The beginning

After the events in Egypt getting more and more serious everyday, everyone kept
thinking if things could eventually also get to Libya or not. Some thought that it
was a certainty others thought that the regimes iron fist would never allow it.
After all in Libya there is no pretention of a democracy. Everyone knows its a
dictatorship and thats it!
However things where getting tense and eventually on Wednesday the 16th of
February we started to hear rumors of uprisings in the country, particularly in
Benghazi, Al-Bedah and other towns nearby.
In the desert, we were working for PetroCanada in KCA Deutags T-72 rig and
the rig crew was starting to show signs of unrest as well.
As I recall it started with one of the cooks. He took a satellite dish into his room,
which was previously in some common room. The locals didnt think it was funny
at all and started fighting with him verbally. We could even hear part of the
discussion as we woke up for the night shift and went to get some breakfast at
17:30. We didnt know what was happening exactly but we thought that it had
something to do with the fact that the cook in the rig was of a different nationality.
Some days later (I cant remember exactly when anymore) another incident took
place already after February the 16th and it involved some fighting with the
assistant camp boss. The assistant had reported a complaint about a local taking
food without permission and by food I mean a chocolate or something of the sort.
A fight broke loose and the assistant ended up with his nose broken. The next
day the rig crew demanded that no one would come to work until 8:00 in the
morning and we all had a meeting together. The Co-Man was a quiet and
sociable guy so he was able to deal with it very well. They kept complaining
about other things as well mentioning that also the camp boss wasnt providing
them with enough food or other supplies when they requested. Things seemed to
have normalized and everyone got back to their work or sleep.

The Rumors and the Revolution

On the 20th of February at night I was inside the unit preparing Logs and morning
reports when a siren from the rig started to sound an alarm. Outside there was a
crowd by the Co-Mans office. Everyone was shouting and very, very nervous. It
seems that one of the guys from the rig crew had a brother in another rig. He got
a phone call from him saying that the rig had been attacked by someone and that
everything had been set on fire!
All the guys in the rig crew wanted to leave immediately. They kept saying dont
change your clothes! Go in your coverall so that they can see you are coming
from a rig site in the desert!! We have to go now before they come!!
Whoever they were it was somewhat of a mystery for the rest of us. The rumors
where plenty and we heard about militias, soldiers, police and bandits going
around and doing anything you can imagine.
Operations came to a halt and they simply closed the BOP on a few Drill Pipes.
No casing, no cement.
Everyone got ready for the next morning. It was now February the 21st. The rig
crew left to some nearby town and the expats were all waiting for some news on
a possible airplane flight back to Tripoli. No big luggages were allowed and only
our backpacks could go. We locked the bags with all the PPEs and personal
clothes inside the unit. We waited for confirmation on the flight until 12:00 but by
then it had been canceled. Maybe tomorrow we heard. We got some lunch and
got some sleep.
Around 16:00 we got up and went down to the rig again to hear about any news
regarding the next day. We still had communications so I called my sister, my
girlfriend and my embassy. No confirmation yet on that flight the Co-Man said, so
we kept around for a while to se if any news would come around before 18:00.
Something strange was already going on again as we saw the wellsite
geologists, one mudlogger and one sample catcher getting ready to go
somewhere. They took their bags and went away in a truck. I guess more people
left but we didnt see them.
Im not writing this to point fingers at anyone. If I was a local like they were
probably I would have left with them.
Now we were four: the Unit Manager, a mudlogger, a sample catcher and me the
night DE.

