naborhood

The Naborhood Fall / Winter 1998 / 99

Welcome to the NaborhoodWelcome to the NaborhoodWelcome to the NaborhoodWelcome to the NaborhoodWelcome to the NaborhoodRig 371E starts its own publication

The NThe NThe NThe NThe NaboraboraboraboraborhoodhoodhoodhoodhoodA publication for Nabors Rig 371E

“We go where you want us to!” Fall / Winter 1998 - 1999 Free Volume 1 Issue 1

Welcome toT h e

Naborhood! A newpublication forNabors drilling rig371E. What you arereading is probablythe first of its kindi n N o r t hAmerica...dare wesay the world! Anewsletter specifi-cally written for anoperational drillingrig in the industry.

Newsletters arenothing new to thecorporate culture oreven to the drillingi n d u s t r y . W h a tm a k e s T h eNaborhood uniqueis that it was put to-gether on site andwith all crew mem-bers, management,oil company, direc-tional drilling andcatering personelparticipating. This isa good example ofthe type of coopera-tion and teamworkthat has make 371Eso successful.

Strolling throughthe pages of TheNaborhood you’lldiscover such thingsas a corporate pro-file on Mobil Oil, ahistory of how allthe people came to

be on 371E and themeaning of the rigsfavorite word..

The idea for The

Naborhood camefrom PR Blazek,371’s leasehand.Blazek, who has anAdministration cer-tificate and a PublicRelation diplomafrom GrantMacEwan college inEdmonton came towork with Naborsto gain a fuller un-

derstanding ofhow the oil in-dustry operates.

“In order for me to

be an effec-tive commu-nicator ofthe future Ihad to un-derstand theoperations,terminologyand experi-ences of the oilindustry. Thebest way for

me to do that wouldbe to work on a drill-ing rig.”

After several monthsworking with thecrews, managementand other personnelBlazek began to re-alize a special cama-raderie and teamspirit waspresent on371E. He ap-proached rigmanager RonShott and drill-ing supervisorHank Mynioabout using hispublic relationstraining andproducing a rignewsletter. Ini-tially Shott andMynio wereskeptical. Lateras the idea wastossed aroundthe two becameexcited aboutshowcasing thesuccess Nabors

drilling and Mobil Oilhave had together.They were also ex-cited about the op-portunity to showtheir pride in the tre-mendous crews thathave helped achievethat success. And soThe Naborhood wasborn!

Phot

o co

urte

sy o

f PR

Blaz

ek

Nabors Rig 371E on a hot summers day

Inside this issueInside this issueInside this issueInside this issueInside this issue

Just a shortnote ofthanks to allcrew mem-bers. I’m

very proud of theachievements we haveaccomplished together;especially the 1020safety days.

You are some of thefinest rig hands I’veworked with and I wishyou all sucess in thefuture.

Ron

Mobil Oil Profile...........................Page 3Safety Notes....................................Page 4History of 371E...............................Page 6 - 7Summer Mudfest............................Page 9

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With Pegasus as hissteed, Bellerophonslew the dreadedChimera, a firebreathing she-mon-ster, with the headof a lion, the body ofa goat and the tail ofa serpent.

Eventually, Pegasusflew up to Mt. Ol-ympus to becomethe bearer of Zeus’thunderbolt. Todaythe constellationPegasus graces ourNorthern skies.

Pegasus began itslong standing rela-tionship with Mobilback in the late1800’s when Mobilwas known as theVacuum oil com-pany.

At the time, theVacuum oil com-pany was a memberof John D.R o c k e f e l l e r ’ sStandard Oil Trustempire. The Trustwas a conglomera-tion of several com-panies that encom-passed all aspects ofthe oil industry,from wellhead towholesaler.

Pegasus was used toidentify Standard’sfuels throughout theworld.

In 1911 the Stand-ard Oil Trust wasbroken up by the USgovernment. Afterthe breakup, thenewly independentVacuum Oil Com-pany registered a

According toGreek mythol-

ogy the wingedhorse Pegasus wasfathered byPoseidon, god ofthe sea, and sprangfrom the severedhead of Medusa.

The speedy Pegasuswas tamed by theh e r oBellerophon...witha little help from amagic golden bridlegiven to him beAthena, the god-dess of wisdom.

white image ofPegasus as a trade-mark for its leadinggrade of gasoline inSouth Africa.

During the 1920’sanother formermember of theTrust, Standard OilCompany of NewYork (Socony forshort), uses a redPegasus to promoteits fuels in Japan.

In 1931 Socony andVacuum join forcesto create theSocony-VacuumCorporation. Tocommemorate themerger, a rede-signed Pegasus iscommissioned torepresent thestrength and vitalityof the united com-pany worldwide.

During the 1940’sSocony-Vacuumsends many of itsproducts overseasto help the war ef-fort. A marketingcampaign to show-

case the contribu-tion to the war ef-fort begins.

