When I filled out an Exxon USA job application years ago, there was a little box that asked: Are you interested in a foreign assignment? I had already been hired to work in the Kingsville, Texas, district office, so I thought, why not? and checked the Yes box.

After two years of picking locations to develop oil and gas fields in south Texas, I was called into the district geologist’s office. “Exxon New York is hiring geologists to develop a large oil field, and they are beefing up the Benghazi, Libya, office,” he said. “You have a good two years of experience doing wellsite work.”

I’m pretty good at geography, and it crossed my mind that Libya is in Africa. I shook my head and got up to leave when he added, “With the hardship allowance, you will just about double your salary. Take a week and think it over.”

That got my attention.

When I got home that afternoon, I told Vertis about the Libyan job. She was shaking her head about a transfer to North Africa until I told her about the increase in pay. We had been living in a 10-foot by 35-foot house trailer for the past four years and had a load of college debt. That kicked off a search to find out as much as we could about Libya.

It took several days to find out about living conditions in Benghazi, but I was finally able to talk to an Exxon geologist who had recently returned from Libya.

He was very negative. “Richard, living in Benghazi and working in the desert was horrible. I regretted every minute I was there … but the extra hardship pay did help.”

We continued to dig up as much info on Libya and Benghazi as we could. Everything was negative except the extra money, 30-days-a-year vacation, and 90-minute flight to Europe. If we hadn’t been so anxious to get out of the trailer and out of debt, I would have turned down the transfer.

However, I committed. Vertis would stay in Arkansas for four weeks getting our belongings ready to ship, and I would travel to Benghazi to arrange housing, buy a car, and be trained.

I was in the desert on a drilling rig for the first couple of weeks, and since the Benghazi office was short-handed, I was held over. By the time Vertis arrived in Benghazi, I had been in the desert for over three weeks. I was ready to walk away from the Libyan job. This is called “culture shock,” and it’s something that some employees can’t handle. I actually made some contacts back in the States, but no offers came through.

But when Vertis arrived it made a huge difference, and after we received our shipment container, we were making it OK. I had met all the well-site geologists by the time Vertis got there, and Canadians Bill and Diana Wilson were becoming good friends.

By being held over to work in the desert before Vertis arrived, I’d earned five extra days off, so I decided to treat Vertis to a week in Athens, Greece, for a visit that would include Jan. 17, which would be our fifth wedding anniversary. I had all the arrangements taken care of, and the district geologist gave me the full week off because of Libyan holidays. (Libya has a lot of holidays.)

I gave Vertis notice we were going to leave the final unpacking of the furniture container until we returned from our mini-vacation in Athens. She was thrilled. The flight to Athens took a little more than an hour and a half, and before noon, we were checking into our hotel. I talked with the hotel manager to get recommendations for a great anniversary dinner, complete with live Greek music. The hotel manager called the restaurant manager, and I don’t know exactly what he told him, but we were treated like royalty there. Those weeks in the desert were almost worth it.

We saved almost my entire salary by living in Benghazi, and when we transferred back to the U.S. after two years in Libya, not only were we debt-free, but we actually had a good amount of savings in the bank.

Email Richard Mason at richard@gibraltarenergy.com.


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