Escaping
Maybe half an hour had passed since I made the phone call back home when I
started to hear people shouting outside the cabins near the Co-Mans office.
There was a group of men, around 5 where running around and it seemed that
some more where quietly sitting somewhere. Wayne?? Wayne?? Wayne??
they said. In Arabic (Libyan anyway) Wayne means Where. What where they
looking for? Wellthey wanted the keys to the Toyota Land Cruisers thats what
they wanted. Then we noticed they had knifes and machetes and were not
around to play. We only had 2 or 3 cars by now and of course giving them the
keys would mean not being able to get to the airport the next dayor any other
day for that matter. They started to threaten the few of us at the rig site (most
were at the camp, around 500 meters away) so there wasnt much choice but to
give them the damned keys. They took the cars and went away. We could have
stood up to them but:
1. How many where they to begin with? No one knew exactly.
2. Did they only have knifes and machetes or maybe some guns?
3. How many more would come if one of them called? Libyana and Al-Madar
networks where still working mind you.
4. What would we do if someone got hurt? NOTHING! We were in the middle
of nowhere with no way out for the time being.
After they left the situation was clearthey would be back to get more things and
god knows to do what else. PetroCanadas staff knew about a civils camp
around 10km away. We could see the lights on and they made a contact with
them so we were sure someone was there. Town was also informed so that the
Oil company representatives in town knew where to find us. We mustered
everyone as fast as we could and started to walk in the camps direction. The
only sample catcher left was quite upsethow could the other guys have left him
and say nothing? Anyway it was clear that no matter what happened we had to
stick together until the end.
We followed a road and the stars (those who knew how to do it anyway) and a
compass (yes I had one and so did the Drilling Advisor). At some point we found
ourselves a bit lost for the lights in the civils camp had been shut off. We knew
the general direction but at night it isnt so easy to get there. Many calls were
made when network was available, but the camp was still elusive. We voted
weather or not to try for another rig site nearby, at least those lights were clear
enough.
We decided to keep on the main road, always anxious about any headlights that
we might see. Soon afterwards we saw a light blinking. Could it be them? We
responded with short bursts of our flashlight, but only we seemed to be moving.
Not much of a choicelets go. We got closer and closer but we saw nothing
except the light occasionally flashing back. We called but no answer

The events that took place when we got too close were something as you might
expect coming out a movie.
We got to see a mound of some sort very up-close and them I remember the
complete chaos. I saw a siren flashing and sounding extremely loud, big
spotlights flashing unbelievably bright in my eyes and many, many loud and
aggressive voices speaking in Arabic. We all did the samedown on your knees
and hands up.
I hope you never have to feel the same way as we did in that moment.
Fortunately we started to hear Its OK, its OK!. The group of men came closer
to each one of us and helped us get up on our feet. They were armed with
nothing but pieces of wood, metal and kitchen knives.
We had reached the Civils Camp.

The Civils Camp

Once inside we were welcomed by everyone. All of them were local guys who
had been assaulted in the morning and had a car stolen just as we had been.
We saw what they did to make all that we had just experienced. The siren was
actually an ambulance, the mounds where made with the bulldozers and the
spotlights were simply there to begin with. They only had an entrance to the
camp which was blocked by one of the bulldozers acting like a gate. Pretty
clever!
The leader was, as I understood, the Doctor who was also the local camp boss.
He was the only one speaking English.
It was quite cold so we went inside to a warmer place and got comfortable for a
while, had some food and water and the some rest.
I got some minutes of sleep, but it was useless. All the excitement and the fact
that I had been working nights made unable to sleep so I went outside for a
breath of fresh air. There were guys from the camp patrolling around for
headlights. The UM came back inside after a while and spoke about a plan to
head in the morning to a place called Lahib (the name maybe incorrect but I
cant remember clearly). Lahib is supposed to be a production area/fortress
where there is a paid army for the oil fields. However we needed clearance from
them to approach the facility. It seemed that doing so without warning would get
us shot at.
Phone calls where made, but no confirmation seemed to come back. We saw
some TV as they all have satellite dishes everywhere and the news werent any
brighter confrontations getting worse all around the country and the General
making an appearance on TV to let everyone know he was still in the country and
hadnt flee to Venezuela.
As the night went by I joined the patrolling outside just like the UM had done
since the beginning. We had nothing but sticks and metal but I guess it gave us a
small sense of security. Staying inside pretending to sleep seemed useless to
meI just kept thinking even more about everything. Sometimes I spoke with the
other guys from the camp and they always seemed to like the fact that Im from
Portugal. They always know all the football players and keep saying Cristiano
Ronaldo and Figo. They were quite kind and pleasant to be with, like most of the
Libyan people I met in these last 4 years. Some of them set out in the night to try
to find some people that apparently where left behind. The laundry men got there
on his own with a big effort and later in the morning the cook and the assistant
driller, who had stayed back at the camp, also came back to us.
As the night went by the minutes seemed like hours. Daybreak was so far away.

In the early morning 4 cars were seen far in the distance. They shut down their
headlights and waited. Nothing happened. I tried to sleep some more and only
got some more minutes rest.

