Drilling advances

	Vol. 226 No. 9
LES SKINNER, PE CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Oilfield jargon. The lingo employed by drillers and other oilfield employees has always been simultaneously descriptive, colorful, humorous, suggestive, and often confusing to those outside the industry. Terms derived from slang, physical descriptions and functions are as widely varied as the personalities and dispositions of those working on rigs from the time they left the farm until today. It’s not surprising that the lexicon of the oil field is as rich as it is, looking back at the vibrant men and women that made our industry what it is today.

Some antiquated terms are still overheard occasionally in coffee shops around the oilpatch. Here are a few of them:

Stud duck – The person having the most authority. Sometimes this was the toolpusher or the company man, depending on the type of drilling contract and the personalities of those involved. This was also the name given to a B-17E flown in the South Pacific during World War II by the US 43rd Bomber Group.

Head knocker – The stud duck on the crew, usually the toolpusher or driller. This term dates from the time that the boss was the largest man on the crew. He was usually able to beat up any of the other crew members, forcing them to do whatever he ordered.

Australian offset – A well drilled several miles from the nearest well, also referred to as a wildcat well.

Broke out – The practice of joining a crew or being promoted. I broke out as an engineer in 1972, for example. I was dumber than a sack of gel, but I still broke out.

A nipple is any piece of pipe shorter than a full joint, usually 30 – 40 ft long. Thus, a nipple chaser is the materials man with the responsibility of keeping the rig supplied. This is often the toolpusher on today’s rigs.

Lazy bench – A covered toolbox in the top doghouse or somewhere else on location or perhaps a purpose-built bench where the company man, nipple chaser and toolpusher sit and wait for something to occur that requires their attention. There is considerable topside drilling (gossiping and tale-telling) that is undertaken by those seated on the lazy bench. The driller, derrickman, and roughnecks found little time to rest on the lazy bench, since they were always busier than a cat in a henhouse. Besides that, it was usually occupied by the topside drillers.

Ignorant end – The heavier end of a two-man load. This end is usually carried by the less experienced hand, since the smart end is always grabbed by the hand that broke out first.

Rock hound, stone squirrel, pebble pimp – Terms of endearment given to earth scientists by rig crewmembers, usually the on-site geologist, descriptive of their job function. Sometimes, this individual, when the owner/ operator of the well, is also the stud duck.

Doodlebugger – A member of a seismic crew responsible for securing geophysical data. This term also applies to sorcerers involved in mysterious black arts, smoke, spells and various incantations needed to divine results from geophysical data and prepare new prospects.

On the big sprocket – An operator that has been very successful recently. Also, a former hand that has been promoted to a higher position on the rig with or without an increase in perceived self-importance.

Well shooter – A partially demented individual who made his living by transporting nitroglycerin to the site, pouring it into a container, lowering this torpedo into the hole and setting off a downhole explosion to stimulate production. This practice has not been used extensively since the early-1950s and there probably are no true shooters still alive today. It’s just as well, since this group was considered to be as crazy as a stomped ant anyway.

Hitting fluid – The result of a successful oil well (also an indicator of a dry hole when the fluid was water). A variation of this is running into fluid. This occurs when a wireline tool going in the hole engages a fluid level within the wellbore and the line goes slack briefly. In extreme circumstances, the slack thrown in the cable results in the line jumping a sheave (pulley) and often requires wireline fishing.

What jargon can we expect in the future? Now, with extensive use of electric rigs having direct-drive, adjustable-speed motors, there are progressively fewer geared transmissions and chain-drive systems on drilling rigs. So, a term like on the big sprocket has little meaning now. Will the new drillers refer to a successful operator or self-centered supervisor as being on the big traction motor?

It’s conceivable that the term nipple chaser will be replaced by procurement specialist or systems supply engineer. The terms exploration or exploitation geological consultant have already replaced other more descriptive terms for the wellsite geologist. We’re already hearing the possum belly on a shale shaker called a distribution box or flowline trap. What was wrong with possum belly anyway? Perhaps today’s drilling crews have never seen a possum up close. If they had, they would certainly know what a possum belly was (an opossum is a small nocturnal mammal).

The industry now has iron roughnecks and topdrive systems. What will the new robotic racking systems be called that stand drillpipe in the derrick, hydraulic derrickmen?

Perhaps TLPJFMC will be used to describe a “Tension Leg Platform Jacking Frame Motion Compensator” (a motion compensated snubbing unit). Already, we have a GLM (gooseneck load monitor) for a coiled tubing unit.

Cyber-eye technology will probably have some catchy term like remote cyclops. Will casing drilling be casing while drilling (CWD) or will it be a subset of drilling without drillpipe (DWODP). What will drilling with a laser be called, burning hole?

In new-generation rigs with tall derricks, it is possible now to rack drillpipe in stands composed of four joints instead of three. On these rigs, presumably, pipe is racked in fourbles instead of thribbles. What happens when someone makes a derrick capable of handling five-joint stands? Will they be called fibels, fiebles or fivals? Let’s make it simple; why don’t we just bring in a Spanish term and call them cincobels.

Regardless of the terms and who selects them, we can count on future oilfield terms being just as vivid as those we use now. Why? Because the people now on drilling rigs around the world are just as diverse, intelligent, and colorful as those past oilfield pioneers from whom we learned the language we use today. 

Les Skinner, a Houston – based consultant and chemical engineering graduate from Texas Tech University, has 32 years experience in drilling and well control with major and independent operators and well-control companies.