DRILLING PERSONNEL
Drilling a well requires many different skills and involves many companies (Figure 2). The oil company who manages the drilling and/or production operations is known as the operator. In joint ventures one company acts as operator on behalf of the other partners.
There are many different management strategies for drilling a well but in virtually all cases the oil company will employ a drilling contractor to actually drill the well. The drilling contractor owns and maintains the drilling rig and employs and trains the personnel required to operate the rig. During the course of drilling the well certain specialised skills or equipment may be required (e. g. logging, surveying). These are provided by service companies. These service companies develop and maintain specialist tools and staff and hire them out to the operator, generally on a day-rate basis.
The contracting strategies for drilling a well or wells range from day-rate contracts to turnkey contracts. The most common type of drilling contract is a day-rate contract. In the case of the day-rate contract the operator prepares a detailed well design and program of work for the drilling operation and the drilling contractor simply provides the drilling rig and personnel to drill the well. The contractor is paid a fixed sum of money for every day that he spends drilling the well. All consumable items (e. g. drilling bits, cement), transport and support services are provided by the operator.
In the case of the turnkey contract the drilling contractor designs the well, contracts the transport and support services and purchases all of the consumables, and charges the oil company a fixed sum of money for whole operation. The role of the operator in the case of a turnkey contract is to specify the drilling targets, the evaluation procedures and to establish the quality controls on the final well. In all cases the drilling contractor is responsible for maintaining the rig and the associated equipment.
The operator will generally have a representative on the rig (sometimes called the “company man”) to ensure drilling operations go ahead as planned, make decisions affecting progress of the well, and organise supplies of equipment. He will be in daily contact with his drilling superintendent who will be based in the head office of the operator. There may also be an oil company drilling engineer and/or a geologist on the rig.
The drilling contractor will employ a toolpusher to be in overall charge of the rig. He is responsible for all rig floor activities and liaises with the company man to ensure progress is satisfactory. The manual activities associated with drilling the well are conducted by the drilling crew. Since drilling continues 24 hours a day, there are usually 2 drilling crews. Each crew works under the direction of the driller. The crew will generally consist of a derrickman (who also tends the pumps while drilling), 3 roughnecks (working on rig floor), plus a mechanic, an electrician, a crane operator and roustabouts (general labourers).
Service company personnel are transported to the rig as and when required. Sometimes they are on the rig for the entire well (e. g. mud engineer) or only for a few days during particular operations (e. g. directional drilling engineer).
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An overall view of the personnel involved in drilling is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2 Personnel involved in drilling a well |