Going to Ghani Field

By now it was February 22nd and morning had finally come. No news from Lahib
and the possibility for a flight out of the desert was open gain. Soon afterwards
the flight possibility was canceled again.
From town PetroCanada came up with another plan. We had some Dump Trucks
with us, so it was suggested that we try to go to Ghani Field inside them. Ghani
had held up for 40 years and had armed guards to protect it. It was also around
300 km away. We could be there in some hours. No other plan anyway.
All the guys from the Civils Camp were leaving anyway in the cars they still had.
There was no choice but to leave or be left alone. They were sure the bandits
would come back for the cars later on.
We spoke with one of PetroCanada local staff that was always with us and he
said it would be best for the expats to go in the back of the trucks to seem less
suspicious. We didnt know what would happen in Ghani with the guards, but we
didnt want to know what was going to happen with the bandits if we stayed. We
hoped that in the worse case the guards would find us but with the desert passes
the situation wouldnt be so bad.
We started to get every mattress and blanket out of all the beds and putting them
inside the trucks. We got the mattresses at the bottom and on the sides and
blankets to cover from the cold. Local guys would also go inside the trucks but
they would also drive as in a normal situation. There where around 6 cars and 2
Dump trucks filled with people. The head count indicated around 70 guys in total.
We said our good byes to the guys that wanted to stay and to the sample catcher
that was going with one of the cars to some other town.
After everything was set in place we had to wait for a while and them we set off.
The ride was comfortable as we were all lying down in the soft mattresses. We
could see the clear blue sky and feel the fresh breeze. I felt calm for the first time
in a while and everyone elses mood was a bit better.
After some hours driving we heard a loud BANG, but we saw nothing as we were
all down. The truck kept driving anyway, but it seemed to be going faster. We
jumped inside a lot with all the shaking.
Eventually the truck passed by some sort of control post and people started to
speak. Someone knocked on the side of the truck and we just didnt know what
was about to happendid the guards find us? Someone climbed up the truck
and we saw who it wasthe driver. We got up and saw something that really got
our spirits downwe were back at the starting pointback to civils camp.
What happened???

Looks like the bandits caught us in the middle of the road and started to shoot at
us (remember that loud BANG?). The driver turned back immediately and so we
got back at the camp. But where was the other truck??? No sign of it whatsoever!
It seemed like they got through and made it to Ghani. The UM was in the other
truck, so hopefully he got there and can make some arrangement for us as well.
However now it was only the mudlogger and me from Geolog.
We got back down from the truck and it was only a couple of minutes later we
saw again what we had wished not to.

The bandits again!!!

They arrived as usual shouting and asking for the keys of the cars and trucks we
had on location. No one know where they where except for the truck in which we
had just arrived.
They were really angry and went back to get more peoplethis didnt look good
at all. We spoke around with the guys at the camp that didnt want to come with
us in the beginning to see if anyone knew about the keys for the ambulance. It
seems that one guy had them but he didnt want to give it to them. We convinced
him to put it back in the car and let them take it. Soon afterwards they returned
with a lot more guys. We went inside one of the cabins and stayed there
watching from the window. Things were as tense as they could be...no one knew
what they would do even getting all the cars and trucks.
They took almost everything except the bulldozers which they couldnt operate
and a cement truck. But they just didnt seem to leaveit looked like they wanted
something more. We thought about locking our door but what good would that
do? It could only get them more and more angry. It was as small room so if they
decided to shoot it or set it on fire what then??
Eventually they left and a guy from the civils camp came into our room. We
spoke with him. He said the bandits didnt want to hurt anyone and just wanted
the cars and trucks. We had thought that before I mean if they wanted to hurt us
they could have done so at any time, but we just didnt know that for sure. We
calmed down a bit more. We left the room and were able to make phone calls
againsometimes anyway as the communications seemed to be getting worse
and worse. PetroCanada staff spoke again with their office and got one of the
locals to come meet us and take us away as he lived somewhat close by.
Soon afterwards a couple of cars arrived with two older men that promised us we
were safe and if we wanted we could go back to the rig. As I understood they
were the leaders of the bandits saying that the cars belonged to Kaddafis sons
and they needed to take them. We thanked them but preferred to wait for the
other guy who was coming to pick us up.
He showed up with a couple of Toyotas in which the bandits had absolutely no
interest in and we were allowed to go. As funny as it might seem the bandits
were now actually trying to help us by bringing some food, juices and water from
the rig to the camp we were in. Everyone left the camp and set out to the town of
Dor Maradah. The expats were now only the mudlogger, me, the day Co-Man,
night Co-Man, Drilling Advisor, One of the Tool Pushers, the NOV Bit engineer
and another guy from KCA whom I really didnt get to know that well.
Anywaywe were together and thats how it would stay no matter what. These
have been the longest 24 hours of my life so far.

