Gustav: and you think *you* have problems!

Bill Lantry

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Hey, folks,

Just in case you don't know, one of our number is right in the crosshairs of the latest swirling storm. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Cody is scheduled to be out on his oil rig right about now. Here's the latest picture I could find:

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I think Cody's rig is about 100 miles south of the Texas/Louisiana line, which would mean its in for some pretty spectacular weather. Cody, here's hoping you decide discretion is the better part of valor, head inland, and get some unexpected woodturning time! ;)

Thanks,

Bill
 
I thought about this while watching the news this morning...he did say he was heading that way a few days ago...hope your safe Cody!
 
I'm from New Orleans (NO) and have lots of relatives there. I'm happy to see the projected track is gradually moving to the west. A few days ago it was projected directly at NO.

But if it hits just a bit to the west, it's not so good because the hurricane rotation is counter-clockwise and that will push water into Lake Pontchartain and worsen the flood possibility.

It needs to move more to the west. They sure don't need another flood.

My relatives are already planning on getting out of town.

Mike
 
From the local news here... all the rigs are empty that are in the "cone"

My family and I are hunkered in and waiting. Got generator, gas, food and water. Should be a rough time but we should do fine if we dont get a tornado. HE are high enough to avoid flooding from surge, rain is an issue BUT living at least 1 foot above the 500 year flood levels makes me feel better.

/land height was a requirement for this subdivision.
 
I got a friend that lives in Baton Rouge he's a turner, Rob I think your also from LA keep your head down & keep in contact with us so we know you guys are all right,
 
Hey y'all, Greetings from the Gulf of Mexico!

Yep, I'm still out here but we are all safe and sound. While all of the production platforms, bottom founded rigs and moored rigs were evacuated, most of the deepwater rigs like the one I'm on have to be continually manned. Some are shipshape designs while the one I'm supervising is a semi-submersible design. The commonality is that they ae DP vessels...dynamically positioned by means of azimuthing thrusters as opposed to being moored or resting on the sea floor. The water at our current drilling site is 6,830 feet deep so DP is the only method that makes practical and economic sense.

I got here wednesday and the crews were in the process of securing the well by pumping in place a couple of cement plugs as a secondary barrier to the environment. After pulling our drill pipe, we then closed the Blow-Out-Preventer (primary barrier) and disconnected the marine riser which is our conduit to the sea floor. By friday evening, we had the 20" I.D. riser recovered and got underway to run from the storm. We had already evacuated all of our non-essential personnel.

We are still cruising at around 4.0 kts in a Southwesterly direction...some 130 miles from our drill site which is just on the western edge of the projected Hurricane path. We will likely begin the transit back to our drill location tomorrow and hopefully start manning up to re-connect to the wellhead and resume operations.

For those of you familiar with coastal Louisiana, our marine shorebase is located at Port Fourchon, which looks like ground zero right now for eye landfall. If it gets severely damaged we will set up temporary marine operations in Galveston which is where all of our supply boats are now.

Our aviation base is in Houma and if it gets flooded/damaged, we will probably fly out of Lafayette as an alternate site. In any event, this storm has seriously disrupted our operations and has the potential for even more lasting headaches.

That's the story. Thanks to everyone for your concern.
 
Cody,

Good to hear that you are steaming out of harms way. Several drillers among family and friends, so I know what a job it is to lock down a rig.

All,

Pray for those onshore who lack the wisdom to run from nature's fury.

..........

Battered by a 'cane once, shame on Mother Nature. Battered by a 'cane twice, shame on you.

From the high and dry red clay hills of NW Louisiana (previously NO, LA),

JB
 
I spent the day nailing up plywood on all the doors and windows of my 3 unit property here in support of all you Gulf Coast folks. I hope the storm passes soon because my tenants are wanting out. :D




Best wishes to the Gulf Coast folks.
 
Thanks again, all.

We are fine and have started the transit back to our drilling site. Should arrive wednesday morning.

Gustav is making landfall near Port Fourchon/Grand Isle now. The good news is that it has decreased in intensity to a Cat 2 storm. Hopefully their won't be extensive property damage onshore although tornadoes are always a hazard with landfalling hurricanes.

The pic is from the TCEQ site.
 

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Cody,

Thanks for the update. Glad to hear you and crew are safe. Now a close eye on the other storms lining up for potential entry into our Gulf.

Be safe.

Lee
 
made it thru no damage, loss one citrus tree 1 inch in diameter. no power..lap top and generator. gas should last another 3 or 4 dasy on teh generator with running it sparsely. had to report to work in a recovery role and it looks worse here than some areas did for katrina.

LSU centruy Oaks are shreaded.
 
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Got power back...today. Was out for 6 days.

Turns out I had slight damage to my fence, some of the nails were push/pulled out so I had to go back and hammer those in and put in a few more. Looks like the boards were blown enough to lever out a few nails.

I never had a problem getting more gas like some people. All in all not to bad shape and got turning wood and fire wood out of it to boot.
 
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