Friday, October 11, 2013
I still have been able to get out and see much at this point. Being a rotator is 7 days a week and long hours but hopefully soon.
Management and Security are concerned about the local drivers and the amount of death on the roads is atrocious. I have not seen a traffic cop/police officer/army officer yet. I guess being that it is Iraq they have other things to be concerned with. I think the local drivers realize this and there is not much deterrence from reckless driving. I find it bad but I think Yemen was a lot worse.
Elections came and went without any problems and surprisingly no gun fire. The PM is trying to crack down on the amount of guns here, with AK 47’s being quite popular but I haven’t seen any of these either. (nope, see below)
The weather had changed quite a bit in the last 30 days. Mornings and evenings are civilized and I don’t really get out during the day.
I think by the time I get back from my rotation off we will have moved into our new offices and new apartments. Yippee.
Our new office will be in the new and modern area called Empire which I also think will be the Energy Corridor. Open and modern concept for the office where even the In-Country Manager will not have an office but there are many meeting room and smaller rooms for quiet times. Wait that sounds like a time out. Break out rooms to discuss covert activities (Just kidding NSA pricks and Kurdish Secret Police.)
http://www.empireiraq.com/
As I have said before, working in Iraq is a hardship posting and to further illustrate this we went for sushi and I didn’t like any of the 10 beer choices and the wine I would say was good but lacked any type of bold character that a man of my station has come to expect. What Fresh Hell is this…
A rewarding experience in Yemen was when one of the contractors were hired full time by Nexen. The pay, benefits, accommodations and food were so much better from being a contractor. They deserved and earned everything they received but the sheer elation was nice to see. Not the same here but they are happy to get on with an oil company and TAQA treats its people well as far as I can see.
Car Bombings
It was the first time in 6 years that there was violence in Erbil, 5 car bombs throughout the city with plans for me. I think the Kurdistan security thwarted the rest of the bad guys. The targets were government intuitions and not expats or oil companies. Security is tight around the city now with checks everywhere. Ignore paragraph 3 and I had to set the timer back to 10 car bomb free days. There were 5 car bombs throughout the city last week and I think I mini bus packed to the gunnels with explosives but the Kurdish security caught the bad guys an “extracted” more information for further arrests. Other than tighter security and no more sushi it didn’t really affect us that much.
Now I am not making this up. I was in a shopping center and saw a chap walking to towards me wearing a vest. No I am thinking fecks sake this could be how I go, a suicide bomber and being perforated by ball bearings. Turned out it was just a vest but I think they should ban them in this part of the world. So being the youngest master cadet in Canada in 1982, I put my training to use and mocked his fashion sense for wearing a vest in the first place.
Working here is pretty much like anything job in many ways, busy with accounting stuff but my boss knows me well enough to keep me way from the financial accounting stuff and I am focusing on management accounting stuff. And if you a recruiter reading this that is not sure I am as equally well versed in Financial and Managements accounting (coughing bullshit).
Flights are booked and I arrive in Houston November 7th and onward to Nicaragua November 16th for 10 days. Yeehaw.
Management and Security are concerned about the local drivers and the amount of death on the roads is atrocious. I have not seen a traffic cop/police officer/army officer yet. I guess being that it is Iraq they have other things to be concerned with. I think the local drivers realize this and there is not much deterrence from reckless driving. I find it bad but I think Yemen was a lot worse.
Elections came and went without any problems and surprisingly no gun fire. The PM is trying to crack down on the amount of guns here, with AK 47’s being quite popular but I haven’t seen any of these either. (nope, see below)
The weather had changed quite a bit in the last 30 days. Mornings and evenings are civilized and I don’t really get out during the day.
I think by the time I get back from my rotation off we will have moved into our new offices and new apartments. Yippee.
Our new office will be in the new and modern area called Empire which I also think will be the Energy Corridor. Open and modern concept for the office where even the In-Country Manager will not have an office but there are many meeting room and smaller rooms for quiet times. Wait that sounds like a time out. Break out rooms to discuss covert activities (Just kidding NSA pricks and Kurdish Secret Police.)
http://www.empireiraq.com/
As I have said before, working in Iraq is a hardship posting and to further illustrate this we went for sushi and I didn’t like any of the 10 beer choices and the wine I would say was good but lacked any type of bold character that a man of my station has come to expect. What Fresh Hell is this…
A rewarding experience in Yemen was when one of the contractors were hired full time by Nexen. The pay, benefits, accommodations and food were so much better from being a contractor. They deserved and earned everything they received but the sheer elation was nice to see. Not the same here but they are happy to get on with an oil company and TAQA treats its people well as far as I can see.