It was at this time that we realized something else going on in the country. The
fuel was running low as production and distribution had stopped. We made a
quiet trip to town and arrived after some time. We saw that there were no police
or army anywhere, only people from town armed with clubs and bats. All of them
very nice, by the way. They welcomed us in their homes and gave us food and
shelter for the night. We couldnt sleep very well but this was the first night we got
some peace and quiet. Some protests were being held outside but we know that
the government had lost all control on the area, so we didnt fear any retaliation.

Going to Zellah
Zellah was the nearest town and it was also the place all the guys from the other
dump truck had gone too. It seems that they too where caught by the bandits, but
they took them to town and that was it. We later heard that they wanted to kill the
Egyptian Mud Engineer, but he was spared and actually sent home before
anyone else.
We got in a couple of cars and set out. Again we were unsure of what to expect.
Bandits might come again, but as usual there wasnt much of a choice.
As we went it was clear that one of the cars only had enough fuel to arrive to
Zellah. Gasoline was almost out everywhere and Diesel was still the abundant
fuel. Getting cars to make the trip was no easy task so we had to work with what
we had.
Not long after we came across an ambulance that started to flash the lights. It
passed by us and went to the other car in the back. My first thought was about
the bandits again, but no. They were militias from the government and we
headed with them for the 1st control point out of 37 we had to go through in that
day later on.
They were quite nice to us actually. They just wanted to check the desert passes,
offered us some food and coffee. After all was checked we sent out to Zellah
which was only a couple of kilometers away.
When we arrived we witnessed a very different scenario from Dor Maradah.
There were people everywhere singing and pickup trucks with a lot of guys in the
back wearing green scarfs on their necks and their heads. We arrived to the
place were the rest of the guys had been since the previous day to find them all
in good health. We meet the UM with great satisfaction to see him well and
learned about what had happened to them. We were all happy to be together
again.

Planning the journey ahead

After having some rest and speaking with everyone else it was getting clearer
and clearer that we had to go! Not that we didnt knew about it, but the locals
were apparently government supporters and they all knew there were a bunch of
foreigners just sitting there.
They started to come to our door and started to sing happily songs of praise to
Kaddafi. We had to go and fast! We didnt know what could happen and
especially if any rebel forces would try to attack any time soon as they were quite
close by.
One of Geologs mudloggers, that lives in Zellah, was there since the beginning
to help us out.
Once again decisions had to be taken.
PetroCanadas representatives wanted to go ASAP to Tripoli to get there before
nightfall. This would hopefully avoid any protesters/government clashes in our
way. However it was already 13:00 and we could only go by car. Working for
Geolog we knew very well this was impossible as car trips are common and we
know it can take around 8 hours at least to get to Tripoli. Everyone started to get
convinced that travelling early morning next day was the best way to go.
However a new piece of information changed all. It seems that getting available
cars was getting more and more complicates not to mention the fuel running out
everywhere. Waiting for the next day could prove to be a big mistake. Once
again there was no choice. We called the cars and got ready to move out.
We said our goodbyes to KCA personnel and set out. This time there were 11
guys:
1. PetroCanadas Day Co-Man
2. PetroCanadas Night Co-Man
3. PetroCanadas Drilling Advisor
4. PetroCanadas local (Dont know what he does, but he saved us all many
times)
5. PetroCanadas Mud engineer
6. Geologs UM
7. Geologs night DE (me)
8. Geologs Mudlogger
9. NOV Bit engineer
10. Total Safety personnel#1
11. Total Safety personnel#2

