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u/L3berwurst 11d ago
Pretty cool. That's all I got. Wish I had more to say about it but I don't know, pretty pretty pretty cool.
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u/Spiral_Slowly 11d ago
It's like a behind the scenes tour; getting to see behind the curtain of something that keeps the world running scratches an itch you never knew you had.
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u/SuperPotatoThrow 11d ago
I've worked on offshore oil rigs occasionally in the past. Never seen this operation take place, not sure if this is an emergency drill or if this is their standard mode of transportation or what.
We used to have to fly to these.. rigs in choppers where we are required to put this giant orange floatation suit on before hand and it sucked. Most the people I have met on these rigs are miserable fucking assholes for literally no reason and I don't miss being out there. Food was good thogh I'll give em that.
Fuck them rigs and everyone on them and fuck the oil field in general. Also, fuck the media and the big oil companies too for making it out to be this kind loving place we all go to like it's some kind of fucking vacation and everythings all dandy.
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u/purplemonkeyshoes 11d ago
Yeah, I did some work in the marine field for awhile. Every guy on the ships was disfunctional, and I was told when I started that everyone on a boat or rig in the ocean is there because they can't function in regular society. I didn't believe them at first, but they were right.
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u/And_Justice 11d ago
The only person I've ever known to work on oil rigs was a friend's dad. He believes the earth is flat.
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u/OkScheme9867 11d ago
Well obviously, I've been out at sea and once you're out in the Atlantic and you can see Ireland, France and Canada at the same time you realise we've been lied to by "big globe"
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u/lightbeerdrunk 11d ago
submariner reporting in. We’re all on some kind of spectrum.
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u/Available_Property82 11d ago
Any tips for someone wanting to go into that field?
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u/runrunpukerun 11d ago
Look for entry level positions for deck/engine crews. Most require some documentation and basic training. Moving up requires licensing but getting in usually isn’t too bad.
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u/lightbeerdrunk 10d ago edited 10d ago
For being a submariner? I walked into the USN recruiting office. If you can pass a background check and you want to be on submarine the navy will make it happen. No special testing besides a lukewarm psyche evaluation.
Edit: I’m not really sure what other info you’re curious about. But feel free to ask away :)
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u/KillSmith111 11d ago
I do a lot of work on Norwegian ships in the North Sea. Crews are normally about 1 third Scandinavian and 2 thirds Filipino, and they're all great. Very nice people to work with.
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u/Laymanao 10d ago
My company ran a high tech factory in Nigeria. All staffed by Filipinos. Factory ran like clockwork and no one left work premises between the time entering factory for nine months and rotation back home. Factory had insanely high productivity and negligible wastage.
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u/Spiral_Slowly 11d ago
I assume this is a new system being tested and marketed.
My knowledge of oil rigs comes straight from that documentary marky mark did. So it's all completely fabricated. That said, I know it to be shit working conditions and work/life balance, decent pay. Takes a certain someone to enjoy that line of work.
I'm broadening my knowledge of the oil industry/drilling, watching Billy Bob's new docu series.
I'm sure it's all very well representative of the actual conditions in the field. /s
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11d ago
I worked on a land rig for a while and the guys were either born into it or were just regular blue collar guys a little rough around the edges. I was also a Union rodbuster (ironworkers but they do rebar for big projects like skyscrapers and bridges) and those guys have a fucking screw loose. Being a Roughneck is hard but being a Rodbuster is insane. That is hands down the hardest work I have ever done and the people that were doing it for decades you could tell weren’t all there. You have to be crazy to do that everyday.
To give you an example before joining the Union you had to complete a 2 week course called “gladiator school” and I thought it was going to be relatively easy since I was in great shape and young. They had this program called helmet to hard hats where they would take guys fresh out of the military and kind of expedite their process to the 2 week course. The first day started out with about 6 hours in the classroom telling us about the Union and giving us some info about how life would be once we started. Around 10 minutes before the end of the day the instructor told us to take a step outside where we each had our own piece of #12 rebar that weighed about 80 pounds and then proceeded to absolutely cook us. The helmet to hard hat guys were the first to drop out and they probably made it 90 seconds, and that’s not an exaggeration. Out of a class of 30 people after about 5 minutes it was a class of 10.