Car Bombings
It was the first time in 6 years that there was violence in Erbil, 5 car bombs throughout the city with plans for me. I think the Kurdistan security thwarted the rest of the bad guys. The targets were government intuitions and not expats or oil companies. Security is tight around the city now with checks everywhere. Ignore paragraph 3 and I had to set the timer back to 10 car bomb free days. There were 5 car bombs throughout the city last week and I think I mini bus packed to the gunnels with explosives but the Kurdish security caught the bad guys an “extracted” more information for further arrests. Other than tighter security and no more sushi it didn’t really affect us that much.
Now I am not making this up. I was in a shopping center and saw a chap walking to towards me wearing a vest. No I am thinking fecks sake this could be how I go, a suicide bomber and being perforated by ball bearings. Turned out it was just a vest but I think they should ban them in this part of the world. So being the youngest master cadet in Canada in 1982, I put my training to use and mocked his fashion sense for wearing a vest in the first place.
Working here is pretty much like anything job in many ways, busy with accounting stuff but my boss knows me well enough to keep me way from the financial accounting stuff and I am focusing on management accounting stuff. And if you a recruiter reading this that is not sure I am as equally well versed in Financial and Managements accounting (coughing bullshit).
Flights are booked and I arrive in Houston November 7th and onward to Nicaragua November 16th for 10 days. Yeehaw.
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
The difference between Heaven and Hell
In Heaven the cooks are French, the lovers are Italian, the mechanics are German, the police are British, and the whole place is run by the Swiss.
In Hell the cooks are British, the lovers are Swiss, the mechanics are French, the police are German, and the whole place is run by the Italians.
First Few Days in Iraq
9/17/2013
The trip in was familiar. The Houston airport, the Frankfurt airport and Lufthansa. If anyone reading this is the President of Lufthansa can you please get full reclining seats on your fecking 380. We and by we and I mean oil companies pay a fortune for business class and these seats are terrible. Even Joe’s Airline has seats that become beds.
You work for an oil company when… You are on a plane bound for Iraq and you look around to see if you know anyone (I did).
Despite me bitching about the seat this was any easy flight in. I remember my first flight into Yemen and I thought I traveled enough to arrive on the outer rings of Saturn. And Nicaragua to Yemen took about 18 weeks. It was an hour layover and 4 hours into Iraq from Frankfurt. I am going to go through Istanbul on the way out with Turkish airlines (see previous gripe re seat).
Getting into the county was very easy. The airport was clean, organized and easy to navigate. Two minutes through customs, a 5 minute wait for my bag, a meet and great and 15 minutes later I was in the office for a security briefing. We are allowed out on our own as long as we use a company driver which is nice. So for my hardship posting I went out to a German restaurant with my boss Darin and got pleasantly pissed my first day here. Hey if I can’t pleasantly pissed with jetlag and 5 weissbier then the terrorist have one. And I don’t want them to win. Do you?
I have people say that the hotel is not great but given that I complained about the flight I don’t dare complain about the hotel. It is good and no one is bombing it so it is really good. And a great Lebanese restaurant.
Our office is crowded but temporary because we are an oil company and only the best will do. We are building our own tower and will be ready to move in soon. Our accommodations are temporary because we are an oil company and only the best will do. We are moving into apartments that we are building as well.
As expected, this place has a similar feel (and look) like Block 51 did at the start up there. And the expected max production is about the same.
As of Tuesday I have not really seen anything other than the path to work so I will try to get some pictures taken this weekend but I did manage to get a picture of an older chap today. He was very kind and happy to pose.
The trip in was familiar. The Houston airport, the Frankfurt airport and Lufthansa. If anyone reading this is the President of Lufthansa can you please get full reclining seats on your fecking 380. We and by we and I mean oil companies pay a fortune for business class and these seats are terrible. Even Joe’s Airline has seats that become beds.
You work for an oil company when… You are on a plane bound for Iraq and you look around to see if you know anyone (I did).