Pegasus brings amessage of freedomand technologicalempowerment toautomobile driversacross the country.

In 1954 Socony-Vacuum adopts thebrand name Mobilfor worldwide use.Pegasus now ap-pears beneath theword “Mobil” in thecompany emblem.

Pegasus is redrawnin 1965 to its currentform. The mytho-logical horse’s lineswere made bolderand the direction itfaced was reversed.The horse wasplaced on a circularwhite background.

Mobil gave life toPegasus for the firsttime in 1998 duringa full motion 3-danimation on tv.

PegasusPegasusPegasusPegasusPegasusAncient Greece to the Industial age

Nabors Drilling and Mobil Oil have beenworking together with rig 371E since De-

cember of 1996. This is their fifth hole follow-ing four previous successes. Their most suc-cessful and most easily serviced wells were onesthat used the retrievable multilateral system orRMLS technology from Sperry Sun Drillingservices. The RMLS technology was guided un-der the steady hand of Wes Blazek, senior di-rectional driller for Sperry Sun.

&

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Changing the face ofChanging the face ofChanging the face ofChanging the face ofChanging the face ofa global leadera global leadera global leadera global leadera global leader

With 42,700employees

working in over 125different countries,Mobil is one of thelargest corporationsin the world… andits about to get big-ger. On December1, 1998 Mobil an-nounced that theyhad signed a defini-tive agreement tomerge with theExxon corporation.This merger willcreate the world’slargest companywith over 122,000employees. Uponcompletion of themerger the compa-ny’s name will beExxon Mobil corpo-ration, with head-quarters in Irving,Texas.

According to theCEO’s of Mobil andExxon they expectthe new company tobenefit from a re-duction of costs inthe short term butthat the real objec-tive of the merger isto maximize growth

and return on invest-ment. A 1.5 billionpayment of termina-tion fees under cer-tain circumstanceshas been written

into the mergeragreement. .

The new companyExxon Mobil willhave combinednatural gas sales of14 billion cubic feetper day. This gives

the company a solidposition in theworldwide market-place. Having exten-sive experience withnatural gas and ma-

jor LNG assets,Mobil looks to ben-efit from the tech-nologies and assetsthat Exxon brings.There is minimaloverlap in the explo-ration and produc-tion areas of each

respective company.For example, Mobilis very strong in theexploration of natu-ral gas withinCanada whereas

Exxon’s strengthlies in the produc-tion area Themerger is still sub-ject to shareholderand regulatory ap-proval..This is not the only

change that has hap-pened at Mobil re-cently. In August of1998, the companyrevisited its Envi-ronment, health andsafety policies(EHS). AlthoughMobil’s EHS poli-cies are known assome of the best inthe industry, thecompany chose toreview and updatethem because EHSis one of Mobilscore values. It wasimportant for thecompany to con-tinue its commit-ment to its workers,contractors andcommunity by beinga leader in this sig-nificant area. Onesure sign of successthat these policieswork is that therehave been no envi-ronmental impact orincidences with rig371E since start up.


Drilling for oil ornatural gas can

be a harrowing anddifficult experiencewithout the rightingredients. Suc-cess depends uponan expertteam ofdrillingp r o -f e s -sion-als.Pro-fes-sion-als whowork together toachieve a commongoal. Nabors rig371E has this typeof team.

Together this teamhas achieved an im-pressive 1006 safetydays as of the dateof this publication.This achievement isno accident. Underthe direction of rigmanager Ron Shottand drilling supervi-sor Hank Mynio acooperative safetypolicy has been im-plemented. Thiscooperation com-bines Nabors Drill-ing with Mobil Oil’ssafety policies tocreate a safe work-ing environment forthe drilling crewsand subcontractors..

“We care about ourcrews and wantthem to be safe.”

says Shott

“Safety not onlyimproves the bot-tom line but it alsodevelops a real senseof teamwork and

morale”a d d sMynio

Whenf i r s tarriv-i n g

o n371E a

n e wcrew member,whether new to theindustry or an expe-rienced hand, willgo through an ex-tensive orientation.This orientation in-cludes a thoroughrig tour by the rigmanager and super-vising driller. Theyalso receive a safetymanual which out-lines the safe prac-tices endorsed byNabors drilling.

Since it began workfor Mobil, 371Ehas been handling aspecial mud calledinvert. This type ofmud can be hazard-ous if not respectedand treated in a safeand proper manner.All rig personnel areadvised on how todeal with invert andhow to avoid per-sonal safety risks.From keeping cloth-

ing clean to usingprotective skincream, this addedtraining has resultedin no lost timeincidents (LTI’s)with invert.

