from west setia with love...

how many posts have i written with that title on?

anyway, i'm currently writing from a rig called the west setia. it's running a murphy operation at the moment and i've been here for 6 days now and will probably be here for another 2 to 3 days (i think). i've gotta add that i dun sleep on the rig since the accommodation here is full. so every day and night, i get transferred to and from a supply boat (NOR Star) like this...

pretty cool huh? i've seen it so many times on videos and stuff but i've never actually been on one of those baskets before... and the boat with the huge flare that you see behind, that's an fpso... the flare is huge! and loud! the supply boat basically picks up personnel from the rig and also from the fpso... so every morning, when we get close to the fpso, i'll need a ear plug and i'll try to stay in the shade as i can feel the heat from the flare... yes, it is that hot and loud!

and every morning, i'm greeted by this view... breathtaking ain't it? well, it'll be nice and cool for the first few days, but after 3 days of the same thing 360 degrees around you, it gets pretty boring... =P

ok, now to the highlight of this post. let me introduce to you - west setia!

if you look at the pic above, the structure on the left is the west setia rig and the structure on the right is the kikeh spar platform. it's a relatively enormous structure (not gigantic but you get the idea) and yet, on a relatively calm day, it still rocks gently. i've gotta admit that i can't stay indoors for too long - on the rig or on the boat... makes me feel kinda sick... so every few hours, i'll just go out and have some fresh air...

and this pic is the pic of the rig and platform taken from the heli deck at night. it was after one of the pumping job and i was waiting for my ride back to my "hotel room"... =)

that's pretty much all the pics that i have right now. i've actually taken more than 300 shots but most of them are experimental, so they're either over-exposed, under-exposed or pretty blur... hahaha... i'll sort through them again and see if there's anything else worth posting here...

btw, it's been a pretty good first time experience for me here on a rig. it's not as bad as i thought, but then again, it's not a full fledged frac job so i still can't judge based on this trip. but i'd say this was a good introduction to the offshore environment for me.

ps: i saw a couple of baby dolphins last night (i assume they're babies since they're much smaller than what i thought they'd be) - another first for me... =)

time for some fresh air...