Drillship ? or OilRig with a Bow

Ive been a Mariner for over 25 years and thought hey Drillship,Why not, Good Money, so I tried it as an Able Seaman, being mostly on Tugs all my life and some deep blue ships. I knew it was going to be different but WOW, Different is putting it mildly, The Mariner side of it was doing lifeboat checks once a week,the rest was filled with lots of Helicopter ops fueling, humping luggage, and scrubbing deck after deck, vacuuming concrete,barite out of silos and any other useless task you could do ,firewatch MOB watch, pressure washing seagull crap but ,Helo ops was the major duty of the ABs, did I say scrubbing decks!!certainly not for everyone or the “Real Mariner”,One good side is that 'The Walking Dead" show will hire you on as an extra on your time off as Zombie cause that’s what you turn into.I’m sure Ill get hammered by some of you drillshipers,thats ok,just dont come bite my neck!!

Oil rig with a bow because without that derrick there’s nothing…no cargo, no passengers, nada, zip, zilch, turn out the lights and go home ma’am

I prefer to consider it a Ship with a Drilling package for Cargo. Regulatory still can not nail it down to say it’s a MODU or a SHIP> and that can be Frustrating. If you are not Ops or maint. Then you are SUPER CARGO. with POBs of 200+ There are passangers. Lots of them. So it’s like running an industral Operations with 150 potential accidnets wating to happen. But As noted at the opening. There’s never a dull moment. 12 on 12 off. for 21 to 28 days at a wack.

Drillship and oilrig is related, for the oilrig, it need the drillship to exploration and piling, piling pipe

[QUOTE=shinestar;114265]Drillship and oilrig is related, for the oilrig, it need the drillship to exploration and piling, piling pipe[/QUOTE]

Without the drilling package we are nothing.

Can’t move the rig/boat/modu/vessel 5ft without a bunch of licensed mariners onboard, that can lose their careers in a heartbeat, but it can drill to the center of the earth with just some dip & mispronunciation of English words.

[QUOTE=shinestar;114265]Drillship and oilrig is related, for the oilrig, it need the drillship to exploration and piling, piling pipe[/QUOTE]

Industry wide the Term “RIG” can mean Semi submersable, Drillship, jack up ect. MODU/Drillship in many cases are identical. Even if the term “SHIP” tends to throw the Oilfield hands. Truth? Well When you’re not attached to the Bottom, ie: Transit you are a SHIP. When truning to the Right and hooked up you are a MODU. Reguardless All flags have minnium manning requirments On field or not. That include the traditional Positions. Master/OIM, Chief Mate, and Mates and my Personal Favs Chief Engineer, 1st Engineer, 2nd , 3rd and so on. Some instances the names change to 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Engrs but the STCW Classificaitons match up to USCG 1st, 2nd & 3rd. (you can thank the Brits. Silly Buggers!)

[QUOTE=mainecheng;114361]Industry wide the Term “RIG” can mean Semi submersable, Drillship, jack up ect. MODU/Drillship in many cases are identical. Even if the term “SHIP” tends to throw the Oilfield hands. Truth? Well When you’re not attached to the Bottom, ie: Transit you are a SHIP. When truning to the Right and hooked up you are a MODU. Reguardless All flags have minnium manning requirments On field or not. That include the traditional Positions. Master/OIM, Chief Mate, and Mates and my Personal Favs Chief Engineer, 1st Engineer, 2nd , 3rd and so on. Some instances the names change to 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Engrs but the STCW Classificaitons match up to USCG 1st, 2nd & 3rd. (you can thank the Brits. Silly Buggers!)[/QUOTE]

But we have our jobs because we can drill very very deep with these bastard ships.

[QUOTE=mainecheng;114361]Industry wide the Term “RIG” can mean Semi submersable, Drillship, jack up ect. MODU/Drillship in many cases are identical. Even if the term “SHIP” tends to throw the Oilfield hands. Truth? Well When you’re not attached to the Bottom, ie: Transit you are a SHIP. When truning to the Right and hooked up you are a MODU. Reguardless All flags have minnium manning requirments On field or not. That include the traditional Positions. Master/OIM, Chief Mate, and Mates and my Personal Favs Chief Engineer, 1st Engineer, 2nd , 3rd and so on. Some instances the names change to 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Engrs but the STCW Classificaitons match up to USCG 1st, 2nd & 3rd. (you can thank the Brits. Silly Buggers!)[/QUOTE]

In some instances the engineers are rig mechanics with a license. Their primary responsibility as far the company is concerned is repairing and PM’ing the drilling equipment; their license is just to make the flag state happy. In one instance I know of the “chief” did not have a license that met flag state requirements but the 1st held a chief license so he was the chief of record though not of pay. In another instance I know of an engineer had switched to mechanic years before and had not set foot in the engine room since. But if one of the regular engineers was late or unable to make crew change he went on record as one of the engineers in order to meet manning requirements while the engine room worked short. These drilling companies really think anyone not directly involved in drilling are silly expensive mandated requirements they had just as soon do without, after all they didn’t need them on jack-ups or moored rigs. These companies can be very creative.

Been a victim of that at Noble - for a VERY short time. Heard TO does it as well .
Don’t work for either and wouldn’t whore out my lively hood in such a way- if I’ve got to sit in an inquiry it better not be for some jackass’s decision but my own -
But it’s rare, very rare - if it’s happening in GOM I’m sure the Coasties’d love to hear. Docs better be up to date and correct -