Both Nabors drill-ing and Mobil arecontinuously revis-ing and updatingtheir respectivesafety policies andprocedures. Re-cently, Nabors in-vested in newsafety equipmentfor all the rigs in itsfleet. Some of thenew safety equip-ment includes threepoint Derrick beltswith 18 inch exten-sions, new fourpoint work beltsand new fall arrestequipment for thesub, fuel tank,degasser andmonkeyboard.

Continuing invest-ment in the safetyeducation of its em-ployees is also apriority withinNabors. All rigpersonnel receiveH2S and WHIMStraining. Each timean employee climbsthe corporate lad-der or is promoted,additional invest-ment in training ismade. Training inareas such asStandard First Aid,Fall Arrest or 1st or2nd line BOP ismade. This invest-ment has paid off asthere is a 5 yeardownward trend inLTI’s within theNabors organiza-tion. The latest

information avail-able to TheN a b o r h o o dshowed an impres-sively low 3 LTI’sfor the 1997 calen-dar year. Addi-tional evidence thatthe training hasproven to be effec-tive is that 371Ehas a record of nouncontrolled wellflows or blow outs. .After recently re-painting 371E,Nabors posted ad-ditional signsaround the rig ad-vising workers ofpotential dangers.These signs were adirect result of con-

stant monitoring ofits fleet throughsafety meetings andincident reports.Nabors determinedareas of possiblerisk on all its rigsand personnel andimplemented anearly warning sys-

tem through the useof these new signs.

In an industry whichsometimes sees ahigh turnover ratioper well, 371E bucksthat trend with aratio of 5 - 8 %. Acontributing factorto this low ratiocould be that 371E isnot only one of thesafest rigs in theNabors fleet but alsoone of the cleanest.

The reasoning be-hind the cleanlinessof the is rig isthreefold. “A cleanrig is a safe rig”explains Shott “It’ssafe because you can

see where thingsare and you canhandle equipmentwithout worryingif it will slip out ofyour hands; be-sides it looks goodand makes us feelbetter about ourworkplace. I guessyou could say itimproves morale.”

During the sum-mer of 1998 371Ehad the privilegeof being featuredin a safety videobeing shot forNabors Drilling.The Naborhoodbelieves 371E waschosen in part be-cause of its safety

record and its clean-liness. Althoughrumor has it wasbecause the crewwas photogenic.That rumor is unsub-stantiated and can-not be verified.

1020 Days1020 Days1020 Days1020 Days1020 Days371E has excellentsafety record


I was asked to write a small article aboutthe rig and some event which took place.I thought, not for long because me head

started to ache! What I did come up withwas that a rig hands stories should not beprinted. You see , the stories told over theweeks or months have a tendancy to bechanged or just embellished. As for myself,being labeled a liar or he’s full of it, I couldnot handle the responsibility. So this rig handwill keep the BS to himself!

Sunlight has always been a fairly gooddish soap but did you know there areseveral other ways to use a bottle of

sunlight to your advantage. The followingare the top seven alternative ways to usesunlight. Remember these are only ideas foralternative uses to sunlight dish soap. Theyare not manufacturer recommended and ifyou use any of these ideas you use them atyour own risk.

Clean Windows - Add some generalammonia and sunlight dish soap into a fivegallon pail of water. Wash window witheither a brush or rag and squeegee. Takeleather shamee and wipe excess water fromcorners.

Clean soiled clothing - Apply sunlight dishsoap directly to clothing. Gently rub intosoiled area and throw into washer. Don’tuse on your delicates....don’t be so cheapand take them to the dry cleaners!

Clean dirty or greasy floors - Applysunlight dish soap directly to floor, scrubfloor and then mop.

Clean dirt, grease or oil from skin - Applysunlight dish soap to stained area of skin andclean. For harder stains some scrubbing maybe needed.

Clean rust and other stains - Add sunlightdish soap to a five gallon pail of water. Soaka rag and lightly clean desired area. After thearea is wet add Old Dutch cleanser to ragand clean desired area. Make sure area iswet first though to avoid scratching. Goodfor

General purpose cleaner - Add sunlightdishsoap to a spray bottle full of water.Clean walls, countertops or other desiredareas

Clean dishes - Add sunlight dish soap todish water and wash the dishes before thewife / girlfriend/ / roommate gets mad!

Shepherd Stick - A long pole that helps tolock and unlock the kelly

Canine Seducer - What someone is calledwhen they are perceived to be doing nothingor they are actually doing nothing!

Unintelligent Rooster lollipop - Whatsomeone is called when they have just madeeither a big or small mistake.

Quicker Fixer - Fixing something with littleor no proper replacement parts. Usuallyfixing something with duct tape.

Worm or Weavel - No politically correctchange. When telling a story about someoneelse on the rigs and you’re trying to makeyourself look like a hero you refer to thatperson as a worm or weavel

Piping - When coming in or out of the hole.( Tripping was considered unsafe by thesafety gods.).

