The Gulf Daily News is launching a new series of Bygone Bahrain articles, which will showcase Bapco Energies’ golden history through personal stories brought alive by individuals who have been a part of the enterprise that first discovered oil in the Gulf region. Bapco Stories, recorded by Melissa Nazareth, will feature the memories of some of the pioneers, their partners and the children who grew up in Awali, as well as national and expatriate employees now carrying on the legacy of energy entrepreneurialism. The series is launched by petroleum engineer Bill Murray who boasts more than 50 years of experience in the sector. He returned to the UK almost three years ago to undergo cancer treatment. However, Bahrain will always be ‘home’ – the place where he grew up and where his love affair with oil fields began – on the rigs in the Arabian Gulf. This is the story of the 67-year-old Glaswegian …
MY father, Jim, arrived in Bahrain in the 1930s, just after the war, to build the refinery. At first, there was nothing on site but he built the offices and the workshop across from Well Number One. I believe Joe Josephson was Bapco president then. Every time he would go past my father’s office, he would find the secretary Allison twiddling her thumbs.
‘Where’s Jim Murray,’ he would ask to which she would respond, ‘Oh, he’s out in his oil field.’
Finally, they built an office in the middle of the oil field and Allison became the first female to be located out there.
My father believed ‘a man is born to work and look after his family’ and so, on the weekends, he would kick me out of bed at five o’clock in the morning, and take me out onto the oil field to help on the pipeline they were building.
I might have been around 10 or 11. My pay cheque was a lunchbox – can of orange, a banana and a sandwich.
My older brothers and I were raised in Bahrain but I am the only one that stayed on – this will always be considered my home.
We went to primary school in Awali and I am still in touch with some of my old classmates.
Growing up in Awali, we were spoiled. We would play sports at the Bapco club and, over the weekends, go golfing on the sand course, which is the one next to the Royal Golf Club in Riffa.
Awali had its own sailing club too and we would spend time on our private beach. I remember in those days, we used to have a bus that would go to Manama in the morning and it would give you about two hours to shop and bring you back.
As there was no English-language secondary education in Bahrain at the time, I was sent to boarding school in Scotland when I was 11.
Every holiday, I would come back and work on the rig. That is where I started – on the drilling rigs out in Jebel Al Dukhan. It is also where I want to be buried. I have permission from His Majesty King Hamad for my ashes to be buried at Well Number One and to have a little plaque there.
I grew up working on the rigs, since I was 18. At first, I worked on the Bapco rig under the supervision of three drillers and then, the Loffland Brothers came in and I was an apprentice with them.
Even when I was pursuing my Master’s in Petroleum Engineering from Norman University in Oklahoma, during my spare time, I would work on the rigs and that is how I got through university. Even though I was young, I was doing the same job as the others and was paid well – my first car was a Trans-Am!
Looking back, I have had the best education in the world because I started in the Bahrain oil field. Bapco had great people working for them especially in the drilling department.
After completing university, I travelled all over the world on a drilling contract with Loffland Brothers … but I still used to live in Awali.
In 1978, Loffland Brothers sent me to Kuwait to drill this high-pressure gas well. The well blew up and I ended up in the hospital for nearly a year. Bapco continued to look after me and I was flown out of Kuwait to the UK. I underwent surgery but my legs were very bad so, I could not go back on the rig.
At the time, Schlumberger approached me and I ended up being with them for 24 years, only to return to Bahrain in 2012. There was a problem with the water table in Bahrain and I worked with the petroleum-engineering department, investigating why the water had dropped. None of us could understand it. It was not until I met some people who were dredging offshore that I realised that was the problem.
I have done a lot of consultancy with Bapco, troubleshooting problems. There was a gentleman from India, Vineet Prasad, and we would work together on new technology for the different wells.
Now that I am cancer-free, I will be returning to Bahrain and going back to my consultancy … but first I have to get both my knees replaced.
Although with my age – I am 67 – many people say, you are going to retire. ‘No way’, I tell them. I am an oil field man!
● Editor’s note: If you would like to contribute to this unique series, email melissa@gdnmedia.bh with your nostalgic stories and old photographs.
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