What's going on beneath DESDI?
 

My last few flights have been during the daytime, which is unusual in itself, but I have noticed that just as you are approaching DESDI, there is a strange anomaly on the sea surface and I was wondering if anyone knew what it was.

There is a large oil or gas platform and next to it there appears a circle in the water (I guess around 100m meters in diameter) which appears to be boiling or bubbles rising to the surface, with steam/smoke rising from it. This steam/smoke then forms a small cloud. I assume its something to do with the oil well but it seems odd that it is producing smoke/steam from the sea.

On fire now!
 

Last night at about 0100LT it was well ablaze. I was in the hold for about 40 mins and thought it was a boat fire. Sounds like some sort of gas escape that has been lit to prevent the monther of all explosions...

Same as Basic Service, I just happen to mention the same to my FO last night...

Oil is so cheap, I suppose it is more feasible to burn it than to ship it...

ryu777,

I saw exactly the same thing 3 days ago -as you said it look like water was boiling with steam rising from the circle

Godzilla!!!

Keep the scan going. Look up, look down and don't forget to look inside. This is the next phase of the busy rosters, hallucination

Someone must know someone who 'works in oil' (not that there are many of the poor buggers left over here) who can explain it...

I reckon that BS is right, some piece of equipment has broken on the well head and they're burning off the escaping gas...

40 minutes in a hold?!?!

What was going on at the airport?

40 minutes in the hold at peak times in Dubai is nothing....40 minutes could be considered a short hold.

I have not seen the particular rig in question, but it's quite likely a GOSP(Gas Oil Separator Plant). If the flame is bright white, then it's usually natural gas being burned off from a large, high pressure gas pocket that was hit unexpectedly. If it's a more yellow flame, it's just typical low volume/pressure gas burned off during the separation process when it's less cost effective to capture it than to burn it off.

Sometimes those unexpected gas pockets are not simply natural gas, but a much more combustible, toxic gas, that NEEDS to be burned off as it's vented to the air, so as not to create a hazard to people.

If you see the smoke cloud sink to the water level after the gas is burned, it can indicate heavier than air gases that would pose a significant risk to people if not burned.

Keep in mind, I'm just a pilot monkey, not an engineer or chemist, but these are the things I've learned from co-workers when I worked in the oil and gas industry.

Smaller now
 

Was back over said fire again ( no hold this time ) on the night of the 22nd. The interesting thing is that it's about 1 click away from any platform and is just a circular fire on the sea... It's now burning less brightly and looks like a scene out of a sci fi movie. You can see the bubbles of burning gas coming to the surface and spreading out into an orange disc of fire... The various explanations about deadly gases etc being burnt off sound about right.

As for 40 mins in the hold..... SOP's is correct ( he did it long enough ).Emirates times arrivals/ departures so that Dubai acts like a hub for connecting onto other destinations, down side is you can sometimes be in the queue to land for a while during the peak flow times.

BS

A few US airlines do that at their hubs as well. They refer to it as "banking" flights. I've never had to hold for that long over one fix though.

Quite generous of them to give you that much fuel too. If we ever had to hold for that long, we'd either wind up diverting, or being committed to the destination.

Surely there must be a more efficient way than spending more than half an hour holding. Is this a common occurrence?

Apparently it is an old well head from the 70s that is being deliberately vented for some safety-related reason. No doubt some roughneck will have an idea why it might be necessary.

Either that, or some habibi has set a new world record for crashing his Patrol through the wall at the mouth of the creek :}

" Apparently it is an old well head from the 70s that is being deliberately vented for some safety-related reason "


Well, nice try. With that size of smoke, fire, oil spill, and so many recovery boats positioned around ?

Oil Well??
 

Noooooo...it was the Controller's ass on FIRE!!:{