Politically CorrectA new way of speaking on the rigs

A 371E rig storyA story written by an anonymous rig hand


The story ofhow theteam at rig

371E came togetherbegins way back in1963. Elvis wastopping the charts,Diefenbaker wasstill Prime ministerand Brian Riddle,2nd drilling supervi-sor for Mobil hadjust started on thedrilling rigs as acampy for Naborsdrilling. WesBlazek, Sperry SunLead Directionaldriller had justgraduated from highschool and drillerRobert Marcottwas turning sixyears old.

Moving on into1965 Riddle getsmarried to his wifeJudy as Blazek isbeing honorably dis-charged from thearmy. Marcott wasjust getting electric-ity at his home whileHank Mynio, 1st

drilling supervisorfor Mobil was start-ing on the drillingrigs as a roughneck.His starting wagewas $1.85 an hour.

In 1966 Myniomoved up to the po-sition of motormanwhile Blazek begandispatching buses inhis hometown ofKarlovy Vary.Canada’s Primeminister Lester B.Pearson lights the

centennial flame atthe entrance to par-liament.

1967 saw the birthof toolpush RonShott and drillerJ o h n Takkenwhilei n1 9 6 8we seeBlazeki m m i -grating toCanada withhis girlfriendVera. FLQter ro r i s t sset offt h r e ebombs atMontealcity hall.

On into1 9 6 9 B l a z e kties the knot andgets married. Manalso lands on themoon… coinci-dence? They havetheir first child Peterby December.Mynio starts drillingat $3.25 an hour.He also buys his firstbrand new car, a1969 Plymouth fury.

In 1971 Ottawawithdraws troopsfrom Montreal andother areas in Que-bec in the wake ofthe FLQ crisis.Leasehand PaulBlazek is born alongwith his twin brotherGeorge. Riddle hasworked himself upto a relief toolpushwith Nabors while

Mynio goes drillingoverseas to east Af-rica. DerrickmanR a n d yAyoungman is bornon December 29th

on the Sisika nationreserve.

Riddle gets thebug to go over-seas in 1972and moves toIran where hestarts as apermanenttoo lpush .w h i l eM y n i o

moves on to asemi - submersibledrilling rig in Bor-neo in 1973.Marcott starts asroughneck in ‘73

while campy SarahMilton is beingborn. .

Bora Lakin is swornin as chief justice ofthe Supreme Courtof Canada in 1974.In that same yeardriller Lorne Baichstarts roughnecking.Schott and Takkenstart grade 2

Being an avidhockey fan we’resure Ayoungmanwas watching whenthe Montreal Cana-dians shut out theWashington Capi-tals in 1975. Thatsame year Myniogoes drilling at theNorth sea.

Blazek jr. starts kin-dergarten while Rid-

dle moves to SaudiArabia in 1976.Mynio gets pro-moted to toolpushthat same year asJohn Mauel beginshis career as awellsite geologist.

1978 seems to havebeen a very busyyear for the drillingindustry. BothBlazek sr. andDerrickman BruceCalahoo startroughnecking. Rid-dle is now on an off-shore rig and Myniohas gone on toSpain…where helearns to speakSpanish. Marcottand Baich both startdrilling. Mauel startsgeological consult-ing.1979 sees Joe Clarkelected Prime minis-ter of Canada...9months later he isthrown from officeby a vote of nonconfidence. Theshortest reign for aPrime Minister inCanada was JohnTurner in 1984.Milton is living inNorway in ‘79 whilesecond cookFrankie Kotankostarts her ownbusiness…a sub-marine shop.

Somewhere inthe 60’s and7 0 ’ smotorman RonVisser is bornin BurlingtonO n t a r i o ,

roughneck BradKeating is bornoutside the provin-cial capital of New-foundland in a towncalled Holyrood andmotorman MichaelWheaton was borninto a fishing familyin that same prov-ince. Also born dur-ing these decadeswere Sperry SunMWD hand PeterC o m e a u ,derrickman EmilGroves, motormanPaul Ingram,roughneck RickTaylor, roughneckScott Treasure,roughneck CarlBailey androughneck FrankKilfoy.

1980 saw Riddlemove to Dome pe-troleum working asa drilling foremanand Darcy Nickel,2nd directional drilleris working as awelder’s helper.The project they areworking on is a drill-ing rig. Rig 371E isborn. PierreTrudeau becomes

The world didn’t begin inThe world didn’t begin inThe world didn’t begin inThe world didn’t begin inThe world didn’t begin inFrom Eastern Europe to Newfoundland to Alberta: A historical jo


Prime minister ofCanada…again andRonald Reagan iselected president ofthe United States.

During the summerof 1982 Shott be-gins working as aroughneck. Myniobecomes a drillingconsultant forMobil whileBlazek sr. be-comes ad r i l l e r .Ayoungmani sac-t i v e l yi n -volvedin Jr.Hockey whileBlazek jr. startswriting stories. Thenext year Nickelstarts working as aroughneck.