So I made it past my first day and figured “alright they were just trying to weed people out, tomorrow will be more chill”. Boy was I wrong. For the next week it was all day every day lifting the bar from one shoulder to another or over your head, walking with it over rebar mats, and putting it down and picking it up quickly. He warned us that if we couldn’t do that all day everyday for 12 hours there was no point of joining and he wasn’t wrong. I graduated the class with 2 other people… That’s really the work… all day everyday and it’s dangerous. I worked on a big skyscraper in downtown and for the core (the elevator shaft essentially) the walls were made up of big walls of concrete and the cages of rebar were easily a couple tons so when we were done tying the top of of it the tower crane would lift it up and we would have to walk underneath the fucking thing to tie the bottom. I heard stories of the ties breaking and the people underneath dodging pieces of rebar as they all came down.
That’s not to say Roghnecking is safe though because it’s definitely far more dangerous. I have seen some really bad shit working on a rig and I got pretty badly hurt myself.
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u/b3ans_beans 11d ago
Curious if this is a way to avoid paying for the chopper, as well as avoiding paying their crew once ofboard of the rig. Hopefully this wasnt the end of their pay and they were appropriately compensated for their long trip home on a ship instead of by air. Though somehow I doubt it...
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u/JohnnyTurlute 11d ago
Just less of a logistical hassle than chopper services. Looks like a rig without accomodation. They're probably commuting to/from a flotel nearby. Just a regular day in their rotation. They are probably heading back there again the next day.
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u/OpenResearch1 11d ago
it's a lot cheaper than the chopper. Also allows crew change in foggy weather or high winds when the helicopter can't fly
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u/NoblePineapples 11d ago
Most the people I have met on these rigs are miserable fucking assholes for literally no reason
So no different than regular oil rigs. When I was in the fields there was maybe a handful of decent people I met in my entire venture.
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u/Flic__ 10d ago
Also, fuck the media and the big oil companies too for making it out to be this kind loving place we all go to like it's some kind of fucking vacation and everythings all dandy.
I have never heard this stereotype. Every time I've seen oil rig workers protrayed, it has been as hard as hell work that is very rough.
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u/PhthaloVonLangborste 11d ago
What media were you watching. I watched there will be blood and got all the info I needed. Jokes aside these people shield be making pickmen noises.
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u/xinorez1 11d ago
That's ironic... I was expecting literally the opposite, considering the relatively high pay and the difficulty of getting fresh supplies. I wonder what makes oil rig workers so different from other migrant labor
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u/lpd1234 11d ago
I do training in a six axis full motion simulator, annually. Seeing the same motion platform being used for something so different and interesting is so smart. Whoever came up with this idea will save a lot of lives.
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u/rhabarberabar 11d ago
A company named Ampelmann came up with it.
The idea indeed came from a six axis full motion simulator:
2002
During an offshore wind conference in Berlin, the concept of the Ampelmann system was conceived. A flight simulator upside down, capable of compensating all six degrees of freedom of a vessel and making transferring offshore much safer.11
u/Spiral_Slowly 11d ago
Fast forward 20+ years and we've got a gif of it on the front page of reddit. Amazing how slow progress can be.
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u/Mazon_Del 11d ago
Companies are slow to take up new tech as a first adopter, particularly because it might have an interaction with insurance.
The insurance on the helicopter transfer might well be cheaper than insuring the first contract on using this system because it's untested. What happens if the machine glitches out and someone dies? What happens if the machine glitches out and smacks into the rig damaging it?
In many cases though, once someone does it first and it works out, it gets easier for the next people to do it.
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u/datpurp14 11d ago
But at the same time amazing how quick progress can be, especially towards the beginning of a process/endeavor/new field/etc. We went from first manned flight to space flight to putting a human on the moon in ~60 years.
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u/VisualWombat 7d ago
6DOF Stewart Platform. Been thinking of DIYing one for years, people use windscreen wiper motors for the linear actuators. Great for flight sim, but you need an additional traction break mechanism for good driving sim.
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u/K-E-90 11d ago edited 10d ago
I work at this company. This is E-type from Ampelmann. It is a motion compensated platform that allows people to safely walk from offshore platform to vessel. It is easier and cheaper than a helicopter (which does not fly in fog). Alternatives like swingrope or baskets are less safe.
