oil – Made by Mikal

Don’t Tell Mum I Work On The Rigs

I read this book while on a flight a few weeks ago. Its surprisingly readable and relatively short — you can knock it over in a single long haul flight. The book covers the memoirs of an oil rig worker, from childhood right through to middle age. That’s probably the biggest weakness of the book, it just kind of stops when the writer reaches the present day. I felt there wasn’t really a conclusion, which was disappointing.

An interesting fun read however.

Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, She Thinks I'm a Piano Player in a Whorehouse Book Cover

Title: Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, She Thinks I'm a Piano Player in a Whorehouse
Author: Paul Carter
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Release Date: May 1, 2006
Pages: 204

A take no prisoners' approach to life has seen Paul Carter heading to some of the world's most remote, wild and dangerous places as a contractor in the oil business. Amazingly, he's survived (so far) to tell these stories from the edge of civilization, and reason.

Kern County oil wells on I-5

Wow, and then we drove past a bunch of oil wells in the middle of an otherwise pleasant rural area called Kern County. I didn’t realize that the Kern County area is responsible for two thirds of all oil produced in California. So there you go.

There was even a 1950s truck next to one of the wells, which looked like it had just been abandoned one day from the look of the vegetation around it. If I wasn’t going 130 kilometres an hour with the camera in the boot I would have taken a picture.

Here is someone else’s shot:

What is the point that people’s morals evaporate?

Apparently people’s morals evaporate at around $1.39 a litre. That’s good to know. Is it therefore safe to predict widespread anarchy when fuel gets to $2 a litre?

New Orleans and sea level

Andrew, my understanding from basically no research is that New Orleans didn’t start below sea level. As the city grew, they needed more land, so they built levies and pumped water out of the basin. This meant that the city started to sink further below sea level. Additionally, another problem is that the city is cited on a major oil deposit, which they’re pumping oil out of. To get the oil out, they dug canals, with removed the natural barriers which protect from storms. The city sinks about an inch a year. So, the problem is the world’s greed for oil, not poor city planning.

Oil canal reference.

This isn’t a well researched piece. Please feel free to leave a comment if I need educating.