Michael Jackson’salbum thrillerbacomes the bestselling album in his-tory in 1984. Dur-ing that same yearShott becomes adriller throughoutthe summer whileMynio is supervis-ing off the coast ofNewfoundland; intwo short years he’llbe Alberta bound.

Marcott starts farm-ing in 1987; raisingcattle. He marriesSharon in 1988.That same yearKotank moves toGibbons, Albertaand runs a hotel and

restaurant. Thestock marketcrashes in Octoberof ‘87 in what isknow as Black Fri-day .A tornado hitsEdmonton killing 29preople.

S o m e -where

in the8 0 ’ sShott got mar-ried to his highschool sweetheartTracy, Ayoungmangraduated from highschool as didWheaton .and Rid-dle adopts a child.Head cook RoseMarie Landry seesher kids get marriedand begins to havegrandchildren in theearly 90’s. Wheatonalso starts post sec-ondary at the Ma-rine Institute in St.Johns, Newfound-land. Uponcompleteing hiscourse Wheaton be-comes a ships navi-gator.

Blazek sr. begins di-rectional drilling forSperry Sun in 1990while Ayoungmanand Ingram start therigs as a greenroughnecks. Thefollowing yearBlazek jr. andMilton graduatefrom high school(different schools,different provinces

of course).Calahoo

has a

b a b yg i r l .

Duringthe win-

ter of thatyear the US

and it allies inthe United Na-

tions go to war withIraq in what isknown as the Gulfwar. The groundwar lasted 40 daysand 40 nights beforeIraq surrenders.

In 1992 Nickel be-comes a driller whilethe following yearGroves startsroughnecking on rig378. 378 was sta-tioned in rainbowvalley and then - inGroves’ words - itmoved to the end ofthe earth…W e y b u r n ,Saskatchew.1993also saw Kotanko

start cooking for rigsboys.

Visser settled downin Calgary in 1994while Wheatonstarted as aroughneck. Thenext year Shott be-gins relieftoolpushing andNickel starts as a di-rectional driller.1995 also sawAyoungman pro-moted toDerrickman andBlazek jr. graduatefrom an administra-tion course.

Bailey and Kilfoystart working therigs as roughnecksin 1996 while Shottbecomes a full timetoolpush Decemberof that year Mobilcontracts Nabors todrill the first wellwith 371E. Teasureand Taylor becomeRoughnecks the fol-lowing year.

Calahoo, Blazek sr,Marcott, Groves,T a k k e n ,P i t t e n d r e i g h ,Riddle, Mynio,S h o t t ,Ay o u g m a n ,V i s s e r ,K e a t i n g ,M a u e l ,W h e a t o nand Marcottall startedwith 371E in1997.

Blazek jr.B a i c h ,

Kotanko, Milton,Landry, Treasure,T a y l o r ,Bailey,Ingram andNickel all started371E in 1998

Comeau and Kilfoyall started in 1999

Somewhere in the90’s Ayoungman at-tended SAIT takinga pre - technologiescourse and he metthe love of his lifeLynn. Landry hadmore grandchil-dren. Blazek sr be-came a grandfather,Takken started therigs. Pittendreighwas registered to gointo environmentalscience. Mauel wasin Yemen. Blazek jr.graduated fromPublic Relations .Wheaton had achild. Calahoo hada second child.Taylor got married.

A n d that myfr iendis the371Enaborhooda n d

h o wwe allcame to-

gether.

n the middle of nowhere!n the middle of nowhere!n the middle of nowhere!n the middle of nowhere!n the middle of nowhere!ourney of how the 371E team came together*

*Some of the historical facts were obtained from the National Post newspaper. A very good newspaper that we would recommend to anyone


A loader is anexpensive

complicated pieceof machinery. Todrive a loader re-quires precision,skill and a compe-tent operator.Sometimes though,even the best driv-ers look like theyjust got out ofschool. In thesummer of 1998when mud on thelease created havocon everything fromclothes toroughnecks; fromleasehands to loaderoperators.

On a particularlycloudy afternoon inJuly, Motor - godRon Visser thoughthe would try anddrive the loaderthrought h eb a c ko f

the lease. Visser,who probably hassome secret ambi-tion of being amonster truckdriver, drovethrough the mudwith passion. Un-fortunately that pas-sion fizzled abouthalfway across theback of the leasewhen the loader juststopped. Not onlydid it stop, Vissercouldn’t even moveit backward or for-ward. He just hadthis sinkingfeeling.....and that’sexatly what theloader did... untilVisser could openthe door and stepright into the mud.We here at TheNaborhood stillhave no idea howthe loader managedto get stuck andVisser casuallywalked through themud like he waswalking on water?

