- •Unit 5 Companies and Individuals Involved in Drilling1 Text 1. Companies involved in Drilling Process
- •Operating Companies
- •Introductory exercises
- •Express the same in English:
- •Say whether the following statements are true or false.
- •Answer the questions.
- •Tell the class what you have learned from the text, using the outline:
- •Role play
- •Service and Supply Companies
- •Introductory exercises
- •Complete the sentences:
- •Text 3. Drilling Crew
- •Introductory exercises
- •Complete the sentences:
- •Say whether the following statements are true or false. Correct the wrong ones:
- •4. Answer the questions:
- •Text 4. Other Rig Workers
- •Introductory exercises
- •2. Say whether the following statements are true or false. Correct the wrong ones:
- •Practicing in translation
- •Give written translation of the text. Rig personnel
- •3. Give sight-translation of the text. The International Association of Drilling Contractors
Unit 5 Companies and Individuals Involved in Drilling1 Text 1. Companies involved in Drilling Process
People who work for companies are involved in drilling work all over the world. They drill wells on land and ice, in swamps, and on waters as small as lakes or as large as the Pacific Ocean. Drilling is demanding; it goes on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in all types of weather. Moreover, drilling is complex; so complex that no single company is diverse enough to perform all the required work. Consequently, many companies and individuals are involved. Companies include operating companies, drilling contractors, and service and supply companies.
Operating Companies
An operating company, or an operator, is usually an oil company, a company whose primary business is working with oil and gas, or petroleum. An operating company may be an independent or a major. An independent company may be one or two individuals or it may have hundreds of employees.
Major companies, such as Exxon Mobil, BP Amoco, or Shell, may have thousands of employees. Besides size, another difference between an independent and a major is that, in general, an independent only produces and sells crude oil and natural gas. A major, on the other hand, produces crude oil and natural gas, transports them from the field to a refinery or a plant, refines or processes the oil and gas, and sells the products to consumers.
Whether independent or major, an operator must acquire the right to drill for and produce petroleum at a particular site. An operating company does not usually own the land or the minerals (oil and gas are minerals) lying under the land. It therefore has to buy or lease the rights to drill for and produce oil and gas from the landowner and the mineral holder.
Individuals, partnerships, corporations, or a federal state, or local government can own land and mineral rights. The operator not only pays the landowner a fee for leasing, it also pays the mineral holder a royalty, which is a share of the money made from the sale of oil or gas.
Drilling is a unique undertaking that requires experienced personnel and special equipment. Most operating companies therefore find it more cost effective to hire expertise and equipment from drilling companies than to keep the personnel and equipment under their own roof. So, almost everywhere in the world, drilling contractors do the drilling.
A drilling contractor is an individual or a company that owns from one to dozens of drilling rigs. The contractor hires out a rig and the personnel needed to run it to any operator who wishes to pay to have a well drilled. Some contractors are land contractors – they operate only land rigs. Others are offshore contractors – they operate only offshore rigs. A few contractors operate rigs that drill both on land and offshore. The contractor may have different sizes of rigs that can drill to various depths. A drilling contracting company may be small or large; it may own rigs that drill mainly in a local area or it may have rigs working all over the world.