WorldWide Drilling Resource

Oil Rigs Now and Then Compiled by Amy White, Associate Editor WorldWide Drilling Resource ® Remarkable capabilities of automa- tion are more common in offshore gas and oil drilling, but have only recently come to onshore oil fields. A historic shift is taking place in land drilling - the shift away from mechanical rigs requir- ing constant human intervention, and toward electronic, computerized systems. Consistent, better, easier, efficient, and cost-saving are just a few of the words used by drilling professionals as they sing praises of modern machines. A rig of today can be transported in as few as 10 truckloads. Once it arrives at the oil field, it stands itself up like a Transformer without assistance from a separate crane, then walks on hydraulic feet maneuvering 300 tons 10 yards per hour in any direction. The rig does not require as many workers to get the job done. With remote communication capabilities, operations can be carried out from a living room or office anywhere in the world. On some rigs, hydraulic “iron roughnecks” screw pipes together. All these advancements save money in the long run, but they can carry an original price tag upwards of $8 million per rig. The control cab of a modern rig has been compared to the cockpit of a Star Wars spacecraft with joystick tech- nology and touch screen applications. No doubt, this scenario is appealing to a new generation of drilling operators, many of whom who grew up in a gaming world powered by microprocessors. Even so, something described as “wooden, loud, and large” captivated the crowd at the Permian Basin International Oil Show (PBIOS) in Odessa, Texas. Tucked away near the back of the show site, stood an old cable tool rig. Though i t has been rebui l t a few t imes, i t ’s stood at the site for almost 50 years and is a mainstay at the annual oil show. According to a plaque by the State Historical Survey Committee, the wood- Rigs at the Permian Basin International Oil Show. WWDR photos. 35 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® MAY 2015 -)$ 1)++ 823%,2 -# % !1% $%$)#!3%$ 3. 3(% 6!3%1 6%++ )-$42318 !132 +.#!3%$ !-$ 2/!1%2 /1.5)$%$ &.1 %7)23)-' %04)/,%-3 ; 1.3!18 3!"+%2 -.6 /1.$4#%$ 6)3( +!1'% 1)-' '%!1 !-$ /)-).- %%$ %/!)12 .3!18 3!"+%2 : 4$ /4,/2 : !*.1 #.,/.-%-32 9 7#)3)-' #(!-'%29 (%23-43 5% -)$ (.-% !7 666 %-)$$1)++ #., 3"- 0)'! +#0* /'! /,,). '+ ./,!( '4#. 6 /, 6 +(. ,1* + 13 -"#+ ))#3 5 2 - 0!&*$% !,* 5 - 0!&*$% $-,+/'#-+#/ !,* ,"#) '4#. /#+/ + " #+"'+% en rig is a reconstruction made out of parts from several rigs actually used at the first major oil field in the Permian Basin. “This rig here is how they first drilled an oil well, with these old cable tools just pounding a hole in the ground: boom, boom, boom,” said Gary Bolen, one of the rig’s operators. Bolen also helped construct the cable tool rig in Odessa. These vintage rigs drill holes around 10 to 15 feet at a time until reaching depths of hundreds or thousands of feet. Bolen figures it would take 30 days for a cable tool rig to reach 2000 feet, in contrast to modern hydraulic rigs which can do so in a day or two. The old cable tool rig was by far the least advanced machine on the lot at PBIOS. Just the same, something about it still causes people to stop and stare. The rig has outlived most of its operators. It is a piece of history stand- ing stoically as a reminder of something important. Men who used this slow and steady equipment helped make the oil industry what it is today, one boom at a time. On May 13, 1953, Mid-Continent Supply erected the “Golden Driller” statue for the International Petroleum Expo in Tulsa, Oklahoma.