Drilling advances

	Vol. 227 No. 12
JACK LEACH, DRILLING CONSULTANT

Little drilling advances. The modern land-based drilling location resembles a small mobile city of up to 12 house trailers all equipped with electric, water and sewage systems. Land drilling rigs are designed to be broken down into sections that can be, legally, moved over the road by trucks. The house trailers and supporting systems are moved the same way. During the drilling of a typical well, up to 30 people are living and working on location at any given moment. During the past few years, many innovations have made drilling operations more efficient, cost-effective and environmentally acceptable. Let’s look at a few of what I like to call “Little Advances.”

Before running a string of casing, the cosmoline-type preservatives must be removed from the threads. Until a few years ago, diesel and gasoline were used, with righands letting the fluids soak into the soil. Today’s methods use biodegradable soaps, pressure washers and rolls of absorbent matting to collect the fluids. This matting is then removed and disposed of at an approved site. The casing cleaning messes of yesteryear are gone.

Oil and gas well drilling operations require lots of water. Most of this water ends up being a contaminated discard. The “reserves,” earthen pits, hold water flowing from rig operations. In past years, reserve pit clean-up created many problems due to toxic contaminants. Today’s reserve pits are lined with tough plastic sheets that prevent soil contamination and permit total removal of all discarded drilling fluids and solids. Returning a drilling location to its original condition is required under most modern land-owner contracts. The use of pit liners protects both the land owner and the operator and facilitates returning the land to its original condition. However, pitless drilling can also be done (see page 41).

Virtual drilling displays have made quantum leaps in technology and presentation. With programmable real-time displays in every supervisor trailer and on the rig floor, trouble detection and decision-making have been raised to a new competence level. Available in today’s systems are multiple drilling operation screens, scale selections, past data displays, pre-set alarms and many more features not available on earlier systems. Continuous, 24-hr, gas-trap screens are provided by some mud-logging operators. All these data presentations can be wired into any room in any trailer, creating a constant flow of real-time information on which to base safe and timely supervision decisions. Commonly, the company man’s office is filled with visual displays depicting every important aspect of present operations. Satellite monitors in all the trailers on location keep all personnel informed and current.

Drilling operations require dependable communications. The choices available today are far more numerous than in prior years. In the rough-and-tumble world of multiple investors, must-know recipients and rule-making bodies, morning reports need to go through on time, regardless of weather. Land lines are still preferred, but not always available. Satellite and wireless communication devices are far more common due to the remote nature of most drilling operations.

Today’s company men are equipped with walk-around phones, cell phones, faxes, computers and walkie-talkies, all wireless and satellite capable, and usually within reach. Hand-held, walk-around phones with answering service and LED screens are more dependable and have greater operating radius than ever before. Fax services are required for sending and receiving information, especially from the operator, who pays the bills.

A most critical communication device, on today’s location is the intercom system. Though this network, the company man can reach anyone on the location at any time. A typical system consists of up to 20 stations, all of which have two-way and conference-call capability.

Satellite dishes come in several models and shapes and can be moved from location to location without problems. Computers are used in every phase of modern drilling operations for generating, storing and transmitting data. Filling casing and cement forms by hand is obsolete in today’s oil patch. Daily reports fed to the company man from mud loggers, mud engineer, MWD operator, directional hands and the AAODC report, are all computer generated. Real-time data is available to anyone, any time, if they have a computer and correct password.

The new practice of transmitting downhole, wireline logs in real time has allowed fewer geologists and managers to cover more logging operations simultaneously. This allows faster decisions and less downtime waiting-on-orders during the critical decision-making at total depth: run casing, complete or abandon the well. It’s just another way that modern methods make the oil and gas search more efficient and cost-effective.

Rig floor advancements include newly developed drill pipe spinners (no more finger-grabbing, spinning chains), more powerful kelly spinners (producing fewer pipe-tong injuries) and micro-sensitive, automatic drillers. These were initially developed for horizontal drilling, but are now used in everyday operations. Using these innovations has enabled drilling contractors to switch to more efficient 12-hr tours without sacrificing safety.

It would not do to have the hole collapse while tripping. Recent advances in drilling fluid technology help the mud engineer improve and maintain hole stability and include the digital ph meter, computerized weight-up and hydraulic programs, along with the operator’s increased environmental awareness when using oil-based drilling fluids. Soil contamination from oil muds and other high-chemical systems has been virtually eliminated.

Last, but not least, is the company man, the guy who supervises the drilling operation and pays the bills. He lives on location 24-7 and many times goes to the next location with no time off. Recent advances have made his job a lot more bearable. New trailer insulation cuts out most of the drilling noise. Sewage systems are odorless, a far cry from those a few years back. Interlocking fiberglass mats form a patio-like entrance to his office, trapping the mud and dirt outside. Electric, water and sewage systems are installed, maintained and moved by specialists, not the rig crews. The quality of life on location for the average company man has been greatly improved by the “Little Advances” that we all hope keep coming.