Auger: Behind the scenes of a deep-water pioneer
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My name is Henry Rudd and I've been out here for 17 years
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and my job is mentoring,
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training new production operators,
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getting them acclimated with the platform
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and how we do things out here.
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My name's Keith Chaisson
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I've been here on the Auger TLP since 1995.
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I came out for a one month job, supposedly.
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What was amazing me was just the sheer magnitude of the platform.
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This is the Atwell bay, moon pool
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and all you have are the DVA wells, which means direct vertical access.
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Drill vertically and then you have sub-sea wells
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and the sub-sea wells drill away from the platform.
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We needed weight management
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because we'd put in so much heart with the builders
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so we removed and demoed out
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and we put in a bigger, more improved heliport
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so that we could fly S92's
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give us more field deep capability and it's for evacuation
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and crew changes.
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So, it's a 'win win' situation
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Got rid of some additional weight, some additional real estate
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and put in a larger heliport,
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in order to be able to move people in and out more efficiently.
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So, all good stuff, new and improved.
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Once they find oil, there's still a lot of work that has to be done
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because, okay, if it is a well,
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and once they rack the well and the well bay
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you have construction coming in to stack the well,
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put on the well head
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and then we have floor-line piping we have to run
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and then you go through procedure operations
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we have to unload the well,
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So there's still a lot of work in progress
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to open that well, to produce the first oil.
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Pretty amazing? Looking over here at the rig,
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our Cardamom location.
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It's kind of unimaginable that our drill rig, here on this platform
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drilled that hole.
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This is record breaking, it's the first TLP for Shell
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and the old girl has set some records
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and as far as I'm concerned, undeniably,
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she's a crown jewel in Shell's portfolio in the Gulf of Mexico.
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We're real proud of working here
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and Cardamom prospect new life
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able to bring the platform back out to maximum capacity.
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`Bright, bright future for the first TLP in the Gulf of Mexico