That’s nothingthough when youconsider what hap-pened to ToolpusherRon Shott. Prob-ably on the sameafternoon, one ofthe crew memberswas trying to re-trieve a pallet ofbarite with theloader. Unable toget the bariteonto the forksthe crew mem-ber began toget frus-

trated. His frustra-tion grew tenfoldwhen his boss cameover andsaid “Getout and letme showyou howto drivet h i sthing.”O u tclimbst h ecrewmem-b e rand inc l imbsS h o t t .W e l l ,S h o t tdid suc-cessfullyget theforks un-der thep a l l e ta n draise theb a r i t eoff the ground...really high off theground. All thecrew members werestanding back at themixing shack ad-miring Shott as hee x p e r t l ymanoevered theloader. As theseconds turned tominutes the crewmembers wonderedhow much longer itwould take when allof thesudden...crash! Thepallet of Baritedropped from theloader into 3 feet ofmud. Shott didn’t

miss a beat though.He backed theloader up, parked it

and walked overto the crew atthe mixingshack. “Wellget to it boys!”

he said. Andwith that

directiveall thec r e wm e m -b e r strudged

throughthe mud

a n dp a c k e d

the bariteto the mix-ing shack.

That’s notthe worst ofthe loader

s t o r i e sthough.As withall mo-

torized vehicles,tires need replacing.After the hole atOpabin, HankMynio decided toreplace all fourloader tires withbrand spanking newones! Well you canimagine the pride oneveryone’s facewhen they saw thesebeautiful new tireson the loader. Dur-ing the rig move tothe new locationEmil Groves hadthe unfortunate taskof driving the newtired loader. Withthe tires being only

two days old,Groves drove withgreat caution. How-ever, caution turnedto horror when hedrove over an ob-ject sharp enough tocreate a beautifulhissing sound;somewhat like abooing crowd. Andthat’s what Mynioheard when hisbrand new tiresstarted playingBeethoven’s 5th

symphony in B flat.

By all meansmarry. If youget a good wife,you’ll becomehappy. If youget a bad one,you’ll become aphilosopher.”

-Socrates-

The yellow submarineThe yellow submarineThe yellow submarineThe yellow submarineThe yellow submarineMurphy’s law takes over for several loader drivers

Ron Visser prepares towalk on mud!


As mentioned inan earlier ar-

ticle, the summer of1998 saw some un-believable mud onthe lease. After aparticularly heavyrainstorm DrillerJohn Takken sentLeasehand PaulBlazek to cleanthe lease.As Blazekenthusiasti-c a l l yt r u d g e dthrough themud andwas duti-f u l l yc lean-ing ap a r -ticulararea hef o u n dhim-s e l fin an awkward posi-tion. The mud in thespot he was stand-ing in reached hisknees and he wasunable to move.The time was ex-actly noon... lunch-time. One ofBlazek’s responsi-bilities was to carrylunch up to thedoghouse. Seeingthat Blazek wasbusy afellowc o w o r k e r ,roughneck KevinPittendreigh, tooklunch to the dog-house. While eve-ryone was begin-ning to eat lunchBlazek was tryingto figure out how to

cantact the dog-house to tell themhe was stuck.Blazek signaled aHalliburton handwho was nearby tophone the doghouse.As he looked upBlazek saw Takkenand his crew emergefrom the doghouse,stand there and

laugh. Not onlydid they laughbut they grabbeda camera andtook pictures.As the largestman on the

lease wasaHalliburtonhand theysent himdown tor e s c u eB l a z e k .Unfortu-

nately he almost gotstuck too. At thispoint the Takkenand his crew rushedto Blazek’s aid andfreed him with theassistance of shov-els and a lot ofsweat.

Later that sameweek while Takkenand his crew wereon the night tower,Pittendreigh wasalso attempting toclean the lease. Thistime it wasPittendreigh whogot stuck and it waswaist high. As TheNaborhood hears it,it took three men,three shovels, and a

checked it andclimbed back intohis shack. Thiswent on for threedays when a visitingengineer asked drill-ing supervisor HankMynio why Mauelwent up every morn-ing. Mynio, know-ing that Mauel waschecking the poly -flow line told theengineer, who was adevout Christian,that Mauel waspraying every morn-ing. The engineerseemed impressedthat Mauel wouldget up every morn-ing and go and prayon top of his shack.The next morningthe visiting engineerwent outside towatch Mauel pray,while Mauel waskneeling to checkthe poly flow line,the visiting engineeryelled something upto him. Mauelcouldn’t quite hearthe engineer so hebegan to get up,while getting upMauel slipped andfell right on hisbottom. I guess thegood Lord didn’t

rope to freePittendreigh. Andbeing that there wasno photo opportu-nity the crew wentimmediately to hisrescue. Unfortu-nately TheNaborhood was un-able to obtain thephoto of Blazek’smisadventure.

