Get me a crocodile sandwich... And make it snappy! And we'll be seeing more of this little fella in a short while. Yes this could only be another 'Only in Africa' story from Biglorryblog's 'Good Man in Africa' Jerry Burley who says: "Brian, you may wonder how oil companies around the globe decide just where to build pads when drilling for ye olde black golde."
JB continues: "Some say seismic is used, others allegedly use a naked witch with divining rods at midnight or similar, fiendishly clever, modern means. Well, we've come up with our own cunning, cutting-edge plan to save millions that we recon will work just fine."
"It goes something like this. Have a look around and about and find a bit of bush that no-one else seems interested in (can be difficult these days!). Make sure to take a photo to remind yourself of where you were - one bush can look very much like another (or so I'm told). Grade a bit of road through said bush to an otherwise arbitrary point."
"Then bring in some more expensive - but hopefully reusable - yellow kit on the back of once-famous British brands and other yankee trucks and scratch around in the dirt a bit, throw some sand and murram about here and there and hope it sticks and generally have mad dog fun in the midday sun."
"Next up dig a couple of holes and put a steel box in one and a swimming pool in two others - I'm not entirely sure why we need two pools but it seems to be the vogue currently."
"These can be seen from the shot taken by our recently-launched, budget home-made spy satellite. And then bring in a big boys meccano kit drill rig (on a platform I have never heard of - any guesses for a crocodile pie?)."
And here's a close up of that drilling rig... Quite an impressive bit of kit but who makes it?
"Drill a hole down a bit and hopefully your well-reasoned guesswork will reap dividends. Something like that and I'm absolutely convinced it will work and our share value in London and Kathmandu will rocket. Trust me, like a call girl in a darkened room with a Zen monk."
"Anyway, we gave Volrath and Taban (our soon-to-be-reformed-of-various-ongoing-woes Sudanese foreman, seen starring above with his best side forwards) a few days to do just this, and what you see here is what they achieved. If verily it doth not meet with thine approval, send any comments or criticisms to them, not me! It all went seemingly OK for once, apart from Volrath having to extricate the 320 excavator at high speed from one pit when it blew a hydraulic drive motor hose - the pit was, after all, having concrete poured into it at the time."
"Elf and Hasty would both probably disapprove of the method of pulling it out by its bucket via 950 wheeled loader (excuse the phone photo taken in to the sun) but then I equally disapprove of entombing our yellow kit in 1:2:5 mix!"
And here's a collection of JB's Only in Africa lorries... From Fodens to Tatas and old Bedford TMs... Now keep an eye on that big box below as it's kind of important to the story...
Now click through here for more drilling rig action... And oh yes that crocodile...
JB carries on his tale: "There was one interesting moment when we emptied the oil/water separator after drilling was complete (basically an old shipping container, cut in half and baffled to remove any accidentally spilled oil from the perimeter storm drains) when to brighten up everyone's day the small chap you can see here was discovered."
"We've been through quite a drought here of late and he smelled the water and walked right onto site for a swim, wholly uninvited. And once in, he liked it so much he stayed in! I believe this may have been what's commonly known as a savannah croc, which tend to walk around a bit, often quite long distances from water. He was only about 5ft long so wasn't exactly going to kill and eat anyone but believe me they can still nip a bit, even at this size, and dental hygiene is generally not a priority. Volrath was of course absolutely terrified but after quick cuddle from Taban, who was sizing it up as a possible belt for his Leatherman, he soon stopped crying. Maybe later in the month I'll share with you some slightly bigger crocs we came across recently... Anyway, our potential Gucci handbag (for Volrath) was apprehended fairly quickly, tied up for his own safety to prevent Taban biting him back (that's the picture at the very top of the blog) if he got frisky, which wouldn't have been good for the croc at all, and the Wildlife Authority toddled along in a Cruiser and carted the miscreant off in disgrace."
"And with drilling complete a couple of weeks later and the place vacated, all that was left was for JB to bimble royally onto site, royally placed in the back seat of a royal 50 car convoy of air-conditioned luxury, to perform the exceptionally difficult regal task of locking the front gate and to take the applause from the assembled, royal-adoring throngs. As can be clearly seen."
And with the sun dropping over the yard arm (or the D8 ROPS in this instance, as were short of both boats and Boeings here) to then retire, exhausted, to a suitable hostelry to bend an elbow once or thrice. Is it only in Africa that this type of sustained, major physical exertion makes one so simultaneously tired and thirsty? Regards, Jerry." Thanks JB, wacky stuff as ever... Have you had a gusher yet?
Not sure who made that drilling rig but it appears to have Polish number plates...
The plate on the drilling rig looks Polish (Krackow?).
It certainly the drilling rig does sport an older-style Cracow number plate (before EU stars replaced the Polish flag on the blue strip).
More interestigly still, could the crocodile somehow be a descendat or a distant relative of the dragon that once terrorized the population of Cracow before he was treated to a sulphur-filled sandwich?
Best regards from Poland
Andrzej
It's actually a 'service rig', not a drilling rig.....a service rig is most always truck mounted & is used predominantly to 'service' existing wells.....for example to run production tubing or pull sucker rod or one of umpteen thousand possible procedures. I was going to say it was a 'Kremco 750' but i don't think that's it. Kremco is an actual service rig builder.
This is a Frnaks Cabot 750 mobile workover rig
It is IRI-750 mobile drilling/workover rig - property of OGEC Krakow LTD Company.
best regard
Rafal
Not to have any doubts or speculations, I would like to explain a few things.
In the picture you can see the rig Ideco IRI-750.
It is a typical drilling rig, not a workover or service one.
Smaller rigs are used to do service jobs because of economical reasons. Of course, this rig can also do this kind of jobs and it has done similar ones many times.
If you are interested, I am sending a link where you can get more information about it:
http://www.ogec.krakow.pl/index.php?recid=36&lang=en
A number plate has got Krakow’s numbers which means that the rig is registered in Poland and the owner is OGEC Krakow Ltd.
The jobs in Uganda started in April, 2008. The rig has been contracted to drill oil wells for Tullow Oil and Heritage Oil:
http://www.tullowoil.com/tlw/operations/af/uganda
http://www.heritageoilplc.com/uganda.cfm
Kind regards,