1. Before you read make your suggestions.

How many people work on a rig?

What equipment do they work with?

What do skilled / unskilled workers do on a rig?

2. Read the interview with Michael Lennon.

I = Interviewer, M = Michael Lennon

I: How did you get started in the oil industry?

M: I left school at 16 and took a course in a car maintenance at the local technical college. I finished the course, but being a motor mechanic wasn’t a right career for me. I wanted something more adventurous so I got a job as a Roustabout on a North Sea rig.

I: What’s a Roustabout?

M: It’s about the lowest job you can get. A Roustabout is a labourer. You get a job as like painting and unloading supplies from the supply ships. Still, the money was good and the food was good too – hotel standard. Food’s important when you’re living in the middle of the sea in all kinds of weather for fourteen days at a time without a break. After a year I promoted to Roughneck.

I: What does a Roughneck do?

M: That’s a skilled job. You need physical strength but you also need to know exactly what to do at any time. Often you’re working with heavy drill pipes – adding pipes when you’re drilling or removing pipes when you’re breaking out the string.

I: Breaking out?

M: Removing the string of pipes from the borehole. You’re part of a team and you need to know exactly what you’re doing at any time to get the job done quickly and safely. Safety’s an important issue on the rigs. Before I could start on the rig, I had to take a course on Off-shore safety and survival at Montrose College. They teach you all sort of things, including how to escape from a helicopter just in case you come down in the sea.

I did quite well as a Roughneck and after a couple of years I was selected to do a Diploma in Off-shore drilling at a drilling school in Aberdeen. There were people there from all around the world – Nigeria, Oman, Vietnam. It was a good course. They had a rig floor simulator so you got practice in dealing with situations such as blow outs.

I: These can be dangerous.

M: Yes, that’s when you hit oil under high pressure and it’s forced up through the borehole. And fishing – recovering from borehole drill bits and tools which have become separated from the pipe.

I: What did you do after the course?

M: When I finished the course, I was qualified as an Assistant Driller. I worked on a North Sea rig for three years more then I moved to a warmer part of the world, the Gulf of Mexico, as a Driller with Texaco. I’m still working there but I’m married now with a family. I like to work but I’m hoping to get a shore based job as a Drilling Superintendent.

3. List these jobs in order of seniority.

Roustabout ____;

Assistant Driller ____;

Driller ____;

Roughneck ____;

Drilling Superintendent.

4. Answer the questions about Michael. Use the information from the interview and your own knowledge.

1. Why did he get his first job on an oil rig?

2. Why is food so important on an oil rig?

3. Why is being a Roughneck considered as a skilled work?

4. Why did his safety course include learning how to escape from a helicopter?

5. Why do oil-rig workers learn to fish?

6. Why is he going to get a shore-based job?