Professional Roles in the Oil and Gas Industry
Unit 1: Working as a Technician in the UAE
Hi. My name is Khaled. I am from the UAE – that’s the United Arab Emirates. I am a technician with an oil company here. I like my job because every day is different.
Today, I’m in a team of five technicians at a new plant. One man is inside in the control room, and I’m outside with the other three men. One man is from the US, and two are from India. We are from different countries, but we all speak English. We use radios to speak to the man in the control room.
Most people in the company are Emirati, but there are many other nationalities too – American, British, Canadian, Egyptian, Indian, and many more. I like meeting foreign people and practicing my English.
Unit 2: Well Test Operations in Canada
I = Interviewer, S = Steve
I: Who do you work for, Steve?
S: I work for a Canadian oil company.
I: What’s your job?
S: I’m a well test operator.
I: And where do you work?
S: I work in lots of different places, all over Canada.
I: Lots of different places?
S: Yeah. The company has oil wells all over the country. We go to an oil well for a few days or maybe a few weeks. Then we move on to a different well.
I: Who is ‘we’? Do you work in a team?
S: Yeah. A well-testing crew has three people: a supervisor, an operator, and an assistant operator. At first, I was an assistant operator. Now I’m an operator.
I: I see. What do you do on a typical day?
S: Well, usually we do tests on new wells. First, we prepare the test equipment. Some of it’s heavy equipment, so it’s hard work. Then we do tests – a lot of different tests – and record data on a computer.
I: How many hours do you work?
S: Do you mean hours per day?
I: Yes.
S: We work twelve hours a day.
I: Twelve hours. When do you start and finish?
S: We start at seven a.m. and finish at seven p.m. It’s a long day, but it’s OK. I like the job.
I: Why do you like the job?
S: I like working outside. And I like seeing different places. So it’s a great job for me.
I: One last question: what skills do you need for this job?
S: Well, it’s hard work, so you need to be fit. Uh… And you need to be good with numbers… And you need to be careful – I mean careful about safety, and careful reading numbers and recording them.
Global Oil and Gas Industry Statistics
There are some very big numbers in the oil and gas industry. The world uses about 85 million barrels of oil per day. A barrel is 159 liters. So that’s more than thirteen billion liters a day. Thirteen billion liters a day is about 560 million liters per hour. So oil companies need to produce a lot of oil and they need to produce it fast.
There are about 40,000 oil and gas fields in the world. Most of them are small fields, but some are very big. The biggest is the Ghawar field in Saudi Arabia. This very big field is 280 km long and 30 km wide. The Saudi national oil company, Saudi Aramco, operates the field and produces about five million barrels of oil a day. That’s a lot of oil! Five million barrels is 790,000 cubic meters: 790,000 cubic meters every day. Ghawar also produces about 57 million cubic meters of natural gas per day.
Unit 3: Technical Support and Communication
Conversation 1: Control Room Support
O = Omar, M = Mike
M: Hello. Technical Support.
O: Hi. It’s Omar in the control room here. Is that George?
M: No. George is giving a talk right now. This is Mike speaking. Can I help?
O: Well, we’re having trouble with one of the control panels.
M: What’s the problem?
O: The gauges aren’t working properly.
M: Is the warning light flashing?
O: Yes, it is.
M: OK. I’ll come and look at it.
Conversation 2: Human Resources Inquiry
F = Faisal Hamdi (HR), B = Bill
B: Hello. Technical Support. Bill speaking.
F: Can I speak to the shift supervisor, please?
B: He’s talking on the other phone. Can I take a message?
F: Oh, yes. Thank you.
B: Your name and department, please?
F: My name is Faisal Hamdi. I’m phoning from Human Resources.
B: Faisal Hamdi… from HR. OK. And the message?
F: Please ask him to call me. Uh, it’s about the new technicians. Can he call me today, if possible?
B: OK. So the message is: Please call… about the new technicians… today if possible.
F: Yes, that’s right.
B: And your number?
F: My number is 2233.
B: OK.
F: Thank you very much. Goodbye.
B: Goodbye.
Mathematical Operations in English
- 1. A: Hey, what’s 54 divided by 9? B: 54 divided by 9? That’s 6, isn’t it? A: Er… Yeah.
- 2. A: OK. Let’s add up these numbers. 31 plus 14… plus 24.5. B: 31 plus 14 plus 24.5… equals… 69.5.
- 3. A: 380 minus 45.3. What does that come to? B: 380… subtract 45.3… I make that 334.7. A: 334.7. I make it that too.
- 4. A: What’s 15% of 3,000? B: Huh? A: 3,000 times 15%. Is that 450? B: Er… 3,000 times 15% equals… 450. That’s right.
