Who's in the House??

Communication out in Point Thompson (or anywhere on the North Slope, for that matter) can be a challenge. Especially if you are the little fish in the feeding chain as the caterers usually are. Typically the caterer, Doyon Universal Services (DUS) in my case) is the last to know who is doing what, where, when and don’t even think about asking the whys and the hows. My guess is that the contractors have no idea of what kind of lead times it takes to get food to the camp and what kind of planning it takes to put out a meal for 50 to 120 people. But common wisdom says that they just don’t give a s**t.

Case in point: Yesterday the first drilling crew was to arrive, followed by the second crew and some construction personnel. When? Estimates abounded from a low of 5pm to a high of the next morning. How many? Again, a wild spread of 20 to 36 men, depending on who was talking. The Company Man (Exxon’s company boss and the biggest fish on property) basically said he didn’t have much of a clue. One of Nabor’s roughnecks gave me one number and then gave the Company Man a totally different number 15 minutes later. In his defense, he had the time of arrival pegged to within 30 minutes.

Upon arrival, everyone must get assigned a room. Night workers are paired with day workers so they can each have the room for 12 hours of privacy. Nabors hands are usually put in the same areas as are Exxon hands. Tool pushers (rig bosses) are put by their offices. Drillers (crew chiefs) have the better rooms. Electricians get a singles room as they are on call 24/7. Room assignments can be easy if you have a list of names of who will be there, what position they have and what shifts they work. Chaos if they just show up. Mostly they just show up.

Sub, sub (& sub) contractors get the dregs of the rooms, but they rarely, if ever, give advance notice of their rooming needs. These are frequently electricians, welders or construction subcontractors that will be there for a few days to a week or two. Their attitude is they feel lucky just to get a room with a bed and three square. Frequently they get paired up with people on the same shift from the same company or even from a different company, so there is no privacy at all for these poor guys. If a subcontractor has multiple hitches with Nabors, then they get a better chance at getting preferential room assignments, but certainly no single rooms or rooms with a bathroom.

Then, of course, there are the politics to be contended with. These fine workers get to be bosses by being aggressive, confident and competitive. However, there are a bunch of bosses at these large projects and no real defined pecking order. Each of the bosses is used to being the top dog, too. Put them all together and the pissing contest begins. Details will be omitted here as these gentlemen deserve too much respect to name names and tell stories, but we need a bigger sand box to keep everyone happy. To their credit, it only took about 24 hours for the dust to settle and get everyone in the proper places. Housekeeping was a bit overworked for it because of all the room shuffling and remaking of beds. The most intelligent observation was by one of the Company Men: He said that whoever engineered these camps should make all rooms the same so the opportunity to scramble for the biggest and best won’t happen. Human nature being what it is, though, there will always be some advantage to be had, whether it is a better view, closer to the bathrooms, away from the generator noise or whathaveyou.

Here I sit in my room just outside the dining room at my desk, next to my cherished bathroom and sink, looking out my window at the frozen Beaufort Sea just a few hundred feet away, thankful that I’m above getting involved in camp politics and pissing contests.

In the Middle of Nowhere

The first full day here in Alaska Camp at Thompson Point has been great. The weather has been better than I could ask for: low of -20 and high of around 5 with mostly cloudy skies and nearly no wind. Not your typical Slope weather and quite welcome. Right now there are blue skies emerging through fingers of puffy clouds and the sun is low but still bright and cheerful. Its rays are reflecting off the pad that is nearly complete. The pad they are building is acres big and made up of two layers of metal reinforced wood on top of a gravel pad. From my window it looks like a huge dance floor. With the towers of the fuel farm at the south end of the pad, flanked by the Nanuq/AFC camp and our Alaska camp, it reminds me of a music festival.

The Nanuq/AFC camp has been here since August in one form or another and is a skid camp. This means that each unit (boxcar size) is on skids and completely separate from the other units. There are approx. 25 units including offices, mess hall, TV room and quarters housing a population of nearly 80. With the 20 or so that are here at Alaska camp so far, the kitchen there is feeding nearly 100 and doing it well.

