A day in the life -- October 2011

Several of you have asked and wanted to see some more pics of what I do what I see etc.. everyday out in the field well here is a little bit of what I have in my current and archive photos and I will try to explain a bit here and there on these as I can.  I will also as I collect more photos will occasionally post updates and more "A Day in the Life's" sound fair?

Is there anything you ladies specifically want to see? Or know about?  Let me know and I will do my best to try to cover it..

Spoilfield Wife (me) at a Pumping Unit while working for my former employer, Marathon Oil Company

In the picture above it had to have been taken sometime prior to August 2009 when mandatory FRC (Flame Resistant/Retardant Clothing) became mandatory onshore for us I want to say this was probably February of 2009 during our annual Tier 1 audits.  Tier 1 are safety audits that Marathon performs annually on location checking for everything from signage to machine guards, site security, equipment condition etc. We performed these annually on all of our locations which took over 5 months to complete then the corrective actions/repairs start usually for the remaining 6 months just to turn around and start all over again the following year.  It keeps everyone on their toes and all the locations in prime condition.  

One of my many duties, teaching CPR, AED and First Aid to all the Oklahoma Ops employees  

The guys giving me a hard time during class with the manikins  

I have to say I got the guys back, I set all the manikins up at the conference room table and when they came in the next morning there where just shadows in the darkness of bodies sitting in chairs at the conference table!!! Man would I have loved to see their faces! 

Yours truly, during an emergency response drill, thanks to my supervisor for taking such a flattering picture!  

My previous field office in the background, I was making calls during an emergency response drill.  These are drills we worked on normally annually to ensure we could respond promptly and adequately in an emergency situation such as a tank failure or well control issue such as a blow out.  It was our "practice time" to correct anything we can find during this time is vital so make sure if an event actually occurred everything would run smoothly. 

P&A - Plug & Abandonment job - on of my last official jobs before leaving Marathon.

 

A P&A which stands for Plug and Abandonment on a well is when either the well is dead, drained the reservoir of  hydrocarbons, ran the life of the well or the formation, normally this occurs on older wells that have ran their life span however this can also occur on new wells that were found to be unsuccessful in their potential to produce adequate hydrocarbons.  A cement plug is placed downhole to shut off any hydrocarbon bearing formations or freshwater aquifers to protect our environment and prevent ground water contamination.  However several regulatory agencies have different requirements on how wells have to be plugged and abandoned, and this can be federal, local, county, state, city etc.. you get my drift.  Here in Oklahoma the Oklahoma Corporation Commission is involved in this and overseas and certifies P&A wells. Funny thing is in this picture the welder is a close friend of mine from elementary school (we found each other again through the oilfield!) his wife was one of my sisters best childhood friends! It really is a small, small world!   

During this operation my main task on location was to monitor the air with a 4-gas multi reader.  This was to ensure there wasn't any airborne contaminants that could pose a threat to anyone on location as well as monitoring the LEL (Lower Explosive Limit - the lowest concentration (percentage of a gas or a vapor in air capable of producing a flash of fire in the presence of an ignition source (arc, flame, heat).  At a concentration in air below the LEL there is not enough fuel to continue an explosion.  Concentrations lower than the LEL are too lean to explode.) this is vital when you have "hot work"  (Hot Work - is any process that can be a source of ignition when flammable material is present or can be a fire hazard regardless of the presence of flammable material in the workplace.  Common hot work processes are welding, soldering, cutting and brazing.)  to ensure everyone on the job site especially those up near the wellhead during the plugging operations stay safe.  

Pumping Unit fencing & Signage for warning, danger etc.

Ok so remember the very first picture above? Where I was standing at the fence with the top of the railing painted green, but clearly you could see that I could easily "bonk" my head on it? Well another one of those simple task some people take for granted everyday but that I am in charge of.. I marked it with this cool UV resistant tubing in the yellow and black because of the low clearance on those fencing pieces.  Notice all the other signage and warnings?  These are required by several regulatory agencies but onshore the big one is OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration, but we also have to comply with API (American Petroleum Institute), ANSI (American National Standards Institute), OCC (Oklahoma Corporation Commission), EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), DOT (Department of Transportation), NFPA (National Fire Protection Agency), NEC (National Electric Code), BOA (Bureau of Airports), BLM (Bureau of Land Management, BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) and oh man so many others but just a few that have tricky requirements for specific signage on locations, for recognizing hazards and even on vehicles for transportation... 

So for everyone out there who thinks the safety person is the one who has been here the longest or and by far even the worse, the person who has been injured and has a good story to tell, you can see from just the few things I posted my job runs the gamut, some days are more hectic than others but I can promise you I wouldn't trade it for the world! 

Let me know if you like this post and comment on it below so I will know if you want to see more! Just takes a second to leave me a quick message! You can even log in with your facebook to do it, just click the comment area and from there you can use the facebook connect or yahoo or however you choose to log in and leave a comment! Thanks for all your support!!! 

Have a great week and as always stay safe and sound ;-)