Odessa

When your intuition is telling you not to do something, if you give in, you may deeply regret it later. This story reports the mistake I made that gave me an ulcer.

Odessa

 

We lived in Odessa in 1983 and 1984. When I was asked to take the position of Staff Director of Engineering of the NGL Plant and Gas Gathering Systems for the Permian Basin Region of Phillips Petroleum Company, I told them no at first because we had only been in Houston a year and a half. They told me to reconsider as it would be bad for my career to decline. So, I accepted the job and moved to Odessa. I had a feeling this was not going to be a good move for me. In Odessa, I had 27 Engineers and technical people working for me. In the first year we put in a record number of miles of pipeline and a record number of Booster Stations and Booster Station Horsepower. We also expanded the capacity of three of our Natural Gas Liquids Plants. On top of this, I had to break up a fist fight between two of my employees in the halls outside of my office over a work related dispute. I also had two corporate engineering personnel ramrodding contractors building booster stations for us and one had been accused of taking bribes from contractors so I had to investigate this on the side. Also, the secretary that serviced me and the group could not keep up with up with the work load, so I had to relocate her to a less demanding job and of course she bawled which made me feel bad. I hired a temp and later made her a permanent employee as she was quite good. On top of this the Regional Manager was a bit strange. He would tell me to get something connected in the gas system at the staff meetings so I would order the pipe and start things moving only to find out later that the project funds have not yet been approved. So I would have to find something to charge the pipe to until we could get a project approved. The Safety Director there was a friend of mine and he told me was forced to take three automobile accidents by the Regional Manager off the books to keep the Regions auto accident record at zero.

 

At home, my wife had been walking in our neighborhood and been confronted by a naked man on a street not to far from our house who had waved at her and scared her pretty bad. I also had all my rifles and shot guns stolen while we lived there. They got my shotgun and 22 rifle that had belonged to my Granddad, my 270 Remington deer rifle, and my Browning Citori over and under 12 gauge shotgun.

 

On top of all this, I had been to the doctor and he told me I had an ulcer. I was able to relieve some of the stress by hitting the Star Light Lounge in Odessa on Friday nights and chugging beer while we two stepped. John Anderson’s song “Swinging” was popular then and we loved it.

 

After a year and a half, I decided I had enough and asked for a transfer. They made me go see a psychiatrist before they would approve my move. After he heard my story, he said he would have asked for a move sooner than I did. This was by far the most stressful year and a half of my career.

 

I was transferred to the Process Engineering Section of Corporate Engineering in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, which turned out to be a Job I loved for the rest of my career with Phillips.

 

The beautiful country side around Odessa made it a pleasure to work there.

A gas booster station boosting gas pressure for delivery to gas processing plants.

The Goldsmith gas processing plant near Odessa. Notice the beautiful countryside.

Thanks for reading Odessa,
Hawg Jaw Bill