Despite me bitching about the seat this was any easy flight in. I remember my first flight into Yemen and I thought I traveled enough to arrive on the outer rings of Saturn. And Nicaragua to Yemen took about 18 weeks. It was an hour layover and 4 hours into Iraq from Frankfurt. I am going to go through Istanbul on the way out with Turkish airlines (see previous gripe re seat).
Getting into the county was very easy. The airport was clean, organized and easy to navigate. Two minutes through customs, a 5 minute wait for my bag, a meet and great and 15 minutes later I was in the office for a security briefing. We are allowed out on our own as long as we use a company driver which is nice. So for my hardship posting I went out to a German restaurant with my boss Darin and got pleasantly pissed my first day here. Hey if I can’t pleasantly pissed with jetlag and 5 weissbier then the terrorist have one. And I don’t want them to win. Do you?
I have people say that the hotel is not great but given that I complained about the flight I don’t dare complain about the hotel. It is good and no one is bombing it so it is really good. And a great Lebanese restaurant.
Our office is crowded but temporary because we are an oil company and only the best will do. We are building our own tower and will be ready to move in soon. Our accommodations are temporary because we are an oil company and only the best will do. We are moving into apartments that we are building as well.
As expected, this place has a similar feel (and look) like Block 51 did at the start up there. And the expected max production is about the same.
As of Tuesday I have not really seen anything other than the path to work so I will try to get some pictures taken this weekend but I did manage to get a picture of an older chap today. He was very kind and happy to pose.
 |
| Meet Rezan |
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Meet Levi
This is my neighbor's dog Levi. He is two year Black Lab and I spend as much time with him that I can. He loves life and people and is always happy.
Definitely a beta male and his extremely gentle and is a lot of fun to be around. I will miss him when I leave Houston.
Definitely a beta male and his extremely gentle and is a lot of fun to be around. I will miss him when I leave Houston.
Going to Work in Babylon
I often hear and read about Babylon in music and literature and I know it is referring to modern day Iraq but not sure what it is such a metaphor for different things. I think modern civilication is believed to have begun where the Tigris and Euphrates meet.
So I decided to go and check it out for myself. I am very excited to go over and work there on a 28/28 day rotation so very similar to what I did in Yemen. It is start up oil company based out of Abu Dhabi that just purchased a new block in the semi autonomous region of Kurdistan and I will be working in a city called Irbil.
Link to Erbil
Erbil
As with many Middle Eastern Cities they claim to be the oldest inhabited cities on earth. If there is a safe part of Iraq this would be it. Ebril claims to be the new Dubai and from what I have seen on the internet they have Dubai prices (expensive). Lots of modern hotels going up, new shopping centers, and rebuilding the infrastructure and of course with 45 billion barrels of proven reserves lots of oil and gas investment.
As indicated by the countdown that I can't be bothered to buy I start September 15th so it all happened pretty quickly. My first hitch will be for 6 weeks and then I will go back to Houston to sell what I own and will call Nicaragua home again (yippee).
My new boss is my old boss from Yemen so it will be nice to work for Darin again and be part of another start up. I think for my first hitch I will be staying in Abu Dhabi for a bit and then Iraq. I think it will be a hotel until they get their facilities built. And as the geoscientist say, hopefully there will be "good rocks" and a successful start up with great production.
So I decided to go and check it out for myself. I am very excited to go over and work there on a 28/28 day rotation so very similar to what I did in Yemen. It is start up oil company based out of Abu Dhabi that just purchased a new block in the semi autonomous region of Kurdistan and I will be working in a city called Irbil.
Link to Erbil
Erbil
As with many Middle Eastern Cities they claim to be the oldest inhabited cities on earth. If there is a safe part of Iraq this would be it. Ebril claims to be the new Dubai and from what I have seen on the internet they have Dubai prices (expensive). Lots of modern hotels going up, new shopping centers, and rebuilding the infrastructure and of course with 45 billion barrels of proven reserves lots of oil and gas investment.
As indicated by the countdown that I can't be bothered to buy I start September 15th so it all happened pretty quickly. My first hitch will be for 6 weeks and then I will go back to Houston to sell what I own and will call Nicaragua home again (yippee).
My new boss is my old boss from Yemen so it will be nice to work for Darin again and be part of another start up. I think for my first hitch I will be staying in Abu Dhabi for a bit and then Iraq. I think it will be a hotel until they get their facilities built. And as the geoscientist say, hopefully there will be "good rocks" and a successful start up with great production.
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