When taking oil from the Earth you also get many other substances and minerals with the oil. Natural Gas, Methane, Propane and Seawater are some that are familiar to most. Many other things also. All of these byproducts need to be seperated out. That actually is what most of the work up here involes. Not drilling. Once seperated they, for the most part are injected back into the ground. The Seawater Injection plant is quite a facility with extremely large turbines for task. The gases and such are also removed and injected back in wherest it came. Most all of the larger facilities I work in do this. This means all of the stuff is flying in and out of different contraptions so to say to accomplish this. Lots of piping, vessels, pumps, seperators, regulating valves and so on. Well as you can imagine any mistake or worn device could create an issue. So on top of all this are Halon and other neutralizing systems in facilities to minimize chances of a catastrophic incident.
Another way is to divert things somewhere fast with a means of eliminating it as a probem. One problem at any facility can cause backups of stuff coming out of the ground that suddenly has no place to go. Unfortunately most of this was learned through disasters long ago. Fortunately we have learned to harness this. Anyway when suddenly your path for a product is stopped and you have no way to stop it, you divert it……..
From Six Miles Away
Natural gas on the Slope is a huge byproduct of the oil removal process here. You may look it up, but I know it is plenty and could heat a majority of the US each year. No way to get it to where it is needed though so it for the most part injected back into the ground.
When unable to process it fast enough for the trip back to mother Terra, it is burned off in a Flare. The two flames at the far left are what we see everywhere. They are pilot lites for, you guessed it, exceess volumes of gas. You cant just vent it to the atmosphere. Those buildings you see to the right of the fireball are3-5 stories high and cover a good couple of blocks. The fireball is HUGE!!
From Six Miles Away
Keep in mind this is all planned and not considered too alarming. Except that it is, and everyone within that facility reacts accordingly until bad pump, valve, divertor or whatever gets repaired. Lets just say a well oiled machine. Soon as an incident like this happens the entire Slope knows within 15 minutes and adjust their plans, schedule and work as needed. Make adjustments in their facilities 1mile, 3miles or twenty miles away as all things are connected. What happens at another facility does affect yours and you will soon have same issue if actions are not taken.
These pictures were taken by Billy from about 6 miles away with a 20X zoom I believe. Believe it or not I was on the other side working on an oil pad about a mile away. We had no camera with us. We could definetley feel the heat though.
Things happen. We are trained to act accordingly, and all incidents, while exciting, are treated professionally and like a routine. My job up here essentially is to ensure dangerous gases that can not be controlled this way are evacuated and or provide safe havens for people from danger.
This Flare Up actually happened a few weeks back while I was on my last hitch. Have not wrote much lately and will try and post some more stories and pictures that I have archived and not yet had a chance to post. Days are long and I am trying to excercise everyday, and believe it or not, this is time consuming. Uploading pictures is somewhat cumbersome. Sun is currently rising at 10:30am and setting at 2:30pm. Cloudy since I got here and no colorful skies. Had what they call a “Blow” today though that I will elaborate on with next post.
Be Irie everyone!! One Love!!
Adventures with Vicki and Dale 
Flare Ups
When taking oil from the Earth you also get many other substances and minerals with the oil. Natural Gas, Methane, Propane and Seawater are some that are familiar to most. Many other things also. All of these byproducts need to be seperated out. That actually is what most of the work up here involes. Not drilling. Once seperated they, for the most part are injected back into the ground. The Seawater Injection plant is quite a facility with extremely large turbines for task. The gases and such are also removed and injected back in wherest it came. Most all of the larger facilities I work in do this. This means all of the stuff is flying in and out of different contraptions so to say to accomplish this. Lots of piping, vessels, pumps, seperators, regulating valves and so on. Well as you can imagine any mistake or worn device could create an issue. So on top of all this are Halon and other neutralizing systems in facilities to minimize chances of a catastrophic incident.
Another way is to divert things somewhere fast with a means of eliminating it as a probem. One problem at any facility can cause backups of stuff coming out of the ground that suddenly has no place to go. Unfortunately most of this was learned through disasters long ago. Fortunately we have learned to harness this. Anyway when suddenly your path for a product is stopped and you have no way to stop it, you divert it……..
From Six Miles Away
Natural gas on the Slope is a huge byproduct of the oil removal process here. You may look it up, but I know it is plenty and could heat a majority of the US each year. No way to get it to where it is needed though so it for the most part injected back into the ground.
When unable to process it fast enough for the trip back to mother Terra, it is burned off in a Flare. The two flames at the far left are what we see everywhere. They are pilot lites for, you guessed it, exceess volumes of gas. You cant just vent it to the atmosphere. Those buildings you see to the right of the fireball are3-5 stories high and cover a good couple of blocks. The fireball is HUGE!!
From Six Miles Away
Keep in mind this is all planned and not considered too alarming. Except that it is, and everyone within that facility reacts accordingly until bad pump, valve, divertor or whatever gets repaired. Lets just say a well oiled machine. Soon as an incident like this happens the entire Slope knows within 15 minutes and adjust their plans, schedule and work as needed. Make adjustments in their facilities 1mile, 3miles or twenty miles away as all things are connected. What happens at another facility does affect yours and you will soon have same issue if actions are not taken.
These pictures were taken by Billy from about 6 miles away with a 20X zoom I believe. Believe it or not I was on the other side working on an oil pad about a mile away. We had no camera with us. We could definetley feel the heat though.
Things happen. We are trained to act accordingly, and all incidents, while exciting, are treated professionally and like a routine. My job up here essentially is to ensure dangerous gases that can not be controlled this way are evacuated and or provide safe havens for people from danger.
This Flare Up actually happened a few weeks back while I was on my last hitch. Have not wrote much lately and will try and post some more stories and pictures that I have archived and not yet had a chance to post. Days are long and I am trying to excercise everyday, and believe it or not, this is time consuming. Uploading pictures is somewhat cumbersome. Sun is currently rising at 10:30am and setting at 2:30pm. Cloudy since I got here and no colorful skies. Had what they call a “Blow” today though that I will elaborate on with next post.
Be Irie everyone!! One Love!!
Share this:
Related
Post navigation