Includes hard boots and safety glasses
Figure 5. Steel stairs with handrails lead up to the rig floor.
Figure 6. The drawworks is a powerful hoist
With protective gear on and the rig superintendent's permission, let's go up to the rig floor. The floor is the main work area of the rig and it usually rests on a strong foundation, a substructure, which raises it above ground level. Accordingly, we have to walk up a set of steel stairs (fig. 5). Keep a hand on the handrail as you walk up and don't hurry. It could be a 40-foot (12 -metre) climb. Once on the floor, stop for a minute to catch your breath and take a good look around the floor. You may see the crew handling several lengths, or joints, of drill pipe, the steel tubes that put the bit (the hole-boring device) on the bottom of the hole. On the other hand, the rig may be drilling, or "making hole," as they sometimes say. If it's drilling, from time to time you may hear the distinctive and loud squawk or squeal of the drawworks brake as it slacks off the drilling line to allow the bit to drill ahead. The drawworks is a large, powerful hoist that, among other things, regulates the weight the drill string puts on the bit (fig. 6). A loud screech comes every time the friction brake bands ease their grip on the steel hubs of the drawworks drum to apply weight. It's loud, but it's music to the ears of the rig owner because it usually means the bit is drilling ahead without problems.
Regardless of what's occurring on the rig floor, take time to observe, for you're standing in a place that is vital to the oil and gas industry. Certainly, many operations besides drilling are involved in getting crude oil and natural gas out of the ground and into forms we can use, such as gasoline and heating fuel. However, without a drilled well—a hole in the ground—oil companies could not obtain oil and gas, or petroleum, at all.
At this point, you may not know what the equipment is for or what the personnel are doing, but don't be troubled. This book will identify most of the people and tools it takes to drill, and will give you a better appreciation of oilwell drilling. Before launching into equipment and processes, however, let's cover a little drilling history.
4 Say whether the following statements are true or false
1. Most drilling rigs are large and quiet.
2. A rig has only one purpose: to drill a hole in the ground.
3. Rigs operate both on land and sea.
4. It is better to visit an offshore rig first.
5. Most of masts and derricks are close to 45 metres high.
6. Another name for a rig manager is a “pushtooler”.
7. PPE stands for personal protective equipment.
8. The crown block is the main work area of the rig.
9. The bit is a hole-boring device.
10. A loud screech coming every time the friction brake bands ease their grip means the brakes are broken.
5 Fill in the gaps
a) toolpusher |
d) sense |
g) toolpush |
b) steel- capped c) rig manager |
e) rig superintendent f) de rigueur |
h) boss i) personal protective equipment |
Upon arriving at the rig, the first step is to check in with the ________ (1). He or she is probably in a mobile home or a portable building on the site that serves as an office and living quarters. The rig boss may have the intriguing title of “________(2)"; or, rig workers may call him or her the “________ (3)," or the “_______ (4)." (Currently, most toolpushers, or rig superintendents, are men; but that's changing). Toolpusher is the traditional term for the rig boss. It probably originated from the fondness rig workers have of calling practically every inanimate thing on a rig a tool. Thus, one who bossed the personnel using the tools also pushed the tools, in a symbolic, if not actual, _______ (5). Nowadays, the drilling industry leans towards the term rig superintendent or rig manager for the person in charge, but you'll still hear rig hands call him or her the toolpusher (or, in Canada, the “_______ (6)").
Now don your haul hat, which is a very tough plastic cap with a brim to protect your head. Also, put on your _______ (7) boots, which keep your toes from being crushed, and your safety glasses to safeguard your eyes. This style of dress is __________ (8) for everyone. Whether working on a rig or merely visiting it, everyone must wear __________ (9), or PPE for short (fig. 4). Rig workers also wear gloves to protect their hands and you may want to wear a pair, too.