A driller is always cool,

collected andthoughtful. Thismay explain whydriller John Takkenhas a passion forplaying chess, a logi-cal thinkingman’s game.One night in midJuly 1998Takken askedleasehandP a u lBlazek ifhe wouldlike a gameof chess. Al-though hehadn’t playedchess for sev-eral years.Blazek took

Takken up on hischallenge. Afterabout an hour ofintense competitionBlazek had only hisrook, queen andking left on theboard. Takken onthe other hand had½ of his pawns,king, queen, 2rooks, a knight anda bishop left on theboard. SomehowBlazek made themost amazing moveever in the game ofchess and managedto check-mateTakken. Theyhaven’t playedsince.

Early one morningJohn Mauel,

wellsite geologistfor Mobil climbedon top of his

shack tocheck thepoly -f l o wl i n ef o rp o s -siblefreez-i n g .Mauel

k n e e l e dd o w n ,

The drilling rigs favorite word was actually aterm used by the 18 the century church todescribe couples who engaged in premaritalsex, The crime was For Unlawful CarnalKnowledge and it was posted on streetannouncement boards. Because the namewas so long, the common folk shortened it byusing only the first four letters of the word.(You didn’t really think that The Naborhoodwas going to spell it for you did you?)

The meaning of tThe meaning of tThe meaning of tThe meaning of tThe meaning of the whe whe whe whe wororororord...d...d...d...d...Mud!!!Mud!!!Mud!!!Mud!!!Mud!!!It’s not just weight materiel

(See Mud pg 12)


Since the majority of the

Canadian popula-tion lives in the citygetting to work isnot a very difficulttask. However,when you work inthe middle of no-where and have noaccess to a vehicle,it becomes a majorobstacle. This wasthe case forroughneck KevinPittendreigh whenhe needed to get tohis 3:30 afternoonshift in March of1998. He wasunable to contacthis regular ride tothe rig so he had tofind an alternativemeans of transpor-tation and quick.Being the dedicatedemployee that he isPittendreigh calledthe nearest taxi cabcompany and beganhis journey. Theride was relativelyuneventful until thecabby hit the log-ging road to the rig.With 15km left tothe journey thecabby managed tosteer himself rightinto the ditch!Pittendreigh beganto worry that hemight be late for

work as there wasno hope of gettingthe cabby out of theditch. Fortunately a

trucker droveby andpulled thecabby out.

Pittendreigh washappy because hegot to work on timeand the cabby washappy because thefare turned out to be$250.00.

Speaking of inter-esting way to get towork......July 1st

1998 will be a datemany of the 371Ecrew will remem-ber. The previousnight had seena flash stormwhich was soheavy that itf l o o d e dt h eleasein amattero fminutes.371E be-came anunoffi-cial off-shore drill-ing rig. Al-though therain sub-sided itcontinuedto pourthrough-out then i g h t .Ar i s ingearly thatmorning driller

Robert Marcottwas informed thatthe bridge along theroad was washedaway by the storm.He immediately no-tified his crew thatthey would have toleave early in orderto cross the nowbridge-less creek.Using a trusty axeprovided byderrickman BruceCalahoo and a sawbrought by rig man-ager Ron Shottthey proceeded tocreate a temporarywalking bridge. Al-though everyonecrossed without in-cident Calahoo didhave to carry adufflebag full ofclothing acrossthe creek.

Later thathour thecrew thatwas just re-l i e v e dcame tothe creek

crossing.Roughneck

Scott Treas-ure crossedfirst withd r i l l e rL o r n eBaich rightbehind him.T r e a s u r ew a l k e dslowly, de-l i be r a t e ly

and carefully.Baich followed

Treasure’s lead;

All in a days workAll in a days workAll in a days workAll in a days workAll in a days work371E’s adventures of getting to work

Summer of ‘98 - Fires and Mud!

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observing every stepthe roughneckmade. As Treasuresuccessfully crossedhe turned to seeBaich make onestep he didn’t.Splash! In wentBaich, shoes andall! Although thecreek was fairlyshallow by this timeBaich still couldn’ttouch the bottom.Treasure gave hishand to Baich andhelped him ontosolid ground Treas-ure again looked upto see directionaldriller Wes Blazekmake the same mis-take. Only this timeBlazek managed tosteady himself be-fore completely fall-ing in. Blazek didget a fish or two inhis left boot though.

Sitting in his shacklater that samemorning Blazek wasmulling over theevents that tran-spired earlier. Be-

“Well the ice is frozen.”“You’re my slave today boy!”

“What are you doing? Those are twoperfectly good pieces of lumber.”

“Close the hopper!”

“No, I think I’ll just bunk down inmy car.”

“Fore! Call it a million to one shot, ahole in one”

“Get out of my doghouse!”“Where’s you to?”“10 %”

“Woo hoo!”

