best place in the camp.

Another great term, as most are, is weather related. A blow. Almost always a big blow. Very rarely do we have a little blow. A blow is when the weather warms up and it can start snowing. When it’s extremely cold it’s too cold to snow. So when things warm up like today it is only -4 with the possibility of highs on the plus side of zero it is only a matter of time before the snow comes. And snow around here rarely comes in gentle like a Hallmark movie. Oh no, it comes roaring in with the full force of the wind behind it. Thus a blow. Lots of strong, strong winds and blowing snow = a blow. Some say it doesn’t snow more than a few inches here every winter, it just gets blown from one side of the state to the other.

When there is a blow or really any bad weather things get very interesting. If the weather is bad, flights get cancelled and we start to conserve water. First it’s the laundry and the real dishes to go. Trying to cut meat on a paper plate with a plastic knife is never easy. We save water because we don’t know how long the blow will last or what might break in the meantime. If you can’t get a repairman to fix the water plant we would all be in trouble. Like the trouble we had last week when one of the wings of the camp was so cold the pies started to freeze inside! This is why you never ever wait to the very last day to do laundry. You never know when the water will be restricted.

My personal favorite is Casablanca Day. We have one flight a day. So the day you get to be on it is a great day. Some call it go home day or going south or getting the heck out of Dodge. But getting a seat on the flight out will always be Casablanca Day to me!

A common and essential question is “What’s for dinner?” Working in the Arctic is no exception. We look forward to meal time more than the normal person. 

When working land rigs it is a fend for yourself situation. We cook for ourselves, clean up after ourselves, drive ourselves around. If you are a lousy cook, town is usually not too far away where you can get a hot meal and microwaveable supplies. Of course here in the Arctic that is not an option. There is no small town with overpriced food to drive to and no truck to do it in and kitchen to make it in. Everything we would get from a small town, fire department, police, grocery stores, etc. we have to bring with us. 

So in a camp of 600, there is a platoon of cooks that make a plethora of food. The sheer amount of food is amazing! At my camp the serve two hot meals a day, breakfast and dinner.

I came up just in time for some of the best meals of the year. Working during the holidays is never easy so they try their best to make it special. Christmas and New Year’s Day are the big feasts here. The cooks work for days ahead of time getting it all ready. They even make ice sculptures!

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Last night was the party for the new year and I was a very happy camper! I got salmon and humus.   The meatballs were winners. The lobster was covered in butter and good as well. I heard the steaks were good but I didn’t have one. They even had sparkling cider and near beer for toasting. The crab legs were at Christmas and the lobster was at New Year’s. And plenty of delicious sweets and appetizers.  All in all a good holiday season!

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Leftovers for lunch today (such leftovers!) and back to our normal fare tonight. Tomorrow is burger night and prime rib on Sunday. It’s a hard life, but someone has to do it! Good thing the gym is equally well stocked!

Weather today a warm -17⁰F with 9 mph winds and 4 hours and 24 minutes of Civil Twilight.

After spending two months sunning myself in lovely Italy like sunburnt lizard I finally went back to work.  When most people are asked “how did you get to work?” they answer with the traffic report or the back roads they used or which bridge was faster. Not me! When I get asked how did I get to work the answer is 2 cars, 5 planes, 6 buses, and 4 days. 

So starting with leaving our apartment at 6:20 in the morning, it’s a 45 minute drivein the rental car to the airport. The madness of an Italian airport! Nine hours and 15 minutes in the air on Plane number 1. Then a 5 hour layover at Airport number 2. Then Plane number 2 for another 6 and half hours. Family pickup!  Then I get a wonderful two day layover.  I get to repack my life into one bag 50 pounds. Family drop-off back at Airport 3. On to Plane number 3 with a short flight time of 3 hours and 15 minutes. Up to now has all been normal commercial flights. At this point I’m in Anchorage, AK. It’s snowing, it’s about 28⁰F outside, it’s Christmas Eve and I have to be back in the airport in 15 hours. A shuttle ride to my hotel where my new uniform is waiting for me. a side detour in the snow with a helpful uber to go to church. back to the hotel and listen to the 15 kids in the other room scream. In the morning its a 4am wake up call and the shuttle back to the airport. At the airport the snow has mostly stopped the temp has dropped but not by much. Still on the plus side of zero. This is when the fun begins.

At the very far end of the Anchorage airport there are a few little airlines. The kind that run little planes all over the state of Alaska. Way down at the last ticket counter there is an airline with a familiar name, but not one you think of when you think planes. The oil company has its own airline! Yeah it’s weird! Not all logos should have wings on top.  They have one flight a day up and one flight a day down; to and from the “North Slope”. It’s to this ticket counter I go.  This ticket counter takes my bag and asks which rig is my final destination. Then the normal airport stuff over to the gate, where I meet my coworker for the first time. After exchanging pleasantries we board the 737, Plane number 4 for me. Only the window and aisle seats are filled so no one has to sit in the middle. Off we go! The cabin is dark and the sky outside is darker. Its 8 in the morning but still completely dark. When we land in the north, they tell us to make sure we have our gloves on for the short walk from the plane to the waiting bus. The wind-chill is -60! After a short bus ride over to the camp (short as in not even 5 minutes we could walk but its cold), we layover to wait until they call for our flight. With a well-stocked snack room and warm dining hall the time passes quickly. An hour and a half later the speakers crackle to life and call us back to the bus. This time it takes us back to the air field but beyond the waiting jet to Plane number 5, a tiny two prop plane with 12 seats.  It’s a full flight and we all clamor on. Elbow to elbow we hunker down as we hope the rubber bands have enough torque to make it airborne.  It’s a short flight, not even an hour long and takes us farther west. Why fly and not bus, you ask? Well simple, the plane is cheaper than the road. And there is no bridge over the river yet (the ice bridge will be done in a month or so) so there is no other way to go. The landscape is flat and dark but you can see the lights of camps and rigs on the tundra. As we land the soft blue light that passes for daylight shows more of our surroundings. After collecting our bags we are on the bus to the camp.  From the camp you can see the rig, it glows bright in the half twilight of noon. A quick bag drop in my room and it’s time to put on the full uniform and head out to the office. My new uniform is stiff with starch  but my bomber jacket is warm. I’ve always wanted a bomber jacket and now I have one to go with my new black hardhat! 

So there you have it. Twenty-two and half hours in the air and 13 transports just to get to my new job! But it’s so worth it. The job is awesome! Right now its warmed up and is -28⁰F with minimal blowing snow. We followed Santa’s tracks on our trek north but didn’t see the big man himself.