Fotos

Another two oil rig service vessels waiting for the crew to arrive back from a lay-day, and start taking more supplies out to the hundreds of oil and gas rigs around Brunei and East Malaysia. All the staff from these vessels go to Labuan city to relax between jobs. Many of the Captains and senior crew members are from places like Norway and Denmark. They are great company with plenty of stories of sea-faring exploits all around the world where they have worked. They work several weeks in a row, then often fly home (to Scandanavia etc) for a break, then back to duty again. They are well paid but the lifestyle would not suit everyone.

Oil and gas exploration activity dropped 22% in December 2009 compared to the same period a year earlier but improved on November 2009 figures, according to the global rig count by Baker Hughes Inc.
The global rig count in December was 2,509 compared to 3,221 a year earlier and 2,409 in November 2009,
said the US oilfield services group.
Oilfield services provide a major end-user market for numerous industrial minerals, which are used in drilling (barytes, bentonite, calcium carbonate, graphite, haematite, mica, soda ash, vermiculite), well hole cement(kaolin, zeolite), and oil extraction (proppants - silica sand, bauxite, kaolin).
Oilfield services activity remains weak in the depressed North American market, which has struggled to
recover from the downturn in late 2008 and 2009.
Source:IM magazine.