The journey to the capital

We set out to the capital at last around 13:00 on February 23rd.
Soon we were facing our first control point and it was immediately obvious that
there was a problem with Tunisians. As we were showing our desert passes one
guard, walking around in a nervous manner, stopped by the car and started to
ask nationalities. When he found that the UM was Tunisian he made a strange
voice showing interest and started to look more closely at his name and
information. Fortunately another guard came to him saying Halas, halas! (It
means enough/stop in Arabic), took him by his arm and they left us alone.
We continued and went through a total of 37 control points during the trip. In
some we found little interest from the police but in others they searched the
entire cars. In one they took my memory card from the camera and in another
they wanted to arrest all Tunisians because they didnt have passports. We tried
to explain that the passports were at the base for visa extensions, but they cared
very little about this and told us we needed to deliver all Tunisians to the
authorities in the next control point. Of course we did not. From that point
onwards the mudlogger and I agreed to always go outside of the car first and
start conversations. Only some seconds after would our UM come out of the car
and show the contents of his bag. This worked quite well.
On the 12th control point we found a big operation were they checked even the
laptops and all things that had any king of memory cards. Suddenly they took
PetroCanadas Mud Engineer because he didnt have a desert pass (they never
gave it back at the rig, I guess his was lost). The UM went with him to translate
things and everything seemed fine. Some minutes later after we had all our stuff
searched we noticed that all the Tunisian guys were gone from our group. We
asked around only to find that they were all taken to Sirte Security Center. Things
didnt look good at all for them. Some minutes later they came back but one of
the Total Safety guys had been threatened and beaten up by the police.
Fortunately thats all that happened and we continued the trip.
We planned at this stage to spend the night in Misurata. We wanted to avoid
going into Tripoli at night. However when we got closer we received news that
the army was fighting local rebel forces with tanks. Once again we had no
choice. We had to go onwards to Tripoli.
The rest of the night was very cold and often rainy and this made the militias or
police less interested in searching the cars.
We reached Tripoli with no other incidents and spent the night in PetroCanadas
guest house in OEA. We had a hot meal for the first time in 3 days and had some
rest as wellI didnt remember what sleeping felt like anymore. I finally felt
comfortable and safe. I would need the rest for the next day.

The airport
The next day, 24th of February, our Logistic Manager picked us up and we went
one last time to Tripoli base. We got the plane tickets, said goodbye to the UM
and went to the airport, just me and the mudlogger.
The view was quite something. A sea of suitcases and garbage covered the
ground as far as the eye could see.
The Logistic Manager got us inside the airport in a clever way and we made it
inside the check in area. There were a lot of people inside and all of them
restless and agitated. The police was beating a lot of them which I assume were
Egyptian. We found two other Data Engineers from Geolog and waited together
for our mutual flight. I have to say that when the flights all got canceled we felt
terrible. We went outside of the check in area and started to look for embassy
personnel. Any embassy
One of the DE found his embassy and was more or less set to go home. The
mudlogger the same. Only me and another Portuguese DE had nothing special
and were going back and forth. Finally we found someone waving a small
red/yellow flagSpain! We called them and we were told immediately we were
welcome to join them in the military airplane coming from Algeria to take us all to
Madrid.
We had to go outside of the airport again in order to meet up with the other
people waiting for the plane. They took our information and gave us some food.
Other people from different nationalities joined us. Canadian, Japanese, Spanish,
Portuguese, Chinese, Greek, etc. Anyone that had to leave was welcome.
We could see people running outside of the airport while the soldiers were
beating them out. For what reason exactly I do not know.
We had to wait for some good hours until we finally got in line to go inside. At this
point we saw truck arriving with prisoners as if they were cattle.
We started to go inside the airport and this is where things got a lot more
complicated again. The entrance was minute and there were hundreds of people
trying to go inside. The militias were controlling the peoples entrance into the
airport, the soldiers were also controlling in an uncoordinated way with the
militias and the police was arriving with prisoners that were going god knows
where. All of them wanted to have priority over the other ones.
I was eventually carried into the metal detector area and I was checked. In fear
that I might have any unwanted pictures or movies they took my USB flash disk
and looked very interested in keeping me also for questioning. I was very lucky
and they just let me go. Probably because of all the chaos they had more to do

than pay attention to me. I only had work PDFs inside and excel files but they
didnt look happy any way.
After that we just waited for everyone else to pass into the airport and then went
into the airplane. We took off to Madrid and it was finally over.

This is the best I can remember of the events that took place in Libya and I
wanted to report them the best I could.
Im sure other people have their own stories, some were happier and some
worst, but this was mine.
Id like to thank Tripoli base for their great support providing our families
information.
If you have any questions at all just contact me at any time, day or night.
Mobile: +351 966 607 978
Best regards
Ricardo Tomaz