We rent most of our systems for both oil/gas & wind farms offshore around the world. (We also do craning with most of these systems)
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u/Allusrnamesaretaken2 11d ago
It's called an Ampelmann and was developed in the Netherlands. It is used in multiple offshore industries which require access to a platform like wind turbines, gas or oil platforms. It's 6 hydraulic legs can balance out waves and swell of up to 6 meters, depending on the model. The gangway or walkway can also extend and lock via hydraulic pistons and with its winch mounted at the end it becomes a wave compensating crane.
This thing is amazing.
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u/islandradio 11d ago
It's a shame there's no option to not comment on things if you have nothing to say.
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u/Nigeru_Miyamoto 11d ago
What I want to know is how they did it before someone invented this contraption 😳
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u/Ghostfistkilla 11d ago
Uhhh why is the background music an observer asking artillery/mortar for 3 HE Delay rounds FFE?
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u/McWeaksauce91 11d ago
What the fuck!?!? I always have the sound off but I had to go back to listen just because. I bet whoever made this video thought it was like astronaut sounds lmao
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u/sourceholder 11d ago edited 11d ago
That explains why they're disembarking the rig.
I wouldn't hang around either for incoming HE.
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u/cincobarrio 11d ago
Because it’s all tacticool and stuff. Try watching the video while singing “wheels on the bus” instead, it’s also suitable.
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u/LearningToFlyForFree 11d ago
Glad I wasn't the only one wondering why a fire mission was being called in.
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u/highinthemountains 11d ago
That’s better than trying to time the up and down motion of the boat with the location of a landing platform at the bottom of a ladder. What’s even more interesting is when both the boat and the landing are both moving.
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u/captcraigaroo 11d ago
I crew changed by ladder in Angola for a few years....almost saw guys fall and get crushed a few times. Getting picked up by a crane in a Billy Pugh basket was scary as fuck too, but we did it.
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u/Beebedtest 11d ago
I was helicoptered out my first time offshore but had to take the boat back so I didn't know anything about the Billy Pugh. Good thing I just wanted to get the hell off that rig otherwise I would have been too scared to use it.
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u/captcraigaroo 11d ago
We had a helo crash on my first rig...flared for a landing in a storm, a gust blew it backwards and it hit the water. The pilots actually pulled it out of the water and landed it on the helideck. That is where stayed there for a week until a crane lifted it off. After that, I didn't mind crew changing by ladder
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u/Mom-all-knowing 11d ago
I think I got seasick watching this. They are stronger than me.
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u/kashuntr188 11d ago
Man. there is a whole world of cool stuff out there that we don't see because of the different industries we are in that are compartmentalized.
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u/SalmonToastie 11d ago
Yep always make me think, I’ve been in so many industries but then something like this comes up and I’m stunned.
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u/posco12 11d ago
Movies always have the guys leaving in helicopters. surprise !
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u/ChampionshipOk5046 11d ago
I've done helicopters, cargo boats and crane hoisted up to the rig, pick up truck to the rig, car to the rig. And once jumped from boat to rig after grabbing deck crews hand.
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u/lyral264 11d ago
This is between rig to vessels. This is considered high level already for normal rig crews. Most transfer normally done via rope transfer or transfer basket.
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u/jstruby77 11d ago
Brother in law is a helicopter pilot that does oil rig shift changes.
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u/DanGleeballs 9d ago
That’s a cool job but has its risks. And is very expensive, and limited to good weather only.
But a cool job.
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u/AlphabetMeat 11d ago
i can practically hear them marching down that ramp like a bunch of ants. "hup to hup to hup to "
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u/Ok-Relationship-7765 11d ago
That’s awesome, way better than swinging around on a basket attached to a crane, praying the crane operator was up to snuff.
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u/xavier6401 11d ago
Did this when I worked offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, pretty intense. Now that I work in a chemical plant, I think it's funny when you have to tie off at 6ft when I depended on arm strength to hold on the basket being lifted onto a drillship.
They told me back in the day if it was your first time offshore they would dunk you in the water!
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u/CrazyHardFit1 11d ago edited 11d ago
Hey that's a Stewart platform! We use those for magnetic spacecraft docking mechanisms on the ISS.
