How did your comparison go?
We are working on it right now. Everything has advantages and disadvantages.
First comparison is availability of materials. There was a delay for getting the cable tray with the date given as the departure date from the manufacturer NOT delivery to the warehouse. The manufacturer might very well be in Mexico... This wasn't realized until just recently. Soooo.... A hot shot brought 200 ft of another brand - ALL STRAIGHT PIECES! Which might work out better as we have 1" conduit (heat trace) on one side and 2" (comms and DC power) on the other, running on the same strut supporting the cable tray. I'll be making up custom waterfalls in the garage today (gonna rain heavy). So I will make them at the radius of a 2" bend and plan on multi-shot bending the 1". Will look a lot better as I think the manufactured waterfalls would be a smaller radius, and the 2" would otherwise have to "cut the corner."
Second comparison is flexibility. A change was made for the number of conductors going out to the wellheads. Now we got to add a second cable because the original 12 pair on hand doesn't have enough. If it was conduit, we would be able to just add a few more control conductors.
Third comparison is terminations. This one goes both ways. On the side of the conduit. you bring the raceway (conduit or sealtight) into the box with simple fittings, perhaps with an EYS poured later. With the cable , it is a special fitting that is time consuming and takes a certain amount of skill, and if explosion proof, must be poured and allowed to cure ahead of time. (Please folks, I won't go into what the code says about when cable does and does not need to be sealed. Everyone expects it a certain way in the gas patch, so that's how it is done.) One the side of the cable, the wire pairs are numbered. No need to label ourselves or ring them out. Yes, I know you can use quick pull in conduit with everything pre-numbered, but that's presents other challenges.
And in general... where to start.
Got 3 three half-brothers from a very different culture than mine. The lines of authority and responsibility, both on and off the site. remind me a of third grader's fishing reel on opening day of trout season. Yesterday, everything stopped while one of them went and got pizza. This is a "time sensitive" job, but you can't push a rope.
Got a brand new 8-1/2 x 16 trailer with a brand new triple-nickel, a company credit card, and a Schaedler-Yesco that delivers the next day and will even run small things out immediately if need.
The roustabouts are very experienced and very cooperative.
Some of the plans hadn't been thought out very well, and so day-to-day changes are necessary.
Oh, and I really enjoy the work!!!! Thanks for asking and I'll keep you posted.