Morale in the camp is surprisingly high considering the rough conditions they have had to deal with all winter. Just getting to the latrine would have demanded a complete bundle-up during the thick of winter. Right now we are enjoying the benefits of cold weather acclimation and do not wear a jacket or gloves even in the sub-zero evening when outside. Work around the camp is non-stop but not frantic. Even in the 24 hours that we have been here there is significant progress made on the pad and the fuel farm is nearly complete. (A fuel farm is huge silos that will hold enough diesel fuel to operate the rig for over 6 months).

Parts of McKinley Camp are on the ice staging pad, waiting for its pad to be completed before it can be assembled. The SPOs (sewage plant operators - essentially camp maintenance personnel) have been putting in mega hours trying to work the bugs out of Alaska Camp, but we will have water tomorrow and be able to shower, cook and even go to the bathroom without being shuttled over to the other camp. I am sure the SPOs are not looking forward to assembling McKinley Camp but we have been told that we have a small army of people on the way here next week and need someplace to house them. Getting McKinley together should be much smoother as it is a brand new facility (as opposed to the aged Alaska Camp) and they have worked out much of the bugs when it was first assembled in Deadhorse.

I have taken some pictures but did not bring the cables to upload the pics, so anyone reading this will have to be patient and visit this blog after I return to Cooper Landing on my R&R. Some of the pics turned out well and will be of interest.

Point Thompson arrival

Alaska Camp has arrived at Point Thompson a few days ago. I was called in just after I got back from R&R to fire up the camp. The ice road trip was long. I am tired and must get some sleep.

We are within a hundred feet of the Beaufort Sea.

More details to follow

North Slope Commute

Flying back from the North Slope is ritualistic. Laundry and packing are done the night before and the last minute dash to get work wrapped up and presentable for the relief are a setup for sleep deprivation. Transpo to the airport usually prompts big smiles and exchange of R&R plans with others on their way home. After checking in baggage and getting the boarding pass, I usually go to the Prudhoe Bay Motel to sit in the smoking lounge and watch TV, snack and smoke. Sure beats sitting in the airport lounge which is always crowded and uncomfortable.

Security check is a breeze; Slopers are professional airline travelers and are able to navigate quickly through the screening in large numbers. There are no kids, tourists or rookie travelers to muddle thing up and one learns quickly to be prepared or suffer the harsh attention of the screeners and fellow commuters.

The BP/Conoco Shared Service Airline 737-700 we board is coach all the way and is designed to maximize passengers which means that aisle and window seats are necessary to have a comfortable flight back home. Mostly it is a quiet crowd... until the cocktail cart makes its way down the aisle. There is a 2 drink max @$2 a pop and nearly everyone has the first drink down before we are halfway to the Fairbanks milk stop. Shortly thereafter the decibel level goes up and even some laughter emerges. After taking off from Anchorage, the noise level usually goes down unless there are more than a couple snorers.

If you are lucky enough to get a westward window seat on a cloudless, bright day, the vistas are stunning. Taking off from Deadhorse the flightpath follows the pipeline to the Brooks Range. The Brooks mountains are mostly unglaciated ridges sticking up in a mass of stucco-like peaks with a few large glacier valleys separating massive chunks of uniform mountains. Abruptly the Brooks ends at the Yukon River Basin. The Yukon is a mighty river and flying over at 30K' does nothing to diminish its grandeur. Fairbanks is just south of the Yukon and is amongst the rolling foothills of the main attraction: the Alaska Range. Flying over the Alaska Range is humbling. The great peaks of Denali, Foraker and Hunter rise from a huge jumble of mountain peaks with immense glaciers flowing from near the summits down to the Chilitna and Susitna River basin. Even at altitude these mountains are awesome. Not so quickly Knik arm comes to view and a great angle of the Sleeping Lady, Anchorage's iconic mountain, sticks out of the flats as a lone feature to greet you for the landing.