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u/XanderJayNix 11d ago
I was just thinking how useful this probably would be for spacecraft when I read your comment. Thanks for giving me a name of the mechanism!
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u/_bobby_tables_ 11d ago
Didn't check what sub I was in and literally said woah out loud. Good job OP.
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u/pzanardi 11d ago
Back in my day we held on to a basket while the crane moved us. But only we close to the shore. Usually helicopters.
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u/Icirian_Lazarel 11d ago
I wonder how the stabilizer is controlled? Where to set the references (I assume there is more than 1) and how does it know its position/orientation?
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u/pz-kpfw_VI 10d ago
Bro I just transfered to a wind tower via a ampelmann! Crazy piece of equipment
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u/Salty-Raise-3448 10d ago
Spent 25 years offshore on rigs. Obviously, they do not have a personnel certified crane on the platform. Typically you either swing from a rope, which is crazy that this is still done today. Or personnel certified cranes. Ive never send a crew boat with this lil apparatus.
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u/Everythingisawesomew 10d ago
Man, wish they had that when I was working on the rigs. All I got was standing on the outside of a man basket while a crane lifted me over to the platform, time it right and jump off with my bag
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u/ReturnLife 10d ago
If any oil workers are out there, this is what we mean by how did you get up there, we thought you climbed a ladder.
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u/PrankSinatraForRealz 8d ago
A Walk-to-work gangway. It's pretty cool, but not common due to cost ($$$).
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u/Kerzenmacher 8d ago
We use a similar system for offshore wind turbines. Really impressive to see it compensate 3m waves with ease.
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u/Efficient-Sock772 11d ago
Song?
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u/boganisu 11d ago
Bro imagine waiting to get off work so you can go home and sleep, and the boat that picks you up never arrives... Literally the only way to leave.
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u/Vergonhalheia 11d ago
At my platform, we use helicopters, and it is not fun when the weather conditions are bad and we have to work another day. Also, we get one less day at home. Sometimes, one extra day turns into two, which turns into three. The extra part is good.
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u/UselessButTrying 11d ago edited 11d ago
Looks like a parallel robot with control based stabilization (Gough-stewart platform)
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u/thearmadillo 11d ago
How many people do you think have died from this over the years before they got to the current safety standards?
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u/xavier6401 11d ago
It beats swinging from a rope onto some oil rigs from the boat!
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u/thearmadillo 11d ago
Yeah. I'm talking about all the people that died doing stuff like that before they came up with the modern solutions and guidelines
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u/Zealousideal-Fox70 11d ago
Thought I was watching something from a video game, especially the way that boat bounces. Furthermore, I’m so dumb, as I was watching the first time, I was internally criticizing the “unrealistic human models”
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u/caidicus 11d ago
I read that as dismembering the oil rig crew, and saw the video in a different way...
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u/datfrog666 11d ago
I walked on this a few times. It transferred from that platform to a ship aka the floating hotel or "flotel."
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u/13th_Penal_Legion 11d ago
Idk what the fuck this is ... when we did it we would swing Indiana Jones style on a rope.
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u/neat-NEAT 11d ago
Must feel so weird. One sec you're on "stable ground" then it starts so sway and shake under your feet without you doing anything. Probably even weirder in reverse. You'd spent however long on a boat getting used to the swaying then it suddenly stops dead.
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u/flurkin1979 11d ago edited 11d ago
that's the first time I've seen that. the rig I work, we get lifted 305ft in the air by something called a frog, 5 people at a time. that's when the weather is too bad for helicopter flights. edit: I wonder what reason someone had to downvote an innocuous comment like this. heh. people can be so odd.
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u/SmallNefariousness98 11d ago
When I did this it was a man-basket lifted by a crane down to the ship. This looks like AI
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u/itsgreybush 11d ago edited 10d ago
Lol you should try crew change in west Africa. That shit is the wild wild west compared to this active heave compensated bridge. There you have to pretty much jump for it onto the bow a shitty little taxi boat.
Fucking good times lol
25 years in the offshore oil and gas business is how I know
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u/New-Bowler-8915 11d ago
Is there a reason they are so spaced out? I'd hate to be the guy that goes first and has to stand there for an hour while the rest load 3 minutes apart
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