- 5. A: What’s the square root of 81? B: The square root of 81. You know that? A: Come on. What is it? B: 9! A: Oh yes. Of course.
Unit 4: Rigging and Crane Safety Protocols
Hi. My name’s Danny. That’s me in the picture near the top of the rig. I often work in high places. It looks dangerous, doesn’t it? Well, maybe you can’t see my safety harness. I always wear a safety harness, so I can’t fall very far. Still, a lot of people can’t go up high, but I love it! How about you? Would you like my job?
I’m a rigger. What do riggers do? Well, riggers lift things and move things – heavy loads, like big pipes and big machines. First, we estimate the weight and the size of the load. Then we decide how we can move it. Sometimes we erect special lifting equipment, and sometimes we work with crane operators. When riggers work with crane operators, we prepare the load: I mean we put the load in the sling, and then the crane lifts it. There are a lot of riggers in the oil and gas industry. We’re everywhere! Why? Because there’s always heavy equipment that needs lifting and moving.
I work for a good company. Safety is important to them. Every day the supervisor talks about safety. There are lots of hazards in my job, so safety is important to me too.
Toolbox Talk: Working with Cranes
S = Supervisor, T = Trainee
S: OK. Listen everybody. Today’s toolbox talk is about working with cranes. You know cranes can be dangerous. So tell me: what hazards are there?
T1: The load can fall on you.
S: Right. So what’s the safety rule?
T1: Don’t stand under the load.
S: Right. Never stand under a load. And wear a hard hat at all times. Another hazard?
T2: Loads can swing left and right.
S: Yeah. So what do you do? Do you put your hand on it – try to stop it swinging?
T2: No. You mustn’t do that. It’s very dangerous. You must never try to stop a swinging load.
S: Good. What else can go wrong?
T3: You can lose your fingers!
S: That’s right! Be careful where you put your hands. You don’t want your fingers going up with the load!
T3: Right! Yeah! Ugh!
T4: Excuse me. Can I ask a question? S: Sure. Go ahead.
T4: What can I do in an emergency? I mean, how can I tell the operator to stop lifting?
S: Good question: the crane operator can’t hear you, so how can you stop him? One answer is hand signals. You know the emergency stop signal – both arms out, left and right. The other answer is radio. One man must always have radio contact with the crane operator.
T4: OK.
S: Any other questions? No? Right. Let’s go.
Daily Routine of a Chemical Plant Intern
I’m doing my internship at Moeve. I work as a plant operator during the week in shifts, which are 8 hours long. What I like most are my colleagues and what I like least is working in shifts. I usually work the morning shift.
I wake up at 5 a.m. and catch the bus at 5:30 a.m. My shift starts at 6 a.m. First, when I arrive at the plant, I put on my work clothes, which include the PPE: boots, safety glasses, earplugs, a helmet, and gloves.
At 8:00 a.m., we have the safety meeting. After this, we give permission to the contractors to do their job. We check the plant to make sure there are no leaks, and we collect samples to take to the laboratory. We also collect the data from the equipment. It’s very important to check that the people from the subcontractors are wearing all their PPE and work safely during their work. This is basically my day in the chemical area. My shift finishes at 2 p.m.
Numerical Expressions and Conversions
- 5 / 8: Five divided by eight
- 76,450: Seventy-six thousand, four hundred and fifty
- $5.50: Five dollars fifty (or five dollars and fifty cents)
- 22nd: Twenty-second
- 16:40 (non-digital): Twenty to five
- 0.25: Zero point two-five or nought point two-five
- 2 / 3: Two divided by three
- 20%: Twenty percent
- 20th: Twentieth
- 12,409: Twelve thousand, four hundred and nine
- 34.25 €: Thirty-four euros twenty-five
- 1 / 2: One divided by two
- 8.75: Eight point seven five
- 13:45 (digital): One forty-five PM
- 23,115: Twenty-three thousand, one hundred and fifteen
- 9:30 (digital): Nine thirty AM
- 22:05 (non-digital): Five past ten PM
- 3.10 euros: Three euros ten
- 55%: Fifty-five percent
- 4,307: Four thousand, three hundred and seven
- 8:55 (digital): Eight fifty-five
- 9th: Ninth
- 2/5: Two divided by five
- $24.50: Twenty-four dollars fifty
- 7:15 (non-digital): A quarter past seven
- 12th: Twelfth
- 31st: Thirty-first
- 35%: Thirty-five percent
- 0.45: Zero point four five or nought point four five
- 07 / 21 / 1983 (US): On July the twenty-first, nineteen eighty-three
- 25 / 02 / 2012 (UK): On the twenty-fifth of February, twenty twelve
- 1 / 3: One divided by three