My favourite weekday mornings...

…are those when Gail works at home for an hour or so before she leaves to attend a meeting…

Sometimes I like to help her with her work.

I study the documents carefully and give her my considered opinion.

Hmm. I am not convinced that a repeat seismic survey after one year's gas production on the Tormore gas field will be useful in helping determine whether additional wells should be drilled, and at a cost of £7 million for the survey, one would have to question the value of the information gained…

It is also my view that the undrilled oil and gas prospects presented here are very risky from a geological perspective, and given the low oil price and the high cost of drilling in the harsh offshore environment of the West of Shetlands basin, I cannot in all conscience recommend that they be pursued further. One feels that if the SNP government were able to see and understand these data, they might be less sanguine about the long term future of Scotland's offshore petroleum industry as a source of valuable tax revenue ...

I wonder what my friends think?

I can't help noticing that there is a certain theme to the names of the gas fields in this offshore 'West of Shetland' area: Glenlivet, Macallan, Bunnehaven, Talisker, Tomatin, Laggan, Tobermory, Tormore, Edradour, Craigellachie…

Is it time yet for a wee dram?

Bright and Happy? Or just rather Fluffy?

Did someone confuse me with an oilfield?

Gail came home from work yesterday, looking a bit more ragged than usual.

Something about a near-interminable video conference with a Kuwaiti oil company,  seven hours if you include the prayer breaks.

I could see she needed to let off steam about it, so I lent her a flappy but attentive little ear.

Apparently at this meeting there had been some difficulties with language and understanding, and this even before the Arabic speakers got involved.

Now even a dog, living in Aberdeen Scotland, the so-called 'Oil Capital of Europe', will absorb some of the industry jargon. For example, I find it fascinating how many words are animal related. We know that giant oilfields are 'elephants' whereas regions devoid of oil will be dismissed as 'cow pasture' (or 'moose pasture' to those from Canada). When drilling a 'wildcat' well, one might work in a 'dog house' and place drill pipe in a 'rat hole'. Should one wish to inspect a pipeline, one will probably use an 'intelligent pig'. Yes really!

Given all this colourful vocabulary, perhaps it should come as no surprise to learn that Gail was asked* at one point in this long meeting to distinguish between the 'bright and happy' areas and the 'rather fluffier' areas on her map of an oil field.

But Gail admits she was surprised, and a bit distracted, by this unconventional use of adjectives. Adjectives more commonly associated with, for example, a bouncing wire-haired fox terrier.

Next thing they'll be asking her which parts of the oil map are 'too cute' and which might be 'a tad boisterous'…


*Gail says: Need I add that this unusually phrased question came from an American oilman with an accent indicating origins somewhere below the Mason-Dixon line?

Why the Queen's Cross

Do you recognise this lady on the plinth?

Yes, ten out of ten, clever readers, it is indeed Queen Victoria.

She stands in the middle of a roundabout in the West End of Aberdeen, at a busy road junction known as Queen's Cross.

It is an odd feature of life here in Aberdeen, that all our roundabouts in the city are sponsored by oil and gas companies.

I'm am wondering whether Queen Victoria would have approved of having to share her space with adverts for First Oil plc…..

PS from Gail: Bertie and I  are off down to England for the next ten days, visiting Human Granny and meeting up friends. Blogging activities may be reduced.