“Go get that roughneck! And I don’tcare if he’s in the bathroom!”

ing the problemsolver that he isBlazek came upwith an ingeniousidea of how to crossthe creek withoutgetting wet. Heimmediately tel-ephoned Shott anddrilling supervisorHank Mynio. To-gether the three ofthem proceeded tothe creek with safetyharnesses, ropes andthe keys toMarcott’s dodgepickup. Tying oneend of the rope toBlazek’s pick upthey stretched theother end across thegulf and tied it toMarcott’s. Attach-ing a shiv and safetyharness to the ropeBlazek, Mynio andShott had createdan instant monorail.They admired theirwork as they de-bated who wouldgo first.

The new 371Emonorail was in full

operation whenlunchtime rolledaround. Dedicatedcampy SarahMilton faithfullybrought lunch to therig with the mono-rail. However, shedid seem to exten-sively test the newinvention.

“Risk is stepping outside your comfortzone to a place where you cannot predictwith any degree of certainty the outcomeof your actions. Risk is taking onsomething that holds an enormouschance of failure. Most importantly, riskis the only key to outrageous success.”

- Jack Welch, CEO of General Electric

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Wes Blazek tries the 371E monorail

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Sarah Milton bringing the boys lunch

Who said that?

The NaborhoodEditor: PR Blazek

Design and Layout:PR Blazek

Photography: RonShott, Sarah Milton,Rose Marie Landry,PR Blazek

Contributors: Ron Shott,Hank Mynio, Brian Rid-dle, Robert Marcott, WesBlazek, John Takken,Lorne Baich, SarahMilton, Ron Visser,Randy Ayoungman, PRBlazek, Brad Keating,Mike Wheaton, KevinPittendreigh, BruceCalahoo, Peter Comeau,Darcy Nickel, Carl Bai-ley, Rick Taylor, ScottTreasure, Emil Groves,Frankie Kotanko, PaulIngram, Rose MarieLandry, Frank Kilfoy

©1999 PR BlazekThe information in this newslet-ter is furnished for informationaland entertainment purposesonly. PR Blazek assumes noresposibility or liability for anyerrors or inaccuracies that mayappear.

The Naborhood and all con-tents except where noted are©1999 PR Blazek. No part ofthis publication may be repro-duced, stroed in a retrieval sys-tem, or transmitted in any formor by means of electronic, me-chanical, recording or otherwisewithout the prior writtenpremission of PR Blazek.

Nabors Drilling and the Nabors imageare © and ® trademarks of NaborsDrilling Canada Used by Permission

Mobil and thePegasus image are ©and ® trademarks ofMobil Oil CanadaUsed by Permission

Success

What we all should know


want Mauel to getup from praying!

Sarah Milton,371E’s campy wascleaning the floorsin the camp one hotsummer night.When she was fin-ished she went toput her scrub bucketand towels away inbathroom (wherethese supplies arekept). What shedidn’t know on herway to the bath-room was thatleasehand PaulBlazek had juststepped out of theshower and wasdrying himself off.

Well.. Miltonopened the door,kneeled down andput the supplies intheir place. As shewas getting up shewas at waist eyelevel with Blazek.She turned redderthan a beat. Imme-diately Miltonlooked up atBlazek’s face andmeekly said “I’msorry.” What couldBlazek do he hadliterally nothing tosay. Milton sheep-ishly closed the doorand walked away.Needless to sayshe’s been knock-ing on doors eversince.

� 4 years communication / administration experience� Word processing, design, database, accountingsoftware knowledge� Education and training in Public Relations and Ad-ministration

Genuine Hard Working Enthusiastic

CommunicationsProfessionalBlazeK

Well guess whateveryone! It lookslike the leasehanddoes get the lastwoed after all.

This was one awe-some project to puttogether. Gettingpeople to writesomething on thisRig is about as easyas pulling teeth froma buffalo....just askRobert how hard

that would be. Ifigure it would takesome heavy seda-tion and severalqualified and trainedsurgeons. Seeing asI didn’t have thefinances for the sur-geons and heavysedation would beagainst Nabors drugand alcohol policy,this is the best Icould come up with.

I hope you enjoyedthe read. I do wantto thank every crewmember, manage-ment, contractorand camp staff forcontributing to thispublication. TheNaborhood wasmade for you. If itwasn’t for all theeffort everyone put

Mud(Continued from pg 9) into this, it couldn’t

have been done.

As you know I’mgoing in search of acareer in the com-munications/ mar-keting field. So mylast word to you allis thank - you.

Thank you every-one for giving me agreat experience andfor teaching me thefundementals of theoil industry. I knowI will take what Ihave learned hereand apply itwhereever I go.God bless you alland take care.

Paul

The Last WordThe Last WordThe Last WordThe Last WordThe Last Wordby PR Blazek

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