When I first started working at Murphy Oil Corporation, I found myself doing a pre-award meeting with Slack and Co (The pre-award meeting is our chance to meet with the contractor before we give them the go-ahead to spend $1 million dollars or so on a construction project). At the conclusion of this meeting, they gave us their company T-shirt. Emblazoned in large letters was the slogan "The Great South Texas Adventure." I wanted ya'll to share with me in just one day of that adventure.
The start:
Alarm goes off at 5:45am. Have to be dressed, packed and at the Sugarland Airport by 7. Checklist: FRCs, Safety Boots, Hardhat, Safety Glasses, Water, Snacks, Phone Charger and Jacket.
The view over Sugarland is quite amazing in the early morning:
We landed in San Antonio to let two people off. Lisa from HR and Sean from our group, he is doing a prelim walk-through for his pipeline in Karnes. During the flight Sean asks the pilot if they ever take off at full-throttle. "No, it tends to scare the people sitting in the back... are you going to Cotulla?" After we dropped them off the pilots decided we must be game for it. The jet engines roared, my waterbottle leaped out of its holder and into my lap and Meredith and I both jumped, and then started laughing.
Its a short flight over to the Cotulla Airport. This airport has just one runway and a hanger. The shack below is the combination of pilots quarters,air traffic control,airport head quarters and rental car office. Welcome to Cotulla.
The owner/operator of the Cotulla airport brings out our rental car (it's their side business). The car is a Yukon with about 160,000 miles on it. They took their old GMC out of operation when it hit 210,000. It had a funny whine while we drove it around. They don't have a lot of competition in the rental car business out in these parts. We drove out to the job site, first to all of Meredith's projects, then to mine.
Meredith has been expressing to me that at the office, we are kinda like the low man on the totem pole; other people decide what they are going to do, and we have to put in the infrastructure to make it all work, saying 'no' isn't really an option. (I prefer to think of everyone else as people who make problems while we make solutions) In the field, its a different matter entirely. You see, when we are in the field we are in direct contact with all the people who perform the work for our projects. They see us as their next paycheck, and so they are as friendly and as amicable as can be. They make sure you have a bottle of cold water, drive you all around the site and treat you like a visiting dignitary. Everyone is also looking for a few minutes of your time to sell something to you. Our construction supervisors sell how great a job they are doing for us, the contractor's PM or superintendent tell you how great the project is coming along and how they really would like to keep working for us, roll this crew over to the next job, form an alliance, maybe do a unit price contract structure etc. There is nothing like a trip to the field to boost your ego after getting beat up in the office.
The main reason of the trip is to check out the status of your projects.
The manifold is in place and looking pretty good, but still needs permanent supports and paint. It requires 4 frac tanks worth of water to hydrotest the sections of these lines, and even then they had to break it up into 5 test sections. This particular pipeline network is over 15 miles of pipe. When its built out, it will be the backbone for hundreds of wells to flow to the KBS facility. This project represents around $10 million in investment.
Below is the early gas processing facility. Frank and I were brainstorming one day, trying to figure out how to get ahead of the work and make the company some money. We came up with this: a facility whose equipment is trailer mounted. Drive it in, hook it up, start it up. When you're done just break it down and drive it to the next spot. This equipment will allow us to sell $5.7 million of gas while we are installing a permanent facility here. This equipment was located at Combs previously, where it was in service for about 8 months. We're likely to use it here for 7 months and then move it on to a new home. Probably the Teal. We have 5 sets of these facilities.
Getting in and out of this particular work area is tricky. We have a 5 mile drive down Diamond H road. This road is so bad that there are potholes the size of our car. I didn't believe it when I first heard it... until we almost dropped our car in it. You're looking at 10 mph max as you go down this road, and you are bobbing and weaving the entire time to avoid obstacles. There is always a crew out maintaining it, but it gets chewed up as fast as they repair it.
I included a picture of the only restaurant within 20 miles. Its called Kats in Catarina. Don't eat here. This place literally has holes in the wall where you can see day light peeking in. Bathroom is atrocious. Oh, and the food... I spent the next 24 hours throwing it all back up. Stomach cramps, sweats and delusions are common side affects. Dying of starvation may be preferable to eating at this location.
We drove back to Cotulla and dropped by a subway for a really late lunch. We headed back to the airport, where the airport owner asked us if we were important in our company. I think he was trying to figure out why a company would fly a 25 year old and a 21 year old around in a jet. Good question. We're not that important, but Murphy has trusted us with millions of dollars in projects for which we are personally accountable. I still am struggling to grasp how much money we actually spend. I try to put it in terms of a house, 'this project costs as much as 6 of the homes JaLeen and I want to buy'... or 'we're supposed to spend 200 houses worth of money in 3 months.' It kinda works, but not really.
The pilots typically offer you a choice of soda, juice, coffee or alcohol when you are on the flight home. I typically choose sleep instead. I fell asleep shortly after take off and didn't wake up again until Sean and Lisa were boarding in San Antonio. Somehow I slept through the landing. We got back in Sugarland as the sun was setting. I'll shoot JaLeen a text and say I'm headed home.
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