After 7 months with the site being down and having no production of oil or gas (hence no company income) we got the OK from the Gas Company to start seeling gas. The main problem with this, is that the State of California won't let us start pummping the oil producing wells until next week. If we can't pump the wells, we can't get the oil and water out of the way to let the gas out. This means we get a very low flow of gas that is wet from passing through a few thousand feet of liquid.
The gas we sell has limits on BTU's and inerts. Max But's = 1150 and max inerts = 4.001. In order to get the BTU's down to where they can be sold, we refrigerate the gas through two "bundles", "A" & "B". With the low flow and amount of liquid suspended in the gas, the bundles have a tendency to freeze, so you get about two hours on one side until it freezes up, then you switch to the other. The valves are stiff as hell and about 6 1/2 feet off the ground. I have opened and closed these valves so many times over the last three days that my shoulders and neck are screaming from yanking on those bastards.
I should also mention that I am the lucky SOB on graveyard shift. Alone and in the dark (half our lights are out and "we can't afford to buy light bulbs at this time").
The "best" thing about this whole start up is that all the automated valves and limiters that haven't been used for the last seven months and were only borderline working back then, are now not functioning. This means the Operator's are now tasked with being human actuators. We get to scurry from one end of the production pit to the other opening and closing valves, trying to keep things balanced.
My best night was the second day of running the site, I start at 9 PM and at 9:30 I got my first alarm. It wasn't something big, just a scrubber was filling with liquid, I just figured the guy I relieved had missed it being we had been off for so long and it would take everyone a few days to get back into swing remembering all the things to check at end of shift.
When the same alarm went of at 10:00, I started searching for what could cause it and found that my whole gas system was full of water. This is not a good thing. Liquid causes the bundles to freeze and if it hits our gas compressor can destroy it. It took me until amost 4 AM to find where it was coming from, someone had the bright idea of running the water/gas well we had pumping through a different separator that had been non-fuctional, but "they had fixed" and neglected to inform the next operator of this change. The fix had obviously lasted for a few hours, because the guy I releved hadn't had any major problems, but by the time I came on, hell was at the doorstep.
On top of the adventure of trying to running all night solving this mystery, I got to pull a double shift and stay through to 1 PM to cover "relief day" being we had someone quit a few weeks ago and haven't hired anyone to replace him. Then it's 8 hours off and back to work. I was so wound up when I got home, I couldn't get to sleep, then the wife got home just after four and Ralph, my 83 pound dog, decided the shortest route to greeting Mom was across my stomach. so I was up, having gotten maybe three hours sleep. Back to work by 9 PM and another shift of being a human actuator. This night was not bad, just busy.
I am now on my "long change", off for 5 1/2 days and boy do I need it. I sleep for 13 hours straight on Thursday, which is amazing. If Ralph took the shortcut across me, I didn't notice.
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