Arrival in Anchorage is short and sweet. Traveling pros these Slopers are and there is no lingering at the luggage carousal or shuttle stop. It is inspiring how quickly the planeload disperses on to their own private R&R, myself included.

Redoubt Update March 27th

Redoubt is still active and causing a minor stir in our area. Very little ash has fallen in Cooper Landing but other parts of the Kenai have been getting ash. The weather has been mostly cloudy so Carol and I have not tried to get a view yet, but we will be going to Soldotna tomorrow and may get pictures. Flights north were cancelled again. The wind has shifted a bit but has not gone too far east, yet. I believe that it is only a matter of time before the plume will hit Anchorage more directly and shut down the city drastically; vulcanologist agree that this could be an extended affair that could last months. The last eruption lasted over 4 months with periodic air travel shut-downs.

Redoubt Blows

Finally back from my hitch. It was extended two days compliments of Mother Nature by way of Mt. Redoubt which erupted Sunday morning, six hours before I was to board my plane back to Anchorage. All Northbound air traffic was canceled until Tuesday, including flights to Barrow and Nome. My flight was bumped to Wed, which had me driving Turnagain Pass through a nasty blizzard. Fortunately it was still light out or it would have been tough going.

Here is an excellent source for info & images of the Redoubt eruptions: http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/Redoubt.php

Camp Notes

Alaska Camp 220 is a Nabors Drilling Camp catered by Doyon Universal Services (or DUS) and presently located in Deadhorse, AK. I work for DUS and am in charge of Alaska Camp catering services with the title of Head Cook. Alaska Camp has a max population of 60, including DUS employees. Right now we have an "annex" next to our camp, McKinley Camp. McKinley camp sleeps 60, too, but does not have a kitchen.

DUS responsibilities are basically to provide living services to the camp population. The two catagories of services: Housekeeping and Foodservice. Here's the breakdown:

Housekeeping:

• laundry
• bedroom cleaning
• common-area cleaning
• checkin/out

Foodservice:

• meals
• spike room (break room) food and supplies
• off-premise food and supplies
  
• accounting
  

Descriptions of the basics in each catagory:

HOUSEKEEPING
Laundry
Everyone has the housekeepers do their towels on a daily basis. Some camps send out their linen, but Alaska Camp does thier linen in house. Linens are changed once a week and upon checkout/ changeover. Some housekeepers go the extra mile and help the crews with thier personal laundry

Bedroom Cleaning
Every bedroom in the camp is attended to daily. This means making the bed and emptying the trash. Most bedrooms do not have a private bath or sink, but if they do, they will be cleaned daily. Straightening the room, dusting and vacuuming are done as needed.

Common-area Cleaning
Other areas to clean include the hallways, smokeroom, TV room, gym and some utility rooms.

Checkin/out
The housekeepers generally keep track of who is coming and who is going, what company they work for and where they will be staying. This is kept track of by use of a dry erase board located near the front entrance and also by a daily manifest. Similar to the function of a front desk clerk.


FOODSERVICE
Meals
There are four meals per day: breakfast, lunch, dinner and midnight meal. The times of the meals follow the regular schedule of a layman's day but don't necessarily follow the schedule of the crew. For instance, if you are working the 6pm to 6am shift, dinner will be your first meal of the day and breakfast will be the last meal offered. Screwy, but that's how it is. Each meal is generally two hours long, but that varies camp to camp and is decided by the Tool Pusher (head boss) of the rig.

Spike Room food and supplies
The spike room (break room) is stocked with food and supplies available to the crew in between meals. Cereals, ice cream, popcorn, soup, coffee & tea, plates & cups, etc. I do not know why it is called the spike room.

Off premise food and supplies
Anything that is taken to the rig or other outbuilding is separate from the basic Camp operations. These items are kept track of and billed separately. For instance: coffee cups, coffee, pastry trays, sandwiches, etc.

Accounting
Someone has to keep track of all of this activity, and that is the Head Cook's responsibility. Paperwork includes: ordering, timesheets, billing, casual meal billing (visitor meals), lodging billing, transfers, inventory and rebills (off premise food and supplies).